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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 722711" data-attributes="member: 4937">I'm generally in agreement with you.Experience: My problem as a PC has been that you don't get a chance to fully explore your new powers before you level up and acquire new ones.&nbsp;&nbsp; Newly acquired feats and spells go unused sometimes for a level or two before oppurtunity to use them shows up.&nbsp; You feel rushed.&nbsp; You don't get a chance to savor your newly won powers before you acquire new ones.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; As a DM you have to plan for the need to every session or so ratchet up the level of difficulty.&nbsp; You don't get a chance to present even a small slice of the various challenges the party can face at a given level, before the party levels up on you and you must pass on to new challenges.Wealth: On the good side, experience is no longer tied to wealth, which means that in theory a character could reach 10th or 12th level in our lifetime without being a millionaire several times over.&nbsp; In most peoples 1st edition campaigns, a significant share of a PC's XP came from the treasure he'd hauled out.&nbsp; Monster XP was too low, and the mechanism of treasure=XP seemed to much like scoring points.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; But has been often pointed out, the game is not designed to handle 10th level paupers.&nbsp;&nbsp; Wealth which once was used to advance the game without having it grind to a halt, now is necessary to keep the game balanced.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; However, nothing says that in your campaign 10th level characters need to be ready for CR 10 challenges, and I might add that that would go quite a ways toward solving the XP problem too.Magic Items:&nbsp; On the good side, there is actually a fair and reasonable means for players to create thier own items - and it doesn't require them to be 16th level.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; On the bad side, like treasure, the game is balanced at a default level of high magic.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most anything that applies to treasure applies to magic items.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; I've even had people who play 3rd edition say that there is no since in giving out treasure if you don't allow players to buy magic items at a shop somewhere.&nbsp;&nbsp; Think about that for a while.Difficulty: In my experience, with a party that has been given the default level of magic items, encounters of CR = party level are cake walks that probably don't take 10% of a parties resources, much less 20%.&nbsp; A default equipped party constructed in a reasonably min/maxed manner probably can by mid-levels take on 4 encounters at 2 above thier CR.&nbsp; This only exacerbates the experience problems.&nbsp; I don't even want to think what a party composed of twinked up smack down types could do.&nbsp; This also tells me that a party could do without a little bit of magic items and still hit the target CR.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 722711, member: 4937"] I'm generally in agreement with you. Experience: My problem as a PC has been that you don't get a chance to fully explore your new powers before you level up and acquire new ones. Newly acquired feats and spells go unused sometimes for a level or two before oppurtunity to use them shows up. You feel rushed. You don't get a chance to savor your newly won powers before you acquire new ones. As a DM you have to plan for the need to every session or so ratchet up the level of difficulty. You don't get a chance to present even a small slice of the various challenges the party can face at a given level, before the party levels up on you and you must pass on to new challenges. Wealth: On the good side, experience is no longer tied to wealth, which means that in theory a character could reach 10th or 12th level in our lifetime without being a millionaire several times over. In most peoples 1st edition campaigns, a significant share of a PC's XP came from the treasure he'd hauled out. Monster XP was too low, and the mechanism of treasure=XP seemed to much like scoring points. But has been often pointed out, the game is not designed to handle 10th level paupers. Wealth which once was used to advance the game without having it grind to a halt, now is necessary to keep the game balanced. However, nothing says that in your campaign 10th level characters need to be ready for CR 10 challenges, and I might add that that would go quite a ways toward solving the XP problem too. Magic Items: On the good side, there is actually a fair and reasonable means for players to create thier own items - and it doesn't require them to be 16th level. On the bad side, like treasure, the game is balanced at a default level of high magic. Most anything that applies to treasure applies to magic items. I've even had people who play 3rd edition say that there is no since in giving out treasure if you don't allow players to buy magic items at a shop somewhere. Think about that for a while. Difficulty: In my experience, with a party that has been given the default level of magic items, encounters of CR = party level are cake walks that probably don't take 10% of a parties resources, much less 20%. A default equipped party constructed in a reasonably min/maxed manner probably can by mid-levels take on 4 encounters at 2 above thier CR. This only exacerbates the experience problems. I don't even want to think what a party composed of twinked up smack down types could do. This also tells me that a party could do without a little bit of magic items and still hit the target CR. [/QUOTE]

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