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<blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5021322" data-attributes="member: 80487">Taking &quot;fairly equal&quot; a bit more flexibly, it was usually the same a few years ago, in the 20th century, Janx! The key difference was that we considered the matter as players, in deciding which characters would join a given expedition in the first place.Now, sometimes a higher-level party might take along a notably lower-level character specifically for &quot;seasoning&quot;. Equality of contribution is clearly not expected -- but neither is it expected of henchmen, and they get x.p. (albeit at half rate). It can be a pretty quick way to advance a character, provided it survives (which is far from assured, for all the protection the more powerful patrons can provide).The assumed context of, at the least, &quot;the party&quot; as basically a constant -- usually including all members' survival and success as a normative expectation if not (as plainly recommended in 4e) an entitlement -- radically changes the nature of the game.A Fighter Lord when fresh might have more than 50 hit points, and a High Priest his peer might be able to &quot;tank up&quot; two such comrades in a day. But suppose the Cleric is otherwise disposed, and Lord Lazy-Not when at half his strength has an opportunity to go on an adventure with a lower-level band? The haul won't be much, but certainly more than he'll get by staying in bed.High-level spell-casters run into the problem of not having enough hours in a day -- or, eventually, in a week -- to replenish their stocks of spells.And of course the fellows off on a wilderness adventure that's already a week into the &quot;future&quot; can't teleport back to town in time to join today's expedition into the underworld beneath the ruins of the Cursed Chateau.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ariosto, post: 5021322, member: 80487"] Taking "fairly equal" a bit more flexibly, it was usually the same a few years ago, in the 20th century, Janx! The key difference was that we considered the matter [i]as players[/i], in deciding which characters would join a given expedition in the first place. Now, sometimes a higher-level party might take along a notably lower-level character specifically for "seasoning". Equality of contribution is clearly not expected -- but neither is it expected of henchmen, and they get x.p. (albeit at half rate). It can be a pretty quick way to advance a character, provided it survives (which is far from assured, for all the protection the more powerful patrons can provide). The assumed context of, at the least, "the party" as basically a constant -- usually including all members' survival and success as a normative expectation if not (as plainly recommended in 4e) an entitlement -- radically changes the nature of the game. A Fighter Lord when fresh might have more than 50 hit points, and a High Priest his peer might be able to "tank up" two such comrades in a day. But suppose the Cleric is otherwise disposed, and Lord Lazy-Not when at half his strength has an opportunity to go on an adventure with a lower-level band? The haul won't be much, but certainly more than he'll get by staying in bed. High-level spell-casters run into the problem of not having enough hours in a day -- or, eventually, in a week -- to replenish their stocks of spells. And of course the fellows off on a wilderness adventure that's already a week into the "future" can't teleport back to town in time to join today's expedition into the underworld beneath the ruins of the Cursed Chateau. [/QUOTE]

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