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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TDRandall" data-source="post: 1838257" data-attributes="member: 4808">Perhaps I'm just "vile", but...Well, my first thought is that you would use gold and XP to recharge the staff.  (well, duh!)The twist is that you can also directly use another living, corporeal being's life force to "pay" for XP costs (perhaps same amount or some multiple/fraction to gold costs as well).  Requiring a sacrifice would help explain while the baddies seem to have so many charges available, while the good guys always seem to be running short.  And that gives more time for the baddies to work on their plots rather than make/recharge items and gives you a game reason for all those terrible rituals that need to be interrupted.You'd want to play with the equation to get it right for you, especially depending on how much you want each sacrifice to "count" (e.g. would the death of one commoner refill a staff completely or would it take 200 of them?), but to skew the balance so that evil is always a great(er) threat you should get more XPs from more powerful beings (CR?), higher sentience, alignment, and perhaps "extraction method"?Off the cuff, CR (min 1) * CR * Int bonus (min 1) * Chr bonus (min 1) * Wis bonus (min 1) * alignment (1 for evil, 2 for neutral, 3 for good), * extraction method (1 for "give 1 negative level [which must be saved normally against 24 hours later]", 2 for willing, 4 for "syphoned", 6 for "gruesomely killed outright") would give (If I calculate correctly):5 * 5 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 3 * 1 = 75 XPs for an average mind-statted 5th level fighter who (hopefully) temporarily donates a level to his wizard friend's needs.  (Seems low, but perhaps the average stats is misleading.)4 * 4 * 1 * 1 * 4 * 2 = 128 XPs for an average (except wisdom) 4th level druid who donates his ebbing life essence to one of his circle members use.  (Seems low, but again average stats?)1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 3 * 6 = 18 XPs for each average good aligned commoner that goes under the knife at the evil cleric's altar1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 1 * 4 = 4 XPs for that poor kobold whose life is syphoned off by the desperate wizard.8 * 8 * 4* 3 * 3 * 1 * 6 = 13824 XPs for the "average" mind flayer betrayed and "donated" to their society's cause.  (Wow OUCH that is high!)To avoid going around and sticking your staff in the corpses of the defeated after a battle, I would throw in other flavor reasons like time, place, and situation.</blockquote>

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