The New Gate - Vol. 2 Ch. 13

[HiiroMimori]

I don't mind with Schnee design in the manga tho, why people make a fuss about it too much

 

[KyoN007]

well that was some powerlvling, she went from under lv 40 to lv 151 in 1-2weeks? wasn’t the country strongest around 230v

 

[Otherworlder]

Pecker Hollow...

This traditional pen & paper RPG level up mechanism is so screwed up for stories. It should remain with simple games and stay there. Even better computer games these days use something else. This arc demonstrated the worst aspect of it: Two strong guys beat relatively high level monsters onto the brink of death, and then some noob delivers the finishing blow of a few HP of damage with her eyes closed... and she is treated as if she did all the work and gains massive benefits, levelling up like a rocket. But perhaps this scheme somehow suits the Japanese mindset so well that they use it even when it looks, objectively, utterly stupid.

Personally, I cannot think of any video games that use this mechanic, though I'm sure that some actually do. It seems like it would be easier to code than even distribution, especially in something like a MMORPG. The one time someone suggested that in a pen-and-paper game (first ed AD&D, by the way) it was a resounding failure. The mages rocketed up, especially since they only took damaging spells after the first session. We were kind of screwed a few times due to a lack of utility or defensive spells. One of the fighters--someone really good with maths in real life--noted that they were levelling more slowly than would be expected if we stuck with the rules and split xp evenly. Even the thief levelled slowly. It really bit us in the butt once we were months into the campaign and the lone cleric was still first level. It's hard to get through a dungeon designed for characters nearing name level when you only have a single Cure Light Wounds between you. Even the mages were getting screwed over by this mechanic, since they were levelling too fast, and so didn't have as many spells as they should have. Scrolls aren't exactly a common item, and power-levelling like that meant that they seemed even rarer by comparison. It didn't help that the GM thought that this 'all of the xp goes to whomever took the last hit point' mechanic would, somehow, make us all level faster, and took away the xp-for-gold mechanic. It quickly got brutal and unfun for all involved.

Speaking of video game logic, I wonder when the insta-skill thing from reading a scroll or book came about. I'm pretty sure that it was from some video game. Once again, ease of coding is the likely culprit. There are tomes in D&D that let you immediately gain a level, or increase an attribute, but you need to spend several weeks reading and practicing with those to see any effect. That said, whenever this insta-skill trope pops up I can't help but think of the scene in Harly Davidson and the Marlboro Man when Harley asks Marlboro how he got so good with shooting his pistol. Marlboro's response: "Read a book. Came with the gun." Meaning, he just read the damned operating manual that came in the box with it, but actually took that advice to heart.