Angellis_ater

Taken from www.dreamscarredpress.com and expanded upon.

Throughout my history of gaming in 3.5, I've seen a division somewhat like what Wizards used for 4E (and I'm stealing their definitions for this essay) but at different levels than what they suggest.

At levels 1-7, you are playing "mortal" heroes, people who are extraordinary individuals who can do awesome stuff, but this is still within the "grasp" of the normal individual. A farmer can imagine being able to train enough to make two deadly attacks almost at once (iterative attacks) or tame magic powerful enough to let people fly. The concepts for the E6 style of play is based somewhat around these concepts. This is essentially the time when heroes are still Heroic, but "realistic" in the sense of what is mentally achievable by the common farmer of General DnD land. It is also "more realistic" because there is almost always a more constant possibility of character death - an Orc can, with a lucky blow, kill even a 3rd level Wizard or Sorceror.

At levels 8-14, you go beyond mortal. This is the area where the characters being doing stuff that is the basis for myths and legends, the true heroes whose stories will be told for ages to come. They take on powerful enemies, raise the dead and shake of blows that kill a farmer as if they were mosquito-bites. This is the time when they are welcome everywhere, given respect by kings and queens, wield powerful magics and have access to mighty magical items. The more magically inclined individuals craft items and weapons that will one day become legendary. This is the time when heroes are Paragons to the world around them. In many ways, these are also the end levels for "basic adventuring" - at this stage, dungeoncrawling becomes less of an element in the game.

At levels 15-20 you open up the world to the godlike epic events. At these levels, the characters rewrite the rules of the universe, wield magic powerful enough to summon angels or demon lords to do their bidding, travel instantly all across the MULTIVERSE and take on Demon Lords, Ancient Dragons and other adventures that become myths. At the end of this career, these individuals are powerful enough to be demigods, above the mortal baseline to such a degree that the farmer must use the divine as inspiration for describing these individuals. This is the time when heroes become demigods who rise to become Gods as their stories become myths. At the beginning of this stage, the heroes are Lords and Kings of the mortal world. They are individuals who must go beyond the mortal world to be challenged.

To me, level 20 is the END of gaming. The "Epic Level Handbook" was a huge mistake in my eyes (both conceptually and how it was implemented) because the only thing that SHOULD come after 20th level is a finishing story of immortality, epic stories or something to that effect (the end part of WotC's "epic destinies").

So, what are these definitions useful for in 3.5? Well, first of all they are game design markers for both players and GMs. A player in a level 15+ game should not be expecting a dungeon crawl, but rather himself be a driving force for interplanar adventuring. A GM who designs with these definitions in mind know what kind of adventures fit the heroes and what kind of obstacles are best to pit them against.

But they also become useful for shorter games - if I want to play a game where the heroes are mighty, the odds are still in the balance and the occasional dragon is a good thing, I'll start the players around 7th level. If I feel that I want a gritty game, I start at 1st and stop at 7th instead.