reducing levels

[Kimras]

So I started by DMing noobs for this game I wanted them to want to keep playing. I made things a bit easy for them and power lvled them so they could see how fun things can get. Now I was wondering if I should reduce their lvls because of all the power lvling and have them earn their lvl now that they see how fun the game is.
What I would do is have one of the demi gods who are trying to stop them reduce the characters age of them there by reducing their lvl by explain that their bodies need to retrain to handle the magic power flowing through them and just increase strength with fighters. or is this just a terrible idea altogether and just drop the idea.

[Almarck]

A simple, but perhaps effective solution is time travel.

Time travel them back in time with the justifcation they're redoing earlier levels because the levels they were at before never happened yet. That way, it feels less arbitrary and allows the players to imagine how it might all happen better and reuse plot threads or events from before, with twists.

[jaydubs]

Generally speaking, people don't like being suddenly de-leveled, so it's important to let them know why you're doing it, and some of the fun stuff they will get to experience during a low-level campaign. Whatever you do, it will go a lot smoother if you have them on board with it.

So to start with, what are your reasons for wanting to roll things back? Is it getting hard to DM? Do you think they missed out on the experience of some of the gritty early levels? Is there a particular type of campaign you want to run, that just works better at a low level?

Figure out some of those things, and then bring the matter to your players. Explain it to them. If they're attached to their characters, you can offer a few options. Such as rewinding them, as suggested. Or putting together a fitting finale for them to retire in.

If they're totally, 100% against it, it's probably better to find that out directly rather than after de-leveling them.

[Firest Kathon]

I advocate against de-leveling and for just starting new characters. This way it is less of "taking away our nice toys" and "I was able to do that before", and more of an opportunity to try something new. Of course, if a player just re-plays the same character, that would be OK too.

[Yahzi]

I advocate against de-leveling and for just starting new characters.
That's what I would suggest, although the time-travel thing is pretty cool too.

[Crake]

That's what I would suggest, although the time-travel thing is pretty cool too.

you could combine the two, and have time travel resulting in a different timeline, so everyone's playing the same characters, but they're built differently. Then later down the track, you could have the characters meet up with the other version of themselves, and have some fun roleplay, and possibly an awesome climax to some multi-dimensional time travel campaign.