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Tallis
2007-06-25, 03:03 PM
Usually in my games I reward half xp for role-playing and half for combat. I'm considering changing combat xp back to the old style. XP is based on average level of the party rather than individual level.
I like this idea because having someone higher level on your side makes things easier for you. Should you really get the same xp you would if everyone in the group was the same level as you? The higher level person gets a little more because they have to watch out for the lower level characters and they're probably doing more of the work.
On the bad side someone who has missed out on xp or who has spent xp on making magic items will have a harder time keeping up. They'll have to really focus on RP xp or try to get in solo adventures to catch up.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on how hard this would be to balance and any ideas for doing it better.

Skjaldbakka
2007-06-25, 03:05 PM
The Xp system as is is supposed to allow for lower level characters to slowly catch up in level to the higher level characters. Most people don't want to play the bottom of the totem pole.

Tallis
2007-06-25, 03:27 PM
Hmm.....
I think my issue is that the lower level characters catch up too quickly. Maybe if I just award xp based on the average of each PC's level and the higher level in the group?

example: a lvl4, a lvl6, and alvl8 get xp as-
lvl4 ((4+8)/2) =lvl 6
lvl6 ((6+8)/2) =lvl 7
lvl8 ((8+8)/2) =lvl 8
for xp purposes.

GoblinJTHM
2007-06-25, 03:28 PM
if that doesn't work, you could do it ad hoc and leave em right where you want em?

Tallis
2007-06-25, 03:41 PM
I prefer to have an actual system unless I'm going to give everyone exactly the same xp. I want to make sure the awards are fair. Especially since the RP half of the xp is by nature ad hoc.

Rad
2007-06-25, 03:52 PM
Players catching up quickly is almost a necessity; handing out different XP in my experience always brought much more harm than good. If somebody is not a good roleplayer it really hurts to be reminded each session when XP are awarded AND being constantly behind in level. This always bring consequences and only occasional they are the (good) expected one.
Moreover, if you do not give XP if the player is not present (a very common thing) you're making so that the less motivated players are growing more and more frustrated at being the weakest PCs. Bad for their future motivation and leading to more missed sessions and possibly abandoning the group; I still have to see somebody for which getting XP is what makes the difference when choosing whether to come or not to the game.
Bottom line: if you ask me, having people stick behind is not good.

Tallis
2007-06-25, 04:12 PM
I don't want them to stay behind permanently, just have a more logical xp award. I do see your point, but is there a workable compromise here?

GoblinJTHM
2007-06-25, 04:15 PM
award xp based solely on how useful they we're in the adventure?

Diggorian
2007-06-25, 04:16 PM
I use a method similar to what you term "the old way" but also do half as RP award.

I figure average party level to determine combat XP, lets say the book recommends 200 for each. I consider the 200 the max award. One half of that, 100, is the RPing max award.

I then look at everyone's performance, tactical and acting, and give all or a portion of those awards based on what they earned in terms of making the game fun and exciting.

Brother_Franklin
2007-06-25, 07:17 PM
I have the beggining of an idea.

X = the level of the highest level PC

Reward them all combat experiance based on X. Then give them all an Education Award each session as if they had an additional encounter at
CR X-2 calculated for their level. Remember to give the higest level player this reward too for teaching.

This slows down leveling for most people. It keeps realitively quick progression for people significantly behind. It also solves little problems like people getting experiance for watching a 15th level wizard fireball a nest of Kobolds.

Aslo their is the convience of only finding one encounter for each player.

-2 might not be right. Play with the numbers.

Matthew
2007-06-25, 07:24 PM
I just give the same experience to everyone. Stops any problems right in their tracks.

Burrito
2007-06-25, 10:42 PM
Well for some of our games we would not get any XP until the "Chapter" (usually 3-5 nights of gaming) of the campaign we were on was done, then the DM would usually just say "Everyone goes up a level." This was higher level campaign though, and everyone started at like level 8.

Some other ways were keeping the XP pretty much the same for everyone, but rewarding those who did a lot of the critical killing/spellcasting/roleplaying with better items/treasure/magic weapons etc.

TheOOB
2007-06-25, 11:19 PM
If you want to give out awards for roleplaying, try using action points, that way you have an incentive for good roleplaying, but its only a temporary boost.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/actionPoints.htm

Rad
2007-06-26, 02:06 AM
If you want to give out awards for roleplaying, try using action points, that way you have an incentive for good roleplaying, but its only a temporary boost.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/actionPoints.htm

yes, that works just fine(as long as the action points system works).
I don't see how keyeng all the XP the party get on the highest level (or on the average, or whatever) help the low-level PCs to catch up. If everybody gets the same XP there is no catching up; that is possible only if the low level PCs get more, and that is what the table in the DMG does.
Probably I just didn't get your method tho.

BTW, what would you do if you had a character with a bought off LA? Do you think he should be able to catch up as well?

Tormsskull
2007-06-26, 07:09 AM
I give exp based on the encounters that each character was in, but I don't compensate for lower level characters. The higher level, the less the exp gap.

So if a level 1 party goes out and gets 1000 exp and then one of the guys dies and comes back with 500 exp with his new character (a rule I do depending on how well they played their previous character), then the party would be 3 level 2's and 1 level 1. If the next adventure they got 1000 exp each, then they'd all be level 2 (the three characters that didn't die would have 2k exp each, the one player that did would have 1.5k exp).

I think the so-called "self-correcting" exp system as the default really is just another way of minimizing the effects of character death, which I try to keep pretty severe.

factotum
2007-06-26, 07:31 AM
I think it's reasonable to give even XP shares to everyone. After all, it's arguable that a low level character who's in the party that kills a fearsome beast will learn more from the experience than the "seen it all before" high level guys, and the way XP requirements increase as you level up models that perfectly.

nagora
2007-06-26, 01:29 PM
Usually in my games I reward half xp for role-playing and half for combat. I'm considering changing combat xp back to the old style. XP is based on average level of the party rather than individual level.


Personally, I would calculate XP based on total level and divide that evenly with the proviso that anyone not involved in a particular combat gets no XP.
I would never award XP for role-playing under any circumstances. Good role-playing is its own reward and tends to bring logical in-game rewards too, without invoking artificial mechanics.

Tallis
2007-06-26, 06:45 PM
Personally, I would calculate XP based on total level and divide that evenly with the proviso that anyone not involved in a particular combat gets no XP.
I would never award XP for role-playing under any circumstances. Good role-playing is its own reward and tends to bring logical in-game rewards too, without invoking artificial mechanics.

I see your point, but I like to include non-combat ways of leveling. I also want to encourage role playing which sometimes falls by the wayside with my group. Atangible reward helps to do that.
You and The OOB have both made good points. I'm thinking of maybe action points for roleplaying and xp for achieving goals, combat or no, with combat xp adjusted by party level.

Matthew
2007-06-27, 08:28 PM
Non combat experience points are covered by goal based or story based experience. I think you are making a wise choice to use Action Points to reward Roleplaying, though. The way experience is calculated by default is self correcting, so you are just as well off giving out a flat rate appropriate to events than precisely calculating it for every encounter.