Hello all, my party could use a bit of advice if anyone else around here has run our campaign. We've somehow ended up 6-10k XP behind (varying by party member) by the start of Book 3, and neither players nor GM can figure out why for the life of us. We avoided a couple of early fights, but I can't imagine that would have such a major impact.
At present, the party is level 5-6 and just began book 3. The party itself consists of 5 members:
Aasimar druid, Aasimar paladin, Elan vitalist (psionic), Changeling bard, and Human gunslinger
We were still at level 5-6 when we entered the fey forest near the end of book 2. Due to some rather conveniently-timed diplomacy checks, however, we managed to befriend the fey there instead of fighting them. As a result, we missed the entire dungeon but still got the key items we needed and had no problem activating the Dancing Hut (fey in toe). Our DM assures us he's parcelled out the XP we would have gained, but the party continues to lag far behind where we should be in book 3. None of us have any explanation. A few of us are concerned that we might have missed more content than anyone realized, but we have no frame of reference. It's possible we were under-leveled already by the time we entered the fey forest.
Is anyone out there familiar enough with the AP to perhaps tell us where we lost XP? Should we have been higher than level 5-6 upon entering the forest in Whitethrone? Or is it only after skipping it that the party is lagging? Please and thanks for any help the community can provide. T____T
If you doing an AP there's no reason not to use the suggested levels for each chapter and book. Makes it easier for all concerned.
Yeah, my party and I started forgoing XP and just leveling up when the campaign said "you should be x level by the time you reach/do y".
As for why you're behind, well, most APs expect you to do random encounters. If you're like us and you're more interested in the story than the fights, then you'll end up not using random encounters, leading to XP bleed.
I'm not the DM, unfortunately, so the choice isn't mine with regards to alternate XP systems. I already suggested to our DM that he might switch us onto fast track advancement to compensate, but he doesn't think too highly of that idea. The reason there are 5 of us is that all 5 can rarely stay for the entire session, and our DM prefers to run with an incomplete party rather than skip a week of play. So, while we have been splitting xp 5 ways recently, that has not always been the case in the past. We also started 2000xp ahead to help compensate.
Hence my concern.
There's also the matter of our DM loving random encounters, so we really have skipped only a small handful of possible encounters overall. That's why I'm worried that our recent skipping forward in the story may have resulted in some unintentional xp lost despite our DM's best efforts at calculation. Hopefully not, though. If enough of you think the occasional 5th player alone may be enough to skew us, then I will trust the community's wisdom. I will take your suggestions to my DM, however.
"No? Then being a level behind places you right about where you ought to be. Two levels behind may be rougher."
That isn't even a factor. This is a party of almost entirely new players running a difficult AP that was criticised following its release for certain balance issues. The DM is still fairly new at DM-ing and learning the art of modifying APs and encounters for his party. These kids need to be on track, trust me. And, for the record, that superior attitude is bot unwarranted and rather unkind. Play nice, please. We're all a part of the same gaming community after all; we shouldn't be turning against each other.
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Are you a party of 4 with 15 point buys using a core race adhering to wealth by level? I see 5, with some of the power races among them, but I don't know your point buy or wealth. Just having 5 means 20% less xp.
No? Then being a level behind places you right about where you ought to be. Two levels behind may be rougher.
My advice is to don't bother with xp and level when the book says so at just about a level or so behind, depending on how far your PC's are above the curve.
All other things being equal...if tou still want xp, then the GM should throw some random encounters at your group.
They're behind on WBL because they don't loot things, I'll come up with something clever for the handing of items that might upset our party's paladin. My intention is to throw extra encounters at them so they aren't decimated by Iobarian Giants.
There's something far more satisfying about XP in my opinion. But I like crunch and aside from a couple story rewards in the market district I didn't miscalculate any XP.
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Even if you aren't splitting XP 5 ways all the time, every time someone misses a session (or part of one), he misses out on the XP of that session. The XP is still being spread out among 5 characters, just not necessarily immediately.
If the GM doesn't add extra encounters or add creatures to the given encounters, then it's natural that you will fall behind the expected level curve.
A pretty big chunk of XP for Book 2 comes from the random encounters on the way to Whitethrone - it's a 2 week trip with a chance for an encounter every 6 hours, IIRC.
I remember my group having a similar issue in Serpent's Skull, where the GM skipped the random encounters in Book 2 - which is a long overland journey.
The quick XP awards per character in the CRB shows the same award whether there are 4 or 5. Adjusting to this should correct the deficiency of XP.
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A pretty big chunk of XP for Book 2 comes from the random encounters on the way to Whitethrone - it's a 2 week trip with a chance for an encounter every 6 hours, IIRC.
Actually, for the standard 4 man party, you don't need to have any random encounters to keep pace with the expectation in the advancement track (assuming the PCs get the majority of the story XP).
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I have had several people talk about their Reign of Winter games and mention that the plot kind of pushes you along. Essentially there is this over-arching quest to do this thing and when opportunities to divert and take care of 'this or that' the players say:
"That's silly! Why would we go fight a gigantic rabid artic weasel when the fate of the universe is at stake?!"
Also as others mention if your DM is not throwing in an extra creature or some random encounters to make up for the extra player then things are going to suffer.
Maybe when you reach a point where it's feasible turn to an NPC and say, "Things seem to getting beyond our means in this quest. Is there some other task that we might face nearby that would ready us for the challenge ahead?" Not sure how receptive your DM might be but it's worth a try.