XP and leveling progressions compared.

Insight · Feb 23, 2005

Evilhalfling said:
how many sessions per adventure? This could be incredibly fast or fairly slow.

We average about 3 sessions per adventure. Most of these involve at least one combat, sometimes two. I'm not all about combat xp though. I will typically award xp at the end of a short adventure no matter whether it took one session or four. In longer adventures, say four to six sessions, I will award xp around the middle, or just after something important has happened.

One thing I don't like is that people tend to gain levels in a vaccuum without any training, downtime, etc. It's like their new abilities appear from nowhere. I know that a lot of GMs have their own house rules for this, but I really wish that there were official training rules to keep people from going 1st to 15th level in two months' time in game. Pretty silly.

Thorin Stoutfoot · Feb 23, 2005

Not too fast...

With 7 players starting out and dropping to about 4-5 players after 6th level, it still took 3 years to hit 20th level. I actually think the new levelling is just right. It's OK for folks to go up a level every session until getting to 4th. The low levels are really fragile anyway.

Virel · Feb 23, 2005

Thanee said:
But orcs are also dangerous now, unlike the previous editions.

Bye
Thanee

Have to disagree with that statement.

Let's see in OAD&D by the book you are dead at 0 hit points. There is an optional rule for the DM if the killing blow only took you to -3 hit points you character will lose 1 hit point a round until -10 at which point the PC dies. To get any hit point bonus you need a 15 in con on say a 4d6 roll. Often that doesn't happen.

A 1st level fighter will have between 1 and 10 hp's on average. Say he ends up with 7 hit points. A 1st level cleric will have about 6hp. A 1st level thief 5hp. A 1st level Mu 4 hp.

The orc can hit and kill any of the PC's with a single hit. The fighter can die 25% of the time from one hit, the cleric 37% of the time, the thief 50% of the time and the Mu 67% of the time.

I still DM for OAD&D. It takes an average of 6 session of 4 hours each to advance a level IMC. The 3e group I play in advances PC's after 1 or 2 four hour sessions. I've see the band of adventures in OAD&D exposed to six save to die situations between 1st and 5th level. I've not seen a single save or die event in 3e since I started playing in Oct of last year when I joined an established group. The 3e PC's are ~15th to 17th level on average.

I like both games but I only worry about risk and maybe my PC getting killed when playing OAD&D which is part of the fun!

3e is the safe D&D for the players. It's the OSHA approved D&D, that works hard to keep PC's alive, protect and nurture them.

Henry · Feb 23, 2005

Virel said:
3e is the safe D&D for the players. It's the OSHA approved D&D, that works hard to keep PC's alive, protect and nurture them.

Why does my mind's eye do this to me...

TerraDave · Feb 23, 2005

Henry said:
There's a reason; before, the system was set up so that PCs would attain 9th level after about a year of very long (6 to 8 hours) play sessions.

Would those be daily sessions...ye gods that system was slow, and far too dependent on treasure for XP, further encouraging good old Monty Haul type play. Of course, you where supposed to get that treasure back with training (in OAD&D), but very few people did that. One of my first house rules was changing XP awards.

I appreciate the concension that the 3ed makes to both RL and the range of campaign and gaming alternatives out there: if you don't want to play to higher levels, just have a 2-4 month campaign, then do something else.

Slobber Monster · Feb 23, 2005

Virel said:
Have to disagree with that statement.

Let's see in OAD&D by the book you are dead at 0 hit points. There is an optional rule for the DM if the killing blow only took you to -3 hit points you character will lose 1 hit point a round until -10 at which point the PC dies. To get any hit point bonus you need a 15 in con on say a 4d6 roll. Often that doesn't happen.

A 1st level fighter will have between 1 and 10 hp's on average. Say he ends up with 7 hit points. A 1st level cleric will have about 6hp. A 1st level thief 5hp. A 1st level Mu 4 hp.

The orc can hit and kill any of the PC's with a single hit. The fighter can die 25% of the time from one hit, the cleric 37% of the time, the thief 50% of the time and the Mu 67% of the time.

I still DM for OAD&D. It takes an average of 6 session of 4 hours each to advance a level IMC. The 3e group I play in advances PC's after 1 or 2 four hour sessions. I've see the band of adventures in OAD&D exposed to six save to die situations between 1st and 5th level. I've not seen a single save or die event in 3e since I started playing in Oct of last year when I joined an established group. The 3e PC's are ~15th to 17th level on average.

I like both games but I only worry about risk and maybe my PC getting killed when playing OAD&D which is part of the fun!

3e is the safe D&D for the players. It's the OSHA approved D&D, that works hard to keep PC's alive, protect and nurture them.

Weird, this has definitely not been my experience with 3.5e. My players have lost three characters so far along the way to an average party level of about 4. Each time it was to a creature with CR <= APL. All three were lost to melee brutes, two of those on critical hits. The damage bonuses of ogres, orcs, etc. can take a low level character from barely wounded to dead instantly.

(Psi)SeveredHead · Feb 23, 2005

If you're willing to deal with treasure accounting, feel free to slow down the pace of levelling. The only problem is that the magic items you get in treasure generally "suck" and doing this often makes the problem worse.

If you're running a D20 campaign where treasure is nowhere near as important, it becomes a lot easier to slow down progression.

Rel · Feb 23, 2005

Henry said:
Oops! Sorry.

XP System used by Rel:

http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=14391

Thanks for pimpin that, Henry. But I'll mention that we have decided to try out a new XP system for a while. Once it's seen some playtesting I'll either post it here on ENWorld or it may possibly make an appearance as a PDF put out by Behemoth.

XP and leveling progressions compared.

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