D&D 5E Relative Difficulties of Advancing in 5e

[CubicsRube]

Nobody plays past level 10, so we didn't bother to design it well.

That's what we call a self-fulfilling prophesy.

I think that's being hyperbolic.

This edition plays very well at high levels.

 

[OptionalRule]

I think that's being hyperbolic.

This edition plays very well at high levels.

Worse, it's pointless. I made this because I don't generally play at that level and many people don't but some might be interested and I think they'd be as surprised by this as I was so I thought I'd post it and hopefully help them plan better for high level play.

 

[Flamestrike]

The XP chart in 5e makes no sense whatsoever.

Its designed to be really fast to level 3 (you can easily go from 1st to 3rd in a single session), slow down markedly at the sweet spot of 4-11 (2-3 sessions per level) and then rapidly speed up again from 12th to 20th (1 session per level).

Most campaigns finish at around 11th level. The rapid advancement is simply the game providing an incentive to keep going a few more months and reach 20th.

Reaching 20th is fun. Which is the whole point of the game.

 

[Flamestrike]

One of the topics I wished they'd addressed in the DMG was the number of encounters required to level up by level (breaking down and explaining the chart linked from the OP).

They do have an 'encounters per day' and 'Adventuring day XP' table to give you some idea of how much XP you're expected to get per adventuring day.

Breakdown is here:

RPGBOT - DnD 5e - Practical Guide to Campaign Planning.

To advance from 1st to 20th requires roughly 200 'CR' equivalent medium encounters, spanning the course of roughly 30 adventuring days at around 6.8 medium difficulty encounters per adventuring day, with hard and deadly encounters dropping the number of encounters needed to hit 20th.

You go from needing 5-6 or so medium encounters to hit 2nd and 3rd, up to 10-15 medium encounters for each of levels 4-10 (with a median of roughly 13), then down to roughly 8 medium encounters per level from then on.

Every deadly encounter counts as roughly 2 mediums.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Pretty much all recent WotC adventures use milestone advancement rather than XP awards. I think WotC have given up on XP.

 

[R_J_K75]

Reaching 20th is fun. Which is the whole point of the game.

I agree although I have never gotten there myself as a player or with any campaign. Usually real world circumstances intervene. I was just talking with another player in my group last night about a campaign that we were running that tanked. We couldn't remember why it did but we might bring back parts of it in our current game.

They do have an 'encounters per day' and 'Adventuring day XP' table to give you some idea of how much XP you're expected to get per adventuring day.

Breakdown is here:

That breakdown is interesting. I started a new campaign last Friday this could come in useful because were planning to have multiple DMs throughout the course of it so I'm going to give this a more thorough read through and pass it along to the other two DMs so we're on the same page.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Pretty much all recent WotC adventures use milestone advancement rather than XP awards. I think WotC have given up on XP.

With good reason I think. They understand that their adventures that they're writing are paced based on the story they are telling, and aren't wasting space or time "filling in" areas with additional monster encounters just to make sure PCs have the chance to get enough XP to level at the points they think it makes sense for them to level in the story.

Besides which... that's the whole point of random encounter tables. They're there so that DMs who use XP leveling and feel they are necessary can add in as many additional combat encounters they need to get the players where they need to be.

 

[OptionalRule]

Pretty much all recent WotC adventures use milestone advancement rather than XP awards. I think WotC have given up on XP.

Ironically, it's not for why you'd think. I added up a few encounters from RIme. You'd level FASTER with experience than milestone.

 

[fearsomepirate]

That's less leveling up pacing and more adventure pacing. Which is indicative that the DM isn't considering downtime to its fullest since that is the main purpose of downtime anyways

You can go from fighting kobolds when you leave home to fighting kobolds a decade later if the DM decides the second Kobold adventure takes place 10 years after the first one. That's not an issue.

A small dungeon where I narrate that the hallways are so long that it takes you weeks to go from one room to the next does not at all feel the same as a large dungeon with many rooms.

But the problem with slow leveling up in real time is that players will feel like their character has stagnated. This is exaggerated with noncasters since they can't usually switch tactics anytime soon before a level up and must concede to their standard tactics the entire time. They may also be longingly looking at their future features.

If all you're doing is opening up monster closets and slaughtering the inhabitants, sure. It gets boring after the 3rd or 4th closet has the same sort of enemies, and you do the exact same things to kill them. I'll refer to you what I said earlier: A great campaign is fun regardless of how fast you level. The goal should be to present content at a high enough quality that players are there to engage with the world, not unlock the next doo-dad on a chart. I mean, how is it that Rob Kuntz enjoyed playing Lord Robilar for years, despite a 0e Thief getting little in the way of new widgets after a few levels? If all you're doing is grinding XP to pull the lever on the Skinner box, then something is missing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ironically, it's not for why you'd think. I added up a few encounters from RIme. You'd level FASTER with experience than milestone.

They are variable. Some you could get lots of xp for, some none at all.