Wight, Level Loss and Experience Points

[Wellby]

Good Fellows,

Alright, a second level female barbarian was smashing her way through the forge of fury when she was unfortunately whacked by a wight. At that moment, she was 2nd level, but had actually accrued enough XP to get to third level, but they simply hadn't been awarded yet (end of session or dungeon delve usually).

She loses the saving throw. Acts like a 1st level all of a sudden. Over the next few hours, with her fellow adventurers, she gets through several more encounters, accruing at least a 1000 more XP.

They leave the dungeon, and the next day, she fails her second saving throw. At that moment she has someing like 5000 xp. More than 1000 of those were acquired AFTER the Wight smacked her.

Is she nevertheless suddenly a 1st level barbarian with 500 xp?

 

[FEADIN]

Yes but she don't loose xp that were'nt given.
If she wa 2nd level with 2500 xp on her sheet, she goes to 500xp but at the end the dm give what he had to, you say 1000 and much more because she was theorically over 3000 to be 3rd.
She goes from 500 to: 500+the virtual xp between her sheet and those kept by the dm+1000 (as you said).
If the dm is good he can make her advance to 3rd during the night and when she fails her save she goes 2nd.
For me she is at least 2nd level.

 

[pawsplay]

Good Fellows,

Alright, a second level female barbarian was smashing her way through the forge of fury when she was unfortunately whacked by a wight. At that moment, she was 2nd level, but had actually accrued enough XP to get to third level, but they simply hadn't been awarded yet (end of session or dungeon delve usually).

She loses the saving throw. Acts like a 1st level all of a sudden. Over the next few hours, with her fellow adventurers, she gets through several more encounters, accruing at least a 1000 more XP.

They leave the dungeon, and the next day, she fails her second saving throw. At that moment she has someing like 5000 xp. More than 1000 of those were acquired AFTER the Wight smacked her.

Is she nevertheless suddenly a 1st level barbarian with 500 xp?

It dependson when the XP were awarded. More than likely, the adventure isn't over until you get to town and make (and fail) your saving throw. This scenario generally shouldn't happen.

In the ordinary course of things, she would get drained, fail a save, lose a level, then receive XP (including XP for defeating the wight).

 

[Wellby]

these are two differing answers so far, both without any reference to the rules. Refs please?

 

[MarkB]

Okay. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that we have a 2nd level character with 2,500 XP on the character sheet, and 500 XP unrewarded. Technically, she has 3,000 XP, but has not yet chosen to level up, and is therefore still 2nd level.

When level drained, her XP are unaffected and she has one negative level.

Fast forward 24 hours. At this point, she has 4,000 XP, but has still not chosen to level up.

Losing a real level as a result of failing the save drops her total XP to the midpoint of the previous level, which is 500.

Whether it could go differently than that is entirely up to your DM. By default, leveling up takes zero in-game time, so once a character has the XP, they can gain a new level whenever they like. If I were the DM, and knew those XPs were available, I'd hand them out, at which point the character can level up immediately. Having a negative level doesn't affect that. Having done so, she's now 3rd level, and will drop to 2nd level if she fails the save, with her XP total dropping to 2,000.

If the DM isn't prepared to hand out the XPs until later, then some or all of them should still be awarded to the character after she drops to 500 XP. If the DM did hand out the XPs, but doesn't allow leveling up except under particular conditions, and there was no way to achieve those conditions within the 24 hours, then that's a little harsh, but the character is out of luck.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

After the fact, I would retroactively apply the XP as it was earned and drained. Then the character ends up at whatever level the character ends up at. I consider holding off on awarding XP to be a bookkeeping exercise rather than an actual holding off of XP (e.g., until you rest and "reflect" upon your adventures). It's just simpler to award XP at the end. I don't think characters should be punished for that though.

Heck, if the character actually lost a level permanently, I'd probably just do whatever favours the character most. Losing a level is bad enough as it is.

 

[frankthedm]

Once all threats are over and major goals are overcome is when i hand out XP. Max of once per in game week. IMHO XP is the growth of the character's soul, It won't happen fast.

If the Character has a negative level is on them, the Threat is NOT over. Lose the level first. Current total goes to 500. Award XP afterwards.

Once the Character had the negative level, i consider them the lower level [1st] for XP calculations, so they do get a little more more.

 

[MarkB]

Once the Character had the negative level, i consider them the lower level [1st] for XP calculations, so they do get a little more more.

Most of the time, yes, but not during the first three levels, unless you house-rule the XP tables.

 

[pawsplay]

DMgp.35

You need to calculate XP awards during the course of the adventure, whether it's the one you wrote or one you purchased. You may wish to award experience points at the end of a session to enable players to advance their characters in level if they have enough experience points. Alternatively, you may wish to give ou the awards at the beginning of the game session following the one in which the characters earned it.

I.e., a level 2 characters gets drained, earns 1000 xp. They lose a level. The game session ends, they earn 1000 XP, and end up with 1500 XP, are second level, and don't have to doctor their character sheet.

The only way this would get interrupted is if the GM ended the game session before 24 hours had passed and awarded XP before resuming. The only way I could see this happening, except for arbitrary reasons, is if the group ends the session and receives XP, but they are still in a dangerous situation and will receive more XP before 24 hours have passed. Ordinarily, characters would have the opportunity to "go back to town" and hence face the level loss before receiving XP. Even in a dungeon, you can usually backtrack.

If that did happen, you would indeed end up at 500 XP. Rotten luck. Of course, 2nd level characters facing wights is already rotten luck.