13.33 encounters to rise a level?

[Geoffrey]

I seem to remember reading that 3E is geared this way:

1. On average, after winning 13.33 combats the PCs will gain a level.

2. It should take, on average, four game sessions for the PCs to gain a level.

If you put those two things together, that would mean that the average session has only 3 or 4 combats in which the PCs emerge victorious.

Does this sound right? In my OAD&D games, a typical session lasted 4 hours and I know that there were more combats than that. Probably double: 6 to 8. Am I missing something here? Am I misunderstanding 3E? Or was my old group just more combat-oriented than most?

 

[reiella]

One thing that's important to realize is that is an average.

Some sessions are meant to be intentionally lighter (you typically don't have the full run of combat when you're in town getting setup).

 

[Gothmog]

It sounds like your group is more combat heavy than most. I realize my games are a lot less combat oriented than most D&D, but we game for 8-12 hours at a time, and have maybe 2-3 combats in that period. I think you are right- the designers anticipated 13.33 combats on average per level, depending on the CR of those encounters. Of course, if you do use another method for gaining XP other than killing and looting (which I do), the CR/XP tables tend to be about as useful as a three-legged cat.

 

[Crothian]

Numbers such as these lose meaning when trying to apply them to one game. When your taking the averages of thousands of different gaming groups, it's hard to have that effect one particuliar group as styles are so varied.

 

[Conaill]

Your group may be a bit moreon the combat-heavy side. Ours rarely gets in more than two combats per session. Then again, our combats typically take an hour or more to resolve...

 

[Derulbaskul]

I DM two PCs with very good stats (but slightly below average equipment) in one high-combat/low-magic campaign and they gain levels at a rate which would result in cries of "munchkin", "broken", "power gamer" and other gamer insults.

So far, they gain one level every 1 to 2 hours of playing time.

This is not necessarily my preferred way to DM but we're all enjoying the game, there is still a reasonable amount of RP plus an unfolding plot that we're all intrigued by: it's just like playing NN or IWDII on the lowest difficulty setting!

Cheers
NPP

 

[CmdrSam]

We have ~3 hour sessions and average one actual fight every 2 or 3 sessions.

As regards experience, I tend to arbitrarily give them enough XP to level every 2 sessions or so, so that they have a chance of hitting the high levels by the time the campaign is over...

--Sam L-L

 

[Monte At Home]

One thing to remember is that it averages out over time.

At first level, you could easily have more than 3-4 combats in a combat-heavy session, like in a dungeon.

At 10th level, or 15th level, even a combat-heavy session's going to have probably 2 encounters, because they take longer (and there's usually more going on between combat encounters like divination spells, special curatives, invisible scouting, etc. that all takes game time).

The other thing to remember is that the 13.33 figure is based on encounters of your CR. In a session, you might have 3 encounters of (your level - 1), one of (your level), and one of (your level +1).

It does indeed assume a 4 hour session, playing once a week, with four characters (so you average about a level gain every 4 sessions or so).

 

[Pbartender]

Another thing to remember is that an encounter does not necessarily mean combat.

Experience could be gained from bypassing traps, solving puzzles, uncovering new information, negotiating your way out of trouble or any number of other non-combat encounters.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

We average 2-4 combat encounters per six-hour session.