Level Progression

[Kastil]

My husband and I had a brief discussion on how fast leveling up should happen. He says it should take 13 encounters at the CR level of a four character group.

I think that's a little too long to wait to level up. I always thought you should level up between 5-6 good sessions with an even mix up combat and RPing. Of course I've been accused of being too generous with my RPing XPs rewards but I figure if someone actively participates in the game, they should be rewarded for their efforts.

How soon should a group level up? I'm curious how other DMs do it.

 

[Nightfall]

I don't actually count but I always feel it depends on a) the encounters used, b) the level of the party and c) the fact if you're having fun or not.

 

[Zoatebix]

Well, if you have two encounters per session, then the 13 encounter design really isn't far from what you want...

 

[Davelozzi]

I'm confused. He says every 13 balanced encounters (as per the DMG), but you think that's too slow and that it should happen every 5-6 sessions? How many encounters do you have per session? If you average two encounters, with the occasional session of three encounters, you'd be leveling at least every 5-6 sessions. Are you only having one encounter per session or am I missing something?

 

[kamosa]

My husband and I had a brief discussion on how fast leveling up should happen. He says it should take 13 encounters at the CR level of a four character group.

I think that's a little too long to wait to level up. I always thought you should level up between 5-6 good sessions with an even mix up combat and RPing. Of course I've been accused of being too generous with my RPing XPs rewards but I figure if someone actively participates in the game, they should be rewarded for their efforts.

How soon should a group level up? I'm curious how other DMs do it.

Of course this varies greatly by campaign, but in my game I aim for once every 5 to 8 sessions. In the current campaign this puts us leveling every other adventure or so.

 

[Piratecat]

If you have sessions without normal encounters, Kastil, there's nothing wrong with assigning xp for the roleplaying so that PCs level at the rate you like. My campaign levels at about half that speed (once every 10-12 sessions), but it's a pace that worls well for us.

 

[Liolel]

Lets see in the campaign I'm running it has taken 5 sessions from the party to go from level 4 to 5. Of course if there was one more encounter in the first 4 sessions it would have taken 4. After the 4th session the party was 101 experince points away from 5th level. And they had 4 encounters in that 5th session which was a little record for me.

 

[Crothian]

It depends on the group, how long you play, and how much gets done in the session. IMC we have only 2 players and play about 6-8 hour sessions of solid gaming. So, we level fast in number of sessions but it feels right for us with the amount of work we get done.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

I level-up the PCs after completing a number of related scenarios; At 1 session a week, this can take as little as 2-3 weeks or several months of real time. I think our longest stretch was about a year without leveling, although they have also leveled in a single night once when a major demon was released from his prison within the heart of a city and he called his minions to him from his demonic plane.

 

[randomling]

I'm still working on this. I'm running a no-combat (so far), solo Modern campaign, so all my XP awards are ad-hoc. I'm a fairly inexperienced DM, and I'm never sure what to award for a session that's heavy on the roleplaying and skill checks but light on the actual CRable "encounters".

I don't necessarily want my PC to level up at the speed of light, but at the same time, I don't want him to suddenly be 6th level without really having done anything. So how do people adjudicate how much good RPing, critical skill checks, dealing with people on a diplomatic basis, etc, are "worth"?