Rate Of Advancement Question, Or "Is the XP chart changing?"

[Flynn]

Good Afternoon, All:

I do not know if this question has been posed or answered as yet, but I thought I would bring it up out of a personal curiosity. It may be that this topic hasn't even been settled by the rules, in the state of flux that they are currently in, so it may be too early to tell. However, I hope we at least get some WOTC opinion(s) on the matter.

In regards to how quickly the characters advance in level, the rate of advancement in 3E/v3.5 was based on market research, which resulted in a system that assumes that a character will advance after 13.33 encounters. Some people have posted that they believe the rate of advancement is too quick at higher levels. I know that WOTC has listened to some of the complaints people have had in regards to other 3E/v3.5 issues, and I'm curious as to whether the rate of advancement was one of those issues.

Will the rate of advancement remain the same as in 3E/v3.5? Or will it change, and if so, how? Also, will all classes use the same XP chart, per 3E/v3.5, or will each class have a different XP chart, per 1st and 2nd Editions?

It is my personal hope that the rate of advancement changes. My desire would be to see something that takes perhaps three sessions to advance from 1st to 2nd level, and then each additional level advancement increases the number of sessions required by half a session. So it takes 3.5 sessions to get from 2nd to 3rd, 4 sessions to get from 3rd to 4th, etc., ad nauseum, until you need 17 sessions to advance from 29th to 30th.

I personally don't want a meteoric rise to higher levels, nor do I really want a linear progression in terms of sessions to get there. I definitely hope that feedback on the advancement rate will be taken into consideration, and I look forward to finding out what we can on this matter.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Well, it sounds like they are doing away with things that cost XP. That's good. It means that most all the characters in the party will have the same XP, or very close to it.

This means that it will be even easier for me to continue doing the same thing I'd been doing in 3.5, which is throw away XP and level up the PCs when I feel like it.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

They've already confirmed that they are going to fixed XP awards for monsters. This almost guarantees that the XP chart will be changing. (See p.213-214 of Unearthed Arcana for a preview.)

I doubt they will revert back to multiple XP charts for various classes-- far better to balance the classes! This is one of the things 3e got very, very right.

 

[Malhost Zormaeril]

It's far more likely that they'll fine-tune the power gain than adjust the rate of level increase. It looks like the new 30th level will look like the current 20th, in terms of raw options and powers.

In fact, if they do attain the holy grail of making the maths work from 1st all the way through 30th, then I think the whole exercise of making level-gain follow a hyperbolic tangent curve or whatever will become a moot point, anyway...

 

[Li Shenron]

I think they will target the "1 level up per session".

 

[Lanefan]

I brought this up in a thread a few weeks ago and got no response at all, more in the vein of wondering if the intended campaign length would still be 1.5 to 2 years now that the levels will go to 30. If yes, then you'll be bumping about every 2 or 3 sessions on average, and given as you'll now be getting new abilities with every level, you won't have time to get used to what the character can do at level x before *bang* it's now level x+1.

Personally, I hope they slow it down. A lot. Bumping more than once per adventure is an absolute pain in the backpack particularly if you're using any sort of training rules.

Or, at least throw in a sidebar for those of us who plan campaigns intended to last for 10+ years, with suggestions for a much slower advance track.

Lanefan

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Be kind.

My guess is that leveling up will be expedited in D&D 4.

Leveling up is a significant part of the D&D reward cycle as players especially if character advancement is less fiddly (goodbye skill points) with fewer suboptimal choices and solid retraining options. This could be a reason for the inclusion of epic levels in the PHB, so that the typical "year to year and half" campaign that informed the 13.333 encounters per level design decision can be maintained while dropping the number of sessions required to level up. Perhaps of advancing every three to four sessions, the number would be dropped to two to three.

But I would also challenge the idea that the 13 1/3 encounters per level will hold. Given that combat will be accelerated and streamlined, there could be more encounters per session on average. 3.5 seems to assume one batttle per hour played. With quicker conflicts and other types of encounters such as social combat and maybe even scene mechanics for conflicts like chases, maybe the average group could see two or more encounters per hour.

One thing to note is that since there will be nothing in the game that costs XP, it could be a lot easier for DMs to modify advancement speed simply by adding a multipler or divider to the XP chart. In 3.0/3.5 this was problematic given how it interacted with item creation, level draining attacks and certain spells that soaked XP.

This is all pure speculation of course.

Regards,
Mark J.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Or, at least throw in a sidebar for those of us who plan campaigns intended to last for 10+ years, with suggestions for a much slower advance track.

If you can't manage this simple thing without a sidebar, I wouldn't want to play in your game for 10 weeks, let alone 10 years.

Or do you really mean that you require a sidebar simply as validation of your play style?

 

[Li Shenron]

If yes, then you'll be bumping about every 2 or 3 sessions on average, and given as you'll now be getting new abilities with every level, you won't have time to get used to what the character can do at level x before *bang* it's now level x+1.

This is a pet peeve of mine, but nowadays I'm not worried, because that problem is mostly for spellcasters and probably they are going to let spellcasters gain LESS STUFF per level than they used to in 3e.

 

[Anaxander]

As a DM, you have perfect control of the rate by which your players' characters gain new levels. Currently my group and I are playing a fast levelling campaign (since we never get to lvl +10 for some reason and would like to play our characters at high levels for a change) where my players gain a level per two sessions. I just hand them XP worth of 1/2 they need to advance a level. We also count in a lot of down time to justify the fast levelling in game.
You could just as easy delay the advancement of the characters.