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<blockquote data-quote="Runesong42" data-source="post: 2129375" data-attributes="member: 10578">It seems to me that your biggest issue is sticking to what the d20 RAW expects you to reward your players.&nbsp; You've run games longer than I have, and I've run them for about 13 years myself.&nbsp; This says a lot about what kind of gamer you are, as you've been around through all 4 (counting the OD&amp;D box sets) editions of the D&amp;D game.With that kind of DMing experience, the last thing you should be expected to do is adhere to the experience tables for challenge ratings.&nbsp; This also ties in to your players wanting to reach 18th level.&nbsp; If, according to the xp charts, a PC is expected to endure X encounters before acquiring a new level, throw X encounters at them.&nbsp; Make the encounters as tough or as easy as you like.&nbsp; If their resources are drained, stop throwing encounters; if they're not, throw harder ones.Generally speaking, acc'd to the CR system, one (1) Monster of challenge rating Z can challenge a party of 4 PC's of the same Z level and be expected to drain 1/4 of their resources (I think).&nbsp; Though not always, CR is based on the HD of the monster, affected by its number of special abilities and qualities (kinda like those xp bonuses with asterisks in OD&amp;D, eh?).&nbsp; This in mind, let me take an example from AD&amp;D2: The Ogre.&nbsp; IIRC, the ogre had 4+1 HD, an AC %, and was worth 420 XP.&nbsp; I know, from experience, that a party of 2nd level heroes, played intelligently, can take an ogre.Then, award story xp rather than individual encounter xp.&nbsp; That way, you can gauge how fast you want your party to level without worrying about how many monsters of whatever challenge ratings you would normally need to supply in order to advance the PCs.&nbsp; For example, if the PC's need 30k xp to level, award them 10k xp a session and poof.&nbsp; Three sessions later, they've levelled and are as happy as can be.I'll write more when I have time.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Runesong42, post: 2129375, member: 10578"] It seems to me that your biggest issue is sticking to what the d20 RAW expects you to reward your players. You've run games longer than I have, and I've run them for about 13 years myself. This says a lot about what kind of gamer you are, as you've been around through all 4 (counting the OD&D box sets) editions of the D&D game. With that kind of DMing experience, the last thing you should be expected to do is adhere to the experience tables for challenge ratings. This also ties in to your players wanting to reach 18th level. If, according to the xp charts, a PC is expected to endure X encounters before acquiring a new level, throw X encounters at them. Make the encounters as tough or as easy as you like. If their resources are drained, stop throwing encounters; if they're not, throw harder ones. Generally speaking, acc'd to the CR system, one (1) Monster of challenge rating Z can challenge a party of 4 PC's of the same Z level and be expected to drain 1/4 of their resources (I think). Though not always, CR is based on the HD of the monster, affected by its number of special abilities and qualities (kinda like those xp bonuses with asterisks in OD&D, eh?). This in mind, let me take an example from AD&D2: The Ogre. IIRC, the ogre had 4+1 HD, an AC %, and was worth 420 XP. I know, from experience, that a party of 2nd level heroes, played intelligently, can take an ogre. Then, award story xp rather than individual encounter xp. That way, you can gauge how fast you want your party to level without worrying about how many monsters of whatever challenge ratings you would normally need to supply in order to advance the PCs. For example, if the PC's need 30k xp to level, award them 10k xp a session and poof. Three sessions later, they've levelled and are as happy as can be. I'll write more when I have time. [/QUOTE]

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