I think that this is an interesting issue, and one that was getting lost in the other thread (amidst all of the discussion about spell charts....) so I wanted to start a thread with this as the core impetus.smathis wrote:If the reason that DCC is now being considered as only including levels 1-5 is because each level in DCC is worth 2-3 levels in regular D&D, then I think they're trying to do TOO MUCH with each level.dkeester wrote:Levels in 1e AD&D will not map directly to levels in DCC. 1e AD&D had 20-30 levels. DCC will have only 10. This basically means that every 1 level in DCC is worth 2-3 levels in AD&D, so you would have to adjust the levels down. A level 8 adventure in AD&D would probably be a level 2-3 adventure in DCC.
I can't see the XP progression being 2-3 times larger. Are we going to see Wizards needing 7200 XP to get to level 2? I could be wrong. But I don't think so.
Also, I don't see a 5th level DCC Wizard or Warrior being comparable to a 15th level Wizard or Fighter in 3e. Is a 5th level DCC Wizard going to be dropping Finger of Death or Prismatic Spray twice a day? Is a 5th level DCC Fighter going to have 3-digit hit points? God, I hope not.
I don't think this is the case. I think the system probably has some cracks in it at the higher levels.
We all have our own concept of what a "level" means, and often it comes down to the scale of the campaign. If I consider 5th level to be the terminus of the campaign, each level takes on a significant value. If I consider 30th level to be the top, each level doesn't mean so much.
My son is a modern player, in that he enjoys the concept of having lots of levels and going up in a hurry. I'm more conservative and enjoy infrequent leveling-up and fewer milestones along the way. One of my solutions to this is the creation of sub-levels. I took the OD&D levels 1-10 and broke them into thirds, first calling them things like 6 2/3 and later re-numbering the whole thing so that I might have levels 1-30. My "new 30" level had eactly the same hit points, spells, etc, as the "old 10" level. (I discuss this on the OD&D boards as well as Knights & Knaves. I can post more here if anyone cares, or you can go there to check it out.) The point is that I could give my son the illusion of the quick level-up while not disrupting the power curve of the original game.
And you know what? It hasn't diminished my enjoyment of the game at all. The fact that my son might be able to chest-thump and brag about his 21st level magic user doesn't impact the fact that I know that it's really no stronger than an old 7th level magic-user.
Perhaps there is room for this in DCC. One possible solution might be to stretch out the level range so that "5th" isn't the top anymore, even if 20th (or whatever) has the same powers as the old 5th. Kind of like E6 but without putting such a hard cap on levels.
Just me thinking out loud, and curious what anyone else thinks of this.