Does my party gain lvl too fast?

[ShadowMaster]

We play each friday from 6:00pm to 01:00-02:00AM and my groups gain a lvl each 3 games... Is that normal? In 2nd edition, I remember it took us many more sessions to gain a lvl. Is it me that gives too many xp or what?

I dunno if I understand the difference between EL and monster LVL.

 

[Zhure]

I can only give you anecdotal information. In our campaign, we gained levels at a rate of one level every session or two for the first six levels. Things slowed down a lot until 9th level (where we are now) to about once every four to ten sessions.

Hope that helps,
Greg

 

[jhallum]

In my game, people seem to be levelling every 4-6 sessions. Seems about right to me, and the players seem to be pretty happy. They are just hitting 6th level after 24 sessions of 4-5 hour games. The campaign should last 50 or so sessions, which means the group should be 10th level at the end (roughly).


In my buddy's game, we're third level after 5 sessions. He says it will slow down shortly, he just wanted to boost our HP's so we could fight stronger things. *sigh*.

 

[Holy Bovine]

We play each friday from 6:00pm to 01:00-02:00AM and my groups gain a lvl each 3 games... Is that normal? In 2nd edition, I remember it took us many more sessions to gain a lvl. Is it me that gives too many xp or what?

I dunno if I understand the difference between EL and monster LVL.

EL is just used to guage how strong an encounter is in comparision to your group. 'Monster Lvl' (I assume you mean Challenge Rating) is what you use to determine how much experience points the party gets for defeating the creature.

CR should never be increased even if there are multiples of the same creature. Just use the base CR to determine how much experience each creature is worth and multiply that figure by the number defeated.

 

[Orco42]

On average every 13-14 fights (for a equal CR and a 4 person party) you will get a level up.

 

[Altalazar]

Early leveling is a lot faster than it used to be, then it starts to taper off to a level every three or four sessions (for me).

Here is the breakdown for two different campaigns I've run for 3E (didn't keep track of my first 3E game this way):

Session 1: 850
Session 2: 750 Total: 1,600 (level 2)
Session 3: 1400 Total: 3,000 (level 3)
Session 4: 900 Total: 3,900
Session 5: 1600 Total: 5,500
Session 6: 2000 Total: 7,500 (level 4)
Session 7: 1100 Total: 8,600
Session 8: 1600 Total: 10,200 (level 5)
Session 9: 2000 Total: 12,200
Session 10: 1100 Total: 13,300
Session 11: 2000 Total: 15,300 (level 6)



Session 1: 500
Session 2: 800 Total: 1,300 (level 2)
Session 3: 1000 Total: 2,300
Session 4: 800 Total: 3,100 (level 3)
Session 5: 950 Total: 4,050
Session 6: 1500 Total: 5,550
Session 7: 750 Total: 6300 (level 4)


I think it is a good pace, especially for the early levels. I really like to start off at 1st level, though a lot of players get tired of fighting dire rats (heh). From 1st level, you can have more of a chance to develop the character as you go - at lower levels there are less options/power, and I think that vacuum of power can be filled with personality. But that's just me.

 

[Nish]

Well, from what I remember, the game is balanced so that the average party, with the average gaming group, playing average game sessions, at average intervals, will reach level 20 in about a year and a half to two years of regular game play.

The standardized party consists of four characters now, and I believe that the designers determined that the average group plays one four hour gaming session per week, and based on their numbers regarding average encounters per session and exp per encounter, the party should level once every four game sessions. Which means as the game is designed, it takes 16 hours of playing to level. Since you stated that you play 7-8 hour game sessions, leveling once every 3 game sessions (21-24 hours) is actually a bit slow. The most likely reason for the discrepancy is that you don't have quite the same density of exp producing encounters (read: combat) in your games.

The bottom line is that 3e is designed so that you level much faster than previous editions, but that has to do with the fact that high levels are now designed to actually be achieved and played at, whereas before few people made it past level 10 or so.

And besides, exp is one of the easiest things for a DM to change in a campaign. I personally don't like the 3e exp system, I think that anything thing less 24 hours per level begins to strain credibility (although I understand that the system is designed for people who play shorter games). Just remember that you're probably not doing anything really wrong, but if you feel that the PC are advancing faster than you like, just give them less exp.

 

[Gallant Farstryder]

In my campaign, PC's level about every 2 sessions. This is on average, levels 1-8. We play once every other week, for about 6 hours. Why do we level this quick? Well it kinda is fast, imho, but on the other hand we don't play often. So I like to keep the game going.

In short level when you are comfortable, and keep everyone happy. It is a GAME afterall...

Gallant Farstryder

 

[Madfox]

Personally, I find the question a bit strange. You are leveling your PCs too fast only if you and your players think it is too fast. If you do not have any problems with the current rate, then you are not leveling the PCs too fast

Personally I tend to level the PCs once every 4 or 5 sessions, with the exception of the first two levels. I do not like to have the PCs at lvl 1 too long, so most of the time they level once every two session at those levels. Considering I have only run three campaigns in 3rd edition yet (and one started at 3rd lvl) 'most of the time' does sound a bit silly

 

[FungiMuncher]

In the campaign I've been running, the characters have been leveling about every 3-5 sessions. They're around levels 7-10. We play once a week, for about 4 hours each. However, when I throw combat at them, the EL is always at their average level or better.

This seems about right, but I'd like to slow it down from now on out.