Solo player XP in d20 system?

[Dao Jones]

I didn't find anything via search, so hopefully this hasn't been addressed in the past. (Also didn't see anything on the wizards site, either.)

I tend to solo play, mostly because my GM and I don't really have any other friends that play with any frequency. However, the new d20 XP system doesn't really handle solo characters very well. Assuming a standard party of four, a character usually needs about 13-16 even CR monster encounters to gain a level. As a solo player, this drops to 4. Of course, not every encounter is an even level encounter, but the end result is that my solo characters tend to shoot up in level very quickly. This is due to the (my opinion) poor leveling curve in the game. It's fairly linear; every level is "current level x 1000 xp to next level". Which means that regardless of whether you're 1st or 15th level, roughly four even-level encounters will level you.

Has this ever been addressed anywhere with some sort of "canonical" fix? I know we could easily adjust experience down to 25%, but that feels like I'm "cheating" my character. (I AM, after all, earning those rewards!) Alternately, I could just shoot up in levels, but I really don't want to do that, either. We'll resort to a homebrew solution, but I was hoping wiser heads than I at some point realized this same problem, and solved it.

Thanks!

[Dhavaer]

Have lower CR encounters. About ECL-4.

[Zincorium]

Gestalt is probably one of the best options to use when going solo, since it allows a character to have a much greater range of abilities if used correctly without making any one ability more powerful than is normal for each level.

Since you'll get more of almost everything at each level, it won't hurt nearly as badly to go for a little bit longer between them, meaning you can face lower CR opponents and the game won't break.

[Dairun Cates]

Yeah. The level curve is true with that on anything. Since the CR's are assuming a party of four, and you're a party of one, you should be gaining exp 4 times as fast. It's only logical. If your GM REALLY wants to slow you down, the best way would be to introduce a sidekick NPC of sorts. A cleric or rogue that whoever you're working for sends with you. That should theorhetically slow down the super exp growth and give you some more character interaction outside plot.

[Quietus]

Easy. Give out 1/4 as much experience. Problem solved.

[ZekeArgo]

Easy. Give out 1/4 as much experience. Problem solved.

...

So they should take on encounters appropriate for a 4-person party by themselves, for less XP than the party would earn?

How does that make sense exactly?

[squishycube]

Depending on the exact system you use (it's worse in D&D and better in Modern for example) using lower of higher level encounters to adjust for many or few players can be a big problem.
In your case, you have one player. All encounters count as 4 EL's higher than the actual CR of the encounter (based on the 'double the critters, +2 to the EL' -rule of thumb). Your player will have special abilities that creatures of so much lower CR's simply lack the abilities to defend against them. He will make mince-meat of an 'appropriate' encounter. But if you start upping the CR's, this suddenly flips round, as soon as the creatures hit CR's where they can defend against the specialy abilities your PC has, he doesn't stand a chance anymore.

This is also true the other way round, my party has at times consisted of 7 players. For us an appropriate encounter was between +3 +4 above our party level. This could mean that opponents had abilities we simply didn't have means for to counter.

Example of really troublesome abilities are Damage Reduction, Spell Resistance, Invisibility.

In my experience, high magic systems like D&D are the biggest trouble. You have a lot less of a headache with a low magic or no magic system.

You can of course also for other solutions. If you are experienced players Gestalt can be a good solution, or playing with multiple PC's (controversial solution: some people hate it, some people love it).

Despite of what some people may have suggested, this is certainly not an easy issue to solve.

[Tellah]

...

So they should take on encounters appropriate for a 4-person party by themselves, for less XP than the party would earn?

How does that make sense exactly?

There's no particular reason the DM should follow the experience point table at all. The game is more or less balanced as long as he gives out 9 silver pieces for every experience point. If he wants the player to level more slowly, reducing experience and treasure rewards is a good way to go about it.

[Winged One]

Well, if your DM has a laptop or another way to get online for sessions, setting this (http://www.d20srd.org/encounterCalculator.htm) properly gives you the XP, difficulty, and other relevant statistics for as many or as few players as you like(well, between 1 and 60, anyway).

[Draz74]

Assuming a standard party of four, a character usually needs about 13-16 even CR monster encounters to gain a level. As a solo player, this drops to 4. Of course, not every encounter is an even level encounter, but the end result is that my solo characters tend to shoot up in level very quickly.

Umm ... shouldn't your character be dying pretty often if he is constantly encountering foes of CR equal to his own, without a party to protect him?

If not, then his foes' CR is really overestimated. Either their CR is just calculated wrong, or they are being played unintelligently.

Without the DM fudging, a solo character at level 9 (for example) should only win half the time against CR 9 encounters.

[normalscreename]

Umm ... shouldn't your character be dying pretty often if he is constantly encountering foes of CR equal to his own, without a party to protect him?

If not, then his foes' CR is really overestimated. Either their CR is just calculated wrong, or they are being played unintelligently.

Without the DM fudging, a solo character at level 9 (for example) should only win half the time against CR 9 encounters.

I used to play a solo PC a lot and I was able to kill stuff with a CR equal to or greater than my ELC. It was sometimes a challenge but I think the lowest HP that I ever had was about 7 after fighting a red dragon that was about 6 CR to high.

[Quietus]

If that's the case, screename, then frankly, that dragon was played stupidly or you got one awesome drop on it, somehow.

Zeke - yes. Yes, if the character is levelling too quickly, the easiest way to slow down his advancement is to cut the experience. However, as noted, if he's constantly fighting things of his own CR, he SHOULD by dying every other combat. A standard thing around the tables that I play with is to cut the experience given by half, regardless of anything, because we find that otherwise the levels come too quickly. Then again, we play highly lethal games and rarely survive by any notable margin.

[squishycube]

In addition to what I already posted, there are also ingame difficulties with solo-playing that can make combats harder:
In a normal party with 4-6 players, if one goes down it's not that much of a problem. The rest acts as a buffer, gets the disabled player out of harms way, etc. On your own, once you go down, you stay down. Even if the opponent leaves you be, the chances of survival are minimal.
When you fight multiple opponents, you are also going to have a tough time. Just one of them has to grapple you and it's pretty much game over. They can also flank you, which you can't do.

[Matthew]

Have you considered running multiple Player Characters?

[ravenkith]

I used to play a solo PC a lot and I was able to kill stuff with a CR equal to or greater than my ELC. It was sometimes a challenge but I think the lowest HP that I ever had was about 7 after fighting a red dragon that was about 6 CR to high.

Your DM was keeping you alive.

That dragon should have eaten your lunch, the bag it was in, and the hand that was holding it.

multiple pcs *is* the answer to this question.