The more I think about it and read responses in this thread, the more I think the appropriate solutions are a) start at and design he world around a level I prefer (say, 4th), and b) make leveling happen very slowly over long periods of both in game and real world time. Now, could I get buy in from players for such a thing?
"We're starting at 4th level. You guys should make 6th about this time next year."
If you're designing around a level, I recommend starting at a lower level and letting the PCs grow into it. Eg for 4th, you could start at 3rd.
The more I think about it and read responses in this thread, the more I think the appropriate solutions are a) start at and design he world around a level I prefer (say, 4th), and b) make leveling happen very slowly over long periods of both in game and real world time. Now, could I get buy in from players for such a thing?
"We're starting at 4th level. You guys should make 6th about this time next year."
I'd probably buy in if I could get some "sub levelling" in. Like, even if it took 6 months to get to 5th level, if I gained an extra ASI or a feat halfway through, that would satisfy me.
The issue for me is that combat drags on foreeeeveeeer at the higher levels. By level 12 or 13, a hard or deadly encounter can easily take an hour (or more) to resolve. That's way too slow-paced for me.
I haven't come up with the perfect solution yet, but one thing I did that seemed to work in my last campaign was to design monsters that basically had 1/2 the usual HP and did *2 the usual damage. So they hit twice as hard, but died twice as fast. Combat was a lot quicker-paced as a result.
I wish I knew, but I almost never track combat rounds.Interesting. Instead of real-time, how many rounds do they usually take for your group at that level?