Have you played 4e through 5 or more levels yet?

[Destan]

Hi all -

My group, which cut our teeth on 1E and played the heck out of 3E since it was released, is making the move to 4E. While there are some reservations, concerns, and uncertainties, we had all of those things when we left our comfortable land of 1E for 3E. So we're going to try to do this with an open mind and, most importantly, just have fun.

Now that all that preamble stuff is out of the way, here's my real question: Has anyone played this game through 5 or more character levels?

We have "playtested" 4E online a couple times and had a lot of fun. I don't have many concerns about combat, per se, and my players like the increased focus on group tactics.

But I'm less certain about the differentiation during advancement. Do players feel like their characters are improving as they level up? Do those improvements feel "different" enough to keep each advancement meaningful?

That's what concerns me the most - I want my players to feel like their characters are increasing in power, even if the linear aspects of the "sweet spot" would suggest otherwise. So long as the illusion is there, we're OK.

So have you played or DM'd 5 or more levels of 4e? If so, how does it do?

Thanks!

Destan

 

[Nifft]

Nope. Call me in two more levels.

None the less, I'm bumping because it's interesting.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Jack99]

Will be a while, but posting to subscribe, 'cause I am curious as well.

 

[Timeboxer]

Yes, I've played from levels 1 through 5 of 4E. I'd say that the following three features make advancement feel meaningful to me.

1. Every two levels, almost everything goes up by one. This goes a long way toward making me feel more powerful. I didn't think that it would make a difference originally, but it really gives me the visceral feeling of, "Yes, my character is better now."
2. Choosing a new power. It may be because I'm only in heroic tier, but since it's a strict accumulation of encounter and daily powers, for right now it feels definitely meaningful.
3. Retraining. This was somewhat of a surprise to me, but you get enough feats where you can probably have at least one floating feat that you are willing to retrain at will. When you feel like something different, you can retrain/take a new and different feat next level, just to experiment -- perhaps with a multiclass or skill training or something else. And if you don't like it, you can just retrain next level.

 

[Festivus]

Nope. Call me in two more levels.

None the less, I'm bumping because it's interesting.

Cheers, -- N

Same here, talk to me in two months and we should be up there.

 

[Agamon]

Wow, a session a month, xp chopped in half...call me in a year.

 

[Gort]

My group and I blitzed through KotS and ended up fifth level - the reason for this was because I used all of the setup quests and hooks to give different party members different reasons for going to the Keep. There were also only four players, and I didn't scale the encounters down (except for Irontooth's lair).

As far as progression goes, 4e feels like it starts at the 3e equivalent of level 3 or so and progresses from there a little more slowly than in 3e. So going from level 1 to 2 in 4e isn't THAT big a leap - +1 on everything and 5 more hitpoints is not a huge deal. I certainly felt the characters getting more powerful as they gained levels, though. The fighter gained the ability to regenerate while bloodied (excellent in longer fights) and attack everyone next to him, the wizard could immobilise two guys with Icy Rays and move a huge damaging cloud around with Stinking Cloud which could wipe an encounter clean of minions in moments. The cleric and warlord both got more healing powers and holy blasts and the like.

I'm glad that they changed the progression in this way, though - at level 1 in 3e you had to treat the characters with kid gloves in case they died. With 4e they're a bit more resilient at lower levels, able to take on challenges that feel a bit more heroic (a whole tribe of 25 kobolds, for instance) even though at the end of the day the stuff you fight at level 1 isn't all THAT threatening (beetles, decaying skeletons, short humanoids). It's certainly a lot better than your four "heroes" facing a single level 1 orc fighter.

By level 5 I was really looking forward to chucking bigger, nastier foes at my characters to see what they could handle with their new powers - shame I moved house and need to start a new campaign at level 1, really!

Oh yes, one other thing - I really like that at every level up the players get to make a choice over how their character progresses - choose a power or a feat or what stats will increase. "Dead levels" sucked.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

I don't know about 5th level, but my group just hit 2nd level last week and they're already talking about how cool their new toys (powers and feats in this level's case) are.