Death, Rebirth and XP.
This week, the group picked up their teeth and moved on to the kobolds lair. They were short both of their high-perception characters, the players were out of town, but of all people the Paladin made his passive check to hear the kobolds making conversation. That was the last thing that went really well for them. Instead of anyone rolling Perceptions, they decided to charge through the trees and attack the unseen foes. (good thing it wasn't a merchant caravan or something. 
) I did mistakenly charge the Slinger into melee along with the Minions, so he wasn't able to go in and warn Irontooth. but heavy wounds were suffered and at one point the Warlord, the only Leader in the party went down. They did manage to pull out a win, bringing down the Dragonshield as he was trying to get to the lair and warn the others.
After a short rest, they entered the lair. Trying to stealth this time, but the first roll made was about an 8.
I have a much better handle on kobolds now, and monsters in general, I think. So this was very much a running battle. The party was able to eliminate Most of the minions, before IT came out to play, but the Skirmishers were still on the board. Add the other heavy hitters and IT himself and what we had was a potential massacre. PCs started dropping like flies, and I was even trying to be nice. I dropped, both Warlocks, had the Wizard running for his life, and the Fighter bouncing back and forth between bloodied and not. My dice were HOT. Everyone else’s were rolling badly, indeed. Even the fabled 'Red die' of the Paladin (AJ, the UGT owner) was rolling badly. In the end, the party won out, but not before suffering their first loss. One of the Warlocks failed three saves in a row. D E A D.
We moved on to the next encounter, This one was really pretty one sided. After not falling for the trap, the party moved immediately to take out the Slinger. He got one volley off nailing the Warforged with 2 of his 3 shot burst. (Surprising the heck out of the party, "He had three shots???"
) The rest of the enemies went down quickly to very well coordinated maneuverings by the party. Under the blankets in the pit, they found not only the Warlord's missing mentor, but a Half-Elf Cleric, who gladly joined the party. Now with two healers in group, they should fair much better.
After the session, I made a very important decision as to the progression of the campaign. I will not be using the 'every one has the same xp no matter what' rule. That one really bugs me. Sorry, but if you aren't there, did not contribute, why should you receive the benefits? But at the same time, I decided that dying PCs replacements will get xp for the encounter which killed them.
) I did mistakenly charge the Slinger into melee along with the Minions, so he wasn't able to go in and warn Irontooth. but heavy wounds were suffered and at one point the Warlord, the only Leader in the party went down. They did manage to pull out a win, bringing down the Dragonshield as he was trying to get to the lair and warn the others.After a short rest, they entered the lair. Trying to stealth this time, but the first roll made was about an 8.
I have a much better handle on kobolds now, and monsters in general, I think. So this was very much a running battle. The party was able to eliminate Most of the minions, before IT came out to play, but the Skirmishers were still on the board. Add the other heavy hitters and IT himself and what we had was a potential massacre. PCs started dropping like flies, and I was even trying to be nice. I dropped, both Warlocks, had the Wizard running for his life, and the Fighter bouncing back and forth between bloodied and not. My dice were HOT. Everyone else’s were rolling badly, indeed. Even the fabled 'Red die' of the Paladin (AJ, the UGT owner) was rolling badly. In the end, the party won out, but not before suffering their first loss. One of the Warlocks failed three saves in a row. D E A D.
We moved on to the next encounter, This one was really pretty one sided. After not falling for the trap, the party moved immediately to take out the Slinger. He got one volley off nailing the Warforged with 2 of his 3 shot burst. (Surprising the heck out of the party, "He had three shots???"
) The rest of the enemies went down quickly to very well coordinated maneuverings by the party. Under the blankets in the pit, they found not only the Warlord's missing mentor, but a Half-Elf Cleric, who gladly joined the party. Now with two healers in group, they should fair much better.After the session, I made a very important decision as to the progression of the campaign. I will not be using the 'every one has the same xp no matter what' rule. That one really bugs me. Sorry, but if you aren't there, did not contribute, why should you receive the benefits? But at the same time, I decided that dying PCs replacements will get xp for the encounter which killed them.
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Comments
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I'm with you, I have a problem as a DM with giving XP for people who don't show up. I'm lucky in that most of my players are fairly consistent with their attendance - but it still doesn't change my opinion on giving out free xp!
*sigh*
I guess that means we're just sad and bitter DM's?
Posted 30th June 2008 at 09:58 PM by Dayspire
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I know the "free XP" problem.
But, at the beginning of our 3E games, we were very stringent with this for a while - replacements start at level 1, no free XP for not being there. Not a good idea. It sucks losing a character every session. Of course, that's the extreme.
The biggest problem is that it makes the DM's job harder to account for inconsistent levels between PCs.
The second problem is that the players that couldn't come to the setting feel punished if the other PCs are stronger.
If you and your players can cope with both, well, don't worry.Posted 30th June 2008 at 11:02 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully -
"Sad bitter DMs"... that's freaking hilarious.
#1 was considered long and hard, but really the math is so simple for figuring encounters, I don't think it will be an issue. And since a lower level PC, recieving the same amount of XP, will get a larger percentage chunk compared to the needed total. I think it will self correct.Quote:The biggest problem is that it makes the DM's job harder to account for inconsistent levels between PCs.
The second problem is that the players that couldn't come to the setting feel punished if the other PCs are stronger.
#2 isn't an issue. My group is mature and happily free of any 'entitlement' mentalities. I submit for your consideration however, the flip side of that coin is what about players feeling that people who don't show up are 'free loading'? They did nothing to deserve those XP. Ya know?
As for starting level, as in 3rd, we will bring in new characters at one level below the lowest party members level. (Or at lowest level depending on how close to leveling the party is.)Posted 1st July 2008 at 04:13 AM by Darkwolf71 -
What about starting the player at the same level, but with the same penalty that they would get if they were raised from the dead? That, at least, should make bookkeeping a little bit easier.
In general, I'd be more wary of an XP loss in 4e than in 3e. The 3e XP table was self-correcting--it was designed that lower XP players would eventually catch up to higher ones. That's not the case in 4e.
In 4e, a character that only has 500 xp when the rest of his party reaches level 2, he'll spend 25% of his encounters a level behind the rest of his party on his way to paragon tier, and he'll still be 500 xp behind.
In 3.5e, if a character is 500 xp behind the rest of the party, in that same number of encounters he'll spend only 12% of encounters a level behind, and his gap will have narrowed to 100 xp.
here "encounter" in 4e is 1 monster per party member whose level is equal to that of the non-straggler PCs.
Spoiler:Posted 1st July 2008 at 03:33 PM by arscott - A couple of things the math can't account for.
1) There will be more deaths. It's not a matter of one character being a level behind forever.
2) I have a party of 8. I don't see an issue with that large of a group being spread out over 2 or even 3 levels.
I freely admit I am playing outside the design scope. But, if it does become a problem it is not so hard to correct. Just tweak xp a bit for the lower levels until they catch up.
Since it seems to be a concern, I'll be sure to update with results as the campaign progresses.Posted 1st July 2008 at 09:01 PM by Darkwolf71
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