Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 9043498" data-attributes="member: 72555">My issue with this is that it changes what level 7 means to the PCs.Is level 7 "you are a competent warrior", or is it "you are the best swordsman in the empire"?So when you face pirates, are they competent warriors or are they strangely better than the best swordsmen in the empire?This has knock on effects beyond world building -- in-adventure impacts.  If PCs fighters at level 7 are world-class fighters, then seeing a dozen dirty pirates the PCs can very safely assume they aren't all world-class fighters.  Because that would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?In turn, this kind of information about the world means that the PCs can look at enemies, and have an idea if this is a "run away don't fight" or "curbstomp" situation, without the DM having to always telegraph it manually.It also means that the DM is "forced" to up the stakes for higher level PCs.  If level 7 PCs are "best in the empire", a fight against 15 pirates is not a suitable conflict, unless said pirates are somehow supernaturally insanely powerful.  And if they are, the stakes are probably more than "we found some pirates".A problem with D&D that many DMs complain about is how it their adventures stops working when players start getting L 5+ spells.  But if the stakes of the game are consistent with the players level, when planeshift shows up it is appropriate for the game.  L 7 they are world-class combatants; L 13, they can take a sunday brunch in heaven, L 17 they can reshape the world with an action.OTOH, if at level 7 they are fighting mook pirates who are 75% as good as them, and at level 11 they are fighting mook pirates who are 75% as good as them, and and level 15 they are fighting mook pirates who are 75% as good as them... because you scale foes up to match the PCs capabilities, without scaling the narrative scale of the PCs abilities ... then suddenly entire categories of world-shaping spells start breaking the game.I mean it can and does work!  It just is an issue.</blockquote>

Verification