[3.5] Power disparity between levels

[HaikenEdge]

I'm kind of curious about people's experiences are, in terms of power level disparity between levels? At what levels do people find the largest jumps in power? How many levels can a PC be above NPCs before the NPCs are rendered trivial?

I notice a lot of talk about the power disparity between classes, but I'm kind of curious of the power disparity between levels. That's to say, at what point does a higher level fighter completely outclass a lower level fighter of a similar build? Likewise with the other classes; I'm kind of curious where the disparities lay, both from a theoretical standpoint, as well as from the standpoint of people's playing and DMing experiences.

[Aegis013]

That's too reliant on individual builds to give a good general answer, I suspect.

A lot of builds which utilize various combos or tricks will have substantial leaps in power when a combo, trick, or whatever comes online.

[Flickerdart]

The largest gaps are probably between levels 6 and 7, and 16 and 17. 4th level and 9th level spells represent a powerful break between what used to be available and what comes next.

As for level differences between characters, a simple arithmetical metric is impossible. A level 3 character is basically 2 times as strong as a level 1 character, but a 2-level difference between 18 and 20 is hardly noticeable.

[Firechanter]

That's not a single fixed number. First, are we assuming equal levels of optimization? If not, an optimized level 6 melee can beat the living daylight out of a low-op level 10. Okay, you said "similar builds" but I just wanted to point that out.

Secondly, you know the old bromide "Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards", right? I prefer to call it "Logarithmic Fighters" because they get diminishing returns at higher levels.
This means that for example 3 levels difference probably won't mean very much if you compare a level 12 to a level 15 - most of the difference will come from WBL. But compare a level 4 to a level 1 and it's absolutely no contest.

As for Magic Users, the rule of thumb is that spell power doubles every two spell levels. For example, a level 7 spell is twice as powerful as a level 5 spell.
Thus, the "Quadratic Wizards" bit works out pretty accurately.

[nedz]

It mainly depends upon when combos and synergies come online, or on how the classes are structured.

E.g. Sorcerer 1 can be very powerful, dependant upon spell choice obviously; Sorcerer 2 is only marginally more powerful; Sorcerer 3 is about 50% better than Sorcerer 1; but Sorcerer 4 is about twice as powerful as Sorcerer 3

Fighters are more linear, until their feat combo or trick becomes available.
After this point more levels of Fighter rarely add much.