Arron LuBrant's page

If I am using the traditional experience point system then they get their points every time they lay down to sleep/and or make camp for whatever reason.

However when I run home brew adventures I tend to break the module into chapters. Chapter 1 expects the party to be 1st level. Chapter 2nd, 3rd level 3, and so on. In this case the players level up once they have completed the chapter.

Using this chapter based level system made it a lot easier to design adventures given I knew what everyone's level was. It also helped speed up my game play as the DM given I didn't have to keep a running tally on CRs killed and then do the experience point math in the middle of the game.

Like -
1. Martial Combat: I really like what the martial classes can do when compared to 3.x
2. Bloodlines: Not only are sorcerers now playable but they are fun.
3. Archetypes: Fun, flavorful, and none seem broken (so far).
4. CMB & CMD: Thank you so much Paizo!
5. Plenty of quality adventures to run: nuff said.
6. Channeling: Way cool and fun to use.
7. Skills: Simplified and more useful with the added effects that some of them have.
8. Quality production value: keep up the good work.
9. The people: Paizo is a company that clearly cares about the product as a whole and it shows with a solid end product.

Dislike -
1. Spells: the inconsistency of how obviously good some spells are verses others of the same level, also the inconsistency
of spell design.
2. Spell decay: some spells start off good then becomes useless at higher levels or they effects cap or become nullified at
some arbitrary point vs spells which are always useful.
3. Vancian Magic: Clunky, unintuitive, and is a very dated game mechanic
4. Magic Items: over reliance on magic in general
5. Class based characters/level progression: sorry, but I’ll never be happy with this one.
6. 1 Standard action a turn/full attack action: this is such a difficult and unintuitive concept to explain to even experienced
gamers who are new to the system.
7. Dump Stats: there should always be (relatively balanced) reasons why every class should want every stat and the desire
to leave one or more stats weak should be a design decision based on what the player wants out of the character.
8. Item Creation: while better than 3.x, it still just does not seem to work in the long run.
9. Built in Min/Maxing: much like spells, there are just some bonuses that are clearly the stronger choice than others when
picking spells, magic items, feats, etc.
10. Power Creep: a lot of the things put out in the newest book has to just be a little more powerful than the last book put out creating an never ending arms race (Ninja!)