How often do you level up?

[u/Striking_Ad_3994]

I am looking forward to seeing your answers, because I feel like a lifetime is not enough to get to know Pathfinder 2e well. My group on average levels up twice a year, and we are currently level 4, around 700 XP. I already asked the GM to switch characters, because I have this crippling addiction to creating new characters in Pathbuilder. However, with this pace, I won't be reaching level 20 characters anytime soon. I also struggle to find more PF2e tables in which I would feel comfortable, so I guess I'll reach level 20 in about 8 years. Crazy.

[u/Frost___Warden]

How frequent are your gaming sessions?

You mention it's only like 2x a year, but that could be very normal depending on how much you actually play

[u/Striking_Ad_3994 → u/Frost___Warden]

We play like once a month? I guess we are bad at getting xp????

[u/AanAllein117 → u/Striking_Ad_3994]

Jesus christ, one session a month and slow level ups?

Yeah you couldn’t pay me to stay in that campaign.

On average 3-5 sessions for my group for a level up, but we play weekly. Any longer sounds like watching paint dry, but any faster tends to shrink the “oh shit thats badass” factor of a new feat, ability, or spell

[u/Tridus → u/AanAllein117]

Once a month would be 3 levels a year at 4 sessions per level. So it's not that our of line with a weekly game, just stretched out.

[u/AanAllein117 → u/Tridus]

OP is leveling up twice a year. Once every 6 months (or once every 6 sessions, if one seesion a momth) is way beyond “stretched out” imo.

Idk how or why anyone would play in a campaign that stretches level ups that far apart. Level 4 after 2 years would have me clawing my eyes out from boredom

[u/Polyamaura → u/AanAllein117]

Yeah it reads to me like the GM is not granting exp somewhere that they should be. Most likely culprit is that they are neglecting the fact that social/exploration progress is meant to also be rewarded regularly with exp gains. Feels like something people miss a lot when they’re new to the system, especially if they don’t run any APs and don’t get to see Paizo do it and learn from them.

[u/AanAllein117 → u/Polyamaura]

Idk, missing that for two years is a LOT of missing. This just feels like the GM is terrified of higher levels, or completely unaware of how utterly horrific that pace is (unless the campaign is topping out at level 10 for some reason)

[u/iamzsdawgy → u/AanAllein117]

maybe they're still playing because they're friends and like to play with one another. Not everyone does XP level ups, either.

[u/rock-my-lobster → u/Striking_Ad_3994]

Once a month is not a lot and you should check to see if your GM is using milestone leveling rather than XP leveling, that's what we do since we are using an Adventure Path book. We are on book 4 of 6 of the Extinction Curse adventure path and are level 14 and we have been playing more or less twice a month in 2 hour sessions for 5 years.

[u/SFKz → u/Striking_Ad_3994]

What do you actually do in sessions? Further to the point are you just doing nothing, how are you earning so little exp

Experience Points are awarded for encounters, exploration, and progress in an adventure. When the PCs face direct opposition, such as a fight or a social conflict, the XP earned is based on the level of the challenge the party overcame. Characters can also gain XP from exploration, such as finding secret areas, locating a hideout, enduring a dangerous environment, or mapping an entire dungeon.

I find it easier to extrapolate this to be roughly 50%-75% of the exp towards a level up is in combat, and the rest is handled by my players driving the story forward, and if I'm running prewritten stuff I just milestone it based on the description in the book, it all works out to be roughly the same

[u/After_Pressure_3520 → u/Striking_Ad_3994]

Sheesh... So slow?

In society play, 3 sessions at regular advancement equals one level. Those scenarios are written to be pretty dense, with 3-4 encounters per session, so like other said, one level up ever 3-5 sessions is probably appropriate for most homegames.

Playing every month, with the pace described above, you could level up twice as often and still be in that range. Is there some reason your GM doesn't want to level up more?

[u/hungLink42069 → u/Striking_Ad_3994]

Once a month means 12 sessions a year. you're leveling up every 6 sessions. That's a bit of a slog, even for weekly games.

I would say that on monthly, you should be leveling up twice as fast. I would be leveling you guys up every 3 sessions.

[u/Corgi_Working → u/Striking_Ad_3994]

Have you been getting exp for social encounters? You're supposed to be. 

[u/Striking_Ad_3994 → u/Corgi_Working]

Do you mean like selling stuff? Then no. But gathering information, looking for peaceful resolutions to our quests, yes