Level and time

[KyleG]

Just wondering what sort of time will have past between a level 1 and a level 3. I have been asked to respec to level 3 for a campaign ive joined and trying to get a feel for how long my character has actually been their class.

Cheers

[Galithar]

According to the DMG of adventuring days per level less then a week! :P

But for a more in depth RP perspective, I would say a level three adventurer has been at it for between a month and a year. Prior to this they would have normal background experience from whatever background they chose.

[Asmotherion]

Think about it in terms of xp. You need a total of 900 xp to get to level 3.

In term of critters:

CR 1= 200 xp
CR 1/2= 100 xp
CR 1/4= 50 xp
CR 1/8= 25 xp
CR 0= 10 xp

The CR could also represent DCs that reward xp. Some trivial, non challenging (with no chance of failure) tasks should also not reward XP at all. An evaluation would be:

DC 20-X= 200 xp
DC 17-19= 100 xp
DC 14-16= 50 xp
DC 11-13= 25 xp
DC X-10= 10 xp

This approach also makes the DM ask for rolls only when they really matter (as opposed to, every 10 secconds), and makes the players actually happy to roll.

Overall, you need to accumulate a total of 900 xp to be level 3.

This could be over a course of 20 long years were you met an imp sometime, and then had 10 peacful years 'till you fought an other Specter with some collegues, and then, 10 more years passed untill you had to defend a village from a hord of Goblins.

Or you could be a calm scholar, with only accademic knowlage on Magic, 'till one day you get caught up with a band of adventurers, and one thing leads to an other, and as you go study the ruins with them, you start casting your spells on enemies, getting in field experience (and experimenting on the limits of your actual magical ability) on the way, feeling more alive than you ever were in your laboratory, and deciding to stay with the party... all that in 4-5 days.

It's after level 3 really that xp starts not being a river. Advanced Players should always start at level 3 IMO.

[KyleG]

The former is not a lot of time for a character to evolve. The second better. I did some number crunching and that would mean if an adventurer takes 20 years to max out that you would be level 4 after approximately 2 months of encounters. even if stretch to 30 years of adventuring that's still 1 month until level 3. That seems the best rate i would think.Even more so if you say a level is 10 balance encounters so that would be a balance encounter each day for a month to get to level 3.

Which brings me back to the point of this which was my character whom i had envisaged have made great personal (not professional) strides in the first 3-4 levels would actually only be around a month or 2 older and not necessarily place for a big change to their life like a multi class opportunity
...back to the drawing board perhaps.