Do your characters know what level they are?

[ARandomGod]

I guess my answer is "of course not!" I can't imagine a campaign that did have characters going, "Sorry, first level fighter, I'm level three... and you're going down!"

In fact, I rarely even know the relative power levels of my opponents. For example, when I play in my prequel-era Star Wars game, and my fifth-level hero has to choose betwen fighting against Asajj Ventress or a bunch of droidekas, I couldn't tell you who he'd rather fight. Or in D&D, I'll often be dealing with two humanoid villains working together, or a humanoid and a monster... it's often unclear which is more of a threat. When characters have in-game rankings, they're often misleading... the court jester (not that I've ever run an adventure involving a court jester) might be the highest-level character in the castle.

None of the characters in any game I've ever played have known this. They guess at relative power, of course, but that's so very very general as to be hard to determine.

For instance, in one game, my PC halfling (Fourth level, none of those with any spellcasting ability, let alone divine) walked up to a recently dead companion and cast "True Ressurection" in one round.
OK, so he had a one use item, given out (Probably for this specific purpose, the character died in a suspicious manner....) by higher level NPC's who had "forseeen" a need.
My PC was the only one present when this was given.
Noone else knew anything.
It blew the party clerics brain. Mainly because the God Himself (and not the clerics God, my PC's god) came down and personally raised the other.

Now they all think I'm very powerful.
Of course, later when I fail to raise the next death, they might think I'm holding out and be pretty pissed.

 

[johnsemlak]

In earlier editions they could refer to themselves with the level title.

'I am Morgan Ironwolf the Veteran',

or 'Hoddypeak the Magician-Superhero'.

 

[Morrus]

I'd say knowledge of levels and other things like ability scores are the same as those in reality. I know I'm stronger than my mother, and that my friend is more nimble than me. I know that I have no experience in doctoring, and that my friend has; similarly I have some experience at web design, which he hasn't. I'd even go so far as to say that I have less experience of web design than he has of doctoring.

So, like people have said, it's all relative. You're not aware of scores or levels in an absolute way, but you are able to compare yourself to others and place yourself above or below them on a scale.

 

[Snapdragyn]

Hey, does anyone have the old title-by-level lists around, or know where to find them online? All of my old 1e books are a couple of thousand miles away.

 

[blargney the second]

I'm thinking of using Sepulchrave's valences concept for spells, whereby spellcasters are in-game aware of the level of a spell. (Epic spells are called transvalent spells.)

I'd also like to have formalized schools of fighting with equivalent circles of combat styles. Possibly some sort of Combatcraft check that lets you know approximately how skilled a combatant is.

-blarg

 

[Tyreus]

I think only a sense motive check would allow a guesstimation of a given creatures level, perhaps with the DM telling the player what level the person in question is, but the character would still only have a rough estimate of skill. I don't think someones level would affect the information recieved on this check, because some characters are much more powerfull then thier level might suggest. For example, if a druid makes a sense motive check to determine how powerful a paladin is, he might find out that the paladin is much more powerful then him, even though the paladin might actually be two levels lower.

 

[frugal]

Not really, certainly not numerically. Characters who see another creature fight can get a rough idea of whether they could take it on and how many hits it could take, but that's true in real life as well.

I would agree. Anyone who has ever had any kind of martial training can look at an opponent and have a fair idea of the outcome of a fight. There will obviously be exceptions to the rule but in the most part you can work out who the real threats are at any point.

 

[frugal]

If the question is "Do the characters know what level they are?" then obviously - no - a character has no concept of "levels".

If the question is "Do the players know what level their character is?" then yes. However they do not know how many experience points they have and they do not know the level of any other players' character. Our GM will email specific players between session to let them know that their character has gone up a level. No one gets to see any other players character sheet.

 

[Oscar carramiñana]

Only cleric and paladin know their levels (aura) The spellcasters is easy see the spell what can cast, for the others more or less he knows their levels

 

[shilsen]

As many posters have said, spellcasters have a pretty good idea of relative power levels. It's a Greyhawk campaign and it would seriously strain my sense of verisimilitude if nobody in thousands of years had worked out that there are different levels of spells and which they are. IMC, different groups refer to spell levels in various ways, such as valences (from Sep's story hour), circles, etc.

Classes which have evident special abilities can also use them as a guesstimator. For example, a druid who can take on elemental shapes is evidently more powerful than one who can take on large animal forms, who in turn is more powerful than one who can only attain small and medium forms.

On the whole, power levels are not difficult for characters to work out (in an analog, rather than digital sense), but specific levels are not a real in-game concept. No "I am Boobar the 3rd/7th lvl Barbarian/Druid".