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D&D 5E What, if any, is the most fun level range in 5e? Has my XP mistake cheated players out of particularly fun levels?
- Thread starter kagayaku
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Ogre Mage
Hero
Tier 2 (levels 5-10) is the best phase of the game. The heroes are capable of doing larger-than-life things and their tactical options expand considerably. As a player, this is fun for me. But the DM can challenge the party without having to pull out apocalyptically powerful enemies. There are still many forces in the world greater than them.
Harzel
Adventurer
This is not meant to be condescending, but since you said you are relatively new to the game: in case you have overlooked it, attacks on an unconscious target (or even just prone if within 5 ft.) have advantage. If the orc missed anyway, well then, through stupidity or accident it just happened to hit a spot where the PC was well-armored, or lost its footing momentarily, or any of a number of other possible excuses.
A lot of people are saying we've got some great levels coming up! I'm looking forward to this! 
This is a pretty cool way to split it up mentally. I might nick this as a benchmark for the world around the players
Haha, no worries - we actually did have to look this up a couple of games ago, the first time someone was down and being attacked. That time they got hit, then an ally managed to stabilise and protect them before they had to roll their death save, it felt dramatic and scary. It was good. This time though the orc did indeed miss with advantage and it just felt silly. Maybe it is just the way I narrated it though, slipping in the mud, being distracted by someone else, etc. would've made it a bit less silly than "oh... and he hit your chest plate by mistake". I think it just caught me off guard. xD
This is a pretty cool way to split it up mentally. I might nick this as a benchmark for the world around the players
Haha, no worries - we actually did have to look this up a couple of games ago, the first time someone was down and being attacked. That time they got hit, then an ally managed to stabilise and protect them before they had to roll their death save, it felt dramatic and scary. It was good. This time though the orc did indeed miss with advantage and it just felt silly. Maybe it is just the way I narrated it though, slipping in the mud, being distracted by someone else, etc. would've made it a bit less silly than "oh... and he hit your chest plate by mistake". I think it just caught me off guard. xD
Yaarel
He Mage
For the 4-levels per tier above, the survey results suggest that funnest levels will probably be:
L05-08: Professional − recognizable to town
L09-12: Master − recognizable to region
The other tiers need help to make more fun.
The L01-04 Student tier is what it is. It seems designed to haze the reallife players. It is brief, as the characters advance thru it quickly. The adventures should probably keep in mind the fact they are still students, and stay in touch with teachers and fellow students.
The high tiers are Leader and Legend.
The L13-16 Leader and L17-20 Legend tiers need help to make them funner. The DM should probably focus on what is going on during downtime. The characters are Leaders. They may be governors, nobles, headmasters of a Wizard academy like Dumbledore. The players are playing a political game, like Game of Thrones. These are the tiers that inherits the aspects of followers, henchmen as loyal bodyguards, raising children (who are new low level characters) and so on. The DM probably does best to create new adventures or highly modify official adventures so that they revolve completely around the ambitions of the characters. The players are now the active world builders, creating and changing the world setting as they know it.
Satyrn
First Post
You may find there are many many times something feels silly.
So many times.
It doesn't mean you're doing it wrong.
And personally, I embrace the silly. If you've ever watched a season of Xena: Warrir Princess, you've seen my ideal D&D. The show tried for silly at times, tried for serious at others, with an excuse for a fight every 15 minutes.
If it's designed to haze the players at these levels does that mean I can claim it's not my fault when every combat winds up super intense? ;D The student stage really is quite brief at any rate. I hope me and the players can learn quickly enough to cope at the later levels. :'D
You just really made me want to watch Xena. Unfortunately it's not on Netflix but maybe I'll find it elsewhere. Haha
Ogre Mage
Hero
During my D&D 3.X days, one of my pet peeves was how our group kept getting up to Level 4 or 5 and then quitting! This drove me crazy because IMO that was just when the game was starting to get interesting. So I would like the fact you are speeding through the low levels quickly.
5th level represents the first major power jump for 5E player characters. The proficiency bonus rises from +2 to +3 (no small thing in a system with bonded accuracy). By this point, the PCs have settled into a subclass path and enjoyed one ASI (automatic stat increase)/feat. Fighters and Paladins gain the ability to attack twice per round. Casters gain access to powerful 3rd level spells like fireball (wizard/sorcerer), hypnotic pattern (wizard/sorcerer/bard), spirit guardians (cleric) and conjure animals (druid). Rogues gain the useful uncanny dodge ability. IMO, this is an excellent time to slow down advancement and experiment with different types of encounters to test the PCs expanding capabilities.
Xena Warrior Princess is available on Hulu. The show was a lot of fun and in the 1990s Xena helped pave the way for the female antiheroes we have seen on TV in more recent years. Gabrielle was a good example of a bard character.
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