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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tenbones" data-source="post: 3072831" data-attributes="member: 7499">Gaining levels is an artifice.When you level - you're in essence buying a set of abilities with your xp.D&D3.x does not scale well. No group uses 3.x straight out of the box (and if you do, your GM will have to adjust the output of gear one way or another for balance) and each group has their own house rules to help balance their campaign for maximum impact in that sweet-spot (I agree with levels 5-13). The scaling issues inherent to D&D are apparent post Level-12. Melee characters will rarely miss a target (which illuminates the broken Armor Class System), assuming you're using only WotC material (which I find to be uninspired on average) your caster-fanboys usually wipe the floor with most reasonable encounters. CR -system? Useless. Feats - great idea, poor implementation. Everyone gets pigeonholed into one-trick pony status.So back to the original question - Why have levels?It's a good question, really. 2ed was HORRIBLY broken - far worse than 3.x, but that was partly due to being overgrown and overdeveloped. It FORCED players and GM's to customize their game from the truckload of content out there. The systemization of 2ed was barely there. However, when the Options and Powers books came out, something interesting happened - something that could with a lot of work be applied to 3e.Turning all class specific abilities into point-bought abilities that you purchase upon "leveling", you could, actually, have the versatility of creating the type of character you want (possibly doing away with Prestige classes since everyone is customized within the boundaries of what the GM allows). 3.x Options and Powers? 4e? Who knows. Interesting idea. I think d20 can be pushed a lot further than the current flatland systemic idiosyncracies that cause games to fracture post 13th level anyhow. WotC quality is slowly getting better, and more dynamic... SLOWLY (I credit Mearls on this. He GETS IT). I still can't help but feel their flavor of d20 is bland compared to some of the other companies in the field - Green Ronin and AEG for that matter.I'm definitely looking forward to 4e. Bring it on.</blockquote>

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