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Does the 3rd Tier of Play at Level 11 Make Sense?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8942742" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>Your question seems to be: Do mechanics of the game directly support the idea that when PCs hit 11th level they suddenly become significantly more powerful and rise above other adventurers? No. It isn't a switch that flips when they hit 11th level. There is a bit of a power leap with class abilities and 6th level spells, but that progression from hero to super hero is just starting at 11th level. They'll be feeling that power grow between levels 11 and 16. </p><p></p><p>If you use the XP and encounter building guidance from the DMG, there is a shift at level 11 - PCs start to advance faster. If you follow that advice you'd see that you need 1 adventuring day to advance at levels 1 and 2. Level 3 to 4 takes about 2 sessions. Levels 4 to 10 all require more than 2 each - 2 or 3 adventuring days per level. From 11 on that drops back down to much less than 2 adventuring days per session, meaning that PCs will advance every 1 or 2 full adventuring days. </p><p></p><p>Why does this matter? Because when they hit level 11 they accelerate in their advancement. They spend a total of about 6 adventuring days to get to the heroic phase at 5th level, then about 13 or 14 adventuring days to advance 6 more levels to get to 11th level's super hero phase, then only 9 to 10 (or about 2/3 the number for the prior 6 levels) days to advance 6 more levels to get to 17th, and then spend about 3.5 adventuring days to reach 20th level. You can see this by determining the amount of experience required to advance a level and dividing it by the recommended experience per adventuring day. </p><p></p><p>So how does this play out: Players rocket to level 3, then slow down advancement until 11, and then they start to advance faster. Level 11 feels a bit different but then 12, 13, 14 and 15 come quicker and bring more high level powers and magics.</p><p></p><p>Regardless (and we probably do need to disregard most of the above as so many DMs use milestone advancement and do not realize the game anticipates accelerated advancement at these levels), the mechanics do not need to support it directly if you, as a DM, believe the feel should be there and want the players to experience a massive change at level 11. You can alter your game design to put things that are more vulnerable to thei capabilities into play at level 11. That will exagerrate the differnce for the players and give them that definite feel of 'getting over the hump' and being suddenly more powerful. You can also just do it with NPC reactions to the heroes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8942742, member: 2629"] Your question seems to be: Do mechanics of the game directly support the idea that when PCs hit 11th level they suddenly become significantly more powerful and rise above other adventurers? No. It isn't a switch that flips when they hit 11th level. There is a bit of a power leap with class abilities and 6th level spells, but that progression from hero to super hero is just starting at 11th level. They'll be feeling that power grow between levels 11 and 16. If you use the XP and encounter building guidance from the DMG, there is a shift at level 11 - PCs start to advance faster. If you follow that advice you'd see that you need 1 adventuring day to advance at levels 1 and 2. Level 3 to 4 takes about 2 sessions. Levels 4 to 10 all require more than 2 each - 2 or 3 adventuring days per level. From 11 on that drops back down to much less than 2 adventuring days per session, meaning that PCs will advance every 1 or 2 full adventuring days. Why does this matter? Because when they hit level 11 they accelerate in their advancement. They spend a total of about 6 adventuring days to get to the heroic phase at 5th level, then about 13 or 14 adventuring days to advance 6 more levels to get to 11th level's super hero phase, then only 9 to 10 (or about 2/3 the number for the prior 6 levels) days to advance 6 more levels to get to 17th, and then spend about 3.5 adventuring days to reach 20th level. You can see this by determining the amount of experience required to advance a level and dividing it by the recommended experience per adventuring day. So how does this play out: Players rocket to level 3, then slow down advancement until 11, and then they start to advance faster. Level 11 feels a bit different but then 12, 13, 14 and 15 come quicker and bring more high level powers and magics. Regardless (and we probably do need to disregard most of the above as so many DMs use milestone advancement and do not realize the game anticipates accelerated advancement at these levels), the mechanics do not need to support it directly if you, as a DM, believe the feel should be there and want the players to experience a massive change at level 11. You can alter your game design to put things that are more vulnerable to thei capabilities into play at level 11. That will exagerrate the differnce for the players and give them that definite feel of 'getting over the hump' and being suddenly more powerful. You can also just do it with NPC reactions to the heroes. [/QUOTE]
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Does the 3rd Tier of Play at Level 11 Make Sense?
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