Welcome to THAC0 . . . with Advantage! We’re two friends that have been playing D&D a long time. While we both love lots of other RPGs, D&D convinced us that if we get high enough level, we’ll start attracting followers

Sometimes your worried that any wrong move will get your character killed. Sometimes you feel like you’re so powerful, only the big bad is going to be a challenge. But there’s a magical spot in the middle, where you feel challenged, but also badass. We’re going to look at why those middle levels of D&D feel like the sweet spot, and maybe if we look hard enough, we can figure out how to bring some of that tier 2 magic to either side of that sweet spot.

In earlier editions of D&D, by the time you reached 9th to 11th level, it was time for you to build some kind of house for yourself, attract some followers, and sink a whole lot of gold into your stronghold, maybe collecting taxes from the locals. You know, like fabled heroes of old. But the AD&D 2e sourcebook Skills & Powers introduced something that changed this paradigm. When you were custom building the features you wanted for your class, you had the option of gaining extra points by giving up your ability to build a fortress and attract followers. That means Skills & Powers is one of the earliest examples of an RPG letting you give up something you didn’t care about to get more abilities than you would other wise have. If you’re not willing to give up being a landlord to bump your hit die up to a d12, I don’t know if you were ever really, truly and adventurer.