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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 9722583" data-attributes="member: 6775477">I think that the way OD&amp;D, AD&amp;D, and BECMI were designed, level disparity is perfectly fine. When I played, most people had multiple characters of various level, so that they could pick a character appropriate for the adventure. In 2E, we had more story based games, but due to the prevalence of Raise Dead by NPCs (and eventually PCs), we very rarely had a situation where a player ended up significantly behind the party. New players started with the total XP of the lowest character; an affectation that carried on to 3E.Level disparity was built into 3E, but in a bad way. Level loss due to death meant that there was a built in doom spiral, where the weakest character would die more and more often. I've seen players leave games after their 3rd death in a row, knowing they were just going to die again. The XP system was supposed to give more to the lower level characters, allowing them a chance to catch up again, but IME it never came close to making up for one lost level worth of XP, let alone multiple levels.I have not seen level disparity during 4E or 5E, and I strongly suspect it wouldn't work very well for either edition.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 9722583, member: 6775477"] I think that the way OD&D, AD&D, and BECMI were designed, level disparity is perfectly fine. When I played, most people had multiple characters of various level, so that they could pick a character appropriate for the adventure. In 2E, we had more story based games, but due to the prevalence of Raise Dead by NPCs (and eventually PCs), we very rarely had a situation where a player ended up significantly behind the party. New players started with the total XP of the lowest character; an affectation that carried on to 3E. Level disparity was built into 3E, but in a bad way. Level loss due to death meant that there was a built in doom spiral, where the weakest character would die more and more often. I've seen players leave games after their 3rd death in a row, knowing they were just going to die again. The XP system was supposed to give more to the lower level characters, allowing them a chance to catch up again, but IME it never came close to making up for one lost level worth of XP, let alone multiple levels. I have not seen level disparity during 4E or 5E, and I strongly suspect it wouldn't work very well for either edition. [/QUOTE]

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