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Post by dmzinthos on May 12, 2015 3:47:21 GMT
I was curious how you all do xp. There are a few different methods: only getting xp from creatures they face, getting a flat amount at end of the night (which is what I do),or just tell them when they level?
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Samuel Wise
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Xp
May 12, 2015 4:09:59 GMT
Post by Samuel Wise on May 12, 2015 4:09:59 GMT
I have to award my players experience after everything they kill. Funny, these players don't care much for loot (unless it's magical, of course). They as a group prefer to gain experience over loot. The only thing I ask of them is to pool the experience so that nobody is overpowered (something they are still getting used to, but not complaining about).
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Post by dmzinthos on May 12, 2015 4:54:32 GMT
Why do you do it this way?
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Samuel Wise
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Posts: 989
Favorite D&D Class: Warlock
Favorite D&D Race: Mousefolk
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Xp
May 12, 2015 5:30:11 GMT
Post by Samuel Wise on May 12, 2015 5:30:11 GMT
Why do you do it this way? 1. If you mean why I give it individually by each monster, it is because it gives my players a little more excitement with each kill. Not only can they do amazing feats of destruction, but they get to count their rewards (something that, as a very Videogame minded group, is important to them). It just so happens that this particular group wants to get stronger characters rather than be rewarded in loot. 2. If you mean why I pool, that is different. I do not want one player falling behind and have to cater monsters toward his or her level. Also, I want them to level up all at the same time. This way, I can move the storyline forward at a more controlled pace with monsters that seem to fit a general strength category. The final reason would be so that I could avoid a dependency on a single character. If I put a strong monster in a fight to balance it out for higher level characters, then the whole battle is depended upon the strong player rolling high. If the stronger player becomes immobilized or dies, then the other players will get chewed. Another reason (while I'm thinking about it) would be to discourage an EXP and/or level struggle between party members. But hey, I am still learning the ropes.
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Deleted
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Xp
May 12, 2015 8:43:59 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 12, 2015 8:43:59 GMT
I award XP based on enemies defeated, and objectives completed, and divide it evenly among the group. The XP for a single objective is usually around 5-20% of the XP required to reach the next level. The exact percent depends on how crucial the objective was to the "main quest." This quest XP normally accounts for 20-50% of the total XP acquired for that level.
Almarianknight nicely summed up my own reasons for keeping players around the same level. I have a rule in place to bump up PCs whose player missed a few sessions, and starting new characters (due to death or disinterest) higher than level 1.
1) you can never be lower than 1 Level below the lowest Level PC in the party. 2) you track cumulative XP among all your characters, and can make a new character of a level equal to 1 below the highest level you could reach with your cumulative XP
Interestingly, this creates a situation (for the competitively minded) where the only way you can gain a level edge over your fellow players is to complete the entire campaign with one character. However, you won't ever be severely punished for multiple deaths/missed sessions/making lots of a different characters/etc.
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May 12, 2015 14:31:22 GMT
Post by friartook on May 12, 2015 14:31:22 GMT
I have stopped rewarding XP and moved to a "chapter based" leveling process.
Initially, I used a method very similar to Nevvur's. I tracked XP by combat encounter and divided it among the players present for that encounter. The problem was that for a while there I couldn't count on having the same roster of players every session. People were not showing up consistently (this has improved and stabilized) and the party was getting split up a lot.
The breaking point was reached when I failed to accurately track who was present for which encounters over the course of two or three sessions. When I sat down to calculate XP, I realized I just couldn't do it accurately. So I just leveled everyone up and decided to set story benchmarks for myself. At these benchmarks, the players will level up. This allows me to create (relatively) level appropriate encounter sets for a segment of the story. When the players complete the segment, they level up, and so do the encounters for the next segment. There has been a bit of grumbling (certain players feel they should have more XP than other players), but everyone is invested in the game at this point. I think XP rewards are more important for newer players; they need to feel some progress and reward to keep them interested.
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May 12, 2015 15:11:09 GMT
Post by DMC on May 12, 2015 15:11:09 GMT
In they heyday of my campaign, I gave out XP for every encounter and divided it equally. If they defeated a party of orcs, they all got the XP split for the orcs right then and there after the encounter, be it combat or negotiation.
I've tried the "Chapter" method, but it seems to not make sense for me. Immediate XP flows better to me, and thankfully I've been blessed with a very committed group of players that all showed up regularly. I've had moments of "Do I get extra XP for ___________?", but that's usually been negligible and within reason. 5E's Inspiration mechanic has pretty much taken the place of that, but I'll still give out 25-50 bonus XP here and there, depending on what it is.
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Xp
May 12, 2015 17:52:35 GMT
Post by dmzinthos on May 12, 2015 17:52:35 GMT
So I just leveled everyone up and decided to set story benchmarks for myself. At these benchmarks, the players will level up. This allows me to create (relatively) level appropriate encounter sets for a segment of the story. When the players complete the segment, they level up, and so do the encounters for the next segment. So this is the method I would like to fully establish, but I am running into a difficulty of deciding where those benchmarks are. When looking at your story, how did you decide: Okay this is where they level. This is a good breaking point. When I originally wrote this campaign, it was going to be a 4e campaign, and so I had the chapters split up based on tiers (chapter 1 was normal, chapter 2 was paragon, chapter 3 was epic), but 5e has changed that so now I am just sort of winging it. I would like it to be more formulaic at least for my sanity.
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Xp
May 12, 2015 18:18:59 GMT
DMC likes this
Post by friartook on May 12, 2015 18:18:59 GMT
So I just leveled everyone up and decided to set story benchmarks for myself. At these benchmarks, the players will level up. This allows me to create (relatively) level appropriate encounter sets for a segment of the story. When the players complete the segment, they level up, and so do the encounters for the next segment. So this is the method I would like to fully establish, but I am running into a difficulty of deciding where those benchmarks are. When looking at your story, how did you decide: Okay this is where they level. This is a good breaking point. When I originally wrote this campaign, it was going to be a 4e campaign, and so I had the chapters split up based on tiers (chapter 1 was normal, chapter 2 was paragon, chapter 3 was epic), but 5e has changed that so now I am just sort of winging it. I would like it to be more formulaic at least for my sanity. If you want a formula, you're asking the wrong guy. I am the king of the wing. Every session is just a cause and effect framework with certain events that trigger at certain times and certain sets of monsters/NPCs. 75% of what happens in any given session of mine is on-the-fly improv. My encounters are horribly unbalanced...but I have a suspicion that 5e is broken in the balance department, so I just throw more at the PCs when its too easy and throw them a bone when it gets too tough. That's the "relatively" in my quoted post above As to how I choose my breaking points; its a sort of intuitive calculation. How many battles have the players been in+how far the main storyline has progressed+when does this chapter end. For example, the PCs are currently on an island, running a quest. They reached level 4 while on this island, and they've had perhaps 4 or 5 encounters of mild to deadly difficulty since then. When (if?) they escape with their lives, I will level them up to 5 before getting them back to civilization where they will "turn in" the quest and have their choice of various plot hooks I have planned. The next leg of the adventure will be populated with creatures of a greater difficulty.
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Deleted
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Xp
May 12, 2015 20:13:54 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 12, 2015 20:13:54 GMT
The best guideline I can suggest for leveling up on a milestone based system is to advance the PCs before they get bored with the current level.
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Post by DMC on May 12, 2015 22:17:01 GMT
If you want a formula, you're asking the wrong guy. I am the king of the wing. This. LOL You're doing 5E now you said? I'd say break up your XPs awards into 4 Long Rest segments. That's roughly usually 4-days of in-game time. If you find that's too often or too few, alter it from there. Keep in mind that 5E was meant to level you up quickly at first, so you at least get into 3rd level and the class archetypes fairly quickly, so you may find yourself adjusting the frequency of XP along the way. Just be open to being flexible with it. Don't feel you have to stick to any certain method or time-frame with it.
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Xp
May 24, 2015 18:29:53 GMT
Post by TaranWanderer on May 24, 2015 18:29:53 GMT
I also stopped giving XP a while ago. And I don't have a formula...I definitely wing it. Not sure how to explain it, but there are times during the campaign when it just feels right to level up the group, and so I do. It's easier in a more linear adventure, not as easy in a sandbox...but can still be done. If I haven't leveled them up in a while, and they have a particularly difficult fight (several players going down, some more than once, lots of healing being used, spell slots being expended, etc.), I'll level them up. To me, it makes sense...they just got through a really tough fight, and lived to tell the tale. They gained...experience. I definitely don't level them up for fighting yet-another-group-of-bandits. Mowing down a random wandering group with ease does nothing to level them up,
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May 26, 2015 14:54:46 GMT
Post by DMC on May 26, 2015 14:54:46 GMT
Not sure how to explain it, but there are times during the campaign when it just feels right to level up the group, and so I do. To me, it makes sense...they just got through a really tough fight, and lived to tell the tale. They gained...experience. I definitely don't level them up for fighting yet-another-group-of-bandits. Mowing down a random wandering group with ease does nothing to level them up, Agreed 100%. I used to go "By The Book" when I first started. They'd just finish a huge fight, and be like 25 XP short, so they'd be like "Let's go find a couple Orcs to kill." because they needed that extra 50. Now though, I've gotten into the "When it feels like time". I still keep track of XP, just so I know about where they are, but I'm not a stickler for it. Today if they finish that huge fight, and are 25 XP short, I'll just say they leveled up.
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Deleted
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Xp
May 26, 2015 16:40:13 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 16:40:13 GMT
One other note, zinthos... Figure out ahead of time where is your "sweet spot." That's where the PCs have enough powers to be interesting, but not so much that you have to design ridiculous encounters around them to be suitably challenging. You want to spend most of your time there. In 5e, the developers recognized that most DMs/players prefer levels 5-15 more than 1-4 and even 16-20, so the monster XP and level progression based on it is designed to stretch out those mid levels a little more.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2015 3:51:33 GMT
I provide XP at the end of every session. My players like knowing how close they are to the next level. I do even XP for everyone.
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