What I when I say “tier” is the various player level brackets defined by Adventurers League as tiers, those being:

Tier 1: 1-4

Tier 2: 5-10

Tier 3: 11-16 

Tier 4: 17-20 

So which is your favorite to DM for? 

Personally I like Tier 4 gameplay the best.  That’s when the DM gets to really break out the Big CR monsters and take the gloves completely off.  It is a lot of fun battling with the big guys.  There is usually some good banter before the fights too, which doesn’t happen as much at lower levels.  

The roleplay is better too.  Most of the NPCs the players are interacting with at this point are nobles, kings, even deities.  The plots advance faster when talking to these folks vs some farmer on the road.  

Tier 1, far and away. Combat is simpler, faster, and more lethal, and I personally find the small troubles of common folk and local towns more compelling than grander plotlines. Doesn't hurt that it's easier to balance too, and fits better into my worlds, which are a bit lower-magic than your average D&D setting. And it's always fun to introduce a new cast of characters and see them learn to play off each other.

If I'm doing a one-shot, I suppose I generally prefer tier 2. Characters are complicated enough to be interesting, but not so complicated that 75% of the session is figuring out what you can do.

Otherwise I prefer campaigns that span all the tiers. I like seeing the team come together in the lower levels, and later on I like the dramatic weight attached to things due to the characters having a history together and a long chain of decisions whose consequences determine their current world and circumstances. At the start, they're in my world. By the end, the world is their creation as much as it is mine. I enjoy playing through that whole process.

Quote from NaivaraArnuanna >>

Tier 1, far and away. Combat is simpler, faster, and more lethal, and I personally find the small troubles of common folk and local towns more compelling than grander plotlines. Doesn't hurt that it's easier to balance too, and fits better into my worlds, which are a bit lower-magic than your average D&D setting. And it's always fun to introduce a new cast of characters and see them learn to play off each other.

Ah yes, I can see why simple and fast combat would be appealing.  I find it is too, at times.  

Maybe it is my love of war games and other strategy games, but I find high tier play to be much more rewarding in terms of tactics and strategic play.  At low levels it seems most of the time there is little to do other than swing your sword or shoot an arrow, with the occasional low level spell.  

Lethality is a different matter.  You can make you game as lethal or otherwise as you want, at any tier.  They are independent of each other. 

Tier 1.  They are often running scared because they have nothing.  

My preferred level range is probably something like 3-8, high enough to have some choices but not unmanageable complexity.

Tier 1*.


*Disclaimer, I'm in the middle of running my first D&D campaign, and the party are currently level 4 ;)

3,4,2,1

Tier 3 is where you start to become epic and the battles can swing very quickly based on tactics. Tier 4 is hard as hell to prep for but is when your players are having the most fun by really feeling like almost gods and have tons of power. Tier 2 is where characters start to flesh out and become their own things, where the most character growth comes. Tier 1 is how do you roll a d20 and really basic stuff, not much fun there.

The lower the better... T1 is my favorite both to DM and to play. The characters are just slightly better than a well trained soldier or equivalent at that point, and the challenges they overcome are down to earth and relatable. Everything is still big and overwhelming and characters will still be afraid of things like a single Hydra or an Orc Chieftain.

As a DM, I like it because I can design challenges for players to solve with their noggins rather than by casting a spell/using an uber-ability. At higher levels, even at 6th already frankly, I have to pore through the spell lists and special abilities to make sure that whatever given problem I have chosen for them to solve, someone doesn't just have an insta-cast "I win!" button. Low level PCs don't have access to many "I win!" buttons like higher level ones do, and so you can actually do real player-challenging stuff... rather than just challenging the die rolls of the PCs.

As a player, I like T1 because my character can actually die (which becomes less and less likely as you level), and because it can only to a few limited things. I have to make do with so much less, and therefore I have to use my noggin more and lean on PC abilities less. Since I like the 'critical thinking' aspect of RPGs, I like the lower levels better. It may sound cool and all to be able to just say "I wish" and solve the adventure in a single carefully-worded sentence, but I'd rather actually play the whole adventure, thanks anyway.

T2 is still OK because the PCs aren't that outrageous but... I honestly don't know how the heck I am going to challenge them once they get into double-digits levels. I've never DMed for that high of a level before and I suspect there will be a lot of "I win!" button moments that I will not realize could even happen until the players trot them out. I know one of my players just can't wait until he's in the teen levels and his sorcerer is more like a superhero than a D&D character. I'm actually dreading it.

Tier 2. It high enough that PCs can do amazing badass stuff, but low enough that challenging them is not so difficult. They are still saving the common folk, but also fighting crazy stuff. They are still concerned about dying in any given combat, but I don’t have to be concerned with a TPK in any given combat. For me, this is the Goldilocks zone.