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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alex319" data-source="post: 4699784" data-attributes="member: 45678">Yes, and I think that's the point of the whole system. The point is to make the setting hang together better - and that's a lot harder to do if the characters in it are of extremely disparate power levels. For example, if a malevolent 20th level dragon is effectively invulnerable to anything short of a paragon tier character, and there aren't that many paragon tier characters in the setting, it's not clear why the dragon can't just run around and raze villages with impunity. (Also see item 26 on <a href="http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html" target="_blank">this list</a>.) Effectively, squashing down the power curve helps limit the need for a <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SortingAlgorithmOfEvil" target="_blank">Sorting Algorithm of Evil</a>, and makes it so that a high level hero can actually be threatened by a large number of "ordinaries."Having minions doesn't really solve that problem. If you wanted, say, town guards to be able to be a "threat en masse" to that rampaging 20th level dragon, then using the existing system you would have to make them at least 15th level minions or so, and then that would make them impossible to hit for low level characters. The point is effectively to make the battles more even without having to constantly rebalance based on the players' levels.</blockquote>