D&D 4E 4E wackiness escalation

[babomb]

My impression at the time was that it would take the playability fom levels 4-14 and stretch them over 1-30, but there was no mention made of power relative to the game world.

This is confirmed D&D podcast 15.

 

[Imp]

Where did you get this idea from?

The absolutely titanic amount of experience points required to advance at that stage.

(Topped out at 10th for a thief or two, 9th for a magic-user, 8th for a fighter)

 

[pemerton]

But the absolutely titanic amounts of GP awarded by the random treasure tables delivered what was required!

 

[Nikosandros]

Highest I ever got via organic advancement was 5th level.

Cheers, -- N

I've seen plenty of characters reach high level through organic advancement in AD&D.

 

[jasin]

Highest I ever got via organic advancement was 5th level.

I went to 8th or 9th with a paladin and 9th or 10th with a bard! I think they both started at 1st...

That was 2E.

 

[Nifft]

I went to 8th or 9th with a paladin and 9th or 10th with a bard! I think they both started at 1st...

That was 2E.

Yeah, I was about to congratulate you on actually playing a Bard (!!!).

I missed 2e -- went straight from 1e to 3e.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Merlion]

Yeah, I was about to congratulate you on actually playing a Bard (!!!).

I missed 2e -- went straight from 1e to 3e.

Cheers, -- N

You didn't miss much.

 

[Jhaelen]

I've seen plenty of characters reach high level through organic advancement in AD&D.

What's organic advancement?

In 1st./2nd.ed. it took such enormous amounts of xp to advance after the 'name levels' that it was largely unheard of in my experience.

Btw. the SSI D&D games used ridiculously high ad-hoc xp awards to make further advancement possible. E.g. I remember an incident in 'Death Knights of Krynn' where a character received a 6-digit xp award for jumping in the way of a lightning bolt to save an npc's life.
Not something I ever cared to emulate in my AD&D games.

 

[Imp]

But the absolutely titanic amounts of GP awarded by the random treasure tables delivered what was required!

Dude, not even, unless you exclusively went after like adult dragons. I went by those tables. Half the time you wound up wheelbarrowing silver home... And anyway, even dragon hoards cap out; maybe you get to 12th, 13th if you're real persistent.

If you played a lot of module adventures, I gather you were in better shape treasurewise.

Btw. the SSI D&D games used ridiculously high ad-hoc xp awards to make further advancement possible. E.g. I remember an incident in 'Death Knights of Krynn' where a character received a 6-digit xp award for jumping in the way of a lightning bolt to save an npc's life.

Also kind of an issue late in the Baldur's Gate series...

 

[ruleslawyer]

I DM'ed a group from 1st to 21st or so level; it took about ten years of pretty intense gameplay and went from 1e to 2e, but it did happen, with relatively few character deaths (replacement PCs started at average party level -4 right up until 13th level, at which point no one died any more). We did use 4d6 drop one, arrange as desired, which might have helped the survival rate a bit. I stopped giving out XP for treasure around our switch to 2e (7th level), but compensated by allowing the optional XP awards in the DMG and by usually tagging on a bit of story XP. Certainly did NOT feel like it was impossible to rack up sufficient monster XP; demons are worth a lot of XP even in 1e!