XP and leveling progressions compared.

[Thanee]

I have to say that in 1E Orcs were plenty dangerous, because not only were hit points lower overall, but combat bonuses were lower. However, it can be safely said that Orcs are now more dangerous over a larger range of levels; in 1st edition, orcs were quite useless as opponents after 2nd level, except in tremendous numbers.

Nowadays, one lucky shot with an orc with a greatsword will end your character quick clear into 3rd or 4th level.

Heh. Well, at 1st level everything can be dangerous.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Slobber Monster]

Yep. That's by design. Surveys found that most campaigns last for something like 18 months of regular play. With the old progression, this meant most campaigns didn't last long enough to see all the neat stuff in higher levels. So, they decided to adjust the progression.

If you play the game once every week, and go through about four encounters each session, you'll go up one level a month, real time. For the groups I've played with, that didn't need mucch adjusting, because they don't go through nearly four encounters each session. If you find your players chugging along too quickly, cutting the XP awards by some percentage should easily control the thing.

This is about how it's worked out for my group, maybe a little slower, and I have no complaints. We have a large group, so it takes a while to get through anything. Four encounters a session is really about the max we normally do, and that would have to be either strung-together encounters or faster resolving ones like traps. Our occasional RP heavy sessions may only have 1 encounter in 5-6 hours of playing.

 

[kenobi65]

Yes, it's a different, faster paradigm.

But, once you reached around 7th or 8th level in 1E / 2E, it took *forever* to advance any further. Now, it doesn't...and that's a change for the better, in my book.

 

[Arnwyn]

So, did you notice that, too, in your transition from older versions to 3E?

Yep. I just quickly changed it to "award half XP", and have continued to do so. It's a perfect speed for us.

 

[Insight]

I have to admit to being in the '3e leveling is too fast' camp for a very long time before realizing that the players don't keep track of how they are earning xp as long as they level every other adventure or so. As long as the encounters aren't too difficult, and they gain some goodies along the way, and especially have a good time playing, the xp thing tends to work itself out.

Heck, I don't even bother calculating xp anymore. If I had to calculate it by hand, I would probably halve the xp awards given in the Core Rules and then of course, because we have 6 players instead of 4, apply some 2/3 rule to that number, and throw in a healthy portion of story awards. But that's too much work. It's far easier to say, "You each earn 3,000 xp." at the end of the session.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Yes I too abandoned the core system and settled with flat xp, leveling every 3rd session unless you went wild paying xp costs.
I did a player survey prior to starting my next campaign, and 4 of 6 wanted slower level advancement, aprox 1 per month. One wanted the same advancement or faster, and the last wanted leveling based on "we should not level if we don't do anything, but should if we beat the BBEG."

I ran a 2nd ed game that went from 1st - 8th in 3 years and then 9th -12th in one (some story awards, some time in the abyss. Where 1 dretch = 8000 xp, vrock =35,000)

 

[Evilhalfling]

I have to admit to being in the '3e leveling is too fast' camp for a very long time before realizing that the players don't keep track of how they are earning xp as long as they level every other adventure or so.

how many sessions per adventure? This could be incredibly fast or fairly slow.

 

[diaglo]

yes, i noticed it.

 

[S'mon]

I think that 10 XP for an orc is too little - in 1e I ended up multiplying XP by 5, so orcs were worth 50 XP, ogres 500 XP. That's still only 1/3 of what a 3e orc is worth, and I think 3e heavily overrates the CR 1 or less creatures compared to an Ogre (in 3e CR 2 - 4 orcs, in 3.5 CR 3 - 6 orcs - or _less_ after level 3!). 600-900 XP is fine for an Ogre, but 150 XP for a typical War-1 is far too much IMO. 3e orcs are a special case because of their ridiculously high STR (Orc average STR 17 - WTF?!), but STR 13 creatures doing d8+1/hit are _not_ worth 1/6 of an Ogre.

Hm... I think I'll tinker w the XP table when I get home.

edit: naw... I'll just make a lot of the War-1 creatures CR 1/6 or 1/4.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I level my players Chrono Cross style - beat a boss, gain a level.

That usually translates into once every 1-3 sessions, 2-4 if there's heavy downtime involved.

I hate older versions' slow levelling. 3e was the first I found even tolerable; it's fine at low levels, but at higher levels it still bogs down more than I'd like.