EB's Tyranny of Dragons - OOC (full)

[jmucchiello]

I was thinking of dual class characters last night and wonder if the chop pff point could be deducted from the base XP, normally you lose the extra anyway. But then you would always have way more xp then needed for the next level.

By your example what if the base XP were restarted for dual classing? You take the 96,000 and are a 7th lvl fighter after chapter 7 (dumping the excess), Then at the end of chapter 8 you get the base 1,500 xp and your base starts up again. You can't level more than once a chapter anyway and this would supplement that.

I remember way back when I ran the Dragonlance campaign, Goldmoon died and Rverwind killed the black dragon. He came back as a Ranger 5/Cleric 1 and we continued on. After fighting /rescuing the refugees and defeating a red dragon, the party gained a lot of XP that Riverwind lost due to not being able to advance two levels at once. So it will happen even if I go rewarding xp/encounter (which I am looking into, but don't wish to do, to hack n' slash), because the monster will be tougher, the traps deadlier, and the RP more involved.

the milestone xp will work overall, it may just not work well for the build you are thinking of trying.

You HAVE to be able to level more than once per chapter or you screw over the fast xp players. The thief is going to jump two levels in chapter 4. If he doesn't jump, he falls behind because he is SUPPOSED to be higher level than the other characters. In the later chapters, the fighters and clerics are messed up because you are giving out 275,000 xp and they level up at 220,000 and 250,000 (or something like that) and at some point, they will earn enough for a double jump and lose out.

Not leveling up more than once a chapter also makes the bard impractical because he cannot keep up. He should end the campaign as ftr7/thf8/bard15 if you give out 2,500,000 xp more often. But if he cannot update more than once per chapter, he goes into the last chapter as ftr7/thf8/bard2 AND he spends chapters 8-15 as JUST a thief1-8 because he cannot access his ftr abilities. Those 8 levels should go by in the blink of an eye compared to how fast everyone else levels. That's by design.

I have always played that you level up immediately, right in the dungeon as soon as the DM says (at the end of a session), "you gain XXXXX xp." you say, "Hey, I leveled up" and you recalculate. Why? Because no DM I've ever had ever had the patience for it taking 1-4 weeks to level up. And I doubt this module allows you to spend 1-4 weeks leveling up either. What happens between chapter 1 and chapter 2 when the thief and maybe the cleric needs time to level up and no one else in the party needs that time? What if the events of chapter 2 directly follow chapter 1 with no downtime?

I'm not expecting xp per encounter. But there has to be a way to give it out in finer grained chunks than 50,000+ at a time.

 

[TallIan]

You HAVE to be able to level more than once per chapter or you screw over the fast xp players...

Much more eloquently put than my post.

 

[jmucchiello]

Much more eloquently put than my post.

I'm just glad I don't sound like the crazy person yelling about the thing chewing on the plane's wing.

 

[tglassy]

It does seem like leveling only at the end of the chapter messes with the intended design of the game, seeing that each class levels at different rates.


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[EarlyBird]

You may be right. The difference of XP between 1e and 5e is great. I thought I had different rates fixed up by the way a thief or cleric would level up after chapter 1 and fighter, paladins and wizards not till after chapter 2, thus them being ahead.

We may just need to go really old school and hand out XP as they are in the DMG as I see it was designed for the xp of the classes and how they progress. Problem is that is a lot of paper work (or use to be when their were no computers), long as everyone is on board for it I will give it a go. Or if their is alternate ways I am all ears eyes.

 

[jmucchiello]

Perhaps the lesson is: When you advertise old school, you should be prepared to go old school.

Remember, since you are using a premade adventure, you can take the time to calc xp ahead of time for each encounter area. PbF is slow enough that you should not have to do these calculations more than once a week for any decision point. They are at point X, they could go to room 4, 5, or 9. So you calc those encounters and not have to worry about it for a week or two as whatever is encountered would take that long or longer to resolve.

Who all do we have lined up for this? Old school you don't enter a dungeon without 8 or 9 friends. (could imagine trying to do this with that many people in a PbF format?)

 

[EarlyBird]

only four of you right now

TallIan
jmucchiello
jonathonhawke
tglassy

We could get started on character creation and hope for a few more. I think we can also go with some henchmen/hirelings at a reduced cost to bring the party to around 6 to start.

 

[tglassy]

I’m currently looking at options. Part of me wants to do a male drow magic user. I’m still thinking.


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[jmucchiello]

We could get started on character creation and hope for a few more. I think we can also go with some henchmen/hirelings at a reduced cost to bring the party to around 6 to start.

I didn't post my rolls? I rolled last night once the xp thing seemed resolved.

_: 6D6.HIGH(3) = [6, 1, 1, 6, 6, 6] = 18 str
6D6.HIGH(3) = [1, 2, 5, 6, 5, 6] = 17 con
6D6.HIGH(3) = [1, 3, 1, 1, 6, 5] = 14 com
6D6.HIGH(3) = [6, 2, 1, 6, 5, 5] = 17 wis
6D6.HIGH(3) = [6, 2, 1, 1, 1, 6] = 14 int
6D6.HIGH(3) = [1, 1, 1, 1, 6, 6] = 13 wis
6D6.HIGH(3) = [1, 1, 2, 6, 6, 6] = 18 dex


Human, Ftr-1. Now I have to roll Exceptional Strength. [roll0]
Edit: 18/44. Better than nothing.

I just noticed in the 42 dice that were rolled, there's no 4s, one 3, four 2s and five 5s. The rest are 16 1s and 16 6s. Only one pip above average. Wow.

 

[EarlyBird]

At least the 6's fell in some of the right places. WIS could have took a real hit had the two 6's not showed up. I will be working on background information/hooks for this game and the PotA as they both deal with The Sword Coast.

I’m currently looking at options. Part of me wants to do a male drow magic user. I’m still thinking.

Nice, their is an alt way to roll up drow in the Fiend Folio if your interested, but I think Method 5 is the best for generating high stats where you need them. Also I'll need to double check if drow can multiclass like elves do: fighter/mage, mage/thief, fighter/mage/thief. Incase you are interested in something of that nature.