We've been spoiled by playing AP's almost exclusively and have grown very used to pre-determined leveling rather than the tracking of experience points. Now we're looking at a campaign (Slumbering Tsar) that isn't set up that way. I was wondering if there was a generic rule of thumb out there, like a group should generally level up every X number of CR equivalent encounters or something similar.
I'd really rather not start tracking xp again - any advice?
I sort of rarely give out XP anyway... there are a few ways you can do it.
1. Level your characters on completion of a part of the story. This puts emphasis on game objectives rather thank killing monsters. IE: Once you've fought your way through the city, the castle, saved the princess, and got her to safety; go up a level.
2. PFS levels the characters after every 3 adventures. Personally I think every 4 is more to my taste. Easy, simple, regular progression.
3. track xp.
I sort of rarely give out XP anyway... there are a few ways you can do it.
1. Level your characters on completion of a part of the story. This puts emphasis on game objectives rather thank killing monsters. IE: Once you've fought your way through the city, the castle, saved the princess, and got her to safety; go up a level.
2. PFS levels the characters after every 3 adventures. Personally I think every 4 is more to my taste. Easy, simple, regular progression.
3. track xp.
1. Unfortunately, the campaign is kind of sandboxy.
2. Did you mean 'encounters' rather than adventures? If so that might suffice, if the math works out...
3. As I said, trying to avoid it if at all possible.
1. Well even in a sandbox, you still have goals and quests am i right? Once they complete something you as a GM feel was an important goal, then level them up.
2. No, I meant adventures. Call it "sessions" if you like. You could convert to hours if you want. PFS assumes 4-5 hour adventures. So after you play for 20-ish hours of game time level up.
EXP to level really is a function of how many CR appropriate encounters you complete.
For example, to get from level 1 to level 2 is 5 CR 1 encounters (for 1 person, anyway).
But what I prefer to do (when I use EXP) is just add up all the encounters, divide their total EXP by number of players, and level the party when they would have reached the point.
Don't track EXP for each individual encounter, just overall.
So, basically, take all the encounters from one part of the book, add them up, divide that by number of players (usually 4), and if that comes out to "It's time to level!", they level after the last encounter you added.
So it takes 20 CR 1 encounters to level the average party of 4 from 1st to 2nd. Give or take some because of story EXP, lower and higher CR encounters, and so on.
Once the party hits encounter number 20, level them.
This gives the same results (and is essentially the same thing) as tracking individual EXP, but takes up none of the game time. You as the GM do all this between sessions or even before the campaign starts and then break it up into segments to level.
So instead of "You guys add another 500 exp to your total" after every encounter, you have it worked out to "And after beating the encounter with the Barbazu, you guys leveled!".
Or, you know, just eyeball it. Level when it feels about right.
EXP to level really is a function of how many CR appropriate encounters you complete.
For example, to get from level 1 to level 2 is 5 CR 1 encounters (for 1 person, anyway).
But what I prefer to do (when I use EXP) is just add up all the encounters, divide their total EXP by number of players, and level the party when they would have reached the point.
Don't track EXP for each individual encounter, just overall.
So, basically, take all the encounters from one part of the book, add them up, divide that by number of players (usually 4), and if that comes out to "It's time to level!", they level after the last encounter you added.
So it takes 20 CR 1 encounters to level the average party of 4 from 1st to 2nd. Give or take some because of story EXP, lower and higher CR encounters, and so on.
Once the party hits encounter number 20, level them.
This gives the same results (and is essentially the same thing) as tracking individual EXP, but takes up none of the game time. You as the GM do all this between sessions or even before the campaign starts and then break it up into segments to level.
So instead of "You guys add another 500 exp to your total" after every encounter, you have it worked out to "And after beating the encounter with the Barbazu, you guys leveled!".
Or, you know, just eyeball it. Level when it feels about right.
To generalize what Rynjin said here, the CR system is designed so that a party of four to six characters will level after 20 encounters whose CR equals their APL.
The CR system is a bit broken and a bit tedious to try to balance against esoteric factors beyond just party level but that really matter. So as a rule we do not use it at our table. We also do not give XP for kills, but for achieving objectives which includes thwarting combat with diplomacy and strategy. Also we use a software revs instead of experience points to keep it simple but still indicative. You start at 1.0. We game a bit. You get to 1.2, then maybe 1.75 until you are 2.0 (level 2). It's general but it works great.
Sometimes when the PCs are on a bubble, like v3.8, almost 4th level, I have them bring a leveled version of themselves and throw slightly more powerful monsters at them and have them level in the middle of the fight, swapping to the better versions of themselves. Bam! Eye of the Tiger starts playing and the tide of the conflict turns. It's a nice little device.
I think the main thing is to not get hung up on it, neither the numbers or regular progression. Just use an indicative system (e.g., percentage) and take queues from your story arcs as to when to ding. Also, opinion, do everything you can to slow level progression from 3rd to 8th level. It is the golden time before scale starts to go all wonky. Don't rush it.
