Your greatest level span in a campaign?

[DaveMage]

All,

Just curious what's the greatest number levels your characters have ever advanced in a 3/3.5E game?

I'm currently playing in a game that has taken characters from 10th to 21st level. This 11-level span is probably the most I've done in 3/3.5E.

What's your experience?

 

[diaglo]

what my experience?

not good.

my hat of d02 knows no limits and mostly due to the rapid, ravid, rabid expanse that is the piss poor level system.


1 to 15th in 3 months.

in the word of Damon Wayans... Hated it.

 

[The_Universe]

The current game I DM has gone from levels 1 to 17 in about 1.5 years.

The previous D&D game I ran went from 1 to 16 in approximately 1 year, and then we took a break and dinked around at level 20 for a while.

Though not a level-based system, I once GMed a group of D6 Star Wars characters for three years, gaming pretty much every week - in level terms, they were probably something like level 50 by the time we quit. It was - in a word - ridiculous.

 

[Henry]

All,

Just curious what's the greatest number levels your characters have ever advanced in a 3/3.5E game?

I'm currently playing in a game that has taken characters from 10th to 21st level. This 11-level span is probably the most I've done in 3/3.5E.

What's your experience?

I've seen from 1st to 18th before - but it was a whirlwind game that took about six months. We've found that, given how infrequently we meet (about 3-4 times a month), the only way to advance REALLY far in levels is to speed up the level progression. What usually happens to us is:

--player roster changes
--DM burns out after about six months
--people lose their character sheets between breaks
--after a hiatus, players have little drive left to continue characters

I salute people like Piratecat and his group which has enough drive and desire to keep playing a campaign after ten or fifteen years, with rotating characters, consistent players, and a group and DM zeitgeist that wants to see something through that far to completion.

Other than a faster progression like this, the longest level-gain I've ever seen is about 7-10 levels - we had the same problems all the way from AD&D, to 2nd edition, to 3E.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

1st to around 18th currently (shooting for 19th / 20th), over four years real time (since March 2001) and 132+ adventures (gaming sessions). My group levels up about every 7 adventures or so on average: I award EPs on a per session basis (i.e. your character is there and you play, you earn regardless of whether or not there is combat). We've had character and player changes, but have worked them all in fairly well into the ongoing campaign - there is only one "original" (level 1) character around in the group currently, but she disappeared (died and later returned) for about a year.

 

[Voadam]

7-15 and still going.

 

[FreeXenon]

1 - 51 something (3E prior to the Epicl Level Handbook) - my character specifically was 41 as I was a magic item creating machine.

This specific group tends to run high power, magic and everything.

It was a blast and very memorable.

We have not played it in a long time. Since the Epic levle handbook came out. We had the beta rules that were floating around and used that. It made for a very different game than what is presented the Epic Level Handbook. Converting characters, in their case, was almost impossible and keep the same flavor. Oii!!

 

[Ibram]

my first campaing (started when i got the PHB back when 3rd came out) went from 1-13. Since then I usualy start at 3rd and go to 12-14.

 

[the Lorax]

my hat of d02 knows no limits and mostly due to the rapid, ravid, rabid expanse that is the piss poor level system.

While I, in general, like the changes made in 3.0/3.5, the insanely rapid level advancement is not one of them.

Back in 1st/2nd ed. there wasn't much need for Epic rules because getting a character to 20th level took longer than many campaigns have the energy to survive. Now, players routinely pre-plan and build their characters as if 20+ was a certainty. I admit, that campaign elements from the mid '80s still linger in my games, but the first game we converted over to 3.0 had 7th(ish) level characters, the character I played in that game is now retired and has been for years of real time at 29th level. :\

 

[JamesDJarvis]

My regular campaign has gone from 1st to 14th in something like 4 years.

Characters got to 5th level or so fairly quickly but it slowed down after that.