PCs of different levels

[eris404]

We're playing in a 3.0 game, and I have a character that may be raised from the dead at some point. Because of the circumstances, she will be at least 2 levels lower than the rest of the party (12th level versus 14 or 15th level, depending on whether the party levels again before she comes back). For people who play in games with characters of different levels, is it a noticeable difference? Does it hamper your enjoyment of the game at all?

 

[Witness]

yeah, I play in a campaign where my character is a few levels lower. It is (for me at least) a noticeable difference that does hamper my enjoyment, but really, I think it depends on what type of campaign, and what type of character you are playing. What is the character's class? Is there some specific thing that the character specialized in that the other characters can now do better? In my experience, being lower level is worst if you are a spellcaster if there are other spelcasters in the group. Conversley, it is also bad if you are the only fighter in the group. If you are a rogue though, it is not that big a deal.

 

[drothgery]

I'd think 2nd vs 4th would be a huge difference; 12th vs. 14th... not so much.

 

[Mouseferatu]

My own experience tells me the following:

1) People tend to have the most fun in a game where the characters are roughly even.

2) A discrepency of a level or so is probably okay. (That is, in a party that averages 5th level, a character of 6th and/or a character of 4th probably won't feel too out of place.)

3) A discrepency of more than that begins to make people feel less effective, like their only the sidekicks of the other "main" characters.

Of course, YMMV. But very few people I know personally (myself included) enjoy playing in games with a larger discrepency than 1 or 2 levels, and as DM, I'll fudge things or even blatantly break the rules if it means preventing someone from being left too far behind.

 

[welby]

depends on the classes and how they're built.

We played a campaign with a two level difference before, and now I try to avoid that scenario if possible.

 

[Chupacabra]

My group wrapped up a campaign where there was initally a big gap in levels between two sets of players. We had two "old hands" who got in at the campaign's inception, and we had three (later four) "newbies" who had to start at 1st level when the campaign was already in full swing and the oldsters were about 5th level or so.

As one of those level 1 players, I did not think that it was going to be any fun, given the level disparity. But to my surprise, it worked out just great -- mostly due to excellent DM'ing. Instead of making us newbies face a bunch of CR 5 critters, where we would have been totally overmatched, he instead tailored the encounters so that the party faced critters and situations more appropriate to the lower levels characters in the party. Yet even when facing these "mooks" our higher-level oldsters were having to constantly have their bacon saved by us newbies. Maybe because we were that much more fragile, we played a bit more conservatively, and thus we were fresher for the "end game" of an encounter. Plus, us newbies earned XP far quicker than the oldsters, due to the nature of the XP awards table. We leveled faster and experienced far more character growth in the same amount of time relative to the oldsters.

In your particular case, I would think that the gaming experience of a level 12 person should not be too different than that of a level 14 or even 15 person. That gap is not so huge as to be unmanageable.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Anything past three levels starts to really show at the higher levels.

Having said that, if your GM is using the experience point rules in the FRCS or in 3.5, you should catch up in no time. One of the smarter changes in my opinion.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

It's kinda interesting when the party is varied in level. We've got one game where the levels range from 7th to 9th. We try to keep within our character's limitations. Even me who has had my character killed twice and would've been once more had there not been a case of "DM's Grace"..... It can get tiresome if you're having to sit bored out of your skull while everyone else was gaming while waiting for them to get back to town to get your PC rezzed. Let's not go there on the 2 hours or so of non-game talk because of one player....... But the DM does keep the encounters within the capabilities of such a varied-level party. Even so, serious consequences can occur from player actions.

And to the original poster: Why would your character be TWO levels lower than everyone else?! You only lose ONE level from being rezzed. (not counting True Resurrection) Even with the party levelling up, it shouldn't be so bad.

 

[eris404]

And to the original poster: Why would your character be TWO levels lower than everyone else?! You only lose ONE level from being rezzed. (not counting True Resurrection) Even with the party levelling up, it shouldn't be so bad.

Our party originally was 13th level when the character died. In order to get my character resurrected, the party had to go on a mission for the high priest first. That mission turned into three different adventures (we sailed to an island for the priest's quest, were attacked by pirates on the way back and had to stop at a "lost world" island to make repairs, only to discover the island is infested with mindflayers - it's a long story) and the resulting experience point gain meant that the party leveled once (13th to 14th level). The last part isn't over yet and quite possibly the party may level again before they get back to the high priest. The other party members could be 15th level by the time that happens.

In the meantime, I made a temporary character that I thought I'd only use for a session or two, but this has taken longer than I thought. So I'm debating whether after all of this to bring back the original character (the party's only cleric) or to stay with the current character.

 

[Darklone]

When I started in an old AD&D group, me and the other newbie got level 6 chars... the rest of the group was level 8-11 plus two level 6 henchmen. Later a level 5 monk joined.

I had a lot of fun with a multiclassed bard Jack of all trades, the other newbie died fast and kept himself happy by stealing from the big ones in the party... while the monk made a new character pretty fast (Rgr2/Rog3/FtrX TWF build) who showed the big phat fighterdude pretty well how to dish out a lot of damage.

All the newbies were better at minmaxxing and munchkinizing or knew someone who could help... still we got beaten pretty badly at every possible breakfast encounter for the big ones. As soon as we caught up to two levels, it got a little bit better...

In your case: Level 13 as a fightertype is ok, two levels behind as a spellcaster is annoying. But you should survive long enough to catch up.