What power level do y'all play at?

[Aetis]

I was curious to see at what power level other D&D players play at, so if you could list them in the following format:

Typical levels of play.
Point buy.
Sourcebooks allowed.
Other allowed things/banned things.


For me, we play at:

Lvs 1-12
25pt point buy.
PHB, DMG, PHB2, All Completes sans Psionic and Divine (but Divine Metamagic is legal), Artificer class
Polymorph/Planar Binding lines banned.


Your turn!

[Kelb_Panthera]

I like playing between 5 and 16-17.
32 point buy.
Pretty much all first party material allowed.
I don't like to ban much. Dragon magazine and compendium are out but I can work with most anything after a bit of tweaking for the more famously abusive things, i.e. no storing levels in a thought bottle, wish as a SLA has a cap for magic item creation, etc.

[OldTrees1]

Levels: 6-15
32 point buy (have to respect the non casters :smalltongue:)
All 3e books + Dragon Magazine(if checkable) all material subject to approvial
No temporally challenged builds (aka retraining into something that can't exist otherwise).

And since that says absolutely nothing useful about power level
Balance point: Martial character gaining roughly 1 interesting thing(pounce, fast healing, reach, Combat Reflexes, Bypass DR, ...) per level. Casters reined in to meet the rising Martials.

[Aegis013]

I typically DM at either 32 point buy going from levels 5-20, or if I want a bit more I usually do 44 point buy, gestalt, levels 5-20.

I encourage my players to optimize to the levels most of the handbooks recommend. So our strikers usually hit for about 100-150 average per round by level 10. Our bard might be getting 10d6 bonus damage to the group. Our skill monkey should be hitting DC 50 checks by 10, depending on the skill.

I do this because I want to make more complex encounters, and I want to feel confident my players have the tools and numbers necessary to handle the encounters I want to run without being unfair (I don't like unwinnable fights, but I don't mind rocket tag once relatively inexpensive resurrection options become available).

[rrwoods]

32 point buy, specific dumb spells banned, and the DM keeps a close watch on things getting out of hand in general. We haven't had anything banned after it was chosen (...yet?) but most of our characters stay inside the low T2 - high T4 band. Even our T2 characters end up playing more like T3 limited-list casters most times.

[nedz]

Group 1
1-mid teens
Elite Array
Any

Group 2
1-mid teens
Elite Array with pathfinder racial mods
No T1s, Casterley PrCs rated +1 Tier or more
A few Spells and Feats deprecated or changed e.g. Skill buffs capped at +CL

Psionics are not used by either group

[Emperor Tippy]

Typical levels of play: One to fifty, generally fifteen plus.
Point buy: Anything and everything, varies way, way, too much to be more specific (seriously, as likely to play with all 18's as with 20 point buy).
Sourcebooks allowed: All official sources and most homebrew on an as requested basis
Other allowed things/banned things: Bans depend on the specifics of the game; default is nothing short of full on time war is banned.

[noob]

level 20
T1 caster and T3 skill user who got 23457543^3325465 PO and tons of cool feats
They never met any opponent.

[Curmudgeon]

mid teens to low Epic
sliding point buy scale based on tier: Tier 1 = 15 points; Tier 4 = 32 points
all Wizards of the Coast sources plus Dragon magazine
form changes limited to sources both seen (Spot check) and identified (Knowledge check); a few allowances for martial characters (like Rapid Reload and Manyshot for slings), but no slack cut for spellcasters

[sleepyphoenixx]

Typical levels of play: 1-20, sometimes into low epic
Point buy: usually 32 pb
Sourcebooks allowed: all official books, plus dragon magazine on a case by case basis.
Other allowed things/banned things: homebrew on a case by case basis, no infinite loops, casters are expected to keep things at a level that doesn't completely destroy the game

[Uncle Pine]

1-20, low epic a couple of times. Starting level fluctuates between 1st and 5th.
32 point buy.
All 1st party material, Dragon Magazines and Compendium, a short list of 3rd party books (Advanced Bestiary, some books from the Encyclopaedie Arcane, Hyperconscious). Homebrews are discussed on a case by case basis, but no one asked to play something homebrewed so far.
If it doesn't go up to infinite (or nigh infinite), it's allowed. Everything the players use can and will be used against them.

[Riculf]

1 - 17(ish) stable of characters all within the same game world. Very low item/WBL.
Rolled stats (weirdly enough). 6x6 grid. Pick the best line.
Core and Completes with some minor additions on a case-by-case basis.
Numerous house rules including but not limited to: No Warshaper. Spells limited to core except for specific exceptions. Resurrection magic is difficult and quest related. Fate point system instead of easy-res. etc

[torrasque666]

My DM usually starts us off around level 5 and we go to 20, the current campaign being an exception (firkkin level 1 start)
It can vary. First campaign was 34 PB. Second was 4d6r1kh3 for stats, but you could keep that array for your backups or roll again. This one is 3d6 no rerolls, but if you feel that its completely unplayable you can reroll.
Its usually limited to "Does the DM have a physical copy?" and Dragon is on a case-by-case basis (which usually translates into "Is this going to be a massive boon to an already overpowered character?")
Illusions cap at 100% real. No spell higher than 8th can be emulated in any way. Wish/Miracle are NPC/Plot spells.

[crunchykoolaid]

My group is atypical as we are all still in school in separate states, so we play during summer breaks 1-however far we get (only got to 20 once).
We usually roll for stats and the DM allows rerolls on a case by case basis, but if we do point buy its usually 28.
We allow all books that I own: Core, Complete series, Spell Compendium, some specific things allowed if you talk with me beforehand.
Most of my group (besides me and one other player) are unexperienced at optimization, so as long as one of us is DMing we can keep an eye on each other. The one game where another player took a shot at DMing, we accidentally broke that game wide open.

[PsyBomb]

3.5:
32-PB
All Wizards sources, 3rd party and homebrew on review
Start level is usually 3-6, if it's below that the opening levels go FAST. Ends usually around 12-15, with two reaching 20.
Gentleman's rules on build brokenness. If you're outshining everyone without good reason, the character retires within a session or two or dials it back.

PF:
20-PB
All Paizo (with some bans, like Leadership and Comprehensive Knowledge), all DSP, and all DDS by default (including playtest material). Homebrew and other 3PP on review
Start level is usually 6, if it's below that the opening levels go FAST. Ends usually around 10-12, with one hitting 18.
Gentleman's rules on build brokenness. If you're outshining everyone without good reason, the character retires within a session or two or dials it back.

[Ruethgar]

Starting Level 1-4, 32 pt buy all official content, typically T4 sometimes T3.

[Pex]

Pathfinder
Point Buy, 20 or 25 points depending on DM, Dice rolling sometimes
Level 1 or 3 to whenever
All official published Paizo books, SRD, errata, case-by-case for new stuff when deemed appropriate
No third party, though I'm trying again to play psionics.
Significant house rule: All healing maximized when not in combat. Healing does necessarily happen in combat from time to time.

[WeaselGuy]

We've been running with the same group for a little over 2 years now. We're currently on chapter 3 of our main campaign, but we've also mixed it up with 3 other campaigns between chapters.

Typical levels of play: 1-15ish. We've done a few epic 1 shots, and sometimes we start around level 5 or so, but normally we start at level 1. We also level fast for the first few levels.
Point buy: We usually do 4d6b3, reroll <6's, but when I DM, we use 12, 13, 14, 16, 16, 18, before racials.
Sourcebooks allowed: We allow all 1st party material on the table.
Other allowed things/banned things:

The biggest thing for us is no conflicting settings on the same character. For example, I could have a Arcane Swordsage Red Wizard of Thay (not even sure if that would work, now I'm tempted...) and my buddy could have an Eldeen Ranger, but we couldn't have like a Harper Scout Silver Key.
No Candles of Invocation.
Only 1 Nightstick use per character.
We actually haven't had anybody try to use a Thought Bottle yet.



With regards to classes played, we usually try more to have a diverse party than a powerhouse. For example, our first group consisted of a Favored Soul, a Cleric, a Shadowcaster, 2 Rangers (one archery, the other TWF), a Fighter, and a Druid. A later group consisted of a Wilder, a Sorcerer, and an ubermount Ranger.

[Doc_Maynot]

Level 5-30
32 PB.
All officially licensed and published 3.5 and Dragon Magazines allowed.
3.0 and 3rd Party available on request after looking through it.
I really don't have much in the way of houserules other than when building a character you can't spend more than half your WBL on a single item.
I typically run in the T1-T3 Range

[Aetis]

Wow!

I apparently play at one of the lowest powered tables! This is very interesting.

I assume NPCs are also built at the same point buy, with the same level of optimization of the PCs?

I'd think that the game would quickly devolve into rocket tag at such high powered level of play, but I guess not!

[Jay R]

Regardless of any other DM decision, I would always start at level 1, and actually play out the heroic life of the character.

[Threadnaught]

Typical levels of play: One to fifty, generally fifteen plus.
Point buy: Anything and everything, varies way, way, too much to be more specific (seriously, as likely to play with all 18's as with 20 point buy).
Sourcebooks allowed: All official sources and most homebrew on an as requested basis
Other allowed things/banned things: Bans depend on the specifics of the game; default is nothing short of full on time war is banned.

Whelp I don't need to describe how I play or what I allow players to play.

Thanks for doing it for me Emperor Win. :smallbiggrin:
Except for the 15+, we generally earn our power by fighting through the lower levels first.

[atemu1234]

I was curious to see at what power level other D&D players play at, so if you could list them in the following format:

Typical levels of play.
Point buy.
Sourcebooks allowed.
Other allowed things/banned things.


For me, we play at:

Lvs 1-12
25pt point buy.
PHB, DMG, PHB2, All Completes sans Psionic and Divine (but Divine Metamagic is legal), Artificer class
Polymorph/Planar Binding lines banned.


Your turn!

Any level. Starting low, 1-5ish, then going until epics in some cases. Favor 20th level.
36 point buy.
All first party books emphatically allowed, along with most third party I can find, and most any non-broken homebrew. Some conversion done in all cases.

[ComaVision]

Lvs 1-12
4d6b3
All first party material, plus Dragon Magazine and Dragonlance books. Open to 3rd party on approval but hasn't really come up.
Only ban I can think of in my group is no infinite loops.

[Amphetryon]

1-13ish
4d6b3 sets point-buy for the group
All 1st party books with proviso that use of CPsi by anyone includes the nerf to Astral Constructs for all PCs.
Easiest explanation of restrictions is the old Test of Spite ban/nerf list.

[Nibbens]

It should be stated we play PF.

Typical levels of play: For my guys, we usually start low (1-3 level) and never finish a campaign (ending at 10ish). We're trying to break that cycle now. lol.

Point buy: Nope, we use 4d6r1kh3. (Which is an awesome way to write it! lol)

Sourcebooks allowed: Anything but 3rd party material. Sometimes 3rd party stuff with various DM approval.

Other allowed things/banned things: My group has an irrational fear of psionics, which is a hold over from 3rd edition i think. I usually ban Blood Money and Aboleths Lung as spells. And I don't want PVP in my games. If we do an evil game, the PCs work together. Period. Because that unravels faster than a... something that unravels very fast.

[Doc_Maynot]

Other allowed things/banned things: My group has an irrational fear of psionics, which is a hold over from 3rd edition i think. I usually ban Blood Money and Aboleths Lung as spells. And I don't want PVP in my games. If we do an evil game, the PCs work together. Period. Because that unravels faster than a... something that unravels very fast.

I would look at Limp Lash and then add that to the list. It's about the same level as the other two.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I've never actually played a game that went higher than level 7... I've been playing D&D... for fifteen years.... ; _ ;

[Sayt]

My local 3.pf game which is currently on hold due to a heavy semester for our GM is currently 1->17, slated to go epic in some fashion. Party is a CoDzilla, Spellwarp Sniper, BAB14/CL15/IL12 Gish, a Zen Archer/Empyreal Sorcer/Arcane Archer and a Sorcerer->Veiled Illusionist.

Our other game is PF, hjas a Diviner Wizard, Barbarian(with Path of War Archetype), Ninja, Bard and weird Sorcerer/Paladin/Oracle multiclass.

So, both low and high, but keeping it roughly bracketed.

[Zanos]

PF:
20-PB
All Paizo (with some bans, like Leadership and Comprehensive Knowledge), all DSP, and all DDS by default (including playtest material). Homebrew and other 3PP on review
Start level is usually 6, if it's below that the opening levels go FAST. Ends usually around 10-12, with one hitting 18.
Gentleman's rules on build brokenness. If you're outshining everyone without good reason, the character retires within a session or two or dials it back.
Comprehensive Knowledge? Never heard of that one, and a cursory google didn't turn anything up.

As for my groups:
Almost always start at level 1-2. Game goes to whatever level it is when people stop playing or finish the campaign.

3.5:
32 PB, Two Flaws, Pathfinder Feat Progression and Pathfinder Skill Points. All WoTC sources. Dragon Magazine is fine. Setting specific stuff is fine too as long as you strip the setting specific fluff. Homebrew on request. I'm pretty generous. I tend to give campaign specific bonuses as well. I reserve the right in my games to chat with individual players about their characters outshining others, but so far the only problem I've had is one player in my group who is so incompetent that he managed to die when his wacky homebrew class gave him an effective at will astral projection at level 1. He didn't turn it on and walked into a dark alley and challenged the local crime gang to a fight without the rest of the party. He took a lot of sneak attacks that day.

PB:
20pb, anything Paizo. Not a big fan of the 3rd party content or most of the homebrew for Pathfinder. For whatever reason I've had more problems getting PF players to be reasonable, so I do restrict some campaign and setting specific material.

[Milo v3]

PF
6-20 (though every two or three campaigns we might do 13-20).
20-30
RPG-Line + Dreamscarred Press + each player can select two from: 3.5 Books/Homebrew/Player Companions, which are added to the pool of allowed material for all players.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Wow!

I apparently play at one of the lowest powered tables! This is very interesting.

I assume NPCs are also built at the same point buy, with the same level of optimization of the PCs?

I'd think that the game would quickly devolve into rocket tag at such high powered level of play, but I guess not!

Important NPC's are typically built the same way as PC's, at least in my games, while mooks and non combatants are thrown together with the elite array.

As for rocket tag, that only happens if you let it. The worst offenders are uberchargers but simple things can get in their way. Mailmen can be a pain but, fortunately, they're not much fun to play for any length of time and there's -so- much more you can do with a caster.

[kalasulmar]

3.P: PF race and classes, with some 3.5 feats and spells, FR setting
low (usually 2-3)
ends when they want to start new builds(current party range 12-15)
Rolled 4d6 best 3 7 times, drop lowest score (with a re-roll possible for particularly bad sets)
Using most published material as possible sources
Very low-op with emphasis on RP and total group cooperation (example: current group only has 1 pure t1 caster. And he is a blaster fire cleric, so he plays more t3)
Our gentleman's agreement is "DM responds in kind to your shenanigans. If you can do it, so can the badguys." With a little bit of DM op-fu shenanigans as a teaching tool for certain players. "How did that guy pull that off?" "Here is his build. You tell me."

[edwin1993]

3.5: rolls for stats 4d6 reroll 1's take best 3 and ussually a +1 template for free any book d20 or 3.5 and only a few players optimize levels range from 1-20 to even epic level

[Faily]

Group 1: The weekly Pathfinder group.
Levels: 1-20
Roll 4d6, take highest 3 for stats
Sources allowed: Mostly everything official Pathfinder, with some DSP or Golarion-specific stuff, and updated versions of stuff from older editions.
Other: Some races/classes are banned because of the setting (Mystara), and various houserules are implemented.
Level of system mastery: #1 claims to be a powergamer and thinks he knows it well (but doesn't), #2 often needs reminders of mechanics, doesn't care much for optimizing, #3 can optimize somewhat to make one-trick ponies, has a slightly better grasp of mechanics than the previous two, #4 (myself) the rules-lawerying player who can and will optimize, #5 GM, good system mastery and knows what to fix and what to nerf/ban... most of the time, just gotta stop him from getting too carried away with houserules.
Level of roleplaying: Overall very good. ^_^


Group 2: The "old" group (3.5)
Levels: 1-15ish (once got to 17, never gone over that level with this group)
Choose between point buy or roll 4d6 take highest 3.
Sources: Everything official that is not Dragon Magazine (despite being official :smalltongue: ), though some things are banned. Some 3rd party stuff has been allowed.
Other: Some houserules to some low-tier classes to make them better.
Level of system mastery: #1 myself (see above), #2 (GM in Group 1), #3 have played D&D longer than myself and as long as the rest of the group (since 2nd edition) but still needs to be told how spell DCs work about once each session, #4 better than number 3, but easily gets stuck in the same thing over and over again, #5 can optimize but gets easily distracted by shinies, #6 GM, best system mastery of the entire bunch, NPCs and enemies will be much better optimized than the party.
Level of roleplaying: Somewhat lacking.


Group 3: The kids (3.5)
Levels: 1-20
Roll 4d6, take highest 3. Get to do it twice and take the best of those two.
Sources: Anything official 3.5, except Psionics and Tome of Battle.
Other: Work on a "ask the GM" basis on stuff from allowed books.
Level of system mastery: #1 myself, #2 ok on the mechanics, can make decent characters and is willing to take advice, #3 good on the mechanics, makes decent characters, #4 strongest optimizer in the group, gives good advice to the rest of the group, #5 GM, very good knowledge of the game, optimizes enough to make things interesting (or not so interesting when we foil his plans... or the dice foil his plans. :smallbiggrin: )
Level of roleplaying: Super-awesome!

[Aetis]

As for rocket tag, that only happens if you let it. The worst offenders are uberchargers but simple things can get in their way. Mailmen can be a pain but, fortunately, they're not much fun to play for any length of time and there's -so- much more you can do with a caster.

Well, my experience with encounters with high level parties have been: casters will mess you up in 1 turn, so whichever caster that wins initiative will win the fight.

Unless extensive research/in-game prep on both sides were allowed, in which case the combat is done mostly off the grid. (divinations and counter-tactics to divinations, outsmarting the DM/player, battle of contingency spells, etc)

What were your experiences like with high level party combats?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Well, my experience with encounters with high level parties have been: casters will mess you up in 1 turn, so whichever caster that wins initiative will win the fight.

While it's generally considered that offense scales much more readily than defense, an eye for solid partial defenses and hard stops for instant win effects tends to mute the 1 spell fight ending. Everything can be hard countered by something but most things don't need to be.


Unless extensive research/in-game prep on both sides were allowed, in which case the combat is done mostly off the grid. (divinations and counter-tactics to divinations, outsmarting the DM/player, battle of contingency spells, etc)

That sometimes happens. Not as often as I'd like but sometimes. It makes the complexity of higher level casters really shine but it's not necessary when the players are more cautious than aggressive.


What were your experiences like with high level party combats?

Mostly the battlefield is torn to shreds by either direct application of BFC spells or by characters buffed to the nines smashing things to get at or block off one another.*

When the PC's face off against non classed monsters it tends to go pretty smoothly for them at higher levels unless they're natural casters.*

*At least as long as one or more of them is playing a traditional caster as opposed to a minionmancer or list caster. Those tend to make things a bit easier even though the former tends to make actual battles drag a little.

[ThirdProgenitor]

My friends and I usually start at lvl 3 and then hasten the leveling system.

[TheifofZ]

Public Library Group: 3.5
Level 1-whenever. Usually level 12, sadly.
Standard is a 32 PB or 4d6 keep highest three, no rerolls. (Except if you rolled nothing above a 12.)
All books are typically considered fair game, as are dragon mags, except for the books involving sex; it's a public game at a library.
Usually we ask the players hold the power level down, but a couple of the guys like to power build, and some do the exact opposite.
One guy, memorably, went good ol' bog-standard stout dwarven fighter 1-20.
Personally, I prefer T2-T3, though I will play a T1 as a T2 and a bit for variety.

Because I find a lack of challenge to be boring.

[magicalmagicman]

Always level 1. Usually ends at 18-low epic.

Always 25 PB. DM says game is easy enough as it is. Most casters stick to 14-16 casting stat. DM says casters don't even need 14 to win the game.

All books are allowed, no dragon magazine.

Nothing is banned, but only 3.5 material is allowed. You can do anything you want but if you play overpowered, rest of the people don't like you so you tone it down, impose self-restrictions. Best example I can think of is this one player planar binds a pit fiend, who just annihilates everything, but purposefully worded the service to be exploitable, so the pit fiend keeps all the loot of those slain by him, so the player keeps his use to an absolute minimum.

[Senshi Akai]

My power level is over 9000!

My group always start at level 1 and go to level 15-20.
32 point buy.
All first party material allowed and third party subject to DM approval.
Almost every 3.5 material is allowed, but we play by the rule "if you can do something, so can the enemy", so it is not a good idea to use too much cheese. Homebrewed material is almost always banned unless the DM says otherwise; too much people looking for things in dndwiki.

[Andreaz]

Typical levels of play.
Point buy.
Sourcebooks allowed.
Other allowed things/banned things.

Your turn!

3-20
25 point-buy, 4e's stat evolution (2 different stats per 4 levels, levels 8 16 and 24 get 1 to all stats)
There are usually a few houserules, mostly in the direction of removing feat taxes. Things like "Everybody has default TWF. Whoever buys the TWF feat gets iterative attacks on the offhand" and "everybody has improved unarmed strike, improved shield bash and their ilk"
Banning things... There were very very few hard bans, I think. But we generally work on the gentleman's agreement ot not purposely breaking the game.
We usually restrict any teleport to "need line of sight or some kind of beacon on the far end". Uberchargers are rare, though the Pounce+Shock Trooper+Combat Brute is popular.

Generally the characters are on the stronger end of the spectrum, though not usually in the God Wizard sense. Battlefield control in general is very popular, however. Most players at my table all but jiggle in anticipation when one of us does something that cuts half of the enemies' access to our hardened, ready to kill you flesh.

[Yael]

We are always the same group, we would like to expand, but that just don't happen :/ Anyway, our setting is...

We play 3.5 mostly (some instances of d10, that I don't like, too)
32 PB or 4d6b3.
We mostly play from level 1st, as most of my group don't really... Read... So higher level challenges are night imposible for them, as they judge it as overpowered or focused play*.
All sources are available (1st-3rd party). Sometimes we borrow Pathfinder material to fulfill rules or add classes and systems like the Gunslinger.
Some stuff is balanced or banned, biggest offenders are metamagic reducer feats (classes are ok, as they cost even more feats).

* When the DM builds stuff specifically to TPK, thought those are just adventure challenges...

[Optimator]

36 PB. Levels 2-35

[Oko and Qailee]

Typical levels of play: 1-15ish
Point buy: 32-40 depending on the group
Sourcebooks allowed: All.
Other allowed things/banned things: Homebrew/pathfinder/dragon mag with approval. I don't ban stuff (except leadership and its variants), but I do request that I get to look at everyones builds ahead of time.

[LudicSavant]

Level 1-20.

Usually 28-32 point buy.

Tier 1-3 choices encouraged.

Pretty much all sourcebooks allowed, but I generally say no to 3rd party, unupdated 3.0, or Dragon Magazine sources. Homebrew available on review.

A handful of things may be modified or banned (Generally stuff like Leadership, Shivering Touch, Venomfire, Consumptive Field, Dust of Sneezing and Choking, Diplomacy, Candle of Invocation, Shadow Cloak, time wars, that sort of thing).

Team monster uses tactics, plays for keeps.

[Kantolin]

We usually go 5~20, sometimes going up to 25.

When I run, the game's array tends to be highish and spread out - a lot of 14-16s, usually without an 18 but also without many low numbers; helpful for the multiclassed paladin/monks of the world :P. When my friends run, we tend to 4d6 reroll 1s, rerolling the whole thing if it's just awful.

We allow whatever books. Most of the group is core for races, core+completes for classes. I tend to be the main 'weird class' guy.

This may be a bit misleading, though; our group is super duper low op. In our most recent low-epic game, none of the PCs were full casters and our dragon shaman was a very valuable party member. At high levels, it does become 'Magic Item Christmas Tree and Casters are central', but even then our martials are usually extremely valuable and very applicable. We do have a good amount of gentleman's agreement too - it's okay to Otto's Irresistable Dance a lot of enemies, but try to avoid using it on the big boss so he doesn't have to carefully optimize his touch AC, yadda.

If anything, the primary issue with caster centricness becomes the enemies - when I DM (which is most of the time), after awhile it gets hard to have a purely martial enemy be a primary threat without at least a dash of something magical.

[GreatDane]

Usually levels 1-12, but we've begun moving into the 2/3 - 15/20 range.
28-point buy for a party of 4, 32 for a party of 3 (typical).
Core, all Completes except Champion, all Races of X, ToB, PHBII. Stuff from these books is allowed without question; other material is allowed, but subject to DM discretion.
We don't usually ban stuff outright - we play with the knowledge that 3.5 works best when everyone has the system knowledge to understand how not to break the game. People are usually happy to self-nerf or under-optimize so that everyone stays on the same level.

[Afgncaap5]

-Typically levels 1 through 12-15ish, though I once went as high as level 23 (Woo! Rogue 20/Uncanny Trickster 3!)
-4d6, keep highest 3. In the wimpy groups we allow a reroll. Once we even went with "roll 4d6, you can reroll 1s, keep highest 3; roll two sets of that and pick your favorite" but I didn't really like that game. I just... couldn't die.
-Varies by DM, but generally any WotC official material including Dragon Magazine (with approval), certain trusted 3rd party companies (with approval), and the occasional touch of homebrew if we just can't find something that works (rarely goes beyond "Look, I want to play a human with pointy ears, can we arrange that?")
-Other banned things varies by DM. I don't like my players to use the Magic Item Compendium because I keep magic items rare and things from that book tend to come from specialized treasure piles; another DM only allows core books but lets us pick one new book every three levels or so, but he absolutely positively insists that no one can use Tome Of Battle; one guy hates Magic Of Incarnum because he thinks it's complicated and Book Of Exalted Deeds because his first character was a cleric of Nerull; etc. Also, we try to limit setting-specific material outside of the setting if it doesn't make sense, though we tend to keep a reasonable "Someone probably invented something like it at some point..." attitude about things. Dragonshard items outside of Eberron? Not likely. Smoking pipe weaponry outside of Rokugan? Yeah, sure, why not?

[Jeff the Green]

As DM:
Lv. 6-15
32-40 PB
All WotC, plus 3rd party, homebrew and PF on review.
Some houserules to bring martial classes up, and the expectation that casters won't try to break things too much.

As a player:
Lv. 4-17
32+ PB
All WotC, plus 3rd party, homebrew and PF on review. (This is close to non-negotiable unless it's a group I know well and really like.)
Not too many house rules, certainly nothing for the sake of "realism".

One DM prefers relatively low-cheese, but is flexible. Another does gestalt with a bunch of homebrew and just about everything PO.

Tiers are all over the place. In one game we've got 1/1/1/3/4, in another 1/3/4.5/4, and in another 1/3/3/3/4/4. In one it was basically impossible to tell since everyone was gestalt and there was homebrew all over.

[DrKerosene]

Rocket tag usually did start around ECL 13 for me, but a general lack of Primary/Full Casters makes the game focus on different things. I made a point of having all NPCs (Cohorts and Enemies) built with the Non-Elite Array, or (when legal) the Elite Array. I optimize way more than my Players, but I do it to achieve a result (like an Expert6/Charlatan3/Uncanny Trickster3 for a CR 9 enemy). However, I do give all NPCs the same number of bonus character creation feats at level1 as the PCs get for that group, so that really helps.

I'm going to answer twice, once for my first, and longest, campaign that's starting up again in a couple days, then for the handful of other games I've run.

Typical levels of play: 1-15 (higher party ECL due to quasi-Tristalting, lower due to usually having 2 players), leveling as the story progressed (every 3 or 4 sessions).

Point buy: 5d6b3, replace lowest result with an 18 (ended up like 3d6 anyways). I still had to give some bonus ability points at creation because two PCs had negative STR and CON mods.

Sourcebooks allowed: All WotC material would be considered if they tried to optimize at all.

Other allowed things/banned things: I allowed Gestalt with Major Bloodlines (no stacking for caster level stuff), Ghost Savage Progression for the non-casting Ranger, and the Staff of the Magi went to the Bard on our last game. Also there was a UA INT-based spontaneous-caster who progressed as Wizard for spell-level access, he's been written-out when he acquired the BoVD.

Other games.
Typical levels of play: 10-16, leveling after every session.
Point buy: 40pts
Sourcebooks allowed: All Official DnD, with permission for serious optimization.
Other allowed things/banned things: Allowed some DragMag with my permission, I should have banned a couple general character ideas though, I really should have....