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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 1725683" data-attributes="member: 22882">I'm not sure if this is Dragonblade's point, but it's certainly mine.In an Epic-based campaign (like the base-30 and base-40 settings inspired by Eberron and AU I mentioned before), the NPCs are scaled, the PCs are scaled, and, in effect, there are no low levels.The weakest a PC can possibly be in an Eberron Age of Giants campaign is ECL 10ish - a hill giant with no class levels (note that I do not endorse the Savage Speicies take on giants, i.e. that, if PCs, they exist to be butchered by everything of a similar ECL).  The mayor may be only a 3rd-level aristocrat... but he's also a cloud giant.  Can he maul any 'low level' threats?  Of course.  Those threats, if they exist at all, can be found in uncivilized Sarlona and Khorvaire, home, perhaps, to those puny, squirming rat-monkeys called humans, elves and hobgoblins.  The greatest heroes of those races might be able to sail to Xen'drik, the only civilized continent, as 12th-level characters - but their first 12 levels will probably be backstory only.  That's for a base-40 campaign.A PC in an Epic Arcana giant-dramojh war campaign could begin at 1st level, but he wouldn't be dealing with the main branch of the campaign until he reached 5th through 10th.  Low level threats probably exist - goblins and beastmen taking advantage of the chaos of war to rob and plunder the survivors, for example - but not in the regions where Epic giants and their Epic eldritch draconic foes wage war.  Near the front and in the great fortresses of what will become the Diamond Throne, PCs had better be what in normal D&D would be considered high level.  That's for a base-30 campaign.Let's look at a base-40 campaign not dealing with, say, giants.  Of course, giants > other races, even dwarves, so there's something seriously wrong with this campaign. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> In this world (base-40), a 'typical' adult NPC is around 8th-level.  NPC classes probably aren't used, although they could be if you so wished.  Regardless, the local lord is probably a Marshal 4/Noble 8 (Marshal from MiniHB, Noble from DLCS) and his guard captain a Paladin 13.  The town guards?  Fighter 4+1d6 each.What about low-level PCs?  Number one, they're probably very young.  I mean, young adolescents, 13-ish, perhaps.  What kind of 'worthy' foes can they face to reach 5th level and full participation against threats the town guard deals with?  Many of the weaker monsters (dire rats, carrion crawlers, even ankheggs) are truly 'vermin' to this world - mom doesn't call the town guard when a carrion crawler gets in the garbage, she asks junior to get his friends together, grab some sticks, and beat the tar out of the beast.  Even creatures like imps, though unquestionably dangerous, are weak enough that young adult PCs could defeat them.  Running off to deal with the imp rather than telling 14-year-old (and 2nd-level) fighter Bob's (8th-level guard veteran) dad isn't wise... but it's adventurous, and Bob, along with his chums Sally the apprentice mage, Tom the halfling orphan rogue and Garek, dwarven acolyte-in-training, are adventurers in the making.In Bob, Sally, Tom and Garek's base-40 world, they are talented but not unique children.  By the time they're 20 (or the equivalent), they'll probably be at least 6th level - not a singular achievement, but above and beyond the usual young person.  By the time they're 6th level, they'll have heard of 25th-level characters, like Sally's archmage tutor and the high priest of Moradin who once personally blessed Garek.  They'll be a match for their counterparts, Thokk and Slagg the young, up-and-coming orcs who, being 7th-level barbarian/rangers and eager to prove themselves to High Chief Gutrog (orc Marshal 4/Barbarian 12/Warchief 10), terror of the steppe, intend to make a two-orc raid on outlying farms.Could Sally's master or even the local guard captain wipe the floor with these two headstrong orcs?  Sure.  But why would they bother?  The former is away on council of magi business, the latter has to coordinate the town's defenses against a pair of young adult red dragons living nearby, and anyway, both have days off in a world where they, too, are a far cry from the pinnacle of mortal prowess.  If the four young adventurers-to-be from our example run across Thokk and Slagg, they're liable to get into quite the scuffle.1,000 years from these events, 21st-level "Epic" heroes will marvel at the might of this base-40 era.  They'll tremble at the thought of holding the sword of Robert the Dragonslayer (Bob to his friends), for this mighty artifict contains powers beyond the limits of modern mortal understanding.  Imagine those Epic heroes' surprise if they knew that Bob's +6 Dragon-Dread longsword, Artifact to the modern age, was one of many produced during the mythical Orcwars to counter the legendary Warlord Slagg Scalebender's use of red dragon cavalry.Obviously, a base-40 or even base-30 campaign will be higher-magic and higher-powered than a usual D&D campaign... but most of those campaigns recall such a higher-magic, higher-powered age.  Why not try playing in it?</blockquote>

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