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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9636281" data-attributes="member: 6790260">As with most things, there is a real issue which was less of an issue in the past, and became more of an issue at certain points, but (a) it was never not an issue, (b) when it was less of an issue it was still a lot more of an issue than fans of that period give credit for, and (c) when it was more of an issue, it wasn't catastrophically bad the way some folks portray it to be.Even in Ye Olden Dayse, being a 1st-level adventurer in a (say) 4th or 5th level party? Yeah, you're gonna be squishy as hell and there's a pretty high likelihood that things your friends wouldn't find too troubling could outright kill you. So that's a thing. Conversely, even being two full levels behind other characters in 3e, while not exactly a superhappyfuntime thing, isn't horrendously awful, "you're now totally useless" etc. It's definitely going to put you into an objectively worse position...but that was also true of 1e!Personally, I think the bigger issue is that folks who played in early editions didn't really care that much, because...well, frankly, characters died left and right, so it was easy come, easy go. That's not really the paradigm anymore (for which I, at least, am supremely grateful). D&D characters today are not seen as something you casually toss into the woodchipper. Investment into a character is not the consequence of play, it is an expected input of play.As a consequence, even though the difference between a 4th level character and a 6th level character is only somewhat more weighty in (say) 4e or 5e than it is in 1e or OD&D, you feel that difference more keenly because the game is designed with an expectation that you're invested.It's not that the power gap between level N and level N+1 has grown that much. It has grown, but not that much.It's that the game design paradigm is one that makes you notice the power difference more. It just plays better with groups that are more or less at the same level.</blockquote>

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