Excel party xp calculator for 3.5e!

[Davin]

Hmmm... I'm still playing 3e, so I don't have the 3.5 books handy. I thought I remembered some changes in the way 3.5 XPs were awarded, but I didn't realize the numbers themselves were different. (I guess I'll need to go dig up a copy of the 3.5 table somewhere to compare against.) I wonder if anyone knows of any semi-official statements (from WotC or the 3.5 developers) as to WHY the 3.5 table is different?

Then there's another point... If they fixed other things in the table but left the odd numbers in level=4, then maybe they had a formulaic reason for doing that. I can't bring myself to believe that they put in a "bad" number just because they thought it needed hacking. Surely they must have some better underlying (mathematical) reason for doing that. Limiting levels 1-3 and CR 1 doesn't seem too out of place to me -- they're just keeping the lid on the edge for balance reasons. But changing a number in the middle of the table bothers me to no end. Surely there's another explanation?

Just for comparison, I remember working out formulas for the Weight Carried table. I had everything calculating perfectly except for one strange number that looked very wrong. I had about decided that it must be a misprint in the table and was about to code around it when suddenly I got a flash of insight and discovered that my formula needed a variable rounding factor (larger numbers round to higher powers). Suddenly that single number off in left field became an exact calculated amount. Since I've had such an experience before, I'm loathe to repeat my mistake. I'd like to be convinced (by some authority) that this one number really is supposed to be different from all the others and that we've got the formula right.

 

[morpheous1777]

Any WOTC employees former/and current, wanna help us out with this one ?? I have been racking my brain for months trying to figure this one out (for my various excell sheets and programs), I have been stumped, every formula I have tried has had some deviations ?????

So WOTC whats the answer, how did you calculate the xp chart ???

 

[Wonko the Sane]

So WOTC whats the answer, how did you calculate the xp chart ???

My, aren't we optimistic?

I'm surprised that WotC hasn't spit out something as obvious in utility as an xp spreadsheet or program of some sort.

 

[morpheous1777]

My, aren't we optimistic?

I'm surprised that WotC hasn't spit out something as obvious in utility as an xp spreadsheet or program of some sort.

I dont really expect any wotc person to answer, the exp table isnt open to the public, and why give away the secret, when people can go buy the book, it would be nice, but it isn't gonna happen

still, i had to at least try asking.

 

[Davin]

I dont really expect any wotc person to answer, the exp table isnt open to the public, and why give away the secret, when people can go buy the book, it would be nice, but it isn't gonna happen

Well, I wouldn't think they'd be too hesitant to do so. Anybody that really wanted the numbers illegally wouldn't have any trouble getting them. And a formula is the hardest way for such people to get the information (purchasing a book or a downloading a spreadsheet or table-driven program would be much easier). A formula really is only of benefit to those of us trying to write software to make our lives easier.

However, if an official person doesn't show up here, I still wouldn't be too surprised. I wouldn't assume from that that they didn't want to answer. I'd instead expect there would be very few people that actually know the answer to this question and that it's likely that they don't even visit forums such as ours.

But if someone did happen by and could tell us definitively if there is still an error in the table there, that'd be welcome news and plenty good enough for me.

 

[Davin]

I dont really expect any wotc person to answer...

I'm actually hoping that someone around here will have seen/heard where this might have been addressed elsewhere and can point us to the reference.

 

[morpheous1777]

I'm actually hoping that someone around here will have seen/heard where this might have been addressed elsewhere and can point us to the reference.

I attempted to solve this before, its somewhere on the boards, but the formula we came up with, still had devations.

Has anyone tried email wotc and asking them for an answer ?? or maybe emailing the sage for some help ??

 

[morpheous1777]

On this page http://arcady0.topcities.com/Encounter_Calculator.html it uses this formula to calculate exp,

Attached as an txt file is the function:

as you can see, the main formula doesnt work for the whole chart so he went through and had to manually enter the xp award for certian Lvls & Crs

 

[Davin]

Gee, that one's sure got a lot of exceptions to be handling. I'd rather not have any exceptions at all, but one (if it is indeed a true exception) is better than a handful of them.

Does anyone know if the differences between 3.0 & 3.5 are due to fixing typos or if they're just using a new formula/pattern?

 

[Davin]

Ok, I'm looking at the 3.5 tables and seeing additional inconsistencies...

Plane Sailing has come up with a formula pattern that says that the XP award values can be figured off the number on the main diagonal (where PL = CR) by multiplying it by 1.5 to get the number to its right and dividing it by 1.5 (multiplying by .6667) to get the number on its left. Further values are computed with similar extensions.

However, it looks to me like this only works for levels 1-3 and 5-19. As we've noted before, the multiplier progression seems to be off for level 4. But while looking at higher levels, it also seems to be off in the identical way for levels 20 (not 21) & up!

Ok, let me see if I can explain what I'm seeing... In the table below, I've listed 6 column multipliers for each row (of levels 1-40). Each fraction shown is the multiplier used to get from one CR's value to the adjacent CR's value. All fractions are shown as individual left-to-right multipliers rather than cumulatively from the middle out. In addition, this is actually computed along the main diagonal, but realigned into vertical columns for easier reading. The top of each column is labelled with the relative (to level) CR columns used to compute the ratio. For example, level 6 column "+1>+2" is shown as "4/3", meaning that for level 6, CR 8 (6+2) is 4/3rds times CR 7 (6+1). Does that make sense?

    -3>-2 -2>-1 -1>+0 +0>+1 +1>+2 +2>+3 
  1         *    3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  2         *    3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  3         *    3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  4   *    4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
  5  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  6  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  7  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  8  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
  9  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 10  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 11  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 12  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 13  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 14  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 15  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 16  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 17  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 18  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 19  3/2   4/3   3/2   3/2   4/3   3/2  
 20  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 21  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 22  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 23  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 24  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 25  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 26  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 27  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 28  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 29  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 30  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 31  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 32  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 33  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 34  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 35  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 36  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 37  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3  
 38  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3   3/2        
 39  3/2   4/3   3/2   4/3              
 40  3/2   4/3   3/2

Ok, now that the multipliers are simplified and lined up, look where they change. Levels 1-3 and 5-19 are all in one pattern, and levels 4 and 20+ are all in another pattern. (Note the +0>+1 column where the change occurs - the multipliers are all shifted over by one.) These patterns repeat consistently beyond what I've shown here. The question now becomes "why is it like this???"

Who/where would be the best person/place to write to and report/complain/ask about this?

P.S. I think I've also found a true typo in the ELH table. Level=37,CR=35 is listed as 5500 when it should be 5550 (understandably easy to overlook).