Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Why are their level limits?
From: jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (P'relan)
Date: 25 Aug 92 17:22:45 -0500
Distribution: na
Organization: Dept. of Physics

In article <1992Aug25.112934.12268@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>, gajensen@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes:
> In article <1992Aug24.205643.12256@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>, jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (P'relan) writes:
>> In article <1992Aug24.142442.12248@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>, gajensen@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu writes:
> One of the quirks of the game. There really is no good way to fix it unless you
> almost totally scrap the racial ideas the game puts forth.
>  
> I still don't think you could have those special people as PC's, though. Using
> your example of Dwarven Champion. The character in question would devote his
> life to the betterment and protection of his people, exciting for the Dwarf,
> but very boring to role-play. They would never really want to leave home, cause
> it's hard to protect your people if you're messin' around somewhere else.

I'm not sure why this wouldn't apply just as equally to the human paladin
though.  (No, I don't agree with the argument either way, but I don't see why
it wouldn't apply to them as well.)  Demi-humans are on pretty much equal
footing with humans in my campaign worlds - they're not rare creatures located
in small enclaves for the most part (of course, I don't use some races at all
because if you used all the races in the PH and the Monster Manuals your world
would be far, far too full, but they're fair game for alternate material
planes).  I've played as both player and DM with all dwarven and all elven
parties and the dwarven champion would work out well there at least (well, not
in the elven party...:-).
  
>> and I rule that non-humans, because of their long lifespans,
>> aren't as interested or concentrated in gaining levels throughout their entire
>> lifespans as humans sometimes are so there aren't any elven mages whose levels
>> have to be given in exponential notation.
> 
> I don't think I can buy this, you will always have the exception to the rule.
> (One reason why there are such things as Dark elves.) In each of the demi-human
> races you will have those that go against the norm and go power-crazy. You
> can't simply say that because a race is a certain way that all members of that
> race will not adventure long enough to get to the levels I described. And,
> those would be the people who really ran the show around them. 

Why can't you have an exception to the racial level limits then?  At the worse,
the rules are equally illogical.  Extremely high level elven mages are very
powerful in my world though mainly from the time they have to prepare new
spells and magic items because power does not increase linearly with level by
any means.  In fact, once you've passed 30th there's not much left to gain in
any profession.  I don't really see what would be the point or the great danger
of a 100th level character versus a character in the high 20's of levels.  Now
if you don't limit spells like fireball and lightning bolt to a certain number
of damage dice as per the 2nd edition PH the spellcasters can deal out
tremendous amounts of damage but even that's not uncontrollable.  Finally, a
character would probably be up for divine ascension either by his or her deity
or through special quests to attain something like the Greyhawk quasi-diety
status long before they'd gained such a level.
 
> Greg Jensen, aka:
> 	Silk, thief extraordinaire!!
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 P'relan (and Birith)      	   ``Time stand still -
 jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu      I'm not looking back -
  or jwwalden@miavx1.bitnet	     But I want to look around me now.'' - RUSH