What is the minimum level would you play if you were never to gain xp again?

[Azul]

I'm partial to the level 5-10 range where adventurers are powerful enough to feel heroic without having easy magical solutions for everything. Since I had to pick one number, I choose level 8 for pretty much the same reasons Jeffh gave above (good range of abilities without introducing the most problem prone magical elements -- best compromise).

Powerful magic is nice and all but the game gets a little dull when everything is solved by a spell.

 

[Dracomeander]

I voted 'are you crazy?'. Not because I like the acquisition of power, but because I like my characters to change. And 3E allows for a lot of change as a character advances. My characters never end up exactly the way I envisioned them when I started.

I emphasized this because I think it cannot be stated strongly enough. I cannot imagine playing in a stagnant world where my character never has a chance to change and adapt to the circumstances around him.

 

[Herobizkit]

Never level again? Heh, I might as well play GURPS.

 

[Corsair]

Level 6. Casters have third level spells (when spells start to be powerful ie fireball) and characters with full BAB get 2 attacks and skills if maxed out are all +10 or better generally so every one can be reasonably heroic and epic at level 6.

All that, plus people can usually get 1 level of a PrC for flavor, and my personal favorite: LEADERSHIP.

 

[Dave Turner]

I emphasized this because I think it cannot be stated strongly enough. I cannot imagine playing in a stagnant world where my character never has a chance to change and adapt to the circumstances around him.

Can't your character change and grow in personality without a change in the numbers underneath?

I'm with Psion. 17th level gets me ever spell in the game, depending on class. Mechanically, there is nothing new to aspire to except more spell slots, feats, hit points, etc., which I've already had for the past 16 levels.

 

[Particle_Man]

Funny. I once thought about running a game where the characters are in some sort of "world's largest descent into hell" scenario and they have some magical plague that weakens them as they descend. So they start at 20th level, and eventually end up as 1st level dweebs, and then die. Kind of like that band of "Templarish" Knights that all had the Plague in real life.

The ultimate "doomed hero" scenario.

But for playing, I would say level 7. You get the cool 4th level spells (and can metamagic the 1st and 2nd level ones), you are up there as a fighter, you have neat abilities for those classes that live or die by them. But it is not too complicated.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

So, to all those who said "12th" or "16th" -- I really am curious -- did you play earlier editions? If so, did you ever get to 12th? If so, how? How long did it take you? What did you get XP from?

It truly is my impression that 2E was designed in a way that made it very similar to "never gaining XP again" after about 7th-8th level... unless you fought the fiends, where a 19-HP abishai was the same XP as a great wyrm red dragon for some absurd reason... but it was effectively a game where you would NOT get to 16th level under the baseline XP rules, and could only get there by the DM making heavy use of the optional XP rules.

Or is it a question of, having been there, and having been stuck at 7th/8th in prior editions, you don't want to go back now that you finally have the opportunity to hit double-digit levels within the XP system as designed?

 

[Imret]

While I answered "Are you crazy", I feel like I should comment on the 2E XP halt at higher levels. With significant alterations to the resurrection rules, we took a party of four built at 2,000,000XP each through all of Dragon Mountain. By the end of it, our group of four with nine classes between us gained six levels, divided amongst those nine classes. And let me assure you, we cleared out -everything- in that dungeon. Knee deep in poisoned shortbow arrows, we were.

I'd have to concur with Brother MacLaren and say you're not supposed to level after a certain point in 2e. I recall an argument against the level caps for non-humans being based on the fact that an elvish fighter needs to tackle a half-dozen old red dragons, alone, to break the level cap. The dragons might have been older or it might have been more, I don't recall off-hand and I don't want to dig my 2e out of storage to look it up, but the priniciple is the same.

 

[Conaill]

1st - as long as you can at least gain some more skills, maybe the occasional feat or extra spell known. I would *not* want to play a static character that never develops in any way.

 

[Li Shenron]

Assuming you don't know which character class you'll be playing before you choose, what is the minimum character level you'd want you and the rest of your party to be at for the rest of eternity?

-tRR

If I have to pick one and only one, it will probably be 6. It's high enough to have a good selection of feats, spells, skills, and even be multiclass or own the first level of a PrCl.

Second choice would be 8.