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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5733725" data-attributes="member: 59082">I like tiers. Tiers are good. Mmm.That said, WotC hasn't exploited the format enough - it seems to have much  more potential. The key, imo, would be to find a way so that the tiers  can be both part of a single continuum and separately playable so that you could, say, run a Paragon campaign and have plenty of room to develop without always looking towards the next stage. Now of course you can do this already, but I'm talking about what the game actually supports and encourages. In all editions of D&D (at least in the groups I've played in), there has been a feeling that a PC starting at higher levels isn't as "legit" as one that starts at 1st. But if the game offered guidelines for separately playable tiers, this wouldn't be as pervasive. I also like the idea of a pre-Heroic "Adventurer Tier." I posited a  similar idea some time ago, although I called it "Apprentice Tier." The  idea being that you start as the equivalent of 1E 0-level characters; an  iconic scenario would be villagers attacked by orcs and pick up pitchforks  to fight them off; during the quest to find their lair, they become  true adventurers and graduate to Heroic tier. I like the fact that 4E 1st level characters can't be killed off by the  gust of a particularly ill wind like, for instance, 1E 1st level magic-users (remember 1d4 HP?). But I also miss the feeling--or at least the  option--of newly minted adventurers, "off the farm" types. The tier  system could address this, although only if you had the continuum-and-modularity option.The modularity--that is, the ability to play a single tier and not have  to graduate to the next level relatively quickly--would require a decent  number of levels, but not necessarily evenly distributed. I like the  idea that Adventurer Tier is only 5 levels; this is effectively the  introductory phase of a game or, if you're running a campaign like an  epic fantasy novel, the intro sequence when the characters are--in  Campbellian terms--heeding the "Call to Adventure." Think the Two Rivers  sequence in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time or the flight from Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings. Finally, I like the idea of adding an Immortal Tier above and beyond Epic. So we'd have something like this:Adventurer Tier - Coming of age, "off the farm" through one's first  adventure; the setting is the area within a couple days travel of the PCs' home town, no larger than a small county; in the LotR, this would be fleeing Hobbiton through the Shire.Heroic Tier - True adventurers developing a reputation and name; the setting is equivalent to a state or small nation; in the LotR, this would be traveling through Eriador to Rivendell.Paragon Tier - "named" adventurers, regional heroes; the setting is  multi-national or even continental, including the entire "known world"  and beyond; in the LotR, this would be traveling from Rivendell through Moria to Mordor and the War of the Ring.Epic Tier - known figures of the campaign world - the movers and  shakers; the setting is similar to Paragon but the PCs have a stronger  influence; LotR doesn't have an equivalent, although you could say that The Silmarillion is closer to Epic tier - doing actual battle with Balrogs and even Morgoth. Immortal Tier - ascended to immortal status; cosmic beings; the setting is the multiverse, planes, etc, and would likely involve creating new worlds, guiding different peoples, etc. This would be hard to play under the actual D&D rules and would likely require a different rule set (not a problem a truly simplified modular core that we can hope 5E will have). Again, LotR doesn't have anything like this but it would involve the characters becoming immortal (Maiar) and moving beyond Middle-earth, perhaps to co-create new worlds.</blockquote>

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