The State of Leveling

[Rain]

I will never understand peoples "Must be level 30 to participate" ideal. This is not, and has never been the case. You can participate in events and RP without being level 30. You do not HAVE to grind. You can chill and take it as it goes. Ive always plated this way and never had a problem.

I disagree that leveling needs to be super easy or everyone needs to start at 30. People are just stuck on this idea that a character has to be level 30 for some reason. What ever happened to the journey?

That’s your opinion. However opinions here don’t equate to a better server. If you enjoy taking it slow then good on you but the fact of the matter (of this topic) revolves around more then just the ‘grind’ its how the server values your time between grinding and character development.

The server lacks character development as of right now as can be read up from other post on this thread. When you lack that people will often try to do the next best thing to develop their characters when RP/DM events is not an option. Which is ‘grinding’.

Remember as well. Not everyone can just ‘take it slow’ oftentimes if your playing a certain aspect of character there will not always be avenues for your character to RP at any given moment.

I will also reiterate that we have to consider the dynamic of the server. Remember the stress of the grind only effects players who haven’t finished it and for better or for worst most players who play on the server now are not new bloods they have been playing for months and likely are already high level. Leveling does not effect these players because if they -really- don’t want to level again they don’t have to, ever since the first iteration of the 100% RCR’s it nullified this completely.

[OneExtraHand]

Is there not a way to up the XP gain for characters past 21? Like why have high level areas, which are lethal ontop of other things AND have the max XP gain less than 40? Is this just a subtle way of telling players that they have to do DM events to get decent XP?

[DaloLorn]

Is there not a way to up the XP gain for characters past 21? Like why have high level areas, which are lethal ontop of other things AND have the max XP gain less than 40? Is this just a subtle way of telling players that they have to do DM events to get decent XP?

Or roleplay. Or more likely run quests, quest rewards are pretty potent stuff in epic levels.

That said, I couldn't say if the messaging was deliberate or accidental, this was well before my time.

[gedweyignasia]

Is there not a way to up the XP gain for characters past 21? Like why have high level areas, which are lethal ontop of other things AND have the max XP gain less than 40? Is this just a subtle way of telling players that they have to do DM events to get decent XP?

I expect the design choice here was to drag out the "endgame" portion of leveling, since your character's power increases so significantly and so rapidly in these levels; however, I believe it's been that way since before I started here in late 2013, so I can't speak to the original intention.

[The Whistler]

I've also already floated the suggestion of taking a look at adding some scaling back in, though this will require thought and discussion and won't be done as a knee-jerk decision like the first time I raised exp rates years ago.

Any further update on this ?

[AlwaysSummer Day]

Returning from a longggggg break and so I am working off of outdated info. My characters generally are poorly built thus I have usually found soloing to be a struggle. I have also found the dwindling player base to make RP more of a thing you can spend hours to seek out and get anything from a 5 minute conversation to several glorious hours of character development. Quests are something that I might do while wandering around looking for RP. DM events are an extraordinarily rare thing that are either 30~ people vying for DM attention, 30 people murder hoboing it up, or a select group influencing the campaign which I can only read about after the fact.

[PaulImposteur]

Last time I played with the XP nerfs it was absolutely awful. I loved the level scaling and faster XP rates we had a few years ago, I managed to get the most out of the server then in RP since I could level my toons and RP with the big boys, and finally get into cool DM events that catered to a more Epic scale.

The community is old, most games that age make the leveling process easier to avoid burn out, and to encourage playing through again. I think it's healthy to have a fast level system. Those that want to RP more than grind also allows them to more easily catch-up to peers in the long term.

The idea of culling fast experience always felt like an old haves vs have-nots argument from the old days, when people recoiled at the idea of an Epic Item Shop. People aren't grinding because they don't want to RP half the time, they grind because they want to progress and have character growth in RP.

A bit off topic, but I still think the perma-death opt in system should allow for an XP multiplier to encourage new toons that enter and leave this realm with some gravity to death to meet in the middle if XP will be continuously nerfed.

At least then alt-aholics like myself can re-experience that new toon life without feeling like someone is hitting me with a baseball bat to the ribs. Video games should be fun, and while an RP server this is still a video game. Last time I played it leeched my soul instead of being fun and between that and work, it's hard to return when I know I need to invest a significant amount of time to get the same enjoyment I once did.

And I have less and less time left on this Earth, so it's hard to get back onto a server that doesn't respect that time.

[DMTalize]

And I have less and less time left on this Earth, so it's hard to get back onto a server that doesn't respect that time.

Sorry since this post is several months old but I feel you. Life is fairly busy for me and I hate having to grind in circles all day only to get maybe a quarter to level. I get it, but not the biggest fan personally. RP can be fun at least.

[paragon_nemesis]

Heya heya. Returning veteran here. I'll just throw in my 2 cents even though I haven't been back for very long...

I wanted to speak on a few things here. I don't have all the information, since I haven't been back long enough, but I'll be adding what I can.

So back in the day, the game was never really about leveling at all. I'm not sure when this became a thing? Lol. (I have multiple characters ranging in all kinds of levels.)

I was predominately a member of the underdark roleplay side of the server. It's also how I'm returning to the game.

I came into the game with very little understanding outside of being a real life pen and paper roleplayer. I also knew I was huge fan of the game, and had beaten the storyline..

There was something about the server at the time. (This is when the server is much newer. I left and returned in 2012, and had to leave again.) But there was a magic to it. It was the closest thing I had felt since my younger days of playing pen and paper role playing with my friends and family.

I was able to create these no-name characters and turn them into something. Something more than a character sheet, something that would bring them to life.

I have had simple characters, the leader of bregan daerthe, members of the 7th circle which I hear isn't around anymore. I have lost characters permanently and kept characters close to my heart forever. I remember the stories more vividly than any of my current character inventory, builds, or even how to fully play the game properly.

The way it used to work. Even if a DM was offline. If you could provide screenshots, and receipts and weren't trying to meta-game, then they would allow it to become part of whatever story you wanted. You could just message DM's when you needed one for an event. Albeit sometimes you would have to make some availability happen, but that wasn't so bad.

The general rule used to be more people played on the surface. There were just more of them and honestly the content was way easier. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Now I see people are upset about leveling characters? Isn't that what you would do in any similar game? LOL. Am I missing something?

I returned to BGTSCC not because I care about the mechanics, or leveling at all. I did it to rejoin probably the best gaming community I've seen. I never saw anything out of character go badly in the game. Not to say it hasn't happened. I just never saw it. Everyone would come out and settle on something at the end of the day.

I still have all my RCR that I have been given. I haven't used a single one yet. EVER. Will I use them? Perhaps if I feel I need them, but just make sure your character is correct the first time you make them?

I'm also not sure the issue with RP. Since I have been back (3 Days for reference.) I have run into 2 DM's both assisted with Roleplay in the underdark, and I have bumped into new characters each day I have played. I've been getting a good balance of roleplay, and being run in events and I just got here. So I'm not sure where everyone is missing out?

As a long term player of Sandbox games, and often solo. I've learned that you have to create your own objectives. Your own storylines, and you have to push yourself through the boring parts sometimes to get to the fun parts.

As for the grind. I've had epic level characters in actual D&D start being able to literally wrestle gods to the ground in their higher 20's and 30's... So in my mind it should 100% difficult to reach this level of power.

LIterally had a half-orc with higher stats than his god. Insane. Lol.

Anyway. Maybe there just needs to be more areas for people to meet, or perhaps not have an xp penalty for someone who's too high level running with you?

As in real life, it doesn't matter how experienced someone is. If they're a lot more experienced then you just learn a lot faster from them realistically.

I would even make new character just for some RP to do a playthrough with someone.

Maybe it's not even about any of the grind at all. It's just about reaching out to more people. I'm good on my own, but always welcome more.

If anyone is on, and they need some RP. They can message me. I'm no DM, but I will be happy to RP. I Have high level surface and underdark characters as well. Most of the classes I have leveled to some degree or another. So it wouldn't be difficult to throw something together.

Anyway TL;DR I think it's more about community coming together than about any sort of leveling issues.

My brother and I grind some of the worst stuff in games and have fun just because we're not having to go it alone.

Hope this helps someone, or fuels the answers everyone is seeking in this post. Best of luck fellas and ladies.

[Tekill]

Heya heya. Returning veteran here. I'll just throw in my 2 cents even though I haven't been back for very long...

I wanted to speak on a few things here. I don't have all the information, since I haven't been back long enough, but I'll be adding what I can.

So back in the day, the game was never really about leveling at all. I'm not sure when this became a thing? Lol. (I have multiple characters ranging in all kinds of levels.)

I was predominately a member of the underdark roleplay side of the server. It's also how I'm returning to the game.

I came into the game with very little understanding outside of being a real life pen and paper roleplayer. I also knew I was huge fan of the game, and had beaten the storyline..

There was something about the server at the time. (This is when the server is much newer. I left and returned in 2012, and had to leave again.) But there was a magic to it. It was the closest thing I had felt since my younger days of playing pen and paper role playing with my friends and family.

I was able to create these no-name characters and turn them into something. Something more than a character sheet, something that would bring them to life.

I have had simple characters, the leader of bregan daerthe, members of the 7th circle which I hear isn't around anymore. I have lost characters permanently and kept characters close to my heart forever. I remember the stories more vividly than any of my current character inventory, builds, or even how to fully play the game properly.

The way it used to work. Even if a DM was offline. If you could provide screenshots, and receipts and weren't trying to meta-game, then they would allow it to become part of whatever story you wanted. You could just message DM's when you needed one for an event. Albeit sometimes you would have to make some availability happen, but that wasn't so bad.

The general rule used to be more people played on the surface. There were just more of them and honestly the content was way easier. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Now I see people are upset about leveling characters? Isn't that what you would do in any similar game? LOL. Am I missing something?

I returned to BGTSCC not because I care about the mechanics, or leveling at all. I did it to rejoin probably the best gaming community I've seen. I never saw anything out of character go badly in the game. Not to say it hasn't happened. I just never saw it. Everyone would come out and settle on something at the end of the day.

I still have all my RCR that I have been given. I haven't used a single one yet. EVER. Will I use them? Perhaps if I feel I need them, but just make sure your character is correct the first time you make them?

I'm also not sure the issue with RP. Since I have been back (3 Days for reference.) I have run into 2 DM's both assisted with Roleplay in the underdark, and I have bumped into new characters each day I have played. I've been getting a good balance of roleplay, and being run in events and I just got here. So I'm not sure where everyone is missing out?

As a long term player of Sandbox games, and often solo. I've learned that you have to create your own objectives. Your own storylines, and you have to push yourself through the boring parts sometimes to get to the fun parts.

As for the grind. I've had epic level characters in actual D&D start being able to literally wrestle gods to the ground in their higher 20's and 30's... So in my mind it should 100% difficult to reach this level of power.

LIterally had a half-orc with higher stats than his god. Insane. Lol.

Anyway. Maybe there just needs to be more areas for people to meet, or perhaps not have an xp penalty for someone who's too high level running with you?

As in real life, it doesn't matter how experienced someone is. If they're a lot more experienced then you just learn a lot faster from them realistically.

I would even make new character just for some RP to do a playthrough with someone.

Maybe it's not even about any of the grind at all. It's just about reaching out to more people. I'm good on my own, but always welcome more.

If anyone is on, and they need some RP. They can message me. I'm no DM, but I will be happy to RP. I Have high level surface and underdark characters as well. Most of the classes I have leveled to some degree or another. So it wouldn't be difficult to throw something together.

Anyway TL;DR I think it's more about community coming together than about any sort of leveling issues.

My brother and I grind some of the worst stuff in games and have fun just because we're not having to go it alone.

Hope this helps someone, or fuels the answers everyone is seeking in this post. Best of luck fellas and ladies.

Nicely put.

I have been leveling up a character recently for the first time in a long time. Power leveling really.
When I started I was all like "its about he journey, not the destination". And I went slow and had fun. I RP'd the character as a peon with a big ego. I was stepping up to characters twice my level. (thanks to those players for for not wiping the floor with me).
Then I got a bit of a taste of power, and wanted more! I got that powergamer jones for more delicious amazing EXP. I looked ahead to how much more I had to get and I started thinking how unfair it was.
I forced myself to suck it up and just get in game when I can and put the old nose to the grind. Luckily along the way I met a bunch of great players and have had lots of fun. It was RPing with these other players that put me in check again. I remembered the whole: 'its about the journey' thing again and not about the destination.

When I stopped looking at my experience bar, I realized how fast it was going up.

Im in epic levels now and now sort of feel that it went by too fast!
Its really up to you if you want to to obsess about getting to 30. I enjoyed playing my character while he still had a lot to learn. And I enjoy the feeling of having a few more levels to reach with shiny new feats to look forward to.
When I hit 30 that is where the tricky part will begin because then I will have to start seriously working on RP plot lines and creating events etc. For now I can just get a group together and kill stuff while taking the time to learn more about these potential allies.

[paragon_nemesis]

Heya heya. Returning veteran here. I'll just throw in my 2 cents even though I haven't been back for very long...

I wanted to speak on a few things here. I don't have all the information, since I haven't been back long enough, but I'll be adding what I can.

So back in the day, the game was never really about leveling at all. I'm not sure when this became a thing? Lol. (I have multiple characters ranging in all kinds of levels.)

I was predominately a member of the underdark roleplay side of the server. It's also how I'm returning to the game.

I came into the game with very little understanding outside of being a real life pen and paper roleplayer. I also knew I was huge fan of the game, and had beaten the storyline..

There was something about the server at the time. (This is when the server is much newer. I left and returned in 2012, and had to leave again.) But there was a magic to it. It was the closest thing I had felt since my younger days of playing pen and paper role playing with my friends and family.

I was able to create these no-name characters and turn them into something. Something more than a character sheet, something that would bring them to life.

I have had simple characters, the leader of bregan daerthe, members of the 7th circle which I hear isn't around anymore. I have lost characters permanently and kept characters close to my heart forever. I remember the stories more vividly than any of my current character inventory, builds, or even how to fully play the game properly.

The way it used to work. Even if a DM was offline. If you could provide screenshots, and receipts and weren't trying to meta-game, then they would allow it to become part of whatever story you wanted. You could just message DM's when you needed one for an event. Albeit sometimes you would have to make some availability happen, but that wasn't so bad.

The general rule used to be more people played on the surface. There were just more of them and honestly the content was way easier. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Now I see people are upset about leveling characters? Isn't that what you would do in any similar game? LOL. Am I missing something?

I returned to BGTSCC not because I care about the mechanics, or leveling at all. I did it to rejoin probably the best gaming community I've seen. I never saw anything out of character go badly in the game. Not to say it hasn't happened. I just never saw it. Everyone would come out and settle on something at the end of the day.

I still have all my RCR that I have been given. I haven't used a single one yet. EVER. Will I use them? Perhaps if I feel I need them, but just make sure your character is correct the first time you make them?

I'm also not sure the issue with RP. Since I have been back (3 Days for reference.) I have run into 2 DM's both assisted with Roleplay in the underdark, and I have bumped into new characters each day I have played. I've been getting a good balance of roleplay, and being run in events and I just got here. So I'm not sure where everyone is missing out?

As a long term player of Sandbox games, and often solo. I've learned that you have to create your own objectives. Your own storylines, and you have to push yourself through the boring parts sometimes to get to the fun parts.

As for the grind. I've had epic level characters in actual D&D start being able to literally wrestle gods to the ground in their higher 20's and 30's... So in my mind it should 100% difficult to reach this level of power.

LIterally had a half-orc with higher stats than his god. Insane. Lol.

Anyway. Maybe there just needs to be more areas for people to meet, or perhaps not have an xp penalty for someone who's too high level running with you?

As in real life, it doesn't matter how experienced someone is. If they're a lot more experienced then you just learn a lot faster from them realistically.

I would even make new character just for some RP to do a playthrough with someone.

Maybe it's not even about any of the grind at all. It's just about reaching out to more people. I'm good on my own, but always welcome more.

If anyone is on, and they need some RP. They can message me. I'm no DM, but I will be happy to RP. I Have high level surface and underdark characters as well. Most of the classes I have leveled to some degree or another. So it wouldn't be difficult to throw something together.

Anyway TL;DR I think it's more about community coming together than about any sort of leveling issues.

My brother and I grind some of the worst stuff in games and have fun just because we're not having to go it alone.

Hope this helps someone, or fuels the answers everyone is seeking in this post. Best of luck fellas and ladies.

Nicely put.

I have been leveling up a character recently for the first time in a long time. Power leveling really.
When I started I was all like "its about he journey, not the destination". And I went slow and had fun. I RP'd the character as a peon with a big ego. I was stepping up to characters twice my level. (thanks to those players for for not wiping the floor with me).
Then I got a bit of a taste of power, and wanted more! I got that powergamer jones for more delicious amazing EXP. I looked ahead to how much more I had to get and I started thinking how unfair it was.
I forced myself to suck it up and just get in game when I can and put the old nose to the grind. Luckily along the way I met a bunch of great players and have had lots of fun. It was RPing with these other players that put me in check again. I remembered the whole: 'its about the journey' thing again and not about the destination.

When I stopped looking at my experience bar, I realized how fast it was going up.

Im in epic levels now and now sort of feel that it went by too fast!
Its really up to you if you want to to obsess about getting to 30. I enjoyed playing my character while he still had a lot to learn. And I enjoy the feeling of having a few more levels to reach with shiny new feats to look forward to.
When I hit 30 that is where the tricky part will begin because then I will have to start seriously working on RP plot lines and creating events etc. For now I can just get a group together and kill stuff while taking the time to learn more about these potential allies.

^^^ Yes exactly this! My second character was when I joined the underdark. As soon as I found out about the gauntlet actually existing in game. I made that his entire goal lol. I think the first couple weeks was just meeting people and planning his way to the surface. Decided that I was going to go trade some items with the surface in order to bring them back to the Underdark to trade and get rich.

It ended up turning into an everyone hunt the drow on the surface event with like 2 DM's involved. LOL. Back then, you just didn't want to take your drow topside unless you had a really good reason. xD

[Nilden]

I have not played in a long time my highest level is 23.

Once I did the math on the leveling I had very little desire to continue playing. The time investment to level is utterly abysmal.

It wasn't too bad until 21+ but the scaling always bothered me. Why don't they have fixed xp values for the things you kill? I felt like I was being punished with an xp penalty for leveling. I should have just stayed at the level where I was getting close to 50 xp a kill and not leveled up. Even at 100 xp for the yellow named ones it's still an absolute slog. In groups going to clear the snake temple or the dragon cave or those forest gnolls it's a tedious and time consuming grind.

The only time I would actually go exploring is after I got a level since dying is a massive waste of your time.

That's all the leveling is really tedious and time consuming with no real need for it. I made a bunch of characters and wanted to try them out but by the time they got to the low teens I was worn out with even getting them to 21+ because I knew what was coming. On top of that there is a mechanic where everything runs away to stop you from grinding!

I could get more xp with way less risk, and more consistently, just standing in front of the Friendly Arm Inn RPing by typing than fighting trolls!

I would put in fixed xp values based on monster difficulty, remove xp scaling and make it take about 56 hours to hit level 30. So you could do it in a week playing 8 hours a day.

I enjoyed my time on the server and seeing all the work that went into the areas and playing with other people but the tedious, time consuming, punishing, abysmal leveling system drove me away.

Also turning into a fire or air elemental crashes the game.

[DaloLorn]

It wasn't too bad until 21+ but the scaling always bothered me. Why don't they have fixed xp values for the things you kill?

So you can't level to 30 by killing a zillion rats in the warehouse?

I should have just stayed at the level where I was getting close to 50 xp a kill and not leveled up.

Wouldn't have helped. It takes your effective level (based on your XP), not your actual level.

The only time I would actually go exploring is after I got a level since dying is a massive waste of your time.

This has gotten better, at least.

I could get more xp with way less risk, and more consistently, just standing in front of the Friendly Arm Inn RPing by typing than fighting trolls!

And yet more XP by doing both at the same time. Mind you, RP XP grows with your level (if only slightly), so lower levels favor fighting over talking. It's only in epics that the equation really shifts in favor of talking. (I've occasionally wished we could even the progression out a bit, but this would have to come at a cost - slowing pre-epics a bit in exchange for accelerated epic progression.)

Quests really screw with the progression, though. You can get multiple levels' worth of XP in preteens, or up to a quarter of a level in epics, in a single play session if you know where all the quests are... and then you can do it on a weekly basis. I rarely could bring myself to do it, and it's a lot more time-efficient in the UD than the surface, but even on the surface it's a lot safer to do a bunch of quests in epic levels than go on an adventure for the same XP. Faster, too, if you teleport around a lot.

I would put in fixed xp values based on monster difficulty, remove xp scaling and make it take about 56 hours to hit level 30. So you could do it in a week playing 8 hours a day.

There is no way, ever, that there will be a staff consensus to condense 1-30 into a single week of play. (The fact that it already is condensed into that timeframe if you're really stubborn about it is considered a flaw of the current design, not an intended feature.)

A month? Maybe, over some loud protests. Three? Probably broadly acceptable. Six, absolutely (I think it's even the figure we're currently aiming for). But not a week. Even so, the most likely changes would be flattening the progression curve, and making progression scale more linearly with playtime (versus the current state of being able to take anywhere from a week to a few years of play to hit 30).

Also turning into a fire or air elemental crashes the game.

Known issue, there's a thread about it. Off-topic for this thread.

[Ghost]

I could get more xp with way less risk, and more consistently, just standing in front of the Friendly Arm Inn RPing by typing than fighting trolls!

Part of me want to say "Good!" to this. RP is what the server is for.

But grinding is still faster. There is a weird breakoff point (I think it's a vanilla thing) that happens when you reach effective level 20 (so 210000 xp). Why this happens and how, I don't know. I'd be all for changing that and - as Dalo says - flattening the curve. But my personal view is that the current 0-30 time frame is fine. So if we sped up 21-30, then we'd have to slow down 0-20 correspondingly.

And 0-20 is currently very easy. and quite fast I did it in 4 weeks. On a fairly weak build, no muling, no RCRing. And had earned around 1,5 million gold at the same time by simply looting and selling what I looted, mostly to merchants.

DM Ink did three characters 0-20 in the same time, both of us also still DMing and doing other things for the server.

[DM SummerBreeze]

Heya heya. Returning veteran here. I'll just throw in my 2 cents even though I haven't been back for very long...

I wanted to speak on a few things here. I don't have all the information, since I haven't been back long enough, but I'll be adding what I can.

So back in the day, the game was never really about leveling at all. I'm not sure when this became a thing? Lol. (I have multiple characters ranging in all kinds of levels.)

I was predominately a member of the underdark roleplay side of the server. It's also how I'm returning to the game.

I came into the game with very little understanding outside of being a real life pen and paper roleplayer. I also knew I was huge fan of the game, and had beaten the storyline..

There was something about the server at the time. (This is when the server is much newer. I left and returned in 2012, and had to leave again.) But there was a magic to it. It was the closest thing I had felt since my younger days of playing pen and paper role playing with my friends and family.

I was able to create these no-name characters and turn them into something. Something more than a character sheet, something that would bring them to life.

I have had simple characters, the leader of bregan daerthe, members of the 7th circle which I hear isn't around anymore. I have lost characters permanently and kept characters close to my heart forever. I remember the stories more vividly than any of my current character inventory, builds, or even how to fully play the game properly.

The way it used to work. Even if a DM was offline. If you could provide screenshots, and receipts and weren't trying to meta-game, then they would allow it to become part of whatever story you wanted. You could just message DM's when you needed one for an event. Albeit sometimes you would have to make some availability happen, but that wasn't so bad.

The general rule used to be more people played on the surface. There were just more of them and honestly the content was way easier. I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Now I see people are upset about leveling characters? Isn't that what you would do in any similar game? LOL. Am I missing something?

I returned to BGTSCC not because I care about the mechanics, or leveling at all. I did it to rejoin probably the best gaming community I've seen. I never saw anything out of character go badly in the game. Not to say it hasn't happened. I just never saw it. Everyone would come out and settle on something at the end of the day.

I still have all my RCR that I have been given. I haven't used a single one yet. EVER. Will I use them? Perhaps if I feel I need them, but just make sure your character is correct the first time you make them?

I'm also not sure the issue with RP. Since I have been back (3 Days for reference.) I have run into 2 DM's both assisted with Roleplay in the underdark, and I have bumped into new characters each day I have played. I've been getting a good balance of roleplay, and being run in events and I just got here. So I'm not sure where everyone is missing out?

As a long term player of Sandbox games, and often solo. I've learned that you have to create your own objectives. Your own storylines, and you have to push yourself through the boring parts sometimes to get to the fun parts.

As for the grind. I've had epic level characters in actual D&D start being able to literally wrestle gods to the ground in their higher 20's and 30's... So in my mind it should 100% difficult to reach this level of power.

LIterally had a half-orc with higher stats than his god. Insane. Lol.

Anyway. Maybe there just needs to be more areas for people to meet, or perhaps not have an xp penalty for someone who's too high level running with you?

As in real life, it doesn't matter how experienced someone is. If they're a lot more experienced then you just learn a lot faster from them realistically.

I would even make new character just for some RP to do a playthrough with someone.

Maybe it's not even about any of the grind at all. It's just about reaching out to more people. I'm good on my own, but always welcome more.

If anyone is on, and they need some RP. They can message me. I'm no DM, but I will be happy to RP. I Have high level surface and underdark characters as well. Most of the classes I have leveled to some degree or another. So it wouldn't be difficult to throw something together.

Anyway TL;DR I think it's more about community coming together than about any sort of leveling issues.

My brother and I grind some of the worst stuff in games and have fun just because we're not having to go it alone.

Hope this helps someone, or fuels the answers everyone is seeking in this post. Best of luck fellas and ladies.

There has become an attitude over the last 5 or so years that "you must be level 30 to participate in RP" this is still incorrect, you can most certainly participate in many, if not most things right from the start. Sure you can't back up being a war veteran or something, but it seems that some folks have lost the art of "progression" with their characters, the journey over time. Starting small, and building up through RP. Everyone wants to start at the end of the journey now.

Im not sure why the attitude has changed, but here we are, because I agree, as someone who has been around since 2008, this "must be level 30" thing is a relatively recent thing. In the distant past being epic was a big deal, and most characters were not there, as the server has aged we of course have far more epic characters around, but that doesn't mean that we all should start there or the journey should be a flash in the pan. This isn't an MMORPG, its supposed to be an RP server.

To be perfect honest, the leveling process is easier now than I ever remember it being in the past. Getting to epic is a breeze and it used to take months.