XP questions

[Erin Greene]

Why is the xp per kill so ridiculously small on Arelith and the XP penalty for dying so high?

170 xp for a great wyrm white dragon is a joke.


My character dies once, loses 450+5200 xp.
I would have to kill that Wyrm roughly 33 times to make up "one" death.


Is there an intention to make high level adventuring all risk and virtually no reward or something?

[Lorkas]

It's not really all-risk no-reward. If you know what you're doing and play carefully, you will not die very often on Arelith, and even when you do the amount of XP lost here is way lower than on many other servers.

Yes, the XP gain rate is low though. I believe that's an intentional part of the design of the server so that not everyone is max level. It's just about right I think, because many people take 1-2 RL years (10-20 IG years) to reach their full level-30 potential. Some do it more quickly, but it just isn't realistic for someone to achieve superhero-level abilities in a very short period of time.

[Erin Greene]

If the XP gain rate is low, then the XP lost for dying should be low, too. as, at most, 100 per level lost.

I don't play video games to have one accidental death entirely wipe out 3 days of work.
It makes it hard to be willing to do anything remotely risky (IE actually fun) when you get stomped so terribly hard for doing it.

I know regular D&D takes "levels" and then "permanent" constitution points for raising people from the dead, but, well, a character in regular D&D has an Adventuring Party to back him up, on hand, all the time.

People in Arelith spend 50% of their careers soloing or sitting in Cordor watching paint dry waiting for a party. And since watching paint dry is terribly boring, I imagine most people solo or log off.

[The Rambling Midget]

People in Arelith spend 50% of their careers soloing or sitting in Cordor watching paint dry waiting for a party. And since watching paint dry is terribly boring, I imagine most people solo or log off.

Well, there's your real problem. It's not that leveling is too hard or that death is too costly, it's that you're trying to solo.

It really isn't hard to gather up a party, these days, especially since so many players are, as you say, watching paint dry. You just have to abandon the fear of rejection, walk out into the middle of the street, and announce "I'm going to [dungeon/killy place], who wants to come?" If you gather up a decent party of four, (four gives the best XP bonus) and use some discretion/tactics, you'll find yourself getting 20-40XP per kill for reasonably challenging baddies.

I've had a character make it to mid epics without ever dying, just by imparting that character with a sense of self preservation.

Also, as Lorkas said before, not all characters are capable of reaching level 30, and that's intentional. Only the best of the best will get there, either by build power, teamwork, or sheer determination. If your character isn't fun to play anymore, retire it and roll up a new one. If it's still fun to play, then don't worry too much about leveling up. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by reaching level 30, here, except PvP power, and PvP is incredibly boring about 99% of the time.

[Midibouncer]

I encourage you to try out the FL server, which doesn't require so much grinding to get payback in levels.

I felt like you did about XP and even though there aren't many people on FL I have much more fun adventuring in small groups and the payback for a couple hours of playing is much much higher in my opinion.

Hope to see you on!

[Erin Greene]

I play in the Underdark, which is currently suffering from a rather sudden drop in server population and a severe lack of people my level (26, stuck on the verge of 27 thanks to one death while IN a party, and one soloing death) Since I am not willing to drag level 14s around to places liable to get them slaughtered effortlessly.

And, you know, RP wise, it is actually hard to gather a party. Some people wouldn't, at all, realistically trust other people with their lives or coin.

So if I want to play Shi'nidya remotely realistically, 99% of the UD playerbase is unavailable, since I don't trust most of them not to kill me if they see advantage in it, and the rest are too low level to actually go adventuring with.

[Dalenger]

As mentioned above, Arelith is not like most other servers. The vast majority of characters never make it into their epics, and making epic (and even more so for max leveling) is a BIG DEAL.

Arelith is a roleplay server... enjoy the fun you have killing things with your friends, build a nice roleplay for yourself, and stop worrying about the number that pops up on your screen every time you get a kill. Enjoy your character as he is instead of constantly waiting for your next level to then begin enjoying your character.

As it relates to the xp gain:loss ratio, dying (as you would expect it to be in real life or PnP) is a big deal! Play it smart, find a nice party, and spend less time worrying about your build and more time roleplaying your character as he is. The levels will come, albeit more slowly than on most servers.

As a final comment, this isn't the right place to vent. If you have a legitimate question (eg, "why is the xp gain:loss ratio on this server so unbalanced?") then fine, you can ask. But saying something "is a joke" or using absolutes such as "virtually no reward" isn't constructive at all.

[Lorkas]

I really don't think the XP rate is going to be increased or the XP on death reduced. It's a nice pace for most folks on Arelith, I think. The XP loss on death is at a nice level where it hurts to lose it (it probably represents 1-3 hours of serious training at any given level) but not utterly crippling. 1-3 hours on a server where it takes hundreds of hours at least to get to level 30 is not a huge deal (though it is incredibly frustrating all the same).

[Scurvy Cur]

There's been a fair bit of good advice in this thread, but I will share some personal observations:

Most builds can solo to 15-20 without too much trouble.
Soloing to 20-25 is possible for most builds with a little work and patience.
Soloing past 25 is very hard, unless you have an excellent build, or a pre-nerf raven totem (god, I love saying that, thanks Mith) for which you hit "Recommended" on every feat save dragonshape.

Some further points likely specific to you:

1) I seem to remember you are running a pure class Drow monk. I suspect dexterity based. Try never to engage more than 1 target at a time, as lack of uncanny dodge will seriously wreck you.

2) Understand that you are playing a class that derives very little benefit from staying pure past 20. Monks peak in power compared to other classes in the 16-21 range, and maintaining the buildup of character effectiveness past that point requires multiclassing. I really wish it weren't the case, but that's how it is.

The way the server is set up, monsters are designed to assume that characters get a bigger jump in their epics than they do in their high teens, and a much much bigger jump in their high epic levels. This is because characters start getting access to game changing feats, such as epic dodge or High level warlock spells, or have enough levels to grab the most desirable features of 2-3 classes. It doesn't require that people make top notch builds to succeed, but it does get significantly more challenging into epic levels. If you are not getting much benefit from your epic levels, you will not be able to keep soloing in level appropriate areas.

3) A single party member whose skills compliment your own even a little resolves the overwhelming majority of the issues weaker builds will have, provided the party member does some basic things like grab agro/disable threats when you get into trouble.

My advice would be to just take it slow and steady when you are solo, and have a party as much as you can. Safer trips that get you 1-2k XP are preferable to more aggressive trips that get you 3-5k XP when soloing, because the dynamic changes entirely when you don't have a party member: a single bad roll can end the trip. It usually takes bad decisions to wipe a party.

[msterswrdsmn]

^ Like he said, soloing gets harder and harder as you level. Eventually, taking along at least one more person that has a different skillset than you VASTLY improves your odds of surviving and making decent xp/gold. Preferably, a partner with skillset that both compliments your strong points and covers your weak ones.

I usually solo due to wierd play times, so I feel the pain there with the xp/leveling/difficulty. High-level soloing requires a lot of patiences, skill, and resources. And avoiding some bosses.

Dying sucks, yeah. Again, prepare and plan and pratice. And even then, it only takes one really bad roll to screw you. >< Another thing a good partner is good for!

[Lorkas]

There's also stalking other parties if you don't trust them!

That or changing up your RP so that it seems to them that you are more use to them alive than dead.

If worse comes to worse, don't fight them--nothing else in the server can move as fast as you can. Shi'nidya can probably derive some confidence from that fact. Use positioning to ensure that your "allies" are never close enough that they would be able to attack you before you could run away. Holding spells are not a problem so it seems like worst case scenario you have to tank one spell, maybe two if they can click on you while you're running at monk speed.

[The Man of the Moon]

From a mechanical perspective...

Believe that Arelith has not the worst scenario to level a character at all...
Arelith has a moderated policy on that.

There were in the past and still being in the present, NWN servers called to be RP servers, where you may lose HALF your level if you couldn't be resurrected by another character, but releasing.
I played in the past not as bad penalties servers, but that were worse than Arelith is regarding the death.

And...

As all the above fellows said... The greater loss of XP compared with the small win when adventuring, makes all of us taking more care from an IG sense... (Well, sometimes not to me, who fall into a berserker rage, charging an unseen mob and causing the dead of my fellows as mine... But shhh... don't tell to anyone or I may get isolated!)

One of the many factors that make me like Arelith is the relative difficulty to level up. That makes actually a high level be something high, and not just a commoner more among several epic characters.

[Urch]

The journey is greater than the end. Enjoy the low levels, for they infinitely outshine the high levels; not from power, but from the sheer thrill of the time shared with those from friendship formed.