The Gaming Den

RNG obviation it is.

So are you saying you can never have a level 1 to 20 game? If you can, what would you have to accept to allow for a "balanced" level 1 to 20 game?

I didn't say that you couldn't have a level 1 to 20 game.

I'm just saying that you can't have a level 1 to 20 game where all of these things are true at once:

1) Levels give a substantial amount of spoon.
2) People have an overall low level of power growth (i.e. commoner to Conan the Barbarian).
3) You don't normalize the RNG now and then.
4) People are not on the level treadmill; as in, you actually notice your bonuses or the feats you can accomplish from bonuses from one level to the next.

You can either reduce the range of your game or you get rid of one of those caveats and then your game won't have long-term RNG obviation. I mean, if you got rid of the idea that levels should provide some kind of noticeable bonus that would solve the problems instantly, because characters wouldn't grow that much. You'd also solve the problem if you made the range of your advancement from commoner to Silver Surfer, because you could give RNG bonuses that don't break the game. You'd also get rid of the problem if you explicitly put people on a level treadmill like in Monster's Lair.

Of course I mentioned all of the above problems with those approaches on the first post. Mind, they're not mechanical or subjective problems; they're all balanced, it's just that I predict major nerd rage if you actually implement them, because people get upset when you break their illusions of what they want.

Well...

+3 every other level level is +30 total if you start at level 1 and go to 20 (on evens).

Different techniques every other level instead of +3 power-ups. Every other one of those techniques is actually something flavorful.

The monsters go from dire bat to hydra. And by the time you're level 20, you have 5 flavor abilities (like at-will PFaD or something), 5 different ways to act in combat, and a solid hydra-fighting bonus.

I think it could work. You give substantial amounts of spoon there, your growth is numbers-based (for people who LIEK BIG BONUSES FAPFAPFAP) so it doesn't scale to godlike proportions, the RNG is small enough to be contained, and you can see a decent change each level.