Aspects of this may have already been done. Maybe the mechanics will not allow for it. I'm going to suggest it anyways. The way I see it, is that players have to work either with slightly higher levels than them, or with others matching them. NPC's, on the other hand, usually remain quite static in their levels. This means that higher levels can grind away, while the lower levels remain behind them. But it also limits who people can move with. If i'm a level 8, I might want to help out with a level 4 quest, along side someone I enjoy playing with. I figured, if the mechanics would allow it, that NPC's would be automatically tailored to the level of the player dealing with them. So two players of say 8 and 4 can fight the same kobold, and the kobold would fight back as a level 2/3 for the level 4, and a level 6/7 for the level 8. Or maybe mobs could even be set to the average level of all users in a given area, unless otherwise specified by a DM.
It's probably not the greatest idea, honestly, but i'm wondering what everyone else thinks.
Hm. The workaround now, which people don't often use, is having a DM alter the level requirements for quests. They tend to add a few new challenges if its a cap increase, just so it doesn't become a pushover.
However, the server DOES account for total levels, number of players, and even party classes when designing the dungeons. Some quests vary significantly!
Also, don't we WANT levels to matter? We want the level 8 heroic fighter to be awesome compared to the level 4 she's training.
Interesting idea, but I see more reasons to keep the status quo than to change personally.
Although this kind of change might make for an interesting quest! Where the higher levels need lower levels to "weaken" the enemies... because, uhm, magic illusion stuff. I dunno.
I think this would be a nightmare to script... there's no way to script attack bonus/AC against hit dice without some sketchy scripting that won't work perfectly all the time. Plus some things like potion quantities and spell effects just won't linearly scale with level where you can say "well this level 6 PC is clearly 20% stronger with the level five therefore... wait how does darkness factor in?"
Quests already are adjusted based on average party level and number of party members (I believe). But it also calls to question how is advancement meaningful at all if the kobold is going to pose the same challenge to you no matter how far along you are? If its based on quantity a six and a four might get 3 kobolds, but two sevens and two fours might get 10 kobolds... then the 4's aren't posed with mobs they can't kill, and the 7's have the gratification of plowing through the horde.
I think I prefer it the way things are. I'm pretty sure there's already some hidden scaling of encounter spawning based on levels/numbers around.
But I wouldn't want to see, say, goblins become astronomically powerful just because you are more powerful. Kind of makes the feelings of getting stronger to defeat greater challenges feel...hallow, if things just gain a few more AB/AC to compensate for your personal growth as a PC.
In addition, it's just very hard to balance things so a level 4 and a level 8 working together are both properly challenged by the same content. That is usually the cause for some of the more painful DM events I have been on...level/supply disparity.
If you are speaking of changes done on the fly, that suddenly a kobold would change based on who attacks it, that don't work. It has way too many variables that could be buggy from any logic that I could think of.
Nwn handles these things in many different ways. Numbers or strength, based on what is about, but it can't be adjusted on the fly unless DM does it manually. I am pretty sure I can think of how such could be possibly scripted, but I can't honestly see a way for it to work bullet proof, if at all. More likely is that it would cause seriously buffed up monsters randomly that will wipe the cave floors with your face and then there's no DM around to help you.
Locked, this is neither possible or desirable.