No benefit of grouping on xp !

[meldor]

I find it really hard to level my deep gnome ranger.. and even harder to find groups because everyone report grouping kill the xp drastically.

The 5% xp loss upon death is really bad also. at lvl 1 as a deep gnome I need 10000 xp to reach lvl 2. I cant count the numbers of time I died and lost 500+ xp. (at lvl 2-3 you lose 1000+ xp per death) that's insane. I did a DM event that took 2hours or so for 1800xp. I tried to run back to baldur gate after and died lost 1250xp. I was sad.

I think some tweaking here and there are needed. Tho I must say with my dwarf cleric it has been really easy to reach lvl 5 in a few hours.

[DM Sir Carnifex]

Please don't let the messengers of doom and gloom prevent you from joining a party. The "penalty" for grouping is hardly any such thing. Being in a group does reduce the amount of XP you get [per kill], but this is really not a big deal.

1. Groups fight more effectively than individuals (in most cases) and therefore kill things faster. The resulting XP is more than what you would get as a solo.

Example: I've tried soloing goblins with my weak, weak rogue before and even though he can get them, he gets hit a lot and it takes him a long time to kill them. Enter rogue #2. One of them is always getting a sneak attack on the goblin. As soon as the one gets a successful sneak, the goblin turns around allowing the first rogue to also get a sneak attack. The goblins go down at about five times the rate (at least) this way than if I were to solo.

Example 2: The fighter goes into the mines to fight bugbears. He can clobber them, no problem, but he suffers hits. His companion is a cleric (assume both are lower levels). The cleric can keep himself from being hit so much, but he doesn't kill the bugbears as fast as the fighter. Put the two together and the fighter has the AC from the cleric's buffs, plus his own fighting abilites (buffed too). Result: more kills, more XP.

2. Being in groups is a much better way to RP and, thus, have fun! Remember people, this may not be a heavy RP server (forced RP) but it IS classified as RP. If all one cares about is XP and grinding then I wonder why that person is here in the first place. An action server or such would be better for that. (This isn't meant to be directed at any one person.)

3. Lower level PCs gain a distinct advantage joining a party over soloing. Think of it... if your level 3 joins with a level eight, he can now go fight something bigger - maybe the bugbears or something - than the gnolls he was forced to fight beforehand. So long as the gap between levels of the two characters is not too high, the lower level will be gaining a very generous amount of XP. There is no way possible that this could be accomplished so easily on one's own.

[meldor]

Trust me I prefer being in a group, DnD is all about grouping but when peoples keep telling ya we prefer staying as small group or being solo it's quite annoying.

I'm sure there would be a possible formula to encourage peoples grouping. something like if everyone same lvl you divide xp between everyone but add 5% xp per person in the group. make a penality reduce the xp bonus if someone is higher lvl.. something like -1% per lvl thus if the person is 5lvl or higher then there a penality of -2% each for each lvl etc.

This is just an exemple. There are some classes quite capable of soloing (power builds) why those who want to go with a regular build be penalized.

All you above exemple is about being 2-3 in a group, tho we should see full groups of 6 peoples running not only small group.

[DM Sir Carnifex]

I don't believe the "penalty" for being in a group increases after having three members if I recall correctly. So whether in a group of three or fifteen, you should get the same XP. So if the thought that the more in the group, the more the loss was keeping people from partying up, it shouldn't.

By the way, take any of my examples and throw in a couple more party members and it still works the same way, only better. ;D

[luna]

Hey Meldor.. I think the XP is being looked at. Not sure on ETA for when it will be adjusted.

[DM mithari]

I've been called crazy (and I'll concede that IS a very real possibility) for saying these things before in other games, usually by people rubbing Sir Carnifex' point no. 1 in my face, but think about it.

If groups were purely and unarguably better than going solo (for example by not reducing XP/kill at all), would that actually be harmful to the game? So they'd get a lot more XP faster, but is that even a problem in a game where you're meant to face challenges together?

The XP/kill is usually pretty low anyway, and the way D&D works at its core combined with the XP penalty on death means that you can't practically take a large group of lowbies and try to take down wyverns or hill giants or the Haunted House skeletons. Too powerful things will easily kill off at least three or four people in each fight, to the point where you'd need more luck than is even inhumanly fair to actually make an XP profit.

If people prefer to go solo because of other reasons, that's fine. But if even a single person says "I get better XP going alone" and actually happen to be right about it, isn't that indicating something that is more wrong in a supposedly social(ish) game?

I do, however, think that Carnifex' point 2 is rock solid. There aren't wrong ways of playing, but you can pick the wrong server to play your way on. Though one should certainly greatly encourage groups on a roleplaying server (if only to make people interact with each other and not just mindless stand-around-all-day-picking-their-noses-NPC-merchants), I'd say constant grinding isn't the point of that encouragement.

[Zealote]

Next time you're alone in a dangerous area, dont be shy to ask for help to get back to the city. There are tons of characters out there with good alignments just waiting to RP their good will. *Grins*
You can get a free ride to anywhere you want with those guys, just make the right needy eyes look and they take you anywhere.

[broham2]

Lol, and evil characters are willing to sometimes as well.. to get in good with you, extort you, get paid, mess with you, act good as deception, want to learn more about you, etc.

I dont think ive ever had much of a problem getting someone to help me to somewhere or other.

[DM mithari]

Just ask and I think anyone heading in the same general direction is more than willing to play the guardian or go with safety in numbers.
If only to make sure that chances are you are the one to get killed by ambushes instead.

The roads are very dangerous, after all.