XP and Leveling

[Melendor5]

I was wondering what everyone thought of advancement in this AP, specifically in regards to XP per encounter vs milestone. I would like to do milestone to avoid having to keep track of everything the PCs do and don't do and it looked like the AP covered that as at the end of Ch 1 it actually said, the characters should be Level 2 by this point. I'm near the end of ch 3 and no mention has been made about what level they should be. I'd rather not have to add up all the xp in the levels, any thoughts on where good break points are?

[kayman]

My advice is to use XP because they can go direct to the library if they find the stairs in area A21 and then B5...

[James Jacobs]

We indicate milestone information for all Adventure Paths on page 3 of the book. As a sandbox dungeon, where the PCs are free to go wherever they want, milestone leveling is a bit awkward and can't be tied to chapters. It instead should be tied to achieving specific milestones in the adventure itself, as indicated on page 3.

[Melendor5]

Right. Go back and read the page I missed. Got it. Can't believe I didn't catch that. I see what you are saying about there are shortcuts to the lower levels.

Thank you for your input.

[Zapp]

I find this quote from the general GM reference thread for Ruins of Gauntlight is relevant here:

James Jacobs wrote:

Gauntlight is a dungeon crawl, but it's also a sandbox. There's no "one correct way" through the dungeon. Just as your group can beeline it right to the tough encounters, they can also skip entire levels by heading downstairs before they're ready. That's part of the sandbox experience, and it's not for everyone.

Quote:

In particular to this case, milestone leveling really works poorly for an adventure like this. The element of being able to "grind" your levels up is a big part of sandbox play, and milestone leveling doesn't work as well.