What level do you want to play to (retire at)?

[Gauss]

This is related to the poll when you usually retire at. However, I am also curious how far people actually want to play to and if they do not, why not?

Please mark your favorite and then comment why.

- Gauss

Edit: I realize PFS mandates level 12 and PF APs end around 13-15. I am looking for broader answers than that though. Please include all 3.X/PF experience.

[Gauss]

level 1-6

[Gauss]

level 7-10

[Gauss]

level 11-15

[Gauss]

level 16-20

[Orthos]

I'd like, at least once, to make it to the top tier, if not all the way to 20. The only time I've had a character that high was when everyone was created at 20 for an Epic game that never got past the second session. (Really doesn't work out well when you start up with a character with all these options but no real idea how they work due to not having played up from the basics.)

[Gauss]

I typically play to level 11-15 and I am comfortable with that. I would like to play to higher levels but the gameplay just seems to break down on several levels. One level seems to be the damage outpacing the monster's hps. Another is planning for a group when they can do almost anything. Finally, boredom. When people have been playing the same character for that long they often want to retire it and play something else.

- Gauss

[Drejk]

10 to 12 level for me. Actually, 10th level is intended cap of campaign I am currently GMing. There is possibility that, if both I and the players find the strength and interest and the party won't be absurdly overpowered at the end of that campaign, I will GM another campaign for the same party at levels 10-13th.

[Ughbash]

I don't want my characters to retire.

[Pirate]

Yar.

My answer here is the same as the one for your other thread. ~It does not fit within the limitations yo have set forth.~

I want my characters to retire whenever it makes sense for them - as a character - to retire.

For some, that could be level 1, for others it may be level 75, and for others, it could be anything/everything in between, or even higher. It depends on the character and the adventure.

~P

[Fake Healer]

I generally like to play up to 10-12, after that it is just a mechanical nightmare to me. Each session is less about the exploring and getting to different things and more about grinding through the 1-2 hour long combats. I know there are ways to streamline combat but that doesn't help much with 5+ players each with a ton of actions and blah.blah.blah....
I would even be fine going to 13-15 but after that it is just an exercise in memory for all pluses/minuses, patience in waiting to get through another round of combat, and exercising light math skills way too much.

Also I feel like anything over 12 is "my pc is better than X superhero". I've already done my character's development by that time.

[BlueEyedDevil]

It depends on the story. An epic-scope story, saving the world and all that (I've really only played in one), worked all the way into 20 because the increasing abilities meant more than having the wherewithal to fight higher level monsters.
My epic-level cleric was magically feeding entire towns, sanctifying places for the protection of the general populace, using high-level connections to cement major political changes, helping rebels topple kingdoms, slaying dragon-king tyrants, and other such things. Because we were playing in a "world-gone-wrong, Sauron-got-the-ring" sort of world, reaching such high levels really mattered for what we could do for everyone.

However, in games with a non-epic scope, where we were just playing 'adventurers' I found that fun potential kind of dries up around twelfth or thirteenth.

[R_Chance]

As BlueEyedDevil said above, it depends entirely on the campaign. Different games, different levels.

[Selgard]

I prefer post 20 when I can get it, which isn't often.. but as you didnt' include that in your poll- I just said "20"

-S

[A highly regarded expert]

I like the high levels. I'm not all that good at playing them, but I love it when characters become really powerful. I'd like to see some APs that go to 20th, for sure.

Just started playing in a PbP here (Witchwar Legacy) at 17th. It's slow due to all the abilities and spells going on, but it's still fun to me. Curious to see how we do.

EDIT: Weird. I thought this was the other thread on the topic, and my reply just got eaten or something. Oh, well. I played to 21st one time. I'd try epic if it's reworked. I played a one-shot at really high level once and found it a bit wonky.

[Gauss]

Perhaps I should not have made two related threads on this topic. I wanted to separate 'experience' vs 'desire' into two polls. And clearly I failed to consider several other options. Ahhh well.

- Gauss

[Dominigo]

I generally don't like retiring my characters once I've grown attached to them. I enjoy watching them grow in power and experience.

[Kahn Zordlon]

I marked 11-15, and agree with Fake healer. Higher levels have too many actions. Too little threats and too much gap between character effectiveness at that level. I'd really like to stop at 10-12. Maybe I'll just send my character to the dark side and fight against my party members. We're at level 13 now. I might have given my DM some mooks to set up against us that might TPK (crosses fingers).

[BYC]

21+

I never get there, but the effort to get there is tons of fun.

[ImperatorK]

I'm a sucker for epic, so I don't want my characters to retire, unless I get bored with them.

[Wolfsnap]

I'm trying to get my current party all the way to 20. They're at 12 now, and the difficulties of high level play are just starting to assert themselves. I think I can get them there, though.

I would love to take a PC up to 20 myself, but I've never had the opportunity to do it.

[Artanthos]

9 - 12

Anything past that and the game starts to break down.

[Blueluck]

I marked 11-15.

I agree with Artanthos that there are aspects of the game that start to break down after the 9-12 range, but I've been in a lot of campaigns that really get the good plots rolling around then, and it takes until 14-17 to have a satisfying end to the story. I don't mind playing a little longer than the system supports in order to finish a good story.

[darth_borehd]

Level 25.

We usually need a few more levels past 20 to finish a campaign. Just extend the tables of abilities following the patterns for your class.

[thenobledrake]

Level has never been a factor in when I wish to retire a campaign or the characters I might play.

Whenever I think to myself as a GM "what's next?" and the answer is me shrugging to myself - the campaign gets a wrap-up and is over, doesn't matter if it's only made it to level 2 or all the way to level 83.

Whenever I am playing a character, I've been known to accidentally end up in a situation where it seems fully appropriate for the character to retire himself - such as the time my Marvel Superhero character who felt cursed by his power (permanently stuck as living metal) was "defeated" by a power-draining crystal... the next mission was to break in and steal back everyone's powers by getting the crystals, but my character retired with his girlfriend and lived a normal life because that was his built-in victory condition.

[Mage Evolving]

From a roleplaying standpoint my age of retirement is solely dependent upon the story. As far as mechanics... I think level 14-15 is as far as I like to go. Once you break into 16+ it goes from silly to ridiculous.

[Morain]

way past level 20

[gbonehead]

I'm running two games now; one has an APL of 4, the other an APL of about 60. So that should make my preferences clear :)

(clearly the uber-level game isn't straight PF, it started as 3.5e back in '06 and now allows all PF/WoTC material. Yes, unfortunately, even Tome of Battle :)

[ikki3520]

thing is, esp for wizzies, it makes less and less sense to leave the tower. adventuring can be handled via summoned teleporting critters & charmed/mindcontrolled monsters + golems, and assisted via crystal balls that allow for spellcasting into what you are viewing.

Add in further things like spellbatteries etc magical architecture (look up "path of magic" by legends & lairs), or multisummoning chambers of Frostburn.

All of which doesent even begin to discuss all the mcmurlyn and other schemes for infinite wealth by fabricate, wall spells, simulacrum or other such spells. Hell, even summon monster VI (or in some versions IV) granting access to djinni... and thus piles of silk/sandalwood/coffee.. :p
Get even more outrageous with multisummoning, and crazier by telling the summoned monster to hold on to a magic item or two while casting its innate spells.

Good point to retire when your off-adventure schemes are reaping in a million gold a day..

[Klokk]

Saddly we generally end about 10-12, basically whenever hero's in 1/2 ed would get their followers. Because half the party and all GM's except for me hate to run what they consider high/epic level games.

My favoritest character was one i played for three years 1-3x a week he made it up to 53 combined levels. (dwarven warrior, become sorc, become dragon deciple become dwarven defender become retired because i moved back here and nobody beside me at my table has a character higher then 13.

I hate the low level crap under 15. Ive killed pritty much every monster of that power level more times then i can even count. I dont even bother with kill lists, just creatures encounterd for each pc I have. Id give anything to play a game that doesnt stop because the party is afraid of adventuring into the unknown. But the only way that I can do that is by Dming which kinda negates the whole i want to play mid-high level games.

/rant off

[wraithstrike]

I would to see level 20 at least once*. After that anything between 13, and 19 for the rest of my life would be ok.

*As a player.

[Shuzrael]

I'm in the 11-15 but not opposed to slightly higher. I'm playing in several adventure paths and I don't expect any of them to end earlier than 13-15th level. If the story is good don't stop till it's complete.

Mechanically with lots of feat chains that can take until 9 or 11 to complete anything lower wouldn't give me a chance to play them out.