Experience and a mixed level party

[MithrasRahl]

We have a mixed level party due to deaths and people buying back LA +1. We're at most 2 level apart, though back to 1 by the end of the session. The DM is handing out the same amount of experience at the end of each encounter.

I was fiddling around with an encounter calculator (no, not THAT kind of fiddling), and no matter what combinations I put it, it seemed that the lower level characters should be getting more exp with no penalty to the higher level characters. When I asked the DM about this, he said that because he was calculating the exp assuming we were all at the highest level, the higher levels were getting more exp than they would if he took into account that the lower levels should get more. Writing it down now makes it seem kinda ridiculous, but I need a better explanation than "the online encounter calculator told me so!"

Help!

 

[irdeggman]

You know that "the book" actually specifies exactly how to dole out experience for encounters and includes how to work it with mixed level parties.

Go to the 3.5 DMG pg 36 for the exact step by step method for handling exp awards.

 

[FatherTome]

Hey there,

Your DM is always right in the end. However, he's at odds with the published rules in this circumstance.

Rather than calculationg the award for a (for example) Level 9 party of six characters, when one of the characters is level 8 and one is level 7, and splitting it six ways, the DM needs to calculate three awards: One for level 9, one for 8, and one for 7. Each award gets divided by six, but the level 9 characters get the level 9 award, the lvl 8 characters the lvl 8 award, and so forth.

This is a built in 'error' for the system so that PCs aren't screwed if they lose a level from dying, level drain, etc. Lower level PCs simply get more experience from the same encounters than their higher-level counterparts.

- Tome

 

[MithrasRahl]

Thanks Fathertome, that's exactly the explanation I needed. Thanks!

 

[billd91]

This is a built in 'error' for the system so that PCs aren't screwed if they lose a level from dying, level drain, etc. Lower level PCs simply get more experience from the same encounters than their higher-level counterparts.

Characters do make up the gap, but it can be a fairly slow process. It has taken a couple of PCs with 1 level down approximately 5 levels to make the up the gap in a Shackled City campaign I'm running.
It's a feature that looks better on paper than it plays out in reality. But then, I've always had a problem with level loss dating back to 1e...

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I totally agree with FatherTome. I had this situation in my last campaign (2 PC's were a level lower than the other 3 PC's. As billd91 said, the other PC's do eventually catch up but it does take quite a while. I think by the time the campaign ended the party spent half the time all the same level and half the time 1 level apart. The lower level PC's didn't quite catch up to the higher level PC's but they did close the gap a bit.

Olaf the Stout