Best level to play?

[Particle_Man]

6th. Just enough to get into the early prestige classes, not high enough for "too many options" or "too many situational, and sometimes cascading, bonuses/penalties to add and subtract" (although if you stay 6th level but keep finding magic loot that may be a problem in the long run anyhow).

 

[wayne62682]

11th. Enough bite without being stupidly broken, and one can actually explore prestige classes then and get some juicy abilities.

 

[Technik4]

3rd

You are at the top of the little guy heap, you can throw around mooks, but any arbitrarily large number of enemies is still scary, everyone has to watch their resources and no one is happy with their equipment so there is plenty of good stuff (that isnt magical) to set goals for.

And feats are fun

 

[Quartz]

For single-classed characters, 8th level is a nice spot; but I like groups of multi-classed characters which become really fun in the mid-teens with two base classes of 4 or so levels plus a prestige class or continuing one of the base classes. While it does slightly delay the power curve, the main effect is to produce more rounded and more balanced characters. Combat types tend to have decent saves, mages have more HP and better saves, characters have interesting abilities (e.g. Barbarian + Rogue), aren't so focussed and don't have those glass jaws. It doesn't matter that the spellcasters are one or two spell levels behind. If they can only cast Dispel Magic, I'm not going to put them in an adventure that requires Teleport, even if they're 15th level (e.g. Mk 4 / Pal 4 / Sor 7). Despite being 21st level, I wouldn't pit a Ftr 10 / Wiz 11 against Kyuss; Ftr 10 / Wiz 15 maybe.

As for the plethora of magic items, I find a good churn does wonders, and Disjunction's always good for that. And if someone's prized possession gets Disjoined, well, that's a good adventure hook.

But really, you can make an argument for any level.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

1,000

 

[Darklone]

It's not about low levels being nice, but about his DM being unable to run a fun game in higher levels. I know it works, I've played in games like that - one lasted till level 30 and was the best game I ever played in, and it got better all the time, not worse.

Agreed, that sounds fine.

 

[Kelleris]

One level for the rest of time? 30th, then - though I prefer DMing around 6th-13th level if I had the rest of time to practice I think I could get 30th level down pat and run a really excellent game with the full resources of all the books at my disposal.

 

[Crothian]

The level we happen to be at.

 

[Herobizkit]

The old 2e "sweet spot" for me was 7th, but with the advent of the Prestige Class, I can't find a sweet sport in 3e. So I guess my default answer would be 15-18, depending on what you want to get out of your PrC.

 

[Shade]

27th. I'll have a few epic feats by that point, the opportunity to have maxxed out any single class I'd like and have a few levels in a prestige class or play something with a decent LA. My DM would be able to throw nearly anything in any of the books at me, so I wouldn't have to miss out on much.