Playing a lower level copy of your character

[Mirtek]

.The encounter in question however, appears balanced for a party of 5th-6th level characters.

Didn't know that, only figured it was T1 due to being early enough in OotA to make the cut for encounters. With this knowledge i'd likely agreed to go along.

At least that will makes me feel better in case i'll met him again wielding the sword

 

[kalani]

The thing with those side quests, is that the DM can place them in the adventure whenever they want. I was actually surprised that those sidequests made it into the Encounters document (DDEN3) due to this fact.

While the earliest I would recommend placing the Dawnbringer quest is 4th level (before that it is decidedly lethal), I expect many DMs to hold off until 6th-8th level as Dawnbringer is very powerful in the hands of a tier 1 character (but starts to taper off in mid-high tier 2).

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

I know its not legal and thankfully so. Because you would have every Tier 2 or 3 character running around wanting to play lower level versions of themselves because some new magic item was just released in a module etc.

NO NO NO and HELLLLL NO

 

[Warmaster Horus]

I don't think it would be fair or in the spirit of AL to 'back-rev' an existing character. Just start a new one and earn its' experience. I've got 4 active 5e PCs now, the oldest in Tier III and the latest just making it to Tier 2 in late November. I've put a lot of time and effort into AL and have played within the rules. Have I gotten everything I wanted? Not really. Is that okay and have I had a great time playing? Emphatically, yes.

 

[Eltab]

LFR (and so maybe only useful for shedding light on the subject):

I had a StarLock8 signed up for a particular module. Everybody else who showed up was L1-L4. I offered to down-level to L4 so I could fit into the group, _IF_ I could get L8 XP / GP for playing.
The DM agreed. (I made a point to let the other players pick up all the cool magic items; I already had twice as many as they did.)

I happened to keep previous copies of my character sheet as I leveled-up, so the switch was quick and easy and non-disruptive to play.

However my RAI for AL would be, "No you can't do that."

 

[Dracoprimus]

In all seriousness, whose job is it? Each DM in the region, separately?

More importantly, whose job is it to fix the problem once it happens, because not every DM is 'in the loop'?

I understand the desire to avoid becoming the 'AL rules police', but some DMs will allow anything that isn't explicitly prohibited. Others simply don't participate in the online fora where they'd learn that this kind of thing is discouraged, if not illegal. IMO, anyway, the Local Coordinators have a big role to play in keeping their local DMs on the same page, from a 'this is how we run games here' standpoint.

--
Pauper

it's not so much wanting to avoid becoming "AL rules police" as not having the authority to do so, if we wanted to.

We can remind DMs about certain rules, other than that, we have zero authority to impart any kind of penalty. If a DM, allows stuff that is illegal, we can tell the store, or the store's organizer, but, if the store doesn't care, we can't force them.

There's a strong assumption by the public about how much power/authority we LCs/RCs/admins have.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Im lucky because as the Local LC and the SOlitary dm locally running at least my table of Encounters, I have the best of both worlds. I can chose to not even run the side quest if I want and I also have control over who is at my table.

 

[Pauper]

There's a strong assumption by the public about how much power/authority we LCs/RCs/admins have.

As a member of the organization, you have significant moral authority, if you choose to use it.

Of course, there's a fine line between using moral authority effectively and just being a jerk, so I can see why most folks aren't comfortable doing that, either. Consider it a skill worth learning if you want to become an effective leader.

--
Pauper

 

[Mirtek]

(I made a point to let the other players pick up all the cool magic items; I already had twice as many as they did.)

But in LFR just everybody could take a copy of any desired item no matter how often it was found in the mod anyway. Find one good magic cloak? All 6 players at the table could claim a copy for their PC if desired.

 

[EKruze]

A separate but related question: Can a character that has obtained enough exp to level into a higher tier defer leveling up until a later time? For example, can a character that has passed 85,000 exp elect to stay level 10 until the remainder of the Tier 2 Season 3 modules are out, with the intention of participating in and completing the whole of the Season 3 story?