What level mechanically, is the easiest to plan an adventure for?

[CyberThread]

just overall, how do you feel by the various levels, do you think is the easiest to make an adventure for?

[Elderand]

5 or 6

Players are a bit tougher so a single shot from a crossbow won't drop them.
They get access to interesting abilities whitout getting stuff that must be planned around.

[Captnq]

1st.

A bear is in the woods. A farmer is scared of it. He hires you.

Adventure design: done.

[Nettlekid]

Personally I like around 12. I like higher level play, because at low levels everyone's basically the same no matter their class, and by this time they're usually well inside a PrC which means they have their more specialized abilities. At the same time, they're not overpowered enough to punch through any monster in any book, and maybe two or three higher level NPCs (level 15 or so) prove a match in battle to a 5 person party.

[Spore]

I don't know if it is easy or not but I suppose 3-5 is great. You are high enough to be an outstanding individual and not high enough to be a superspecial snowflake, be able to create major mischief like killing the guard or saving the dragon from the princess.

You won't fall over dead by some 1d6 pit trap built by Kobolds but you can't tank a Balor while getting a handjob from the queen of the realm.

[SimonMoon6]

Low levels (particularly 1st level) are easy to plan for, because the PCs can't do *anything*. Any possible thing you can imagine is a nearly-impossible life-or-death struggle for the PCs. Oh no, we have to fight a housecat? TPK!

Low levels are also incredibly BORING, but boy are they easy to plan for. Oh, you get to fight a single rat. Or maybe one kobold. That's your high adventure adventure.

[CyberThread]

You won't fall over dead by some 1d6 pit trap built by Kobolds but you can't tank a Balor while getting a handjob from the queen of the realm.


was that....really necessary .. lol

[QuintonBeck]

I prefer starting the PCs off at about 6-10 if it's an adventure I've been planning for a while. If I had to run off the cuff, I'd say between 3 and 5 so I don't accidentally TPK as is very easy low levels, but I also don't have to think ahead with my encounters and enemies to make a challenge for the cool abilities coming in at later levels.

[VariSami]

Somewhere around 5 and 8. They will likely start attending prestige classes, and oftentimes it means that a (variant of a) pre-made organization with listed motivations can become involved. It does not happen that often, though. Other than that, the characters are actually becoming interesting but not overpoweringly strong. Many interesting monsters are available, although I prefer using NPCs due to the nature of most of my games.

[Amphetryon]

I personally find 2nd level easiest to plan. There's some more leeway over whether to send lots of little critters or one larger opponent at the party, and it's slightly less likely for a PC to fall ove dying as a result of an ordinary solid hit. Save-or-Dies do exist even at this level, of course, but the relatively small number of Spells available to a Character at this level minimizes their impact a bit, in my experience, because they're less likely to be a major aspect of every encounter.

[Emperor Tippy]

One to three. It's incredibly easy to build an adventure for that level range because the PC's are highly limited and the PC's really aren't anyone especially important.

[The Trickster]

Easiest? Probably level 1. Just throw an couple of orcs or zombies at them. Something like that.

Easy, yet satisfying? I would vote 5 or 6. At this level, the classes are all relatively balanced, power wise. You won't (usually) have to plan for a druid or wizard (or whatever) doing broken stupid things yet. Even if they can do some powerful stuff, its not as bad as high level broken stuff, which can really get messy. It's one of the reasons E6 was made, iirc.

[Brookshw]

Can I reverse the question? Usually I find 13+ to require more planning.

[The Trickster]

Can I reverse the question? Usually I find 13+ to require more planning.

Agreed. Higher levels mean characters have more abilites to play with, and these abilities need to be considered when making an encounter (in order to make the encounter challenging, but not impossible).

[Vamphyr]

I've always enjoyed planning for levels 1-6.

I really like using skeletons and zombies (because I feel your basic grave robbing necromancer should always be scary) and this level range allows me to make use of that fairly easily.

Also, a lot of the "legendary" monsters are still effective and tough challenges at these levels with little to no buffing. (Minotaurs, chimaeras, young dragons)

[Raven777]

I like to start at 2nd level. Enough HP to survive a couple hits and a bit more resources for character creation, but not so much as to be overwhelming for new or inexperienced players. Ideally, I'd like for campaigns to then play all the way to 20th level, but by 10th we usually are either done with the plot or stop altogether because players ability to attend changed over the months.

I imagine that 1st to 6th levels are the easiest to manage for a party, because the unavailability of long term flight and dimensional door and the limited spells per day mean that most mundane obstacles cannot be bypassed altogether with spells yet. Therefore, a GM can still count on barred doors, pits and traps to actually challenge the PCs.

[SassyQuatch]

By 7 or 8 things can start to break more easily. Up to level 6 you can usually have a game that doesn't require massive computers and game theory to balance a tightrope between overpowered and cakewalk.

[avr]

Easiest isn't most interesting, but ... 2nd level. As noted, the PCs have a little durability, but they have absolutely no plot-annoying powers such as Detect Thoughts.

[Eldariel]

If we're assuming players aren't using tricks to bypass level requirements in spellcasting, it's something along these lines:
- Level 1-2 you have to plan on everything basically oneshotting everyone. Less so on level 2 but it's still possible. Level 3 HP totals begin to get high enough (assuming people have decent Con) that one crit won't at least kill you.
- Level 3-4 you have to account for Wizards potentially flying (Alter Self) and going Invisible for short periods of time (just couple of minutes, but enough to sneak into places without countermeasures in place). Mostly tactically powerful effects. Players can craft Wondrous Items now which means given time, most of the truly powerful items in the game are now at their fingertips. Wizards can also get some control over some Undead with Command Undead.
- Level 5-6 is a pretty drastic shift already. First, power level goes up a lot across the board; warriors have access to those level 6 tactical feats, most types of precision damage begins to hurt already and of course, 3rd level spells/powers/mysteries/utterances/whathaveyou. Fly begins to get more common (Wildshape, Fly-spell, etc.), players actually gain the ability to dispel magic (can be strategically quite significant since the maximum cap you can dispel is significantly over your level - 25 dispels CL 14 effects), properly rest in extradimensional spaces (Extended Rope Trick lasts long enough now) and hilarity like Shrink Item and Explosive Runes see the light of day. Animate Dead is added to appropriately aligned Clerics' arsenal which is quite noteworthy. Oh yeah, if it's allowed the party size just doubled with Leaderships for everyone.
- Level 7-8: mostly adds Scrying, Polymorph, a few amazing combat spells, Freedom of Movement (though Travel Clerics have had it for a long time), Death Ward, a whole lot of immunities. Strategic options are still quite limited though these levels include some useful divinations, while tactical options begin to get really powerful (Polymorph/Enhance Wild Shape being the biggest, probably). Wizards get Animate Dead to create a following here too. One fairly significant extension to the party's options here is the ability to properly act underwater. With Water Breathing on level 3 spells and Freedom of Movement on level 4, that's very efficient underwater action for over an hour. Wildshape works too and Polymorph does the same for ~7 minutes.
- Level 9-10: Here the strategic level of play changes entirely. Suddenly players can plane shift, teleport across continents, acquire basically any information in existence (Commune and Contact Other Plane), raise the dead, fly all day, possess people, create tornadoes, form telepathic bonds, bind outsiders, permanency spells; this is the "coming of age"-level where you go from "walk around the wilderness" to "be where we need to be when we need to be and get **** done". If sticking near WBL, PCs begin to be able to afford some of the more major magic items too.


Above that, well, 6th level spells mostly add Contingency, Heal, Antimagic Field, Antilife Shell, etc. Tactical level stuff. Disintegrate does enable very efficient excavations within the limit of your slots, and Move Earth is here too. So digging gets much, much easier here. Oh, and Planar Binding/Ally offer their stronger versions here and Create Undead becomes available. Easy access to the Plane of Shadow via. Shadow Walk as well. Oh yeah, and Heroes' Feast immunities are something to mind.

7th level has all the global options get much stronger with Greater Teleport, wizards' Plane Shift and Cleric Greater Plane Shift, Greater Scrying & Simulacrum for some really powerful minions. Reverse Gravity is also here for hilarity, and Druids finally learn to teleport (Master Earth) & Heal. Tactically, you also have Blasphemy-line here as the first true no-roll kill enabling effects in the game. Ethereal plane also becomes fairly accessible with Ethereal Jaunt.

8th obviously Polymorph Any Object changes everything forever allowing you to easily build your own castles or whatever, have any PC (or anyone) be whatever they want, just...turn anything into anything, okay? Mind Blank is also here as is Greater Planar Binding/Ally. Create Greater Undead as well.

9th level, yeah, Wish, Miracle, Genesis, Shapechange, Gate, Time Stop, Astral Projection, Disjunction, this level is full of ridiculousness and definitely requires an entirely different approach to making games if PCs are making use of these spells.


All of this applies if there are some of the top caster classes present, of course. It's quite possible to reach these level break-offs with none or very few of these capabilities with many class compositions.

Overall, I'd say the biggest breakpoints are level 3 (when PCs no longer get one-shot very easily & combat magic loses its HD caps), level 5-6 (full BAB types get their second attack + level 6 feats and are still independently useful, probably their biggest powerspike, while casters get the level 3 spells), level 9-10 (as touched on earlier, level 5 spells fundamentally change how PCs can approach an adventure) and then every time new spell levels become available (none as drastic changes as level 5 spells tho, except maybe level 9 spells).


I prefer DMing fairly high level but under 9th level spells. However, I usually cater to players. I strongly dislike playing under level 3 characters due to the mentioned hard-to-restore one-shot deaths though; as a DM I hate silk gloves so I'd prefer PCs who can handle themselves without me coddling them. And yeah, I think level 2-3 is about the easiest level to plan for.

The less options the PCs have the less things you have to account for. That's really all there is to it. It's frankly more about the party make-up than the level though. And honestly, it depends on the players; some players play the game to do stuff and thus want agency while others are only in it for the ride and thus want to be told where to go and who to hit.

Like, my childhood friends have went out of their way to spell it out to me that they don't want sandbox games and that they want me to railroad. My own preference is the polar opposite, so it's a bit hard for me but so far it's working out okay in our latest game. I'd definitely love to DM in another way though, and as a player I'd prefer a DM who gives me a lot of freedom too (or who allows me to take a lot of freedom, that works too).

[awa]

I think people are overstating the problem of one shots at low level ac means a lot more and while some monsters like orcs have very high damge out put others like kobolds and dire rats are doing less then d6 damge. Compare at higher level where lots of abilities are save or die or can do enough damge to kill a pc in one round like say a frost worm which could do 35d6 damge in a single round to an unlucky party. An average of 122 damge considering a wizard with 18 con and max hp only has 96 hp that's bound to kill someone if they got caught off guard without there buffs up.

I also disagree that level 1 needs to be boring you could have the low level adventure theirs a bear go kill it but you could also have a high level adventure there's a legendary bear go kill it the fact that the bears numbers are bigger does not mean the battle is more interesting.

The lower the level the easier it is going to be to deal with the parties magic
a large number of adventure themes either become impossible or require a lot of work to make function.