Dragonlance "You walk down the road, party is now level 2."

[DEFCON 1]

No. Milestone XP doesn't make sense with that approach. Get XP for actually doing things and it does work.

Except that other than combat (which gives each creature an XP amount)... any actions or quests or things that the PCs do or complete gains XP completely determined and at the whim of the DM. So even "non-milestone" XP is still pretty much "milestone XP" because the DM chooses how much XP to give for each thing. If the DM wants Level 1 to last six sessions, then the XP they'll assign to each quest in that time will be just small enough that it'll probably take six sessions to get there.

 

[Bill Zebub]

When I was a lad we had to carve our own dice. Out of rocks. And we were grateful for it.

But you tell that to young gamers today, they don't believe you.

 

[Velderan]

You say "Is it normal now"? Dude, it was normal in 2014, over a decade ago. It's never been otherwise in 5E. Unless you played in a game with serious house rules about low-level XP, you've never played a 5E campaign which was any different.

Yep, these threads where people come back to D&D to play 2024 5e games and are somehow shocked the game WotC has gone out of their way to say is still basically the same game is actually still basically the same game is something. Has there been a single published 5e adventure where the PCs don't have the ability to get to level 2 in the first session? I certainly haven't played them all, but the ones I have it was certainly possible. I'm pretty sure we went from 1 to 3 in a single session for Curse of Strahd in the Death House.

Also OP is giving a very poor summary of level 1 to 2 in the Dragonlance adventure. There's 3 mini scenarios to play out, one where a PC with powers derived from a deity reconnects with their deity, another for a spellcaster belonging to the Order of High Sorcery to introduce that concept, and then the introduction of draconians in a short combat. Presumably some parties won't go through all 3 and maybe you only run 2 depending on your group, but the material is there. I'm not sure how that's "just walking down the road", but I guess you could certainly just ignore all that stuff and have your PCs walk down a road and level up.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Except that other than combat (which gives each creature an XP amount)... any actions or quests or things that the PCs do or complete gains XP completely determined and at the whim of the DM. So even "non-milestone" XP is still pretty much "milestone XP" because the DM chooses how much XP to give for each thing. If the DM wants Level 1 to last six sessions, then the XP they'll assign to each quest in that time will be just small enough that it'll probably take six sessions to get there.

This is exactly right. In 5E* nothing is worth XP except combat unless the DM says so. There's little fundamental difference between milestone and other methods. That very lack of practical difference is precisely why milestone has become so popular.

* = the same is largely true in most editions, albeit also theft/looting/"finding" stuff gives XP in 1E, which would really mean thieves, tomb raiders, vikings and so on should be inexplicably high level, whereas getting money the legit way seems to not get XP at all - maybe this was why the vikings were so successful? They were just higher level than the rest of Europe because they got XP for all the gold they were nicking?

 

[mamba]

Can I have a stern conversation with the giant rat?

yes, but you still need to fight it afterwards

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Has there been a single published 5e adventure where the PCs don't have the ability to get to level 2 in the first session? I certainly haven't played them all, but the ones I have it was certainly possible. I'm pretty sure we went from 1 to 3 in a single session for Curse of Strahd in the Death House.

Yeah when we played Strahd the same happened. And I can't think of a single official adventure/campaign or even a 3PP one where we didn't go 1-2 in even a short session 1 (and 1-3 in a lot of sessions 1s).

 

[TwoSix]

I'm not sure how that's "just walking down the road", but I guess you could certainly just ignore all that stuff and have your PCs walk down a road and level up.

"Today I spent 6 hours walking around Waterdeep, and now falling off a cliff doesn't even faze me!"

 

[TwoSix]

Can I have a stern conversation with the giant rat?

I wouldn't, he's very sensitive and doesn't handle criticism well. You know how he is.

 

[Velderan]

Yeah when we played Strahd the same happened. And I can't think of a single official adventure/campaign or even a 3PP one where we didn't go 1-2 in even a short session 1 (and 1-3 in a lot of sessions 1s).

The only one we may have gone longer in to get to 2 was Descent into Avernus, but my group REALLY likes to roleplay so we probably spent at least 2 sessions just screwing around in town before we really got started. haha

 

[SlyFlourish]

Can I have a stern conversation with the giant rat?

You bet!