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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 323494" data-attributes="member: 2013">I was kicking around an idea on the House Rules boards here:<a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=323467" target="_blank">http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=323467</a>and it brought up a question in my mind.  Not sure if this should go to House Rules, Rules, or General Discussion, so if it's in the wrong place, I'll ask the moderators to move it.Is the "Average Party Level" system a bit off?  Shouldn't we really be using "Total XP gained?"  We have lots of supplements out there that suggest that PCs ought to be able to "buy" extra abilities - with an XP cost.  Such a character would be more powerful than a character of the same level who had not bought the ability - yet the system doesn't account for that.  Not only does it exist in supplements, though - it exists in the Core Rules themselves.  The system doesn't contain a "fudge factor" for the 12th-level wizard who spends all the XP that would have gone towards 13th and 14th levels crafting staffs.  He has a ton of staffs, and is clearly therefore more powerful than your "standard" 12th-level wizard (his power level should be equal to a 14th level wizard).  Yet he gains "extra XP" for being "seen" as 12th level (i.e., defeating a CR12 monster gains him more XP if he's 12th level than if he's 14th).This makes me think that we should use "total XP gained" to determine a party's effective level and completely ignore the character's actual level.  XP values for ECL's ought to be "lumped in" as though they were XP.  An interesting thought... I'm putting this in "General Discussion" because I'm not quite sure if it belongs in House Rules (as it isn't a rule per se, but a discussion of the system itself) and I'm not quite sure if it belongs in Rules (since we are not excatly discussing a rule - or even a lack of rule or interpretation of a rule or lack thereof).Am I off my nut here, or am I correct to perceive that the 3e system is slightly flawed in that it uses Character Level to determine Character power in the ratio used to determine XP awarded (Character Power:Challenge Rating) rather than using XP to determine Character Power?This even spills in to how much treasure a character has.  A character who has earned the XP of a 14th level character should have earned the gold of a 14th level character even if his XP expenditures keep him at 12th level.  We have seen that "naked adventurers" are at a disadvantage, while "over-rich characters" are at an advantage.  The 12th-level character who spent the XP that would have taken him to 13th and 14th levels is clearly more powerful than the 12th-level character who got just enough XP to make it to 12th level - he should have more money and will have more special abilities (XP-bought and either intrinsic or contained in magic items).  Why then, do we treat his "Character Power" in determining XP the same?  Thoughts?--The Sigil</blockquote>

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