My guess is that a rounded character needs a mental ability, a physical ability, a magic ability and a relationship all at about the same level. Theists will want to have all their Devotion, their affinities and their Mythology at about the same level. That's about 8 abilities, costing 13 HP for +1 in total ability. That's about +1 in total ability every three sessions or so. Ascending from 5W to 5W4 would therefore take about 240 sessions, or about 5 years of solid game play.
The consensus seems to be that about 5 years is OK for the duration of a campaign, so the rules as they stand are good for advancement to Harrek level through a campaign. As the apparent intent of the rules is to run such campaigns, this ability is a feature, not a bug.
Thanks, Graham & Wulf, for clarifying that your objection is that the rules are inappropriate for farmers' campaigns, where characters ascend from 5W to 5W2 (say) in 240 sessions. How to alter the rules for such a campaign? A popular suggestion is to introduce some non linearity, so that the cost rises as the ability rises. I've argued against this:
> what matters is not your actual absolute ability level
> (whether 5W or 5W3), but your ability level relative to your
> opposition. Increasing your ability from 5W to 6W gives you the same
> game benefit (extra 1 in 20 on rolls) as increasing your ability from
> 5W3 to 6W3. The same game benefit costs the same number of HPs, which
> means the same amount of play 'effort'.
For farmers' campaigns it might be better to increase the HP costs across the board by some factor. The current rules allow an increase of 4 power levels (masteries) through a campaign, so I would suggest multiplying costs by 4/n, where n is the number of power levels advanced through the campaign. Thus, for a campaign in which characters advanced from 5W to 5W2, I suggest charging 4 HP for +1 in a ability, 12 HP for +1 in an affinity, etc.
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