D&D 5E Gaining Experience

[SirAntoine]

I'd like experience earning to be much slower. I was recently shocked to learn in another thread how fast some people think it should be. I made this thread to talk about "gaining experience" as in going on an adventure just for it. I am talking about going through the wilderness for as long as you need to, taking random encounters. Or staying in a dungeon and taking random encounters with wandering monsters. It seems like this is totally unknown now, so it's an area where 5th Edition could need an article.

It's a big part of the adventure experience that has been a lot of fun for my players. The best way to envision it may be to think of an old video or computer game, such as Final Fantasy VII for Playstation I which was very popular, and the original Bard's Tale, for computer. Most of your time would be spent just gathering experience. You would walk around and come back when you needed to heal up or recharge your resources, then go back out again. Some monsters gave a huge amount of experience, like the metal slime and metal babble especially from one of the Dragon Warrior games for Nintendo, and you would jump to find it. You'd have to kill it quickly, which was difficult, because if it ran away you'd get no experience.

These kinds of "experience runs" are bread and butter of adventure. It seems like many have never experienced it, and level advancement today is delivered quickly by the set encounters only. Just the presence of wandering monsters, and encounter tables, seems rare. I think that's a bit unfortunate that it hasn't been suggested by anything in print. In 4th Edition, encounters could take a long time, but in 5th Edition, encounters should be fast enough so you can have 20 or more good fights in a single session. I know I would enjoy playing this way, and it would also be a nice change-up during an adventure path or other adventure that seems too railroadey for you.

 

[Hussar]

Unknown now? I haven't played like this since, well, ever. Even back in the days of mega dungeons, players were expected to undertake missions and have fixed goals when entering a dungeon.

Considering how very lethal the random encounter tables are in the 1e DMG, this sort of thing would be very quickly suicidal.

Farming random encounters for xp is a very bad idea.


encounter tables in t

 

[PnPgamer]

Unknown now? I haven't played like this since, well, ever. Even back in the days of mega dungeons, players were expected to undertake missions and have fixed goals when entering a dungeon.

Considering how very lethal the random encounter tables are in the 1e DMG, this sort of thing would be very quickly suicidal.

Farming random encounters for xp is a very bad idea.


encounter tables in t

Uhh did your thoughts get stuck?

Anyway for OP:
I welcome the change of pace for these xp grinder types. I myself am fed up on spending hours upon hours for grinding xp and/or special items which drop chance was 0.01%

 

[Mouseferatu]

My God, he was right! A random monster must have gotten him!!!!

 

[Lanefan]

Unknown now? I haven't played like this since, well, ever. Even back in the days of mega dungeons, players were expected to undertake missions and have fixed goals when entering a dungeon.

The point remains, however, that carrying out said mission wouldn't bump you 3 levels. You might get one. (and by RAW 1e you could only get one, with advancement thereafter completely stopped until you got back to town and trained up)

Which is, IMO, far better - at one level (or less) per adventure the campaign has a chance to last a while.

Lan-"I'll say it again - level advancement works best as an occasional side effect of play, rather than the central goal of play"-efan

 

[Ricochet]

level advancement works best as an occasional side effect of play, rather than the central goal of play

So true.

 

[Paraxis]

Every 3 sessions or so, don't bother keeping track of xp or individual xp. Random encounters are pointless unless used to spice things up or disrupt excessive short rests, but those don't have to be random just encounters not relevant to the current story.

When the game is about grinding monsters for xp, thats all people want to do is kill stuff and be murder hobos. If they level at a steady pace no matter what course of action they take to move the story forward then it doesn't matter how they solve issues only that they get solved.

 

[Iosue]

I did grinding for XP in the early Final Fantasy games, but never in D&D.

As far as 5e XP goes, since the DMG tells you what the general schedule is for leveling up, it's pretty simple, I think, to adjust it to fit whatever schedule you prefer.

 

[Kikuras]

I've never played D&D in a way that supported XP grinding... and the concept seems a bit... meta. How is it even fun in the context of the game overall? Talk about castrating the DM. If I ever ran a group that wanted to do that, I'd put away random encounter tables and let them wander for days at a time. If they're going to waste my time as a DM, I let them waste everyone's time.

Edit: Also, for OP, just give less XP if you're worried about fast advancement... though I'd warn the players you're slowing it down. Alternatively, carefully craft all encounters to give advancement at the rate you want.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Unknown now? I haven't played like this since, well, ever. Even back in the days of mega dungeons, players were expected to undertake missions and have fixed goals when entering a dungeon.

Considering how very lethal the random encounter tables are in the 1e DMG, this sort of thing would be very quickly suicidal.

Farming random encounters for xp is a very bad idea.


encounter tables in t

It is pitch black. It is likely he may have been eaten by a grue.