Is there something I haven't noticed, or doesn't it matter in Beta which level player is when receiving experience points? I have one player who happens to be two levels behind the party in XP, and it seems he will never catch up with others unless I make up with some experience just for him... In 3.5 it didn't take very long to catch up a level or two, but in Beta it seems that the experience gap between players is quite permanent.
As far as we've noticed, the experience gap is indeed permanent, but it tends to matter less as you gain levels, since the xp needed to gain a level increases rather quickly. So while the xp gap is permanent, the impact in levels is not. Then again, the gap in our group was never that big to begin with.
Yea, that's true. I wouldn't actually mind so much if it was the players fault, but in this case he just missed one big encounter for roleplaying reasons. I know I could just assign him a lot of XP for roleplaying, but I tend to give experience like it's written (I run published scenarios, curse of the crimson throne in this case). I know the gap will actually be lot smaller in higher levels, but if I run by the rules, he will be at least one level short for a long time. I think the XP progression in Beta is good and simple when the whole party is the same level though...
Permanent, but it will grow less significant, since the amounts of XP you need for the next level will increase, as will XP rewards. He'll always be 10000XP behind, but that will progress from 2 full levels worth of XP to 1 full level to half a level.... to less than 2% of a level.
You can also look at it this way: At first, you'd need about 10 appropriate encounters to get the 10000, but later you'll get it from a single encounter. In fact, you'll end up getting 40 times as much from each encounter.
It's not that much different from 3e's way.
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A tad off topic here, but I decided to do something different with my APs. Instead of XP as written or per RAW, I do not grant any XP at all. I make a determination of what level characters should be to compete in the current AP adventure and grant that much XP to the characters at the end of the previous adventure or wherever it is appropriate to do so mid adventure. This has radically reduced my recordkeeping and ensured that my group is always ready level-wise for the challenges in the AP. It also prevents XP farming and worry over magic item creation.
Just a thought.
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A tad off topic here, but I decided to do something different with my APs. Instead of XP as written or per RAW, I do not grant any XP at all. I make a determination of what level characters should be to compete in the current AP adventure and grant that much XP to the characters at the end of the previous adventure or wherever it is appropriate to do so mid adventure. This has radically reduced my recordkeeping and ensured that my group is always ready level-wise for the challenges in the AP. It also prevents XP farming and worry over magic item creation.
Just a thought.
Every time this topic comes up, someone brings this up.
I suspect it is growing to be the default, if it is not already, and tracking individual xp awards is rapidly diminishing to obsolete status that people writing the rules just do not want to change because of the small core of gamers out there who do care, and who will react extremely negatively to this becoming the default.
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A tad off topic here, but I decided to do something different with my APs. Instead of XP as written or per RAW, I do not grant any XP at all. I make a determination of what level characters should be to compete in the current AP adventure and grant that much XP to the characters at the end of the previous adventure or wherever it is appropriate to do so mid adventure. This has radically reduced my recordkeeping and ensured that my group is always ready level-wise for the challenges in the AP. It also prevents XP farming and worry over magic item creation.
Just a thought.
Every time this topic comes up, someone brings this up.
I suspect it is growing to be the default, if it is not already, and tracking individual xp awards is rapidly diminishing to obsolete status that people writing the rules just do not want to change because of the small core of gamers out there who do care, and who will react extremely negatively to this becoming the default.
Just to put in my 2 cp, I haven't tracked xp since during my 1e days. I just had to be mindful of the staggered advancement then. With 3x, it's easier to handwave the xp, as everyone advances at the same rate.
I just don't care for rigid level advancement. If my players and I are having fun in a certain level range, why be in such a rush to go higher?