Campaign Power Levels

[spectre72]

What is considered "By the book D&D" in terms of power level.

In all of my years playing which is from red box D&D till now I have never found what I would consider "By the Book".

I have dozen of campaign settings that I have accumulated over the years each with a different power level built into them.

Every campaign I have played in, every convention game, and even every RPGA event have had different power levels. Power level has varied by edition of the game (with some of the most abusive combinations occuring in 2E IMHO - The bladesinger was a great example of this), campaign world, and GM.

After participating in a few discussions on these forums I believe our campaign is much lower in overall power than most so I begin to wonder what the average is.

What is considered to be the "By The Book" Power Level?

What power level does your group play at?

 

[francisca]

What is considered "By the book D&D" in terms of power level.

In all of my years playing which is from red box D&D till now I have never found what I would consider "By the Book".

I have dozen of campaign settings that I have accumulated over the years each with a different power level built into them.

Every campaign I have played in, every convention game, and even every RPGA event have had different power levels. Power level has varied by edition of the game (with some of the most abusive combinations occuring in 2E IMHO - The bladesinger was a great example of this), campaign world, and GM.

After participating in a few discussions on these forums I believe our campaign is much lower in overall power than most so I begin to wonder what the average is.

What is considered to be the "By The Book" Power Level?

What power level does your group play at?

Well, I think with 3E you stand a chance at getting a feel of what "by the book" means. Have a look at the NPC stats in the DMG. Listed there are some magic items, and an amount of gold, presumably to buy more magic with (at DMG prices). Compare that to a PC of equivalent level in your campaign.

While nowhere near perfect, I think it's as good as you will get. Forget about it with the older editions though.

If you haven't noticed, this "assumed level of magic" is an axe to grind for lots of folks, and I predict you'll hear steel against stone in this thread before too long. I'm pretty apathetic about it myself, as I mostly homebrew.


And as for my group and homebrew, they are lucky to find a dozen potions, a dozen scrolls, and a +1 sword by 5th level, so I'd day I run a "Stingy Magic" game. I'm about to re-tool and open a new world though (for my 3.5 game).

 

[Ryltar]

My group is seriously behind the (IMO ridiculously high-powered) "by the book" power level. Quite similar to francisca's post, actually.

 

[der_kluge]

Power is relative, money is relative.

For example, I can hand out 100 +1 swords to my party, and if they're all wielding +2 swords, it's rubbish to them.

I've skewed the power level in my game quite a bit because they are on a deserted continent with no means to sell their loot. So, they literally have a bag of holding full of fist-sized gems they can't do anything with. In one room of a dungeon, they waded through a room knee-high deep in gems. It was just another room to them.

I obviously wouldn't dare do that in a regular game.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

What power level does your group play at?

Much lower than the "default" level of uber-cheese.

 

[Ogre Mage]

What is considered to be the "By The Book" Power Level?

What power level does your group play at?

I believe that "By The Book" Power level would be 4d6 drop lowest die or 25 pt. buy stats and character wealth by level as per Table 5-1 on pg. 135 of the DMG. A 6th level character, for instance, should have about 13,000 GP worth of equipment/money.

Most campaigns I have observed use higher stats than the the default but lower wealth. How this impacts overall power I am not sure.

In the FR campaign we play, the PCs have both high stats (with total modifiers pushing into the +11/+13 range) as well as character wealth which is in line with the DMG. Since this is high-powered FR, our DM puts us up against tough challenges.

In the Iron Kingdoms campaign we play, the stats are almost as high (+9/+11 range) but the character wealth is drastically reduced. My 9th level cleric owns ONE magic item -- a +2 chain shirt and no gold (she is in debt). Of course, to compensate, the opposition is much lower powered than FR. Most MM creatures with a CR in line with our level would destroy us. Luckily, the IK Monsternomicon assumes less power.

There are other issues to consider as well, such as how much third party material is allowed into the game. But that can vary wildly from campaign to campaign.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I'm riding the "by the book" rail. Characters were 4d6 drop lowest and I do my darnedest to keep them at the DMGs wealth. I do the occassional audit to keep track of total cash value. I calculate the CRs carefully and make sure that any gear the enemies have they could use that the do use. Tactics are in place and the campaign economy seems functional.

It is difficult to give out that much cash without unbalancing the economy. Let's face it, how many treasures with enough gold to build a castle can be laying around out there? So I cheat and figure out how their adventures help their investments. Accidentally start a war? Have your merchant allies provide the supplies. Stop a plague? Get your church to take credit for it and receive tithes.

I don't have a problem with challenging the players, surprisingly enough. Once the characters are enmeshed in the storyline, the plots write themselves and the challenges become obvious.

 

[Grazzt]

Much lower than the "default" level of uber-cheese.

Yep- same level we play at as well. Somewhat low magic (no magic shops to be found, survivability depends more on your skills and stuff than what new, shiny magic item you have today), dark fantasy....a cross between Elric and Witch World with a bit of Tanith Lee and Howard sprinkled in probably.

 

[ForceUser]

Power is relative, as stated earlier, but of the four D&D camapigns I'm currently involved in, one is "high-powered," with several of the characters sporting magic items well beyond their current wealth level. They are also 32-point buy characters, which is 7 points higher than the point-buys of the Fab Four Iconics (Mialee, Jozan, Lidda & Tordek). Two of the other three campaigns are slightly higher than 25 points, at 28, and the characters are all within range of their respective wealth levels. The last campaign is a 28-point buy with funky house rules for magic items and wealth; although the characters are collectively lacking in anything resembling book-standard wealth for their levels, there are a couple of magic items floating around that are likely worth more than everyone's wealth level combined. I'm not sure that makes the game "low powered" or "high powered," but as long as the DM is aware of the relative difficulties in operating without book-standard wealth and adjusts his encounter ELs accordingly, it shouldn't matter.

 

[Zappo]

Here's the run down of our 3.X games:

A short campaign from 1st to 3rd level, 4d6 drop low, normal wealth.
A long campaign from 10th to 20th level, 30 point buy, normal wealth.
Campaign started at 3rd, now at 8th, 30 point buy, ongoing, normal wealth.
Campaign started at 5th, now at 7th, 4d6 drop low, ongoing, normal wealth.
Main campaign started at 1st, now at 11th, 25 point buy, ongoing, somewhat lower wealth (approximately one level behind).
About to start a campaign at 5th level, 25 point buy, normal wealth.

As for the "by the book" power level - well, 3.X is designed to get an average group from 1st to 20th level in 9 months of playing, IIRC. Also, standard characters are either 4d6-drop-low or 25 point buy. Make of that what you like.