Unearthed Arcana WotC's Mearls Presents A New XP System For 5E In August's Unearthed Arcana

Patrick McGill · Aug 7, 2017

chunkosauruswrex said:
If a DM has to houserule it to not be stupid than the system is stupid

Except that's a problem with the traditional XP system, as well as with other systems that trigger on killing creatures. Ever heard of the 'bag of rats' problem?

That same rogue could go kill chickens to try and level up in either system. So your opinion should be reflected on both the original system and this one, right?

chunkosauruswrex · Aug 7, 2017

Patrick McGill said:
Except that's a problem with the traditional XP system, as well as with other systems that trigger on killing creatures. Ever heard of the 'bag of rats' problem?

That same rogue could go kill chickens to try and level up in either system. So your opinion should be reflected on both the original system and this one, right?

Or you could just use milestone leveling

Patrick McGill · Aug 7, 2017

chunkosauruswrex said:
Or you could just use milestone leveling

I mean, you could, but that still means this UA isn't any less viable then the traditional system in the book by your own criticisms.

DEFCON 1 · Aug 7, 2017

chunkosauruswrex said:
I can imagine some 10th level Rogue edgelord sneaking out at night and killing 50 chickens and taking a level. This system is silly

That's odd... I can't imagine that at all. Because I don't think a DM that would give XP for something like that actually exists.

Ed Laprade · Aug 7, 2017

So, if you rescue a pushcart salesman from a big city, it isn't worth a thing.

Satyrn · Aug 7, 2017

I got thinking the exploration XP would be great for the megadungeon I've been creating. Inspired by an adventure map [MENTION=6801286]Imaculata[/MENTION] posted a little while ago, I've got an underground river as the focus, with lots of little sites along the banks or connected by branching tunnels.

The exploration XP could make finding those sites, and the effort getting to them, a greater focus for the players.

But I'd have to change the conditions that location XP is awarded for, since the site's importance to the world isn't a significant factor here.

Mistwell · Aug 7, 2017

chunkosauruswrex said:
I can imagine some 10th level Rogue edgelord sneaking out at night and killing 50 chickens and taking a level. This system is silly

To reasonably make that statement, you'd have to have a current issue under the existing XP system with "some 10th level Rogue edgelord sneaking out at night and killing 50 chickens and taking a level." If that would not result in any gain in your current game, it would not result in any gain under this new system. It's not, in any way, an issue germane to this new system.

chunkosauruswrex · Aug 7, 2017

Mistwell said:
To reasonably make that statement, you'd have to have a current issue under the existing XP system with "some 10th level Rogue edgelord sneaking out at night and killing 50 chickens and taking a level." If that would not result in any gain in your current game, it would not result in any gain under this new system. It's not, in any way, an issue germane to this new system.

Except that every creature is worth at least 2 exp in this system. Yes my example was absurd, but if you wanted to do a massive battle with this system a wizard could fireball a massive group of mooks and be like hey I killed 15 guys thats like a 1/3 of a level right. This is in the rules he provided. The current exp system would maybe net him 1000 exp, but at midlevels it take 21000 exp to level up, so it's far more reasonable than this system

FormerlyHemlock · Aug 7, 2017

I basically like it. I wouldn't use it unmodified (chunkosauruswrex's concerns about chickens are valid--but easily-fixed) but it leads in an interesting direction. If you want to go in a really interesting direction you could track each kind of XP separately, and require at least 25 XP of each kind in order to level up. (So, 50 combat XP and 50 social XP = no level up until you gain 25 exploration XP.)

As with last month's UA, the real value in this UA isn't so much the rules provided as the encouragement it gives to DMs to think outside the box. I hate milestone levelling and will not use it (it completely misses the point of level-based systems, which is all about operant conditioning and Pavlovian rewards), and I've already messed around with my own XP tables, but this UA has me thinking once again about new and different XP tables and ways to award XP.

For example,

"Earn 1 point of XP per game session. Every 10 XP earned gives you a level. A player or the DM may also reward XP to another PC who does something particularly awesome, and/or in keeping with their bonds/flaws/ideals."

I wouldn't have thought of that method without this UA, because this UA very pointedly makes the point that the semi-exponential shape of the XP tables in the PHB are not important to the design of 5E as a whole.

mdusty · Aug 7, 2017

People still use XP?

Left that method back in the 3.5 days. Just use milestone leveling, its way simpler and prevents the ever-constant 'is that worth xp?' and killing creatures just for the XP. Been in over 6 groups using that method and it works wonderfully.