D&D 4E 4ed Pace of advancement... do we know anything ?

[Campbell]

What is this XP of which you speak ? It looks like 4e is being structured so that I can finally use the advance when it feels right method without any incedental house rules.

• Level drain is gone.
• XP as a spell component is gone.
• XP as a component for crafting is gone.

 

[keterys]

WotC stated outright that no effect ever takes your xp, ever. It's only used for advancement, and it's easy to handwave as desired.

 

[Will]

Yeah, this is something I'm happy to hear about. I much prefer advancement at an arbitrary rate I set.

Among other things, it rewards players for being clever, because they know that if they solve a problem in such a way that circumvents facing 100 goblins, the DM is never going to debate giving them XP for 'dealing with' 100 goblins.

It also makes them a lot more willing to have an episode go by where they attend a ball, or whatnot.

 

[arscott]

But, conveniently, quest rewards codify XP gain from non-combat situations. So arbitrarily leveling the party is no longer the only practical option.

 

[Simonides]

We know that there are three adventures being published by WOTC per 10 levels, at least for the first 20 levels. So 3-4 levels per adventure.

In the podcast (Mailbag), it was stated that these adventures are a little different from your standard module. Each consists of a dungeon to explore that contains 30-40 encounters. So, they are just big super dungeons. Given that they contain 30-40 encounters and each one is expected to cover 3-4 levels, that supports the 10 encounters make a level theory.

 

[JoelF]

Keep in mind that 1 encounter in 4e can often have many more monsters/enemies, and have multiple waves of creatures, which in 3e would have often been separate encounters. Therefore, 4e might have a slower rate of advancement if you're counting up the opposition defeated, even if it's fewer encounters.

 

[kennew142]

I'm not too concerned about the official rate of advancement in 4e. IMC, advancement will be somewhat arbitrary. PCs will level at a fairly regular, but much slower pace than the RAW. I use a somewhat vague system wherein short scenarios equal 1 point; medium scenarios 2 points; long scenarios 3 points; and really long scenarios 4 points. Characters level after accumulating 4 points. The PCs never see this system in action. After a scenario ends (and at no point during the scenario), I award 250 xp per character level, per adventure point to each character in play.

I've been using this system in 3e as well. I had to house rule level loss away (I've hated it since 1978), and I had to give 10% extra xp to cover things like crafting and casting spells with xp components.

My group prefers play in what 4e refers to as the heroic tier. If the sweet spot is extended as promised, we may enjoy the paragon tier as well. The playtest reviews we've seen that deal with the epic tier make it clear that most of us will probably not like it.

We like much slower advancement (similar to 2e) and a lot of downtime between adventures. This more than anything else has led to our intense dislike of Adventure Path type campaigns (although it took us Shackled City, Age of Worms and Savage Tide before we put it in those terms).

 

[Mirtek]

I wouldn't worry too much about the official pace of advancement. Didn't one of the playtesters write that he can imagine most people stopping at paragon before they enter epic and everything get's really weird?

If so then most DM will surely slow down to pace to stretch 1-20 to the same time it would officially take for 1-30.

I could also imagine that the RPGA will slow down the pace as well, given that they only run up to 16th level in 3.x I don't see them running up to 30th level in 4e (maybe not even to 20th level)

 

[psionotic]

Count me in the camp that likes the elimination of elements (xp drain, xp costs for crafting) that prevent me from arbitrary advancement. We usually game 2-3x per month, and if the party levels every other session, than a 1-30 campaign (assuming one goes that long) would take us just about two years. That sounds about right to me.

 

[WyzardWhately]

Skill challenges, including social encounters, will also give XP. So, probably slightly less than ten fights/level, on average, if you do a lot of stuff besides fighting.