Story-based levelling

[drnuncheon]

I'm thinking about abandoning XP for my newly-started game, and instead granting my players levelups at certain points in the campaign - at the end of adventures or other major victories, for example. (This would remove a lot of headache from me keepign track of individual XP as well.)

But I've got three spellcasters, and the possibility of magic items being made, which are traditionally balanced by XP costs, as well as spells with XP costs, etc. So now I'm faced with having to find a way to rebalance these mechanics.

We are using action points, so there exists a possibility there, but I'd like to hear if there are other people in similar situations and what they've done. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

J

 

[Crothian]

You could have them gain levels slower. ERveryone gains a level after defeating the Hydra, except the wizard who gains a level a session later. Or you could start requiring more money and unique, hard to get components. REquiring action points would also work.

 

[Lord Morte]

Rare and difficult to acquire components would probably be the easiest option (from a record-keeping POV). I'm not sure how well action points would work as an item creation component, as spell-casters have as much call for them as skill-based and combat-orientated characters. I'd say it would especially break down around things like Brew Potion and Scribe Scroll, which are supposed to be cheap and plentiful. Alternatively, a reserve of points, such as the artificer's craft pool, that accrue at each level and can be spent instead of xp in item creation?

Have you considered granting actual xp at campaign-appropriate points rather than straight level-ups? What I mean is, granting the party 1000 xp after successful rescuing the princess, so they can either level up or spend it on items as they wish? Removing xp completely has too many flow-on effects to be done easily.

 

[Piratecat]

I tend to have PCs level about every ten sessions. That means that for the purpose of making items or casting xp-cost spells, they'd gain 1/10th of a level per session.

You can do this same sort of thing; just adjust it by the number of approximate sessions you expect to have before they level up for story purposes.

 

[FireLance]

One way is to ignore XP costs and allow characters with item creation feats to make magic items at 75% of the cost instead of half cost plus XP. Spells with XP costs can use expensive material components costing 5 gp / XP instead (essentially, power components).

Spending action points is another possibility. Unearthed Arcana mentioned that an action point can be considered a magic item worth 500 gp per character level. Hence, spending an action point may be worth 100 xp per character level (again, using the 5 gp / XP conversion rate).

 

[Nifft]

I do story-based leveling, but I hide it by pretending that I'm "waiting for downtime" to give them XP. They can't make items when they lack downtime anyway...

Most of the players are okay with it, but one guy -- the one who wants control of stuff -- is a bit annoyed. Dunno what I'm gonna do.

-- N

 

[drnuncheon]

Some interesting suggestions there.

The germ of the idea came from a player's suggestion, but the more I thought about the possibility of not having to keep track of XP at all, the more I liked it. Unfortunately, that desire for simplicity makes it tough to do, because you're effectively giving up the fine control you have using the XP system.

Firelance, thanks for pointing the UA section out (although it's 100 gp/level, meaning 20 xp). That will probably help out a great deal. I'll run it by my players and see what they think.

J

 

[maddman75]

Long ago, I tossed the overly complicated XP table and the creative fictions known as 'CR' out the window. PCs gain an amount of XP worth whatever % of a level I want them to advance at. Works wonders.

For the control-freak player, inform him *clearly* that you get XP for advancing the story, not for killing monsters. You can gain an entire level's worth of XP without killing anything. You can kill hordes of monsters and gain nothing. The two have nothing to do with each other.

 

[Quickleaf]

The way I see it, you don't need to adapt the experience point system to your idea. You need to adapt the magic item creation system! Get rid of the need for XP in creating items (and for certain spells), and your problem is solved.

Many ideas have been discussed for doing this. Here are some that I remember:

-Power components: Require special quests to get spell components for powerful spells or for creating magic items. One trick I love to use is "paradoxical components" such as "a tear that was never shed" or "clay baked by a sun that never rises." These require some real mind-bending and are great puzzle-quests that allow a wizard a good deal of creativity.

-Get the Encyclopedia Arcane and use the magic item creation system there. I hear it is very good.

-Replace the experience costs of spells with ability score costs, or other appropriate sacrifices. For example, to cast permanency, a wizard might have to meet one of the following conditions: an oath to never have a permanent home, be an upstanding and stable (i.e. non-transient) member of a society, invest some of their own life force (Constitution) into the permanent effect, etc.

-*Require* spells with EXP costs to be cast by multiple casters in a ritual. This should make them far more rare, and (since you have a party of 3 spellcasters) encourage them to work in concert more, possibly leading into designing their own ritual spells.


I used a similar "level-up" system in a campaign. During the first half of the campaign we used XP as normal. After a while it got tedious, and I asked the PCs if they were OK with leveling up, and they thought it was a great idea. Of course, that was 2ed.