So your point is that fighters should be perpetually stuck at first level, only Wizards should grow in power? Isn't that stupidly imbalanced?

Anyway, since 'level' is a completely metagame and arbitrary term, there is no reason to fight grossly underleveled opponents unless the intended result is to show that they pose no challenge. So yes, if your desire is to provide terrible encounters, then D&D will allow you to fulfill your wishes. But it is not a flaw in the system that it allows you to accomplish your desired goal.



I could download Gatekeeper and build a character that deals thousands of damage every hit and has impregnable armor class and saving throws and magic resistance, and that would also make the game pretty easy. Cheating makes things easier, I'm not sure what this is supposed to be a good example of.



Your descriptions of GURPS thus far have not made it sound very attractive to me . Especially that there is no chance of me bringing up a new system to my group unless I am willing to GM it.



Well, I never played high-level 2nd Edition, back then we were all quite young and every game we had some new character we wanted to try out so we kept restarting new games at 1st level all the time. Not surprisingly, I'm the only person who went through that era still willing to play Wizards.

In 3rd of 4th Edition, if you want to keep to the same scale, you can do that too, just give your kobolds and goblins warrior and adept levels, maybe a few fighters, rangers and rogues too. A sorcerer priest. A Dragon god that watches over their tribe. Have them inhabit the ruins of an advanced civilisation with all sorts of deadly traps and constructs or bound extraplanar guardians. Or you can move up the scale so that they're now travelling the multiverse and fighting in the Nine Hells and what not. Usually, changing the setting so the players both feel more powerful but aren't overpowering is the best bet. Once they get too powerful for the militia in that tiny village they started out in, there's really no reason to stay. The threats are inconsequential, the rewards are trivial, it's time to move on. So then they can get to a great city where they can earn greater fame and fortune, but also contains trained soldiers, royal knights, orders of priests and paladins, cadres of wizards, etc. Players want to be challenged, so they'll naturally migrate to places that are more challenging, there really very little you need to do to help them.



I generally open with fireballs. Until Shadows of Amn, Wizards don't have Spheres of Invulnerability all the time, and with their laughable hit points, they're generally gone from the beginning of combat .