4e - what kind of rate of advancement is typical?

[S'mon]

Gearing up to run 4e for the first time, there's a lot of things to wonder about.

One big question for GMs and players of 4e games: In practice, how many sessions have you found it typically takes for PCs to level up? The book says "8-10 encounters" and I get the impression (eg from Dungeon Delve) that 3 major encounters per session is typical in 4e, which would indicate 3 sessions to level. But lengthy battles could reduce this; quest awards could increase it, etc. Obviously sessions much longer than the expected 4-5 hours could increase the rate, too.

Have you found it is around once every 3 sessions, more like 1 per 2, or something else?

 

[Crothian]

No more then once a month but I run fewer combats per session.

 

[Ginnel]

Hmmm lets see what I can remember we ran through the WotC published adventures shadowfell, and thunderspire, and we made 1st-6th within 5/6 months so around 4 sessions a level.

That was with typically between 1-2 fights in a 3 - 3 1/2 hour session sometimes 3. That was with 5 players Fgt, Pal, Warlord, Clr, Warlock

Most of the DMs I know including pick a figure and then say why you got that amount of xp rather than let fighting be the main chunk of it and calculating it from what the book says.

 

[fba827]

In the two campaigns we rotate between (for different DMs), our group goes through about 4-5 encounters per session. And we end up leveling about every other session. So, yeah, we level every 8-10 encounters, give or take a little if an encounter was especially difficult or especially easy...

 

[Hereticus]

Our gaming sessions (3-3.5 hrs) consisted of three encounters per session, one or two were combats.

As far as advancement went, we threw XP out the window.

Levels 01-05: Three
Levels 06-10: Four
Levels 11-13: Five
Levels 16-60: Six
Levels 21-25: Seven
Levels 26-30: Eight

Unfortunately our game just ended at 13th level due to numerous moves.

 

[Is_907]

We started a new campaign (me DMing) last week and played session two tonight... four encounters plus quest XP got them to level 2.
But we also decided tonight that we won't track XP gain. I'll just level them at appropriate points in the story of the campaign.
Just easier for a story driven campaign to do it that way.

 

[Hawke]

We level about every 3 sessions and threw out the XP and leveling chart. I respect people who use it, but it just hasn't ever worked right for the groups I play in.

 

[Hjorimir]

What I do as a DM is get together the level's treasure parcels and make sure to hand them out appropriately. After I've handed out all of the treasure, I know I'm free to level them. So I basically level the characters at speed of plot making sure that I don't mess up game balance along the way.

 

[Jack99]

My players have leveled around every 17 hours - so depending on how long you play...

 

[wedgeski]

We've played 25 x 4 hour sessions and the PC's just hit 5th level this weekend.