PC Death and XP

[Darkness]

IMC characters are not permitted more than three bites at the apple...their original life path and two returns from the grave. This makes it impossible for someone to fall too far behind. Besides, if a PC bites the bullet that many times, I'd say they've got bad mojo and other karma issues .

What about permanent level drain, though?

 

[Balgus]

I use my own concoction. It has not been in play long enough for me to tell you how effective it is, but my players seems to like it.

Xp for a session per player is
((lvl-1)/2)*1000+ (CR-lvl)*100

(CR-lvl)*100 only applies if it is greater than 0. It is just sad to ding someone xp for fighting below their level.

So it takes about 2 sessions for each player to level up, and some additional Xp leftover so that they can make magic items or such.

 

[Arnwyn]

Let 'er ride. We've had a fairly diverse range actually (more than 5 levels at one point), and we just let it go. IMC, the players have got it into their heads to protect the lower level ones, otherwise they'll all be in a load of trouble. Oh, and the FRCS XP system.

Works for us.

 

[Quickbeam]

What about permanent level drain, though?

Well, that's just DM fun of another sort .
Truth be told though Darkness, my players darn near always avoid such harsh effects...curse them and their luck!! I need to work on more vicious encounters I suppose...

 

[Wormwood]

Another *enthusiastic* vote for the FRCS method.

 

[Shin Okada]

Another *fanatic* vote for the FRCS method.

I found this method also encourage spell casters to take and use item creation feats.

 

[MerricB]

I have run a party with 5 PCs and 4 cohorts, and the FRCS system runs into severe problems, especially with the cohorts - they're gaining more XP than the PCs even with half XP penalties!

XP also takes a long time to calculate with many characters of different levels.

It works... sort of.

Cheers!

 

[hong]

I have run a party with 5 PCs and 4 cohorts, and the FRCS system runs into severe problems, especially with the cohorts - they're gaining more XP than the PCs even with half XP penalties!

That must be because you have a large gap between the PC and NPC levels. In our current high-level campaign, the 14th-15th level PCs are getting more XP than the 12th level cohort, so you can see that it eventually fixes itself.

 

[MerricB]

It does. It is just depressing for the players.

"My cohort got more than me? Huh?"

I move more and more towards giving out arbitrary XP awards than using any system.

Cheers!

 

[Shin Okada]

What's wrong about it? NPC cohorts get more XP than PCs only when they are 3 or so levels lower than PCs. Even so, their total XP never excees PCs. So there will be no problem IMO. At least my players are not complaining about it.