How fast do you level in 3.x? (read before you vote)

[FireLance]

You should have voted "1" and "2" then - I notice no one has voted "1", which seems odd and not reflective of comments like the above & others I've seen.

The way Hussar has defined it, a "session" is 3-4 hours long. A 12-hour gaming marathon is thus considered 3 "sessions" despite it being a single continuous gaming experience.

For our group, the lower levels pass fairly quickly, so we do gain a level per 3-4 hour "session". It tends to slow down a little once we get to the mid levels (level 7+), but we still gain a level at least once per two "sessions" or so.

 

[yipwyg42]

Lets see

every session is approx 5 hours with about 3 hours of serious game time, not catching up. My group meets every weekend. The last campaign was about 5 months real time So 20-22 sessions to reach 14th level. In my view way to fast, barely enough time to enjoy a level before obtaining another one.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

The group I am currently witrh takes an avergae of 6 hours to gain a level, though there has been the occasional time where it only takes four hours to level up.

 

[Aeric]

The first three levels are usually blasted through in a single session each.

From 4-6, usually around 2-3 sessions each.

After that, it's anywhere from 4-7 sessions until we hit the low-to-mid 'teens (13-15), then it goes back to once every 3-4 sessions.

I've never run/played a game where characters advanced farther than 18th level (earned up to 15th plus levels from a Deck of Many Things), so I can't say how the last couple of levels--or epic levels--run.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I suppose I could have done it by hours, but, then, the poll would have been about 40 selections long. I figured a bit of simple math wouldn't be too difficult for anyone.

Besides, someone needs something to bitch about with every poll, so, it looks like I have an early winner.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

In the game I run, every four to six sessions. In the first game in which I play, we move very slowly (not all because of the DM) and level every eight or nine sessions. (We once went three RL months between sessions, which was about 12 or 13 sessions.) In the second game in which I play, the DM goes mostly by the book, so we levelled quickly to 4th level (about every four sessions). That'll begin to slow down to something like every five or six sessions, I imagine..

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think it works out at about once every 3 sessions (a single session being 6-7hrs), so that works out as '6 sessions' in your poll. Below average I see!

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Yeah, I suppose I could have done it by hours, but, then, the poll would have been about 40 selections long. I figured a bit of simple math wouldn't be too difficult for anyone.

If you are happy with 20% or so error, knock yourself out.

 

[Toben the Many]

I think frequency of play factors into what happens at the table. For example, one group I run advances after each session, because it means so infrequently. We're lucky if we game 1 time in 1 month.

However, the regular game that I play in advances much slower.

 

[Doug McCrae]

We play 8 hour sessions and level once every two, so that's one level approximately every 16 hours. We have about 4 encounters per session, so we're under the DMG recomendation of 1 level/13-14 encounters.

It should be noted that we don't use xp, we just level whenever, so this isn't really 3.x at all.