I did some number crunching and, mathematically speaking, L2 traits are better than L3. How did I come up with this?
Well, L2 traits succeed 50% of the time. You would only want to use an L3 trait when your chance of success on the roll is 50% or greater (because it can’t be invoked unless you succeed). An example of this, if you have only a 25% chance to succeed, then your L3 trait will only activate 25% of the time (since you can only use it on a tie or greater).
How do you know if you have a 50% or greater chance? Well, a simple formula is to take the obstacle of a test, double it and subtract 1. If you have that many dice or more to roll, you have a 50% or greater chance. Thus with an obstacle 4 test, 7 dice would give you a 50% chance. Obstacle 5 would be 9 dice, and so on.
According to the book (pg. 125, 2/3 of the way down the left column), “Most obstacles should be equal to just a little bit more than half of the dice the group can muster for a task.” This means that for most obstacles, the players will have less than a 50% chance of success, meaning L2 traits are more effective for the majority of a typical game.
As far as I can tell, L3 traits are never useful in any situation outside of conflicts. There is nothing I can find in the Camp or Town phases where having a greater margin of success would be of value.
Thus, L3 traits are more useful in easier conflicts, and L2 traits are more useful for harder conflicts as well as every other aspect of the game.
Oh, right, I forgot about versus tests! So L3 traits have a use outside of conflicts. Still, they are only better than L2 traits in easier tests where your chance of success is 50% or greater.
I don’t have anyone in my games who have L3 traits yet, but I think I’m just going to give them an automatic success. It is twice as good as an L2 trait at that point (in that it will be useful twice as often), and an L2 trait is WAY more than twice as good as an L1 trait!
One idea I had as an alternative for L3 traits was to allow them to ignore a condition on the roll. It gives them the effective +1D bonus, but will allow them to skirt some of the nasty effects of conditions (no learning, no advancement, no using wises, etc).
I like that level 3 Traits are more broad in scope (of when they can be applied, at least), but potentially less “powerful” than their level 2 predecessor. It’s kind of like the system (purposefully or otherwise) models the fact that an adventurer will be in their “prime”, but the tolls of too much adventuring will eventually catch up on them.
