Post/Author/DateTime	Post
HighCouncilorSeven 10-29-04, 10:43 PM	Has anyone ever tried to increase the rate at which their PCs gain levels by increasing experiance and treasure rewarded per monster? I would like to begin a wide-ranging campaign, but I would like to finish it before we all get old and grey, so I planned to increase the rate at which my PCs leveled. Suggestions? Comments?
littlesaltz 10-31-04, 12:18 AM	Has anyone ever tried to increase the rate at which their PCs gain levels by increasing experiance and treasure rewarded per monster? I would like to begin a wide-ranging campaign, but I would like to finish it before we all get old and grey, so I planned to increase the rate at which my PCs leveled. Suggestions? Comments? Serious question: have you DMed a campaign at the regular rate? A lot of people think it's actually too quick. I'm not one of them, but there's a vocal population on these boards that dislikes the pace in 3e. Go for it if it's what you want.
HighCouncilorSeven 11-01-04, 09:30 PM	I've ran stuff at the normal level; I just want to move this campaign along. My group can only play once a week, and as there are seven people currently playing, I'm trying to move it along more quickly, since it takes longer to get the same amount done with that many PCs. I was just wondering if anyone had ever successfully tested/ran a faster campaign, and if you have, what did you do?
Tyranis Draconis 11-02-04, 02:39 PM	Currently my group is in a game where the DM has told us that its going to be a 20 adventure story arc. Since we are all fairly new, we thought it would be important to get a feel for every level of the game. Thus, we will be leveling up after every adventure. The XP number doesnt really matter anymore. So far it has been going quite well. The only problem is that at higher levels wizards may be hampered with the problem of losing XP to spells and the creation of Staves. Since there are no wizards in the game; at least in the current one, it doesnt seem like much of a problem so far. In future games we will be playing with experience, but thats the way its been going in the current game.
LukiLoki 11-02-04, 03:49 PM	I've been tacking on an extra 10% to the award for big encounters, provided they're played well. Gets things going a little faster, without breaking the game. Keeping track of exp. is important now for the item crafting angle, so I don't recommend doing away wiht exp. and just levelling after an adventure.
ashera 11-02-04, 06:41 PM	You could also make the encounters easier. Using NPC's from DMG and monsters that are lousy for their CR. My DM does this (though not intentionally, he just picks encounters randomly) and we usually gain a level or two a session. In my campaign the monsters and all NPC's are mostly homemade (a better armor, different feats etc.) so I rarely use CR's higher than the party level. Thus my players level up a lot slower.
darczero 11-03-04, 03:07 AM	My campaigns are usually very fast-paced in terms of Experience. Players seem to enjoy gaining levels, and the increase in power that goes with it. Increasing the XP gained from encounters contains one flaw: Item Creation. With more XP, players are more likely to want to create items, because they have the XP to spend, but they gain levels before they get any downtime, so they can't create those items. Increasing treasure poses its own problems too: many characters simply don't have the Str to carry large amounts of treasure, and many others aren't willing to take the penalties associated with higher load ratings. My solutions: For the Item Creation problem, I once decided to let one of my players bank his XP (10% from every encounter) specifically for the purpose of crafting Magic Items. He was also Gestalt (Fighter/Cleric, so no real problems on the Item Crafting end), so he had the feats to spend on Item Creation feats. He willingly suffered the XP loss most of the time (except when the difference would mean gaining a level), and the party was happier for it (being a Cleric, one of his first Item Creation feats was Brew Potion; Lots of Cures). Doesn't work all the time, I would suggest running your own test for it to see if you like it. For the Treasure problem, I make the players decide what they want to do. The Arcane spellcasters (Wiz and Sor) usually learn Tenser's Floating Disc early, so they can carry loot, and later learn Teleport so they can carry lots of it over multiple trips without having to leave it behind for days (once had a group of bandits come in and steal the party's hard-earned treasure while they were going back to town to buy a wagon to carry the rest). The Warriors are usually high-Strength types (18+ by 3rd level, after Magic Items and Buffing spells), so they have enough capacity to haul their share.
Phrennzy 11-04-04, 01:11 PM	My guys seem to have reached 5th level awfully fast - but I am also considering speeding it up so they get to 10th quicker. I haven't dealt with antyhing past 10-12th level, and I am anxious to have some high power stuff going on. I'd just increase the amount of XP award by 10-20%. If some of them hammer out items, they'll fall behind in level, which would suck for them, but they know the penalties.
HailSpork 11-04-04, 03:07 PM	If you want to increase leveling speed, just start by giving them an early boost in magical equipment. Once they have that, they can fight monsters that would otherwise be too powerful; this gets them faster XP, and better treasure. If their power curve lulls, give out a few more items.
Tzepish 11-04-04, 03:21 PM	For Item creation, I just convert the XP cost into extra GP cost with the 1 to 5 conversion factor.