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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Spell level design considerations?
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<blockquote data-quote="Meek" data-source="post: 5394348" data-attributes="member: 78339"><p>It's a bit more nebulous in D&D 3.5, but the reason certain spells are the level they are is because of the types of enemies and the kinds of adventures that happen at those levels. You don't want weather control and raise dead and overland flight at level 1, when PCs are supposed to be fragile up-and-comers fighting pests like Kobolds. D&D 3.5 at least, makes world-changing spells start showing up around 5th level spells (9th-10th level casters). Of course it's kind of a flimsy argument, as some messed up spells do show up at those levels to be abused, if you have enough books to search through you'll find something or other that doesn't quite fit in with the rest.</p><p></p><p>In D&D 4e, powers are staggered over the levels based on rising damage and having better secondary effects. At 1st level you're lucky to have a power that Dazes people and it'd be really useful, but Daze isn't that good at 23rd level when you can get powers that Stun or Dominate. In 4e, the idea that certain powers are for certain levels is even more visible because of the clear tier divisions. In epic tier you're in extraplanar locations fighting demons and giant elementals and abominations, so your powers have to deal high damage or have incredible effects (or both) to keep up with the epic feel. In the heroic tier, you're supposed to find a bunch of kobolds or orcs or other pest monsters a problem, so you can't be doing 5[W] + 20 and stun in a Close Burst 10 or something.</p><p></p><p>Certain adventures happen at certain level ranges, and getting certain powers earlier would invalidate them. If you can get teleport at level 1 you don't have to travel anywhere on horse back and you don't have to worry about being imprisoned and so on. Finding an actual, hard system to tell you "this spell HAS to be THIS level BECAUSE of THIS" is a lot harder than this, though.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Meek, post: 5394348, member: 78339"] It's a bit more nebulous in D&D 3.5, but the reason certain spells are the level they are is because of the types of enemies and the kinds of adventures that happen at those levels. You don't want weather control and raise dead and overland flight at level 1, when PCs are supposed to be fragile up-and-comers fighting pests like Kobolds. D&D 3.5 at least, makes world-changing spells start showing up around 5th level spells (9th-10th level casters). Of course it's kind of a flimsy argument, as some messed up spells do show up at those levels to be abused, if you have enough books to search through you'll find something or other that doesn't quite fit in with the rest. In D&D 4e, powers are staggered over the levels based on rising damage and having better secondary effects. At 1st level you're lucky to have a power that Dazes people and it'd be really useful, but Daze isn't that good at 23rd level when you can get powers that Stun or Dominate. In 4e, the idea that certain powers are for certain levels is even more visible because of the clear tier divisions. In epic tier you're in extraplanar locations fighting demons and giant elementals and abominations, so your powers have to deal high damage or have incredible effects (or both) to keep up with the epic feel. In the heroic tier, you're supposed to find a bunch of kobolds or orcs or other pest monsters a problem, so you can't be doing 5[W] + 20 and stun in a Close Burst 10 or something. Certain adventures happen at certain level ranges, and getting certain powers earlier would invalidate them. If you can get teleport at level 1 you don't have to travel anywhere on horse back and you don't have to worry about being imprisoned and so on. Finding an actual, hard system to tell you "this spell HAS to be THIS level BECAUSE of THIS" is a lot harder than this, though. [/QUOTE]
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