No XP Gain

[Atraos]

I have recently created a new Drow Wizard who still sits at level 1

I have been playing him for around 2 hours now. Nearly all of it spent in the Slave pits killing goblin slaves.
I have yet to move beyond "Your journey to your next level has begun!".

I am led to believe that some changes were made to xp gain for various races. The one to this character seems a little harsh. As stated i have been killing Goblin slaves for two RL hours and as yet havent gained enough xp to train a weapon skill let alone a level.

Is this as intended or something potentially wrong with this character?

[Raona]

I tested this with a new Drow character and found their experience to increase at a very reasonable pace. However, the d20 ECL (effective character level) has been implemented, making rare races require more experience to advance (and, I think, to train).

Still, 2 hours should certainly suffice to be able to train once, or see a change in what echo LEVEL gives you, provided you have not died in that time, and are fighting more than the tiny training mobs. Dying takes away experience, and fighting mobiles much weaker than yourself grants very little experience. Are either of those two the case with you? If not, I'll try to find you online and peek into what might be going on.

[Atraos]

No i was fighting a variation of Mobs in the slave pens and i have yet to die.

[Selveem]

Does your Drow have low Cha/Wis?

[Lathander]

Have you spent a lot of xp on skills/spells?

[Khelebhzed]

I ran into a similar problem, have you been fleeing at all by chance?

[Atraos]

Hey

WIS is Clever, CHA is Average.

I have not spent anything on skills as i have never been able to gether enough XP to do so, i have tried.

Played him for half an hour or so yesterday, trying to kill tougher Mobs, as thought perhaps that might help. Alas only being level 1 it was next to impossible, so yes, did quite a bit of fleeing yesterday. Before that though no, not really.

I can appreciate that some Chars have a slower xp gain rate, but this level retracts from any RP really, as having to spend 3 or 4 hours hacking at slaves to get enough xp to train a new spell or anything. Not that i have even managed that as of yet.

Will not be playing much with this PC so PM me if you need me to drop onto him to check anything.

Thanks

[Atraos]

Thanks to Robotiko.

Seems there is no issue, it is all relevant to the ECL. XP yield is, as expected, very slow for monstrous characters.

Thanks for answers and replys on this thread but its all done now....


Thanks again

[Raona]

Worked with Atraos one-on-one today, and it looks like things are working as they should. The helpfiles have yet to document this, but we have very recently introduced ECL (effective character level) into the game for monstrous races. You can read the d20 rules on this here:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monstersAsRaces.htm

Effectively, drow PCs start with the XP required for level 5, and have to gain the XP required for a normal PC to get to level 6 before they get to level 2. Wizards are always hard to start, so it's a true challenge for a drow wizard, especially since their chances of getting any help are almost nil.

However, for any starting PC, the key is to fight the toughest mobile you can reliably fight without fleeing or dying. Doing either of those two things will suck away a great deal of experience gain. If you are a wizard, wait to get your spells back rather than trying to do it with melee, unless you have a mobile you can safely best with just your melee skills - if so, that might be the fastest route, though you'll need to kill a LOT of them to get anywhere.

RPing with mobs can help to pass the time while you are resting and recovering!

[Kregor]

Probably a digression from the original topic, but ... so far as ECL for Drow goes, would it seem a bit extreme in the case of Drow on FK for one simple reason:

The premise of ECL is to balance the high powered races against the more mundane equivalents, to sort of keep them at-par with each other.

Problem is, the Drow on FK are an island. They do not travel with, party with, or go PvP against the more mundane races. They are locked downstairs in the Underdark, and are effectively a different gaming base than the rest of the PCs on the surface. So the only PCs they are struggling to gain XP against is... other drow. Other drow with the same stat mods, spell resistance, and etc. Does the ECL really matter for the PC drow in our case then? All I see it doing is frustrating the players of future drow PCs (see above) and further killing off the viability of the drow campaign on the mud.

[Duranamir]

I am going to throw my opinion in on the Drow ECL. I actually support the inclusion of ECL for all appropriate races. And while it has been a pain to discover it the hard way, in my case through starting a Tiefling. I still think it is the right way to go even for Drow, just because Drow can not currently interact much with the other races it does not mean they never will, and i am all for a level playing field across the whole game, even if that causes some temporary pain for low Drow, and we do get some rather nice powers in exchange .

Duranamir

[Atraos]

I wasn't complaining about the ecl, i just didn't know about it so thought something was wrong with that character. Have another drow pc that i love playing.