Best level to play?

[Olaf the Stout]

I'd say somewhere around 10th. It gives you a good range of monsters to throw at the PC's and it gives the PC's a fair range of options of how they can respond.

Olaf the Stout

 

[donremus]

1st to 3rd.

I like low level, low magic games best where a masterwork weapon is your prized possession and a magic one stuff of legend. The 'fear factor' at low level is awesome IMO. I do enjoy playing the game at all levels though.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

3-6 would be a good call to me. You're not being killed by a single hit, but the true reality-warping spells, such as ressurrection and teleport, are not yet available (I find this kind of stuff to be fun once in a while, but not as a permanent player resource).

Cheers,

 

[Reynard]

I started a couple polls regarding this issue, monstly because I am curious if DMs and Players have different "sweet spots".

 

[Kunimatyu]

3 to 6th is my favorite as a DM (though I can go up to 20th, and have!), because you have a wide range of monsters available, PCs have access to the basic abilities of their character, and spell power hasn't gone over the top yet.

I find that unless you have an extremely on-the-ball group of players things after about 11th level tend to get progressively harder to deal with.

 

[Shades of Green]

Level 6: you're tough and versatile but not THAT tough and versatile; as a DM, I could throw quite alot at the PCs, BUT they are still vulnerable and not super-heroic. Plus, at this level (or below it), you get the "bread and butter" spells and abilities of D&D - for wizards/sorcerers (fireball, fly, invisibility), for fighters (specialization), for rogues (quite alot of skill ranks in the relevant skills), for clerics (higher cure spells, hold person) and for all (nice saving throws, good BABs).

I generally feel that D&D 3.xE is geared towards the low-to-mid levels (3-7) - these are the levels in which you're an experienced adventurer and a serious hero, but not yet a god. in these levels you could perform most archetypical D&D activities and fight a wide range of monsters.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I generally feel that D&D 3.xE is geared towards the low-to-mid levels (3-7) - these are the levels in which you're an experienced adventurer and a serious hero, but not yet a god. in these levels you could perform most archetypical D&D activities and fight a wide range of monsters.

Nah. 3e's geared toward low-to-high levels (1-20): Classes are fully supported for this range, there's feats for high-level characters only, spell progression goes all the way up, there are monsters for all these levels (in fact, there are even some monsters in the Monster Manual a 20th-level party couldn't beat.), magic Items go up all the way....

And for me, saving the world is as archetypical for D&D as it gets!

 

[Nifft]

If you had to play one level of dnd till the end of time

I wouldn't. Leveling up is part of the fun of being a player. No matter what level you are on, you want to get to the next one.

Cheers, -- N

 

[GlassJaw]

My condolences for the DMs you had to play with.

What the frak does that mean?

 

[Kae'Yoss]

What the frak does that mean?

It means that I'm sorry for you that you can't seem to find a DM who can run a game on levels 9+ without it becoming ridiculous.

I know for a fact that the game doesn't make it ridiculous. I ran campaigns in that range, that weren't ridiculous, and I played in games in that range that weren't ridiculous, either.

So I guess it's your DMs that cause the games to become ridiculous at levels 9 and above.