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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 4864283" data-attributes="member: 66434">This entire level of challenge thing is a product of bonus bloat based game systems. The reason a level 1 kobold isn't a challenge of any kind to a level 10 character is because of the built-in scaling of the math for the underlying system. When there are assumptions for bonuses and defenses of a given range based on level there will be enough of a disconnect after so many levels that two things cannot meaningfully interact with each other. When bonuses start piling up to the point where the d20 roll acts more like a kicker to the attack bonus this problem becomes even worse. The scaling issue reminds me of something we discovered soon after we got the Babylon 5 tabletop ship combat game. The game was point based with more powerful ships costing more points and the assumption was that even points would produce a good contest (in theory). Looking carefully at the ship statistics we noticed that the pirate raider fighters could not inflict a single point of damage against any Mimbari vessel (including the fighter) therefore rendering the whole point concept meaningless. If a single Mimbari fighter could not lose against an infinity of raider fighters there was no point in rolling the dice. This is the same kind of situation that we have in level scaling D&D. It's the reason that ridiculous rules constructions such as minions are needed to provide "challenge" while not being too tough.  Take a look at the monster statistics and "to hit" tables from 1E AD&D. There were no rules or guidelines saying that a monster or a PC had to have AC X at a given level. Defenses didn't rise through the roof requiring a slew of bonuses stacking just to get the privelege of a 50% chance to hit. Defenses didn't "scale" so much. The end result was that, as levels were gained your character actually improved and hit things more often. The higher hit points of tougher monsters gave them staying power and provided for tougher fights. Before the layering of bonuses there was no need to scale defenses higher and higher. Why keep jacking up the hit points of monsters in addition to making them harder to hit based on level? The overall effect of this was that lower level monsters were not rendered totally irrelevant at higher levels. If the DM handed out too much magic then the party might be too well protected for the lowest level creatures to provide much of a threat. The difference is that it is not the system telling the DM that the PC's should have all these goodies.</blockquote>

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