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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Irda Ranger" data-source="post: 3695449" data-attributes="member: 1003">I think most of Jasin's points can be addressed in the RAW, if the GM assumes different distributions of classes and levels within society.  This is "the GM's problem", as much as the players'.You can start by setting an example.  Never treat a high-CR monster or high level NPC as common-place (unless the NPC is deliberately trying to "blend in").  Have the villagers throw a festival to honor a couple 3rd-level types who routed an ogre that settled in a nearby cave.Totally within your control as GM. Explain to the PC's that upon entering a new village they are met with a 1st level Expert (an ordained priest of 35 years of age, and greatly respected in the village) is a follower of the Jannite sect a Pelor's worship, an aesthetic order based out of the nearby city of Brund, founded a mere century ago by Saint Jann, a great teacher and Holy Man who could cure even the black plague with a touch. There are no spellcasters in the village.While trying to Gather Information on a caravan lost in the Mir Hills, they learn that the caravan was intercepted and taken, despite clear claims to merchant traffic in the area by the local thieve's guild. Moreover, the caravan was rumored to have been taken by men answering to Keizer Soize, a man even the local thieves fear to cross, and a power that cannot be constrained by chains or walls.Choosing a monster palette (and sticking to it!) are very important.  The minotaur of myth was famous because there was only one. The minotaur in every Stygian noble's hedge maze, not so much.  Also, there's no rule that say you have to call them Dire Wolves in the campaign.  You can decide that "evil" Dire Wolves only exist in two places in the world (the Beasts of the Porellian Woods, and the Wolf-mounts of the Goblin Horde) and that there are even "good" Dire Wolves, who occasionally fight along side the elves of Lanellar Forest.  Once you've made that call - stick to it!You can do this. Just make sure it doesn't happen more than once every couple centuries or two.  Raistlin pulled this off, was it was cool, but I hope you'll recall that the last 20th level Wizard to walk Ansalon before him was ... never.  Not even Fistandalus or Magius achieved this level.  In the 1st ed. of Forgotten Realms I think there were only 3-4 wizards of 20th+ level, and they were all essentially immortal, so if you assumed that natural aging is inevitable, they'd all have been dead centuries ago, and there would have been NO 20th level wizards in the Realms.Actually, I don't like Eberron at all, but that's neither here nor there.You're "problem" is that Ryan Dancey developed a game where almost anyone can achieve 20th level. That simply didn't happen in older editions unless you played for years and years. 20th level was rare and wonderful back then - because hardly anyone ever did it.  But by bringing 20th level to the masses, it lost it's specialness.To use a baseball analogy, they noticed that hardly anyone ever hit 50 home runs in a season, so they handed out aluminum bats, brought the outer wall in 200', and replaced the pitcher with a pitching machine which lobs balls over the plate every time. Now anyone can hit 50+ home runs.But the problem with both of these is that the common myth that "we're all special" is just a myth. We can't all be special, or the word loses its meaning. For anyone to be special, the rest of us must be average. It's human nature to want to be special, but it's also a fact that we can't all be so. If we all can make 20th level in a year and half of gaming once a week, then being 20th level just means "I gamed for a year and a half, once a week."  Honesty compels you to admit that this doesn't make you special.Nowadays D&D faces the same problems that competitive cycling does.  It's very easy to "dope up" by just changing the frequency and scale of XP awards, but that's a hamster wheel I object to.  If all I wanted was a 20th level character, I could roll one up tomorrow. If all I wanted was to tour France, I'd rent a car.  But we want more than that. We want to say "Look what I have done, not because it was easy, but because it was hard. I climbed this mountain because it was there, and perhaps one day you will join me, and we will see the far horizons as equals: men who have pushed the limits of what is possible (even if the limits are self-imposed)."AKA: Fight level/bonus/plus inflation at all costs! Impose a gold standard* of roleplaying.Anyway, that's a long, round-about way of saying that you can easily have the world you envision with 98% of the RAW.  Just change the XP system so that (1) acquiring levels 3 - 10 are a real accomplishment for the PC's, and (2) the world recognizes that accomplishment.  Do the math so that XP awards mean that 3rd level takes twice as much work as 2nd level to achieve, and then have NPC's recognize this achievement in many small ways (e.g., "Oh no, your money's no good here - please, have a seat."). The logical conclusion is that high-CR monsters are very rare. So rare, they are known by name.  There's no such thing as "a Minotaur." Only "the Minotaur of Minoa" and "the Minotaur of Tor Cragg." The logical conclusion is that hero of Battle of Serenity Valley is a 4th level Fighter. The logical conclusion is that 20th level characters in history are known by name: Achilles, Raistlin, Elminster, Beowulf.  (Corollary: if you haven't heard of them, they're weren't 20th level).  To reinforce this a bit, lift the curtain every now and then and explain that Conan was an 11th level Barbarian/Thief at the height of his power; no more than that. It will aid them in sensing the "scale" of the world, and they'll know that when they're 11th level (if they make it that far), that they will be equals with Conan.If you've been driving at 70 mph for a long time, 35 mph seems like a crawl. Likewise, if you've been eating McDonalds and Snickers bars for most of your life, the nuances of French cuisine are lost on your de-sensitized taste buds. BUT, if you choose to become sensitized, you can easily enjoy this subtler fair.  3e's XP progression has desensitized us to the Homeric epicness of 20th level, but that doesn't mean we can't have it back.  Minor rule changes and a DM who follows them to their conclusion in his world would be enough to let you keep the stuff about 3e that were "good changes." (If that's your thing, and that's what you want - nothing wrong with keeping it just the way it is, in Ptolus and Eberron)If you go this route though, make sure you've communicated this to your players. A player that's written "10th level by October" on his to-do list will rightly be upset with you if you don't deliver the game he was expecting. We have laws in this country about false advertising, after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />* - Did you see what I did there?</blockquote>

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