is there life after level 15?

[victor15065]

What do you do just retire your character, there is no xp chart or anything how about epic pf

[Lukterran]

Yes, you retire your character.

JK....There are examples of NPCs in the various text of classes higher than 15th level.

Actually PF didn't bother to make xp tables past level 15 because very few people actually play that long enough to earn enough xp for level 15.
You just have to extrapolate the extended xp table yourself using the same scheme that is used from levels 1-15. That is the easy part. Issue with that is PF wasn't ever consistant in XP per level. (Like xp for levels 1-4 the requirement doubles each level, then like 5-9 it goes up incrementally like 8k, 10k, 15k, 20k etc... Then level beyond 10 it can be any random amount from 40-60k in xp to the next level.)

The more difficult part is determining HtH Combat Bonuses, Class specific bonuses, WP bonues, Spell Strength etc....

[eliakon]

Assuming that your GM allows PCs to advance past 15 you would just have to figure out how things work. Even if your GM is a "thus far no further" type there is STILL stuff to do. You could use the class changing rules to pick up a second class. You could even just continue to adventure after all there are all sorts of rewards besides just XP.

[pblackcrow]

Yes...You just take on another OCC.

[flatline]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

[Library Ogre]

Since most XP charts list an end to level 15, you can usually figure that level 16 starts right after that.

But this is Palladium, so it actually starts level 17, due to uncorrected errata.

[Lukterran]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

There are a few old players like myself that have been playing in campaigns with the same characters to have had their characters reach levels beyond 15th.

I have a character that is a 16th level Undead Hunter / 14th level Summoner.

[victor15065]

I know I been playing since the 80s also I just have 4 15 the LVL chars lol

[pblackcrow]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

Yes, multiple times!

[Damian Magecraft]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

Quite a few times. Granted that was back when I ran more than one session a week. still... it is doable. It should take roughly 2.5 to 3 years at 1 session per week to achieve (this assumes an average of 1000+ exp per adventure/session. Which is the standard in most of the games I play).

[Lukterran]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

Quite a few times. Granted that was back when I ran more than one session a week. still... it is doable. It should take roughly 2.5 to 3 years at 1 session per week to achieve (this assumes an average of 1000+ exp per adventure/session. Which is the standard in most of the games I play).

You sure have funny math.

To reach level 15 you need anywhere between 290,000 - 370,000 xp. If you are only playing once a week that is 52 game sessions a year best case. If you only earning 1000 xp per session as you stated it would take you about 6-7 years to get to 15th level.

Now, it is probably more honestly that you are getting about 2000+ xp a session and that would put more within the range 2.5 - 3 year times slot you are talking about.

[Lukterran]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

Quite a few times. Granted that was back when I ran more than one session a week. still... it is doable. It should take roughly 2.5 to 3 years at 1 session per week to achieve (this assumes an average of 1000+ exp per adventure/session. Which is the standard in most of the games I play).

You sure have funny math.

To reach level 15 you need anywhere between 290,000 - 370,000 xp. If you are only playing once a week that is 52 game sessions a year best case. If you only earning 1000 xp per session as you stated it would take you about 6-7 years to get to 15th level.

Now, it is probably more honestly that you are getting about 2000+ xp a session and that would put more within the range 2.5 - 3 year times slot you are talking about.

The real pain is all the work that a GM has to do on the backend at that type of schedule. Thank you GMs!! That means not only is he giving up his availabilty to run the game. He also has to spend a number of hours each week generating new material which can be a lot of work.

[Damian Magecraft]

Has anyone ever had a character actually reach level 15?

--flatline

Quite a few times. Granted that was back when I ran more than one session a week. still... it is doable. It should take roughly 2.5 to 3 years at 1 session per week to achieve (this assumes an average of 1000+ exp per adventure/session. Which is the standard in most of the games I play).

You sure have funny math.

To reach level 15 you need anywhere between 290,000 - 370,000 xp. If you are only playing once a week that is 52 game sessions a year best case. If you only earning 1000 xp per session as you stated it would take you about 6-7 years to get to 15th level.

Now, it is probably more honestly that you are getting about 2000+ xp a session and that would put more within the range 2.5 - 3 year times slot you are talking about.

note I did say 1000+
For me when I gm I design the adventure reward anywhere from 500 (you participated) to 2500 (you managed to trip off every bonus award on the chart).
I didn't bother to do the actual math to determine the actual average since I am posting from my phone while on the run; but instead used rough estimates based off 25 years experience of the game.
I am sorry my numbers could not withstand your scrutiny [/sarcasm].
The point I was making was it is completely possible to reach high levels in the system but does require longer than the average 3.x game (which seems to be the standard everyone holds systems to these days.)

[eliakon]

Regardless of the exact math involved...It is possible to reach level 15, but it will likely require years of steady game play.

[kiralon]

Regardless of the exact math involved...It is possible to reach level 15, but it will likely require years of steady game play.

^^ and years, if there are 4 players that's 10000xp awarded every session if you follow the xp chart, that's a lot of xp for a group to make continuously. It's easier to do at lower levels to get that while you are backflipping to higher levels (I only give xp to the first useful use of a skill in any given situation, and if everyone rolls the skill only the first person gets the xp, and they get negative xp if the others who roll fail and don't argue their point) but every session gets harder to do that, and it also means that the group is in tip top form every session to get that much.
I had a group of 5-6 that played over 300 sessions that averaged about 6-8hrs each session and they got to around level 11-14 (a couple multiclassed at around level 5), but I did share the experience around the group evenly, often they were lucky to make 700xp each per session.

[Lukterran]

Regardless of the exact math involved...It is possible to reach level 15, but it will likely require years of steady game play.

^^ and years, if there are 4 players that's 10000xp awarded every session if you follow the xp chart, that's a lot of xp for a group to make continuously. It's easier to do at lower levels to get that while you are backflipping to higher levels (I only give xp to the first useful use of a skill in any given situation, and if everyone rolls the skill only the first person gets the xp, and they get negative xp if the others who roll fail and don't argue their point) but every session gets harder to do that, and it also means that the group is in tip top form every session to get that much.
I had a group of 5-6 that played over 300 sessions that averaged about 6-8hrs each session and they got to around level 11-14 (a couple multiclassed at around level 5), but I did share the experience around the group evenly, often they were lucky to make 700xp each per session.

Do the players in your group call you GM-Scrooge?

One a sidebar - How do you deal with taking out multiple bad guys with a single spell in regard to xp? Say a horde of 40 orcs is about to come into the village and murder everyone. The one PC casts river of lava the other PC uses a scroll of electro-magnitism to suck all the orces into the fiery pit by there armor.

[kiralon]

No scrooging here, I just don't hand out xp for stepping on ants

So it depends on the cirumstances as this changes the menace level, if the menace level is below minor (as in couldn't hurt you at all and this could happen regularly) no xp. If these characters had been fighting a hit and run battle and the orcs had made it to the outside of the village and this was a last ditch effort by the use of a scroll or 2, they would get full xp for all of the orcs plus a quick thinking plan and maybe also a critical plan that saved heaps of lives. If they are level 10 and all the orcs are level 1-3 and they saw the orcs and wiped them out without much thought ten seconds later they wouldn't get anything because the orcs weren't even a minor menace, and as its something they can toss about normally they wouldn't even get a quick thinking plan or a critical plan that saves many people because it was just battle action, not a plan.

Just out of curiosity how would you give xp for the same thing

[Lukterran]

Well there are two ways of looking at it.

If the players in my example were mid-level as well as the orcs. The threat would be very real and dangerous.

In option 1 the players (in the above example) use quick thinking and a smart plan to take out the threat in a cunning way and burning the orcs with spell magic. So I gave them less xp for killing the orcs. It seems like I am penalizing them for having a good plan.

In option 2 the players (another group on the other side of village) just choose to go toe-to-toe with the orcs and fight it out in hand-to-hand combat in the streets. These other players are fighting the same number of orcs. Instead the choose to move everyone in the village into the meadhall and lock them in. Using a few smaller alleyway between a couple of house and overturning carts and wagons barrels etc... to funnel the orcs into a choke point so that they don't get over run by the orcs numbers. After a very long combat squence the players stand victorious with a number of critical injuries and only just winning out in the end. The village in this case is burning as the orcs that acted had set the few buildings one fire with torches.

So this second group of players also uses a smart planning and defeats the threat of 40 orcs and saves the lifes of the villagers. Since they put them selfs in a dire situation, that almost got the group kill and the village destroyed, they still received more xp than the 1st option. Doesn't seem right too me?

Because 40 orcs as just a minor menace, giving the minimum reward of 25xp (Which would be a Scrooge) would still be about 1000xp. Not including all the other xp for quick thinking, saving many people etc...

Grouping all the orcs togother into 1 single greating menace reward also seems wrong. Maxing out at only 300xp.

Using LotR from the movie as an example the way the character were portrayed - that would be like only giving Legolas the minimum reward for taking out orcs and goblins (because he was a badass). While giving Gimli the maximum reward for killing the same quality of enemy orc (because he kind of sucked).

[kiralon]

I don't count using a spell in the way it is meant to be used a quick thinking or cunning plan. Lots of orcs = Area effect spell, that's a no brainer. Magnetism in this case would be a waste of time because of the small area it effects compared to that which river of lava effects, if this is an earth elementalist doing this he would be way more effective doing 2 rives of lava to kill as many orcs as he can and to channel them but this is what the spell is meant for. Its like giving quick thinking/cunning plan xp to the merc for stabbing the orc.
And as to the orcs being a menace, what menace were they. The orcs didn't get close to hurting anyone, and with rivers of lava spewing about the players are more of a danger to the village than the orcs (burning their crops etc). It would be different if they got into hand to hand combat but if you can wave your hand and the enemy is gone the threat level is 0 (that's one of the problems with river of lava, it will kill outright anything that isn't a powerful supernatural entity, dragons, golems or elementals. However if orcs survive and still manage to make their way into the village and fight then all the orcs the mage killed would be classed as a threat. Basically if the players aren't worried at all about a fight they get sweet all xp, and the more they have to work at it the more they get.

In the second case they would get a lot more experience points because they would end up doing more than yawning, wiggling their fingers and then getting the marshmallows. If the casters got into hth the orcs would be major menaces each because in hth with a mage that's what they generally are, but to the knight they are his bread and butter so he gets less than the mage for stabbing them to death.

[URLeader Hobbes]

Only dragons can progress beyond the 15th level.

[Glistam]

Only dragons can progress beyond the 15th level.

So how do gods get to be over 15th level in their classes then?

[zyanitevp]

In my game I already have one person on the verge of level 16, and I hope to have 3 of the 6 players at lev 20 when the final battle comes. I have been extending the wp's, hth, etc with logical progressions.

[URLeader Hobbes]

Only dragons can progress beyond the 15th level.

So how do gods get to be over 15th level in their classes then?

Gods aren't playable OCC/RCCs.

[eliakon]

Only dragons can progress beyond the 15th level.

So how do gods get to be over 15th level in their classes then?

Gods aren't playable OCC/RCCs.

How do any of the other canon beings over level 15 get there? (This ignores by the way all the beings that 'use the dragon experience table' since they don't say 'only up to 15 though' so just RAW those can already go past 15)

Simplest answer, they are NPCs and thus they are not constrained to the same limits as the PCs.
The corollary to this is that while some of the books say that PCs can not get over level 15 its not official for all the game lines.

More complex answer (found in the old PF 1st edition) the game makers only went up to level 15 because they felt it was a reasonable place to put the artificial break. No mater how far you extend the table there is always going to be some one asking "okay and then what?" Even if they extended the tables all the way up to the highest level being ever published (Ripley the 150th level mind mage) it would just kick the can down the road and people would be asking "What happens when you get to level 150?"

[MaxxSterling]

I think most people never reach 15th. I've played very steady games and most peak out around 7th-10th. If the games kept going 15th would've been achievable. Plus it depends on the game. If you have a ship capable of destroying a planet and hit the red button at level one. 6 billion lifeforms x 25 pts. apiece, you're easily 15th level. Unless you're GM would award that simply as a major menace and give you like 700 Exp. I'd give a 1000 Exp for Cormal, seems about right according to cannon.

[kiralon]

Only dragons can progress beyond the 15th level.

So how do gods get to be over 15th level in their classes then?

Gods aren't playable OCC/RCCs.

That hasn't stopped some people I know

[pblackcrow]

Regardless of the exact math involved...It is possible to reach level 15, but it will likely require years of steady game play.

Or a chance to do things truly awesome and add mega exp rewards. Like taking out armies.

[Lukterran]

Ok lets simplify my example.

John the 3rd level Merc Human soldier gets attacked by Grug the 3rd level barbarian Ogre. HtH combat ensues and John kills the ogre with his sword while barely escaping with his life. The threat was real and dangerous and John almost lost his life in the fight. He has a number of cuts and broken bones afterwards.

So you reward John the full xp for defeating his enemy.

Now, using the same example: I add that John the soldier had found a magic ring of "Mega Firball". One time only it can shot a fireball and instantly incinerate anyone it hits. John chooses not to use the ring. Because, "Hey it is a one time only use and then the ring turns to dust". Combat happens just as before in the above example.

So now you have too options one awarding xp. You either give him full xp just as before because the fight was just as dangerous. Or do you reduce the xp reward, because he wasn't in danger since he always had an option to insta-kill his opponent. So forever until he uses the power of the ring he will have his xp rewards reduced.

Now for the final example: The same situation as above, but this time John the Soldier chooses to use his magic ring to turn Grug to ashes.

So do you reward John full xp for killing a threat as in the first example? Or do you reduce his reward because he choose to use a smarter option than going toe-to-toe with the large Ogre? Thus, penalizing good judgement.

[kiralon]

Ok lets simplify my example.

John the 3rd level Merc Human soldier gets attacked by Grug the 3rd level barbarian Ogre. HtH combat ensues and John kills the ogre with his sword while barely escaping with his life. The threat was real and dangerous and John almost lost his life in the fight. He has a number of cuts and broken bones afterwards.

So you reward John the full xp for defeating his enemy.

Now, using the same example: I add that John the soldier had found a magic ring of "Mega Firball". One time only it can shot a fireball and instantly incinerate anyone it hits. John chooses not to use the ring. Because, "Hey it is a one time only use and then the ring turns to dust". Combat happens just as before in the above example.

So now you have too options one awarding xp. You either give him full xp just as before because the fight was just as dangerous. Or do you reduce the xp reward, because he wasn't in danger since he always had an option to insta-kill his opponent. So forever until he uses the power of the ring he will have his xp rewards reduced.

Now for the final example: The same situation as above, but this time John the Soldier chooses to use his magic ring to turn Grug to ashes.

So do you reward John full xp for killing a threat as in the first example? Or do you reduce his reward because he choose to use a smarter option than going toe-to-toe with the large Ogre? Thus, penalizing good judgement.

The ogre is a great menace to poor old john so he would get a lot of experience, and he would have fought for his life as mentioned, however if we swap the ogre for an ant the whole fight is a different bag of beans. John woops the ant good without effort.

First fight, john fought like his life depended on it, had to try all the tricks in his book to stay alive and learned about fight big tough monsters in hth.
second fight john stands on ant, learns that boots squish ant so nothing learned.

Using the magic ring, the ogre jumps out, john goes abra cadabra and ogre turns to dust, effort expended - zilch.
Lets swap ogre for the ant
Ant jumps out, john goes abra cadabra, ant turns to dust. The fight went exactly the same way as the fight with the ogre. john learned nothing ans wasn't threatened by anything..

John did sweet all in the first and second fight, and all he learned is magic can disintegrate ogres.
The ogre did nothing to john, and if john had another one of those rings the ogre would be just as much a threat as another ant.

even if he has the ring, if he fights the ogre he will learn things. so say he fought the ogre to almost death and then used the ring he still learned a lot about fighting the ogre, even if he did have to turn it to ashes at the end to win the ogre almost pulled his arms off, so the threat was still there.

If you do close to nothing in an encounter you will get close to nothing xp.

[Razorwing]

In the first fight (without the ring), I would award John the full experience of dealing with a major menace... they are more or less on equal footing.

The same is true for the second fight (with the ring, but the ring isn't used). While the option is there to use the ring and thus reduce the level of threat the ogre poses, the fact that he chooses not to use the ring increases the threat he is facing to the same level as if he didn't have the ring.

In the third fight (where he uses the ring), I probably wouldn't award any experience since the ogre had no chance of winning (even a small chance of winning is needed to qualify as a minor threat).

So the first two fights would garner about 100 exp each... while the 3rd fight would earn him 0 exp (you don't learn from a situation where there was no threat).

This is the same as using a starship to blow up a planet... even with 6 billion people on it, they were never a threat to your character (what can 6 billion people stuck on a planet do to a ship in orbit powerful enough to destroy the planet?). Such an action earns 0 experience since there was never any danger to the player... not even a remote chance of failure.

[flatline]

Ok lets simplify my example.

John the 3rd level Merc Human soldier gets attacked by Grug the 3rd level barbarian Ogre. HtH combat ensues and John kills the ogre with his sword while barely escaping with his life. The threat was real and dangerous and John almost lost his life in the fight. He has a number of cuts and broken bones afterwards.

So you reward John the full xp for defeating his enemy.

Now, using the same example: I add that John the soldier had found a magic ring of "Mega Firball". One time only it can shot a fireball and instantly incinerate anyone it hits. John chooses not to use the ring. Because, "Hey it is a one time only use and then the ring turns to dust". Combat happens just as before in the above example.

So now you have too options one awarding xp. You either give him full xp just as before because the fight was just as dangerous. Or do you reduce the xp reward, because he wasn't in danger since he always had an option to insta-kill his opponent. So forever until he uses the power of the ring he will have his xp rewards reduced.

Now for the final example: The same situation as above, but this time John the Soldier chooses to use his magic ring to turn Grug to ashes.

So do you reward John full xp for killing a threat as in the first example? Or do you reduce his reward because he choose to use a smarter option than going toe-to-toe with the large Ogre? Thus, penalizing good judgement.

The ogre is a great menace to poor old john so he would get a lot of experience, and he would have fought for his life as mentioned, however if we swap the ogre for an ant the whole fight is a different bag of beans. John woops the ant good without effort.

First fight, john fought like his life depended on it, had to try all the tricks in his book to stay alive and learned about fight big tough monsters in hth.
second fight john stands on ant, learns that boots squish ant so nothing learned.

Using the magic ring, the ogre jumps out, john goes abra cadabra and ogre turns to dust, effort expended - zilch.
Lets swap ogre for the ant
Ant jumps out, john goes abra cadabra, ant turns to dust. The fight went exactly the same way as the fight with the ogre. john learned nothing ans wasn't threatened by anything..

John did sweet all in the first and second fight, and all he learned is magic can disintegrate ogres.
The ogre did nothing to john, and if john had another one of those rings the ogre would be just as much a threat as another ant.

even if he has the ring, if he fights the ogre he will learn things. so say he fought the ogre to almost death and then used the ring he still learned a lot about fighting the ogre, even if he did have to turn it to ashes at the end to win the ogre almost pulled his arms off, so the threat was still there.

If you do close to nothing in an encounter you will get close to nothing xp.

If you set up the encounter such that there's no risk to you, you should get XP for the planning and execution that led up to the successful encounter.

As a GM, I typically reward plans with more XP than combat.

--flatline

[Reagren Wright]

What are you killing and doing to get enough experience to get past 8th level let alone get close enough to 15th?

[eliakon]

What are you killing and doing to get enough experience to get past 8th level let alone get close enough to 15th?

Probably stuff on your level.
A group of level 8 foes is a threat to a level 8 party. A group of level 10s is a serious threat. So is a large group of level 6s.
And don't forget that killing stuff is only a tiny portion of your XP. Playing in character, solving problems, AVOIDING violence, using skills, and the like are worth a lot more than just killing stuff.

[MaxxSterling]

It helps if you have a very giving GM who doesn't exactly follow the cannon XP charts, which I suspect is where most of these 15's come from. Playing cannon, it would take a long time to hit level 15. But lets actually look at this realistically.

So, I'm playing a OCC/RCC that is 300,000 Exp to be 15th level That would be
60 sessions at 5000 Exp each (Unlikely)
150 sessions at 2000 Exp each (Possible)
300 sessions at 1000 Exp each (Reasonable)
600 sessions at 500 Exp each (Most likely)

I'd say most nightly sessions I've played range from 300-1200 points, so even at that average, you're looking at around 450 sessions, so the question is how often do you play?

If you play literally every day, well, that's about a year and a half. If you play once a week, that's 8 and half years. So, it's feasible that dedicated gamers could have 15th level characters.

However, if you are playing an occ/rcc that requires 800,000 Exp to be level 15, then you are looking at around 3 years of daily play or maybe 20+ years of weekly play. SOOO... if you tell me you have a 15th level sdc human type person, I'd buy that. If you tell me you have a 15th level holy terror or dragon or something that take 1 million Exp to be 15th level, I'm probably calling B.S.

Obviously, all of this is IMO so take it or leave it. This game is so inundated with house rules and GM's that are so far removed from cannon that it's near impossible to compare groups and game styles.

[Glistam]

The last game I was in averaged somewhere from 2,000 to 5,000 xp per game. The G.M. also offered xp rewards for out of game actions, such as updating character or game information on the website we managed the campaign on (Obsidian Portal), or for doing RP between sessions with the G.M. and/or players. It all added up fairly quickly.

I bring this up just to illustrate how another gaming group dealt with xp rewards and what our "average" was. In less than 2 years my Temporal Wizard hit level 13 as I retired him, but I was also very active behind the scenes on Obsidian Portal and in R.P..

[pblackcrow]

What are you killing and doing to get enough experience to get past 8th level let alone get close enough to 15th?

Very simply put...Stopping or delaying armies by any means available. It should get you some points for critical planning that saves lives, potential life & death situation, individual Killing/subduing (Yes, that should be done on an individual basis!), endangering own life to help others, deductive reasoning/insight, daring, good judgement, playing in character, not risking lives, and quick thinking...plus in my game I give extra points for we even get rewarded for capturing nobles; knights; squires; page; and clerics. Same is true for taking on dragons, evil cults, basically anything that is threatening an abbey, villages, towns, good ruler, etc.

[eliakon]

It helps if you have a very giving GM who doesn't exactly follow the cannon XP charts, which I suspect is where most of these 15's come from. Playing cannon, it would take a long time to hit level 15. But lets actually look at this realistically.

So, I'm playing a OCC/RCC that is 300,000 Exp to be 15th level That would be
60 sessions at 5000 Exp each (Unlikely)
150 sessions at 2000 Exp each (Possible)
300 sessions at 1000 Exp each (Reasonable)
600 sessions at 500 Exp each (Most likely)

I'd say most nightly sessions I've played range from 300-1200 points, so even at that average, you're looking at around 450 sessions, so the question is how often do you play?

If you play literally every day, well, that's about a year and a half. If you play once a week, that's 8 and half years. So, it's feasible that dedicated gamers could have 15th level characters.

However, if you are playing an occ/rcc that requires 800,000 Exp to be level 15, then you are looking at around 3 years of daily play or maybe 20+ years of weekly play. SOOO... if you tell me you have a 15th level sdc human type person, I'd buy that. If you tell me you have a 15th level holy terror or dragon or something that take 1 million Exp to be 15th level, I'm probably calling B.S.

Obviously, all of this is IMO so take it or leave it. This game is so inundated with house rules and GM's that are so far removed from cannon that it's near impossible to compare groups and game styles.

Your personal interpretation of how the XP chart is not a valid reason to say that every one else is doing it wrong.
I would like to see where it says that all XP awards on the chart are on a "per-session" basis.
This means, that by the chart, each use of a skill or clever (but futile) idea is worth 25xp. Each act of daring? That's 50. Cleaver and useful idea? Quick Thinking? Avoided Unnecessary violence? Take 100 each.
Yes, I house rule XP. That's because when I tried to do it as the books were set up it was pretty easy for people to get between 5,000-10,000 XP (or more) in a single weekly session. (which btw, would allow a dragon to get to level 15 in....wait for it.....around two and a half years)

So, before you call B.S. on other people....make sure that you actually know the rules that you are claiming are not being followed.

[Lukterran]

For a reasonable adventure and normal game time (usually 5-6 hours). Most of my players usually earn betwen 750-2500 xp. The higher end for really exceptional play or great ideas and saving lots of people.

If you earned under 1000 xp it is usually because you were not participating or playing in character etc...

[kiralon]

If you read the book it says the reason there aren't levels above 15 is because you aren't likely to get there. The guy who made the game's group played for 2 1/2 (say 120 games) years and it was weekly for about 9 hrs a session and they made it to level 7-9. A level 9 palladin needs 75000xp so they averaged around 600 - 700 xp per person per 9 hr session.
My characters don't try to backflip to higher levels anymore, because when they did that so did the monsters. They get the point when they see jotans backflipping their way towards them.
If a navigation roll is needed they will get the person with highest skill to roll, because if others badly fail and they don't argue the point about the wrong direction being the right way to go they don't get to make their skill rolls anymore (or see them). I have a scale of fail, miss by a few percent, you aren't sure you got it right, if you fail by a big percentage you are sure you got it right and should act accordingly.
I must say I also share xp amongst the group rather then give personal xp (except for really good ideas, those are handed out immediately) as this tends to help the group stay together in levels.
I use slashes for skill usage so I track skills fairly accurately (and I still use 50xp for successful skill usage), and combat can eat 4 hrs out of a session easily, and combat is usually the lowest paying thing to do for xp. So between combat, storytelling and players goofing around/getting coffee etc I am pretty dubious about people earning 3000+ xp in a session regularly when going by what the book says.
But in saying that the book can be interpreted differently, and people have plenty of house rules but looking over different forums about xp it looks like around 1000xp per session is pretty normal.

[pblackcrow]

For a reasonable adventure and normal game time (usually 5-6 hours). Most of my players usually earn betwen 750-2500 xp. The higher end for really exceptional play or great ideas and saving lots of people.

If you earned under 1000 xp it is usually because you were not participating or playing in character etc...

Exactly!!!

And it is not unheard of in my game for a PC to rack up over 5,000 points or more.

Although, the most I have received was during the trisariton invasion...Which the whole game lasted maybe an hour and a half. By the way, I'm playing a True Atlantian ley line walker/3 or 4 other classes who found himself in a combination universe (TMNT/HU/MC/N&SS/BtS/Disney's Gargoyles) with 6 friends, but there were just myself and Cody playing. Now Cody was playing a Psy-Tech. Anyway, from the temple ruins of Delphi, I prayed to Apollo as I collected the PPE from the nexus there. I asked him to guide my astral body to the Trisariton's "planetiod/command center" that is in our solar system, to save the earth with his holy light (should be the main as to what I was planning.) Also that he grant unto me the PPE to do what needed to be done. I got both. So, I went astral, poked around until I found an empty room with what looked like a computer to me. And I took a mental picture of it. I then gated us us into that room, I cast breathe without air on me and the psy-tech, then I negate the d-portal. The psy-tech erects all the hallway shields on the level, takes control of the buildings atmospheric thingy-mo-jig, changes the settings to oxygen, hacks into central command via machine ghost, and basically takes control of everything. Sends out a return command to the attack force. And once everyone was back there he infects all the computers with a virus. I open the gate back up to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Let him off. I then close to the gate, and pray to Apollo. This time to basically, asking forgiveness and for a place at his side if he should choose not to save me, because EVERYTHING there NEEDS to be destroyed. Guide my astral body into the sun that I may open the gateway. Humans are not ready for this level of tech, at least not yet. I go astral, and safely into the sun and back. I do the spell for a dimensional rift with the the sun as the exit/entry point. The next thing I know is I am back at the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

[pblackcrow]

If you read the book it says the reason there aren't levels above 15 is because you aren't likely to get there. The guy who made the game's group played for 2 1/2 (say 120 games) years and it was weekly for about 9 hrs a session and they made it to level 7-9. A level 9 palladin needs 75000xp so they averaged around 600 - 700 xp per person per 9 hr session.

Dude, that's just sad!

[victor15065]

I agree I give 2500 for a game session sometimes seems normal to me

[Damian Magecraft]

Part of the issue here is what is a session?
Hobby standard seems to be 4hrs.
My personal standard is 8.

[MaxxSterling]

Yeah, in this game setting, there isn't really much point in arguing XP awards, because they can be very subjective, even the canon really relies on how the GM interprets things. When I posted previously, I ran off an assumption of about 4-5 hours play time.

10k XP per every session? Cool story, do me a favor and add me to your blocked/foe list. Thanks.

[pblackcrow]

Part of the issue here is what is a session?
Hobby standard seems to be 4hrs.
My personal standard is 8.

Usually, it is a 5-14 hour game...Sometimes more, sometimes less.

[eliakon]

I have found, for my own games, that on average XP tends to be somewhere between 200-500 xp per hour. With a session being between 4-8 hours this ends up being 2-4k XP per session, usually in the 2,500 area. (this is usually in flux as I try to figure out 'better ways' to award xp. I realized that this needed doing when I was running into the previously posted issue of awards of up to 10k+ XP in a single session....this told me that the RAW didn't work, and so I have tried to find a good house rule. But it is a house rule.)

[flatline]

I would imagine that there are as many house rules for XP as for anything else.

Our approach was to set a base rate of XP earned per hour as long as you were participating plus any special awards due to good play.

I think we typically got between 1000XP and 2000XP over the course of a 4-hour session.

--flatline

[pblackcrow]

I don't know about how much per hour since there are some slow parts in everyone's game.

[Reagren Wright]

I've done it this way. There are two types of expereince. Group EXP and Individiual EXP. The group exp is how well the
group operated and succeeded. Because you participated everyone get to share in the group exp, unless you miss a game
session (then you only get half and each game session you miss, I keep subtracting half. If your character dies, you get
nothing. If you bring in a new character he only gets half since he didn't start the adventure with the party. Group EXP is
rewarded at the end of the adventure (the end of the story).

Individual EXP can be reward during game play for doing anything spectacular or something that changes the adventure (25-
100 points). I also give 25-100 points for creative one liners, quotes, cliches, or jokes spoken at the right moment of the
adventure. If you strike the final blow that kills the monster, you don't get the exp for it (that's group exp), but if you are
the one that did instrumental in bringing the critter/villain down, you will be rewarded for it (as well as get the share of the
group exp). At the end of the adventure, individual exp is rewarded for everyone. I'm also likely to remove EXP for stupid
things or behavior that hindered the adventure.

While this may seem a lot, we still usuallly top out at 7-8th level. The things you have to fight and defeat are simply beyond
a single adventure.

[Tor]

most XP charts list an end to level 15
you can usually figure that level 16 starts right after that
this is Palladium, so it actually starts level 17, due to uncorrected errata.

I understand your first 2 points but that last line confuses me.