XP As a Concrete Energy and Resource
One idea in D&D that has always scratched at the back of my mind has been Experience Points and how they relate to the physical reality of the campaign. While XP works as a simple abstract method of tracking character learning and growth, there are elements in the rules that imply XP is more than that (namely, XP costs for casting some spells and creating magical items). Treating XP as a concrete, magical resource in the campaign world opens up a variety of alternatives to both in-setting events and game mechanics.
XP Awards for Overcoming Challenges: Before looking at what XP is used for, it is necessary to examine how it is earned. Characters are awarded XP for overcoming challenges and the size of the reward is directly linked to the relative difficulty of said challenge: or rather, relative presumed difficulty, as a challenge that was supposed to be simple but turns out to be harrowing does not provide the characters with a greater reward than if it had been easy. This implies that the amount of XP – as an energy or magical resource – available to those who overcome the challenge isn’t based on the actual difficulty of the challenge, but the relationship between the challenge and the challenged. Stated another way, this implies that ‘level’ represents a saturation of XP and some kind of osmosis takes place between the participants in a challenge. Further, this implies that XP is actually transferred from one participant (even the environment or a mechanical trap) to the other. I.e. the challenge that was overcome, even if it is a PC, loses XP to the challenger.
Using XP per the Core Rules: In the Core Rules, characters gain XP over time and upon reaching a certain number of Experience Points, they raise in level. They don’t use XP so much as they are measured by it. However, PCs – particularly spell casters – do use XP under certain circumstances. They ‘spend’ it as a resource when using powerful spells or when crafting magical items. Some classes to have appeared in supplements also use XP to gain class abilities or to activate magical items. And while it isn’t a use, per se, other circumstances can ‘steal’ XP from characters: energy drain, curses and resurrection come immediately to mind. All of these elements combined form the foundation of evidence for XP as a concrete resource.
New XP Systems:
Vested XP versus Burnt XP: When a character is awarded XP under this system, it has no effect at all until it is used. There are two uses for XP: vesting it and burning it.
Vested XP is how a character gains a level or otherwise uses this resource to establish a permanent (or semi-permanent) magical effect or relationship. Characters don’t automatically gain a level when they reach a certain XP total. Rather, the PC must Vest a number of XP equal to their current level times 1000 to gain a class level. Vesting XP is also used for binding magical artifacts – which, unlike traditional magic items, grow more powerful as characters Vest more XP into them – and for ‘purchasing’ abilities not normally available to them based on race, class or other circumstances. Vested XP is tracked and is used – rather than class level and level adjustment alone – to determine Effective Character Level.
Burnt XP is lost and unrecoverable. Characters Burn XP when they create magic items or cast powerful spells. In addition, circumstances that result in level loss – such as Energy Drain or Resurrection – Burn XP (500 x current ECL) rather than reducing a character’s level – provided the character has XP to Burn. If the character doesn’t have enough free XP to Burn, a few different things can happen:
If the character has XP vested in artifacts, that XP can be unVested and used for the Burn. However, 10% of the unVested XP is lost in the process.
If the character does not have enough free or Vested XP to pay for resurrection XP costs, the character cannot be resurrected.
If the character does not have enough free or Vested XP to pay for energy drain related level loss, the character takes permanent Constitution Drain instead.
Action Points and XP Burn: The Action Point system from Unearthed Arcana will be used. Instead of possessing a certain number of Action Points, however, characters Burn XP (10 x current ECL) to gain the benefits of an Action Point.
Tracking XP
Characters need to track a few different XP totals.
Earned XP includes all the XP the character has ever gained and is recorded more for reference than anything else.
Free XP is any XP that has not been Vested or Burned.
Vested XP includes all XP Vested in class levels, special abilities (see below) or artifacts.
It isn’t necessary to keep track of all Burned XP unless the player wishes to do so, since once XP has been Burned, it is gone forever.
Specifics: Vesting XP in Artifacts
When a character comes into possession of and binds and Artifact, he Vests XP in the artifact. Artifacts have ranks or levels corresponding to the powers and abilities of the Artifact and each rank or level has a Vestment cost that gives the character access to those powers and abilities. The Vestment cost is determined by dividing the market price of the item’s abilities (per the DMG magic item construction rules) by 10. The Vested XP remains “in” the Artifact as long as the character possesses it, and the character can unVest the XP (10% of which is Burnt when unVested).
Example: A simple Artifact Sword has an enhancement bonus that goes from +1 to +5. At the +1 level, the Vestment cost is 200 XP, at +2 it is 600 more, +3 1000 more, +4 1400 more and at +5 1800 more for a total of 5000 XP Vested in the Artifact.
Specifics: Vesting XP in Special Abilities
In addition to Vesting XP in class levels, characters may gain abilities not usually available to them from their chosen class(es) by Vesting XP in those abilities. In order to Vest XP in this way, some requirements must be met:
The character must have a current ECL at least one level higher than the level at which the class ability is available to members of the class.
If the ability in question has prerequisites or is part of an ability “chain” (ex: Improved Evasion) the character must possess the prerequisites or earlier ability.
Class abilities have additional prerequisites depending on which Class Group the class from which the ability is taken belongs to. The character Vesting XP for the ability must meet this prerequisite. The prerequisite must equal the base bonus for the level at which the ability is available to members of the class.
Warrior Group: Base Attack Bonus
Expert Group: Base Reflex Save
Arcane or Dive Group: Base Will Save
In order to Vest for class abilities from Prestige Classes, the character must meet all the above requirements, plus the requirements for entry into the Prestige Class.
A character may not Vest for abilities from a class that the character has taken levels in.
The Vestment cost for an ability gained in this way is 250 x the level at which the ability is available to members of the class (+5 for Prestige Class abilities).
XP Vested in this way cannot be unVested.
One idea in D&D that has always scratched at the back of my mind has been Experience Points and how they relate to the physical reality of the campaign. While XP works as a simple abstract method of tracking character learning and growth, there are elements in the rules that imply XP is more than that (namely, XP costs for casting some spells and creating magical items). Treating XP as a concrete, magical resource in the campaign world opens up a variety of alternatives to both in-setting events and game mechanics.
XP Awards for Overcoming Challenges: Before looking at what XP is used for, it is necessary to examine how it is earned. Characters are awarded XP for overcoming challenges and the size of the reward is directly linked to the relative difficulty of said challenge: or rather, relative presumed difficulty, as a challenge that was supposed to be simple but turns out to be harrowing does not provide the characters with a greater reward than if it had been easy. This implies that the amount of XP – as an energy or magical resource – available to those who overcome the challenge isn’t based on the actual difficulty of the challenge, but the relationship between the challenge and the challenged. Stated another way, this implies that ‘level’ represents a saturation of XP and some kind of osmosis takes place between the participants in a challenge. Further, this implies that XP is actually transferred from one participant (even the environment or a mechanical trap) to the other. I.e. the challenge that was overcome, even if it is a PC, loses XP to the challenger.
Using XP per the Core Rules: In the Core Rules, characters gain XP over time and upon reaching a certain number of Experience Points, they raise in level. They don’t use XP so much as they are measured by it. However, PCs – particularly spell casters – do use XP under certain circumstances. They ‘spend’ it as a resource when using powerful spells or when crafting magical items. Some classes to have appeared in supplements also use XP to gain class abilities or to activate magical items. And while it isn’t a use, per se, other circumstances can ‘steal’ XP from characters: energy drain, curses and resurrection come immediately to mind. All of these elements combined form the foundation of evidence for XP as a concrete resource.
New XP Systems:
Vested XP versus Burnt XP: When a character is awarded XP under this system, it has no effect at all until it is used. There are two uses for XP: vesting it and burning it.
Vested XP is how a character gains a level or otherwise uses this resource to establish a permanent (or semi-permanent) magical effect or relationship. Characters don’t automatically gain a level when they reach a certain XP total. Rather, the PC must Vest a number of XP equal to their current level times 1000 to gain a class level. Vesting XP is also used for binding magical artifacts – which, unlike traditional magic items, grow more powerful as characters Vest more XP into them – and for ‘purchasing’ abilities not normally available to them based on race, class or other circumstances. Vested XP is tracked and is used – rather than class level and level adjustment alone – to determine Effective Character Level.
Burnt XP is lost and unrecoverable. Characters Burn XP when they create magic items or cast powerful spells. In addition, circumstances that result in level loss – such as Energy Drain or Resurrection – Burn XP (500 x current ECL) rather than reducing a character’s level – provided the character has XP to Burn. If the character doesn’t have enough free XP to Burn, a few different things can happen:
If the character has XP vested in artifacts, that XP can be unVested and used for the Burn. However, 10% of the unVested XP is lost in the process.
If the character does not have enough free or Vested XP to pay for resurrection XP costs, the character cannot be resurrected.
If the character does not have enough free or Vested XP to pay for energy drain related level loss, the character takes permanent Constitution Drain instead.
Action Points and XP Burn: The Action Point system from Unearthed Arcana will be used. Instead of possessing a certain number of Action Points, however, characters Burn XP (10 x current ECL) to gain the benefits of an Action Point.
Tracking XP
Characters need to track a few different XP totals.
Earned XP includes all the XP the character has ever gained and is recorded more for reference than anything else.
Free XP is any XP that has not been Vested or Burned.
Vested XP includes all XP Vested in class levels, special abilities (see below) or artifacts.
It isn’t necessary to keep track of all Burned XP unless the player wishes to do so, since once XP has been Burned, it is gone forever.
Specifics: Vesting XP in Artifacts
When a character comes into possession of and binds and Artifact, he Vests XP in the artifact. Artifacts have ranks or levels corresponding to the powers and abilities of the Artifact and each rank or level has a Vestment cost that gives the character access to those powers and abilities. The Vestment cost is determined by dividing the market price of the item’s abilities (per the DMG magic item construction rules) by 10. The Vested XP remains “in” the Artifact as long as the character possesses it, and the character can unVest the XP (10% of which is Burnt when unVested).
Example: A simple Artifact Sword has an enhancement bonus that goes from +1 to +5. At the +1 level, the Vestment cost is 200 XP, at +2 it is 600 more, +3 1000 more, +4 1400 more and at +5 1800 more for a total of 5000 XP Vested in the Artifact.
Specifics: Vesting XP in Special Abilities
In addition to Vesting XP in class levels, characters may gain abilities not usually available to them from their chosen class(es) by Vesting XP in those abilities. In order to Vest XP in this way, some requirements must be met:
The character must have a current ECL at least one level higher than the level at which the class ability is available to members of the class.
If the ability in question has prerequisites or is part of an ability “chain” (ex: Improved Evasion) the character must possess the prerequisites or earlier ability.
Class abilities have additional prerequisites depending on which Class Group the class from which the ability is taken belongs to. The character Vesting XP for the ability must meet this prerequisite. The prerequisite must equal the base bonus for the level at which the ability is available to members of the class.
Warrior Group: Base Attack Bonus
Expert Group: Base Reflex Save
Arcane or Dive Group: Base Will Save
In order to Vest for class abilities from Prestige Classes, the character must meet all the above requirements, plus the requirements for entry into the Prestige Class.
A character may not Vest for abilities from a class that the character has taken levels in.
The Vestment cost for an ability gained in this way is 250 x the level at which the ability is available to members of the class (+5 for Prestige Class abilities).
XP Vested in this way cannot be unVested.
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