As I have been writing about making monsters more interesting, rather than beefier I realized another player habit had always bugged me. Whether I was watching silently as a DM or playing with other folks I would notice that the issue of power leveling and power buffing always became an issue.
What is this behavior? Why do players do it? What can be done to make things not so out of balance? This type
of play seems to prevail throughout all Multiplayer CRPG's; whether it is Diablo, NWN 1, World of Warcraft. Players just seem to find ways to make things far to easy for the rewards they play for.
In NWN1, it was easy to log into your high level arcane or divine caster character buff up a party and follow them around. The results are super powered low level PC's would gain rewards for what is almost no risk.
On some PW's players would take at least one higher level PC with them to fend off the real danger and make things soft for the low levelers.
Here are the issues at hand. Why do players do it, what is this behavior?
1) They want to play with thier friends who have higher level PC's
2) They want to advance as fast as possible.
3) It makes things easy. Reward without too much risk.
Well. What can you do? Are these behaviors and lines of thinking wrong? Not really, at least not totally. However, that depends on the world and the level of challenge you wish to present to your players. So lets dissect the issues:
1) Playing with thier friends - This is a pretty honest line of thinking, as long as the motive were actually so pure. The methods used by some players do not always justify the actions they perform that create an imbalance. This can be a simple way of thinking, but can easily corrupt one's sense of what is challenging.
2) Fast Advancement - Well, we all want to get ahead. But players never really think of...why? To have the biggest stick on the block? To what point do players want to get ahead. There is never a clear answer for players who
blaze through content. At the end of the road, they end up bored and whining about nothing to do. On the other hand, players want to feel important and powerful within the world they are in. However, plowing through the monsters I dont think is a good solution the character's place in the world.
3) Why do players like it easy? - That depends on if leveling up feels like work. As stated in #2, people want to advance to get ahead for whatever reason. They will take the path of least resistance through all levels. It is up to the designers of the world to make all challenges within thier level range equal -- but different. A strange concept, but true. And definately not easy.
So what is a world designer to do to put things in line with thier vision of advancement and challenge versus the psychology of the player? There are many solutions, some blend with realism and some are just artificial barriers in order to keep things in check. I think the line falls between the two, but always leans towards the latter; artificial barriers.
What is an artificial barrier? An example would be capping statistics, such as ability scores and AC. If you consider that player levels, ability scores, experience and the like are actual artificial barriers
in and of themselves, then the concept of limitations based on these statistics isn't too far of a stretch.
One limit that every one tends to add to the majority of PW's is that of Level vs CR = XP. World creators create a barrier of maximum level vs CR to get XP, usually within 3 to 5 levels has been the case. For example; a level 10 character is not going to get xp from
a CR 3 creature (and should not get XP from them). You must understand the reasons for this; If players can get XP from an unchallenging encounter they will do it. Not only will they do it, they will do it easily and probably gain more XP faster this way overall. Secondly, you only have (with NWN2 at least) 20 experience levels to work with for any single character. You have to make t
