Hi,
I've been running the begginer's box for a few friends and one of player missed two sessions. The rest of players continue with the module and are level 2 now. Should I proceed with PCs at different levels or should I adjust the XP of the player that has fallen behind to the rest of the party.
Thanks in advance,
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In PF2, differences in level are felt very strongly. Also, there's no chance for this PC to ever catch the others as they will play the exact same things.
So I encourage you to give them the level.
A solution if you want to handle different levels in your party is to use the Proficiency without level optional rule. But it's more work (and asks for modification of all the PCs).
Thanks
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Differences in level outside of pfs where such gaps are at least attempted to be accounted for is just a recipe for a death spiral that disgruntles players. I view it as a bit of an archaic game mechanic that's best forgotten in a static group of players. I would probably just award good attendance with an extra hero point at the beginning of the session (unless that poor attendance is a result of real life getting in the way, which always comes first).
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The honest truth is XP isn't useful, unless you're playing a complete sandbox game and need help (as a GM) identifying when to tell your players to level up. Otherwise, you have a story in mind and a rough idea of how powerful you want enemies to be.
Simply tell your players to be the appropriate level for the encounters you intend to send at them.
XP really only continues to exist because of tradition.
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The honest truth is XP isn't useful, unless you're playing a complete sandbox game and need help (as a GM) identifying when to tell your players to level up. Otherwise, you have a story in mind and a rough idea of how powerful you want enemies to be.
Simply tell your players to be the appropriate level for the encounters you intend to send at them.
XP really only continues to exist because of tradition.
I agree with Claxon. I still use xp, because my players will add side quests and skip planned material in any adventure path, making it partially a sandbox.
The main purpose of leveling up is to keep the campaign fresh by giving the characters new abilities before their current abilities grow routine. Rewarding the player characters for surviving combat is only a secondary purpose. A ternary purpose is that the xp reward tells the players how tough the challenge they beat was, so they can learn how good their characters are at completing combat and missions.
I used to run Pathfinder games at a game store, beginning at 6pm. A few players had jobs that would sometimes force them to work evenings. It was awkward for me, since I had to plan my sessions for different numbers of players, but a job is more important than a game. Other times I had young players whose schedule could be changed by school events or family vacations, also more important than a game.
More recently, we developed a weird situation. An out-of-state player in Seattle, three times zones behind me, had her store clerk job grow from two days a week to three days a week, and the new day was our game day. The last hour and a half of her job overlaps the game. We cannot schedule our game session any later. But she has almost no customers at that time, so she would listen and watch our Roll20 game at work on her tablet via headphones. and if not busy, text her character's actions, spoken aloud by Talkbot on Discord. Then she would be out of contact for 30 minutes as she went home, and finally rejoin fully involved in the game. She keeps her character sheet updated online so we can play her character for her if necessary. Imagine calculating which xp she earned during that schedule.
Years ago I decided to not penalize players for missing game sessions. Everyone earns all xp even if absent and all characters level up together. It is simple and it has worked out fine.
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I currently have a 6 player table and almost all sessions someone misses. Even being flexible with the schedule still common to some player miss the session due some personal question.
In older systems this created a nuisance due to the different chars levels and the difficulties in rebalance. But since my tables started to play PF2 and follow the The section on Group Parity and Party Level recommendation I started to track a XP for entire party instead for each player and depending from number of player in the session I can rapidly rebalance the encounters based in Encounter Budget just increasing/decreasing Adversary Level based in XP Award difference by primary turning some creatures in Elite or Weak version or ajusting their numbers.
And this works very well because despite the XP difference between players could to be useful as a penalty to missing players it also penalizes the rest of the party and also makes more trouble to the GM due to the level difference between players can take down the players with lower levels due the differences in bonus/DC and due the improved dificult due the numbers even the stronger players can have problems due a presence os a low level player due the need of this low level player to face an improved encounter due to the number the players but this player can be easier take down many times making it to need to be protected/healed by stronger players due to it's lower level. It's just add complications and also may dishearten these low player to keep playing when they need to miss many days.
XP really only continues to exist because of tradition.
I don't treat it like tradition instead I use it as normal reward for entire party when they complete side quests, investigate and discover details, solve problems and mazes or help NPCs (as already recomended by some APs).
This additional XP works as reward for they efforts making the things easier for them archiving a higher level little earlier and I usually don't even have to rebalance the things because when they are more stronger than the AP's expected level for that area, the lower level of the encounters/hazards automatically diminish their XP reward (but sometimes if I fell they are too strong I simply diminish their Advancement Speeds using higher XP values to UP).
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In the past I've had a player skip a bunch of sessions and want to come back and I had them off on a solo adventure for the missing time, keeping them up to the same level as the rest of the party. I've used that nebulous solo adventure as a plot device, which is the price for getting the free advancement.
"Oh, while you were away you did some scouting work for a local lord who was an insufferable t#~*, and your relationship soured. You might want to let the group know not to go to him for help."
It can be a lot of fun, and lets them feel like they're still hooked into the world.