So what's the speed of character growth, real time

[Surgoshan]

Has anyone played the game long enough to get the gist of how fast level advancement is with 4.0?

It's roughly 10 encounters per level.

 

[Von Ether]

There's something I hadn't thought of ... If the game now lets you get more combats/XP earning encounters per session, a group may level up faster even if the advancement speed is the same. Hmmm.

In practice, I'm onboard with the "as fast as the DM wants." After the GM retired our 2 year game, he cut XP down to 1/6th. I saw the writing on the wall for my new rogue and bowed out.

Another two years later and my old gaming group reached 6th level. Imagine gaming for 50 or so odd sessions without that finesse feat (the one that let rogues use Dex to hit.)

No thanks.

 

[Holy Bovine]

There's something I hadn't thought of ... If the game now lets you get more combats/XP earning encounters per session, a group may level up faster even if the advancement speed is the same. Hmmm.

In practice, I'm onboard with the "as fast as the DM wants." After the GM retired our 2 year game, he cut XP down to 1/6th. I saw the writing on the wall for my new rogue and bowed out.

Another two years later and my old gaming group reached 6th level. Imagine gaming for 50 or so odd sessions without that finesse feat (the one that let rogues use Dex to hit.)

No thanks.

Ugh - too true. I have, in 3E, let PCs blow through the first 5 levels or so and then slow things down for levels 6-14. After that 3E becomes way too much of a chore to DM. I've done it three times now (had campaigns reach levels in excess of 15, 2 went to 20) and I never want to repeat it again. :\

 

[Phaezen]

Although seeing as there is no way to loose experience points in 4e (that I can find), in my campaign characters will level when it is appropriate to the storyline. This workled brilliantly in my Iron Heroes, and is also working in our final 3.x campaign ( I just give the castes a budget for creating magicl items if they want to).

Phaezen

 

[Palladion]

To add to a bit of what Phaezen said, remember that your wealth and magic item progression is now by level and those charts, not by individual monsters and encounters. You can arbitrarily say that the characters level and deliver onto them the treasure expected. Just design encounters appropriately.

My mind is fuzzy today, but I remember reading something online (the Wizards site maybe) about translating level advancement into a real time and there were some numbers there. I will post it if I find it again.

 

[Scribble]

From the DMG page 121:

The experience point numbers in the game are built so that characters complete eight to ten encounters for every level they gain. In practice, that’s six to eight encounters, one major quest, and one minor quest per character in the party.

If you were to start a campaign with 1st-level characters on January 1st, play faithfully for four or five hours every week, and manage to finish four encounters every session, your characters would enter the
paragon tier during or after your session on June 24th, reach epic levels in December, and hit 30th level the next summer. Most campaigns don’t move at this pace, however; you’ll probably find that the natural rhythms of your campaign produce a slower rate of advancement that’s easier to sustain.

If you double the XP rewards you give out, your characters will gain a level at least every other session, and hit 30th level in thirty-five sessions, or about eight months. That can be great for a campaign that runs during the school year (allowing some time for holiday
breaks).

If you want to limit your campaign to a single tier (ten levels), you could cut the XP rewards in half and stretch that campaign out to nearly a year. Characters gain levels a little less often than once a month.