How big of a spread should there be between level 1 and max level?

[Quadrone]

Exactly what the topic says. How much more powerful should a max level PC be, compared to a level one PC?

 

Personally, my preference is for an experience where normal enemies at the start of the game (wolves, drunken street thugs) are simple minions at the end of the game, but always stay relevant. Something which could pose a threat to you at the start of the game should never become an insect for you to crush, imho. One way I'd really love to see this implemented is by having none of the PCs attributes automatically increase. Unlike in, say, DnD where a fifth-level fighter automatically has five times as much health as a first level fighter, I'd like to see a situation where you have to put points into Constitiution (or whatever) to increase your health (and by doing so you'd be choosing not to increase your attack power or accuracy). By the end of the game, I think a reasonable (not min-maxed) PC should be able to be about 2x as powerful (double all the important stats for his class) as a starting character, + have a lot more options (special attacks, spells, et cetera).

 

I disagree,... completely.

2x as powerful at the very end of the game? That's ridiculously tiny power progression, just assuming that there are 20 levels max. you could hardly tell the difference between a lvl 1 and a lvl 3 character.

To my tastes, if I encounter i.e. Kobolds early on I want to be able to clear the entire screen of the same Kobolds with 1-2 AoE spells of my max. level character later on.

 

Quite honestly I don't see how such low power progression could even work. It would be very limiting in regards to the enemies/creatures you meet and the abilities they possess. Like this either a.) a group of thugs from the starting area should still be able to kill a Demon Lord, Dragon or other supernatural enemy or b.) you never encounter such mighty beasts and the progression only goes up to something like ogres.