D&D 4E Are you supposed to level faster in 4e?

[Campbell]

Does it matter ? Given that 4e's treasure reward system is decoupled from the opponents you face, I don't really see a need to conform to 4e's pace of leveling unless you're using modules. I would continue to advance at a rate that feels right to your group.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Sort of. On the other hand, it was quite common in 3e to "overload" encounters - I know that I, for one, almost never used encounters below the PCs' level, but quite often above, in order to compensate for action points and other power creep, as well as for various classes being able to "nova". Pretty sure I've seen a Design & Development article to that effect as well.

Anyway, so while the intention in 3e might have been to have 13 1/3 encounters per level, the truth is probably closer to 7-10.

Sure. But it was designed so that 13.33 encounters of your level get you one level. At all levels. It didn't assume that was all you did, and in fact suggests a certain mix of different level encounters, with the basic assumption of 4 encounters per day.
Though I think in practice both homebrew adventures and published modules or adventure paths diverged even from these suggested guidelines and included a lot more higher level encounters.

4E assumes 10 encounters of the party level to grant the party one level. It also suggests that you mix equal level with higher level encounters, so you get a "faster" rate of advancement.
I wonder how practice will turn out for 4E - will homebrews and modules also create a "power-creep"? Or will the guidelines actually hold this time?

 

[Dausuul]

As DM for my group, I shoot for a level every 2-3 sessions. I actually quit tracking XP because it didn't seem worth the bother; instead, I arrange for the PCs to achieve some significant goal about every 2-3 sessions and hand out a level then. For instance, my PCs hit 5th level after they fought their way to and defeated the dragon guarding the secret entrance to a castle; they hit 6th level after killing an orc warlord who was one of the major villains; and they hit 7th level after successfully bringing a group of refugees back to safety.

 

[Asmor]

I think that a 10th level character needs 5500 exp to get 11th level (off the top of my head, 10th is 20,500 and 11th is 26,000. I might be wrong).

A level 10 encounter is worth 500 exp per player (e.g. a level 10 encounter for 5 players is 2500 exp).

So on average, it will take 11 encounters for a 10th level character to hit 11. Call it 9-10 encounters to factor in story/quest rewards.

No idea how this scales up at other levels, this was just handy because I've got some 10th level characters that hit 11 at the last session.

That does seem a bit faster than 3rd edition, which IIRC is based on 12-13 encounters worth of exp to level up.

 

[keterys]

10th-11th and 20th-21st are actually exceptions to the normal XP amounts, for tier upgrades.