D&D 5E Do the official WotC adventures cheat with xp?

[guachi]

I suppose that's the downside of a game where the default is XP by monsters only. It would be nice to see adventures more explicitly state that if the characters do X they get Y XP.

Many (most? all?) of the AL adventures lay out exactly where players get XP from with minimums and maximums for all players involved. I like that. I'm running an updated version of B7 Rahasia and it has lots of tricks/traps for the players to overcome. Plus I've added some clues about other events. If the players can solve and overcome these obstacles and puzzles I'd like to give them more XP because, frankly, that adventure as I've converted it just doesn't have a lot of XP in it from monsters.

 

[SkidAce]

 

[Ath-kethin]

The issue in the OP has been around for decades. Even back in the pre-WotC days, when the level range of X-Y meant "if you're below level X this may be too difficult and if you're above level Y this may be too easy," issues abounded with chained adventures. I remember reviews for an Al-Qadim sourcebox complaining that the introductory adventure was for levels 4-6 and the final episode would be tough for 11th-12th level characters, with essentially no chance of PCs even making it to that level using only the material in the box.

I'm ashamed to say it never occurred to me to just drop XP from the game entirely and award levels through a different method until that suggestion was made in the 5e stuff, but drop it I did and I'm not picking it up again.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I suppose that's the downside of a game where the default is XP by monsters only.

Hasn't ever been the default - by the time 3.0 got completely away from gp=XP, it had also added quest XP, 4e even had skill challenge XP that was on the same scale as encounter XP, as well, and 5e still retains story awards...

...BTW, the story goes that the exp for combat was higher for combat in the first 3 0D&D booklets, and Greyhawk decreased monster XP and introduced gp=xp, emphasizing the treasure-hunting/combat-avoidance lets-all-play-greedy-sociopathic-cowards style of heroic fantasy....
;P

 

[Nailen]

XP for quest completion has been around as an idea for a long time, I think. Pretty sure it shows up in B10..
Or, I got the idea from things like Baldurs Gate on PC.
I like it as a method. Gives incentive to complete quests rather that just kill everything and nick all the treasure.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using EN World mobile app

 

[SuperTD]

Yeah, my players are nearing the end of PotA (2 dungeons left to do, since you're only meant to clear 2 of the final nodes). They're level 7, though there are 5 of them. I calculated that even with doing all the side quests and every dungeon entirely, you'd only scrape level 13 with a 4 person party. Considering you're meant to fight a creature of CR 18-20 at the end (pretty much the only adventure-specific creatures in the entire book that match the monster maths from the MM) your players are going to have to be extremely lucky or resourceful to have a chance of getting through.

Luckily for me, I'd already changed what little plot there was. Instead they will fight a souped up rakshasa with extra abilities based on which portal he is summoned through with a CR of maybe 14-15.

 

[Nailen]

Yeah, my players are nearing the end of PotA (2 dungeons left to do, since you're only meant to clear 2 of the final nodes). They're level 7, though there are 5 of them. I calculated that even with doing all the side quests and every dungeon entirely, you'd only scrape level 13 with a 4 person party. Considering you're meant to fight a creature of CR 18-20 at the end (pretty much the only adventure-specific creatures in the entire book that match the monster maths from the MM) your players are going to have to be extremely lucky or resourceful to have a chance of getting through.

Luckily for me, I'd already changed what little plot there was. Instead they will fight a souped up rakshasa with extra abilities based on which portal he is summoned through with a CR of maybe 14-15.

Are you awarding XP based on monsters slain/defeated?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using EN World mobile app

 

[LordEntrails]

I don't have a problem with how things are at all. Since I run my party through PotA with a open approach, they are free to do things as they want. Which means I have had to make up extra adventures for them to do. Which gets them extra XP.

For instance, they decided to actually go through one of the portals (earth node). So now they are on the earth elemental plane and are adventuring there. They will have probably leveled once or twice by the time they get back. But then again, since I don't dictate the paths they choose, maybe something completely different will happen?

 

[guachi]

XP for quest completion has been around as an idea for a long time, I think. Pretty sure it shows up in B10..
Or, I got the idea from things like Baldurs Gate on PC.
I like it as a method. Gives incentive to complete quests rather that just kill everything and nick all the treasure.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using EN World mobile app

The only quest XP you get in B10 is completing the ritual to put the undead to rest near the end. It's 500 xp per character, I believe. It's odd in that adventure as the treasure is secondary for the most part. But at least the treasure is almost always interesting.

B10 certainly has many events that could easily translate into giving XP for completing a 'quest' or chapter or whatever you wish to call it. But for some reason they never included it in the module. For me, I just used the 5e monster XP and it worked well enough. Though I reduced awards 20% and the six PCs dinged level 5 (though not all at the same time) just before the final fight.

But awarding quest XP is different than milestone leveling as that removes XP from the equation entirely. I just looked through Curse of Strahd and the adventure admits there isn't enough XP from creatures to advance quickly enough. No XP awards are listed for anything other than defeating creatures and most of those awards are assumed by default to be awarded as listed in the MM. In Curse of Strahd, the default and only way to earn XP is defeating creatures. The adventure suggests leveling up at milestones but, like I said, that's not the same as awarding XP. The adventure never provides any suggestions on how much XP should be awarded for social or exploration encounters.

 

[Jester David]

It is kinda cheating.
The rules outline the expected number of encounters per level and the rate of progress, and the published adventures do advertise content for that level band. But most contain only a fraction of the expected content. Especially Hoard of the Dragon Queen that might have you leveling once every session. Two fights and ding!

Now, I'm not a fan of the hard xp of Paizo either, as it makes it possible to fall behind by missing content and generally means a heck of a lot of filler encounters added to reach the expected experience budget.

I think I'd prefer if WotC had their adventures start at higher levels and produced a few free starter adventures or bonus Adventurer's a League adventures to cover levels 1-3 or even 1-5. So the story has room to get epic, but the levels have room to breathe. And they don't need to have as much filler at the start getting people to a level where they can participate in the real story.