XP and Levels.

[Bob5th]

Do you follow the rule that says the most levels a PC can get at once is 1? I don't.

 

[mmu1]

I find it hard to imagine a situation where such an event would come into play through legitimate means, aside from a low level character adventuring in a much higher level party.

However, in the former case, if the PC's actually managed to pull it off by the book, I'd be fine with it (it's either my fault as a DM, or great luck/skill on their part) In the latter, I'd stick to advancing a level at a time. A single fight/session alongside the big boys isn't going to make someone a seasoned adventurer. If it did, there'd never be any sidekcicks around

 

[Crothian]

I don't either. But I use training rules, so characteres sometimes can't get trained for so long they have enough experience for more then one level. Or else when I forget to hand out experience for a month.

 

[Bob5th]

The module my PC's are currently in has numerous high CR fights but allows time to rest but not long enough to take the time required to level up. As a matter of a fact from my calculation the will gain 4 levels.

 

[Taloras]

I know that in our group, we did it once....the player of the cleric was missing for a few sessions, so we NPCed the character, giving him only half XP. when he got back, he got enough XP to just barely level up twice, and since we really needed the spells hed have at 6th level, we gave it to him.

 

[Shin Okada]

We had this once. One of a PC wizard is a level behind other PCs because he have not attended some sessions (his player was busy). We are playing with FRCS XP rule, which gives more XP to low level characters. Then, after a very combat-heavy session, the wizard got enough XP to advance him 2 levels (others got 1 level). I have introduced FRCS xp rule to give PCs a chance to catch up with higher level PCs. So I just ignored the "1 level per time only" rule.

 

[Archer]

Nothing says you have to award experience at the end of the session. Nothing says you have to do anything to level up. If during a session you cross the line to the next level, take your hps, skills and BAB and memorize your new spells at the next opportunity. The rule is to stop a 1st level character from getting a 10,000 xp award from a single event and going right to 5th level.

 

[EOL]

I guess it all depends on the way you handle leveling up if you can level up whenever then I have a hard time picturing a multi-level battle. If you can level up at the end of every session then I have a hard time picturing a multi-level session (unless it lasted for more than 8 hours). But if the characters can only level when they have enough time, then yes I would get rid of that particular rule.

 

[Grendel]

If they can only gain one level at a time that defeats the purpose of me putting in a sleep red dragon that is "young, stupid, and cocky, and will not use its abilities or flee" (tm).

If I am going throw such a "difficult" encounter at my PCs they "deserve" to go up 2-3 levels.
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Seriously, if you PCs are gaining multiples levels then they are probably getting too many xps for "easy" encounters, or you are not awarding xps to them in a timely manner.

I generally award xps after every encounter (in case someone does level), or at a slow spot durring the game. At the latest players get xps at the end of the session. My players usually advanced at the rate of 1 level per 2-3 session (witch is about 1 level per 13 encounters).