[RedSlayer]

Hey everybody,

Normally I wouldn't bother ya'll with such a simple task, but my copy of Unearthed Arcana won't arrive for another...4-10 days, so I was wondering if someone would take the time to tell me what the rules on a variant XP system.

It is towards the back of the book, and it is based on giving XP based on the CR of a monster. I need to know what the XP is for attaining levels and how much to award for a givin CR.

Thanks in advance to whoever takes the time out to post it. I owe ya one.

[JosephBlackly]

I think this is what you're looking for... Seeing as how it's the only XP variant I see in Unearthed Arcana. Also, I don't know enough HTML to make this look good. So, here goes:

Quote

This variant replaces Table 3-2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits (page 22 of the Player's Handbook as a way of easing the DM's job of adventure design and the task of experience-point calculation at the end of a game session.

Use the following table to determine when a character gains new levels, rather than Table 3-2 in the Player's Handbook.

                         Class      Cross-Class
                       Skill Max     Skill Max           Ability Score
Level           XP       Ranks         Ranks      Feat     Increase
1st              0         4             2         1st        --
2nd           1000         5           2-1/2       --         --
3rd           3000         6             3         2nd        --
4th           6000         7           3-1/2       --         1st
5th         10,000         8             4         --         --
6th         16,000         9           4-1/2       3rd        --
7th         24,000        10             5         --         --
8th         36,000        11           5-1/2       --         2nd
9th         52,000        12             6         4th        --
10th        76,000        13           6-1/2       --         --
11th       110,000        14             7         --         --
12th       160,000        15           7-1/2       5th        3rd
13th       220,000        16             8         --         --
14th       320,000        17           8-1/2       --         --
15th       440,000        18             9         6th        --
16th       640,000        19           9-1/2       --         4th
17th       890,000        20             10        --         --
18th     1,300,000        21           10-1/2      7th        --
19th     1,800,000        22             11        --         --
20th     2,600,000        23           11-1/2      --         5th

To advance to a new level beyond 20th, a character needs to gain doublt the amount of XP he needed to advance from two levels below his current level to one level below his current level.

For example, to advance from 20th level to 21st level, a character needs to gain double the amount of XP he needs to advance from 18th level to 19th level. Since he needed to add 500,000 XP to go from 18th to 19th level (1,800,000 minus 1,300,000), he needs 1,000,000 XP (500,000 x 2) to go from 20th level to 21st level (2,600,000 XP to 3,600,000 XP).

Experienced players may be alarmed--the XP totals on this table are gig numbers. But XP awards per monster are commensurely larger. Regardless of a character's level relative to the resto of the party, he gets the same numerical XP award, so the math at the end of the night is a lot easier. Table 2-6 on page 38 of the Dungeon Master's Guide is no longer used. Monsters just have flat XP awards, which are divided up among the participants.

For example, a frost worm (CR 12) is worth 19,000 XP. If four characters defeat it, they each earn 4,750 XP (19,000 divided by 4), regardless of their level.

It still takes thirteen encounters or so to attain a new level. There's still an automatic catch-up feature for PCs who lag behind the rest of the group; that 4,750 XP for the frost worm represents 8% of the experience points required to attain 13th level, but 14% of the experience points required to reach 11th level.

The following table gives the awards for a typical monster of each CR, irrespective of character or party level.

Monster CR   XP Award
1                 300
2                 600
3                 900
4                1200
5                1800
6                2400
7                3600
8                4800
9                7200
10               9600
11             14,000
12             19,000
13             29,000
14             38,000
15             58,000
16             77,000
17            120,000
18            150,000
19            230,000
20            310,000

For monsters beyond VR 20, simply double the reward for a monster of that CR minus 2. For instance, a CR 22 monster is worth twice as much as a CR 20 monster, or 620,000 XP.

If you use this XP system, note that XP costs paid by characters to create magic items will represent a much smaller fraction of their total XP, and thus creating magic items becomes much less "expensive" overall. If you believe this to be problematic for your campaign, consider increasing the XP cost for crafting magic items as detailed in the table below.

Market Price              XP Multiplier
2000 gp or less                 x1
2001 gp to 20,000 gp            x2
20,001 gp to 200,000 gp         x4
200,001 gp or more             x10

Spells with an XP component also undergo a change in this variant, since the costs for those spells are set using the standard D&D experience points rules. The table below gives a quick conversion to help calculate the XP costs for spells when using this XP variant. Simply multiply the normal XP cost by the multiplier given on the table to find the new cost for the spell.

Spell Level        XP Multiplier
1st-3rd                  x1
4th-6th                  x2
7th-8th                  x4
9th or higher           x10

For example, the commune spell (a 5th-level cleric spell) normally costs 100 XP to cast. When using this XP system, it costs 200 XP, or twice as much. The Wish spell, a 9th-level spell, costs ten times the normal amount of XP to cast (50,000 instead of 5000).

Use a similar formula to calculate anything else that applies an XP cost. Divide the character's level by 2 and treat it as if it were a spell level, using the table above to find the proper multiplier.

Open Gaming Licence

... ... ...
I never actually read it over before, but... I like it. I might use it for my campaign, whenever I can get everyone together for it.

I bet by the time I post this, someone else will have beat me to the punch. I'll admit, it was a slow-[CHAIR] punch... At least it looks better than I had expected. Hope it helps.

[RedSlayer]

Thanks Joe, you just saved my [CHAIR]. You have my many thanks.

[Lyinginbedmon]

I hope your planning on removing that info before some WizO or whatnot shows up...

[JosephBlackly]

I suppose I should remove it... But it does say this in the front of Unearthed Arcana:

Quote

Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts, places, etc.), artwork, trade dress, and the names and game statistics of the following monsters: beholder, displacer beast, gauth, githyanki, githzerai, mind flayer, slaad, umber hulk, and yuan-ti.

Open Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity (see above) and the githyanki/githzerai, slaad, and yuan-ti bloodlines in Chapter 1, the content of this Wizards of the Coast ® game product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a section 1(d). No portion of this work other than the material designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written promission.

...I think that means I'm safe. But just in case, I should get rid of it anyway.

Even better, since it is Open Content, we might want to put it up here somewhere and just post a link... But that's just me.

[Dthclaw]

Joe, yer fine. You correctly ID'd the XP variant as OGC, so nothing to worry about.

[RedSlayer]

Well, thanks again joe, but I guess my question is now, what d'yall think of the rule in general? I'm considering using it cause:
A. Im good at calculation CR's for monsters I make
B. Bad at determining XP awards. Always seem to give too much or too little.

[Dthclaw]

Actually, I'm considering using it, too, for the same reasons.

I never understood the rules for determining EL, but I know CR determinations like the back of my hand. Actually, I've been kinda going by CR already, just not adjusting required XP amounts. Would explain why my group has, in two years of sessions, gone from ECL 4 to ECL 20

[Jimp]

I second Dth's post completely.
EL based XP awards have always been a problem with me, so I use the CR XP system. I've found it to work fine.