What do you expect to be the highest level at end game?

[Violyn]

I'm thinking level 10. From Savin's tile map he posted a while back, it appears that half the frost marches are available to the player, even if their content is not complete yet; the other half being after the foothills,

Spoiler: Not even in the game yet spoiler

with the last place you fight Kas being somewhere in the sunken city it seems?

Also,

Spoiler: WC Spoiler

if you steal some of her powers in WC with mirror magic, you can see them being level 10 in the abilities section of the journal, and since she is the last boss...

Even still, wonder if there any new planned places that weren't in the original idea of the game, maybe that way making it possible to increase your level more, maybe to 20? Since that seems to be the maximum or close to it in most dnd games (at least that's what my google search tells me).

 

[Upcast Drake]

It has been stated numerous times that level 10 is the max.

 

[Violyn]

Ok, thanks ^^

 

[WolframL]

For reference, the publicly available combat math document (useful topic here) has a bit where Savin discussed level balancing for the game. Everything that can be accessed before clearing the Winter City is intended for a party of Level 5 or below, then 7 or 8 for the mid-game and 10 for the endgame stuff. Since that's been the plan all along, there's not much need to worry about adding extra levels even if new content gets added beyond the original scope of the game. As long as EXP scales reasonably in each 'zone' (and the doc has some discussion of this) we should get to the various parts of the game at more or less the expected levels. They can always adjust the experience we get as development goes on if testing shows that the player gets too much or too little at any given point. And as Winter City demonstrates there's lots of ways to ensure that things are challenging even once you've hit tne level cap.

 

[Savin]

Since that seems to be the maximum or close to it in most dnd games

Level 20 is the traditional level cap in Dungeons & Dragons the tabletop game (excepting Basic and 4th edition which went into the 30s), but D&D video games very rarely encompass that much content (then again, very few campaigns do either). The most iconic D&D video game, Baldur's Gate, capped around level 8 or so, depending on class. D&D as a rule system doesn't tend to work very well as a whole past level 10 or so.

 

[Exrav]

(then again, very few campaigns do either)

This is so true it hurts. *cries in campaigns getting canceled*

 

[Violyn]

Level 20 is the traditional level cap in Dungeons & Dragons the tabletop game (excepting Basic and 4th edition which went into the 30s), but D&D video games very rarely encompass that much content (then again, very few campaigns do either). The most iconic D&D video game, Baldur's Gate, capped around level 8 or so, depending on class. D&D as a rule system doesn't tend to work very well as a whole past level 10 or so.

Oh wow, that's such a strange concept to me! But then again, i never got to play a D&D campaign, so that's not really a surprise there. Good to learn that now, before i actually start one.

 

[QTPie]

I know it’s almost been a week, and necromancy truly, really isn’t my intention here, but I have to ask—

If level 10 is supposed to be the level cap, and Winter City is intended to be level 5 content, does that mean we’re almost halfway through the game? Or is it going to be a Dragon Quest type scenario where we’re given specialty/paragon classes beyond what we have now and are encouraged to level those up?

 

[The Observer]

I know it’s almost been a week, and necromancy truly, really isn’t my intention here, but I have to ask—

If level 10 is supposed to be the level cap, and Winter City is intended to be level 5 content, does that mean we’re almost halfway through the game? Or is it going to be a Dragon Quest type scenario where we’re given specialty/paragon classes beyond what we have now and are encouraged to level those up?

Levels don't correspond to game progress.

 

[Exrav]

If level 10 is supposed to be the level cap, and Winter City is intended to be level 5 content, does that mean we’re almost halfway through the game?

According to Savin, WC puts us 30% of the way through the story.

 

[QTPie]

Levels don't correspond to game progress.

Maybe it’s just the games I play (and beyond CoC2 and TiTS I’ve actually never played a text-based RPG, embarrassingly enough, so it’s probably unfair to try and compare it to other mediums), but usually difficulty scales with progress and the game encourages characters to level to meet that challenge.

According to Savin, WC puts us 30% of the way through the story.

Does that include quests like Cait’s sister and Berwyn’s teacher?

 

[Emerald]

Does that include quests like Cait’s sister and Berwyn’s teacher?

Pretty sure Cait's sister is tied to the main story. Berry's arc is its own thing. You can play the whole game's plot without going through that.

 

[Violyn]

BERRY!!!

 

[Savin]

If level 10 is supposed to be the level cap, and Winter City is intended to be level 5 content, does that mean we’re almost halfway through the game?

About a third, really. Leveling is paced along a "mostly just doing crit-path stuff" pace, but also there's just not a lot of barrier between WC and Khor'minos when you look at it -- a level 3 zone and then Undermountain, which will probably be like 1-2 levels worth of stuff and then you're done with Act 2. There's going to be a lot of STUFF between you and the act-end, just not a whole lot mandatory combat stuff.

 

[Paradox01]

...usually difficulty scales with progress and the game encourages characters to level to meet that challenge

If that were the case across the board, you could have said the game was 50% done the day it was first released because you could reach level 5.

Don't mistake level caps or available quests for game completion progress.

 

[Salomon]

according to my kitsune tails, at least the LV 10 is guaranteed.