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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7330992" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!I (we, actually...my group) also thought leveling was WAY too fast; ever since and including 3e. I've tried different methods. So far I like the following two I've used to great success over the decades:1. My Go-To Method: XP granted by GP value of treasure 'recovered' (found, stolen, taken from the dead, paid for job, etc) on a 1:1 basis, but monster XP value is halved (sometimes thirded or quartered even). Reasoning: XP is already just a "game mechanic" with no real basis in "game logic/reality"...AND... by switching to GP value being the 'motivating factor', it encourages the Players to look at each situation individually and not always jump to "How do we kill it?". The fighter can go in an start swinging...the cleric can try to persuade...the thief can try to stealthily steal...the magic-user can threaten/deal/or blow 'em up; it allows each PC to deal with a situation as their strengths dictate. And besides...I'm a pretty stingy DM by nature, and my players know that taking on a dozen orcs when they are all 10th level isn't going to be worth a "set amount of XP based on CR". Keeps the "I only need 12 more orcs to level up!" idea out of their heads, allowing them to think more in terms of the story and what's going on in the campaign.2. My Second Choice Method: Believe it or not, I like the xp method that the Palladium Games system uses. (I know, right?). There is a small list of 'things' that give XP or a range of XP. These 'things' are sort of 'goal oriented' and it is based on the actual difficulty...not what "should be". Think of it this way: It's like using the CR system, but the DM determines the CR after the PC's deal with it. For example, say a group of 5th level PC's go into battle with some monstrosity and it's few minions. The DM has pre-set the base CR of the encounter at CR 6. A tough battle, but not that unwinable. Round one: every single PC "novas" and all the minions die, and the main beastie is down to below half it's HP's. Two rounds later, it's dead. This was hardly a "difficult" encounter! So...the DM gives it a rating of CR 3. Palladiums xp system sort of works like that. They have XP for other stuff too, like "Makes everyone at the table laugh", "Avoiding unnecessary violence", "Risking life to save another", and so on. The easy thing is, a DM can then make up new XP values as suites his campaign, style, and players. If everyone is generally violent and mercenary, maybe change "Avoiding unnecessary violence" to "Uses group military tactics to successfully overcome situation", or whatever. Point is that each gives a flat XP or range (100, 200, 50, 100 - 300, etc), and the general "combat" award is based on how the actual encounter played out (CR 6 being reduced to CR 3, as my example above; in Palladium it would have been a downgrade of "Killing/subduing a Major Menace" to "Killing/subduing a Minor Menace".The beauty of my #1 is that it's fast and simple, and relies more on what the characters do over what they kill. The beauty of my #2 is that its based on "actions" (both PC and Player) and actual difficulty. I've found that #2 has a huge side benefit; it even's out the 'weak' vs the 'powerful' PC's. A 'weak' PC will get more xp for Encounter 14 than a 'powerful' PC would get for the same encounter...because the weak PC had to deal with it longer and with more risk. Made me smile when an absolute munchkin player (back in early/mid 90's) played with us for a while and his uber-character got ## XP for some monster, by him self...and then another player (heavy RP girl) got ### XP for the same monster, by herself, later. He accused me of 'cheating/favouratism'. I pointed out how the XP system works and why he got less XP by a factor of ten...because his character was a factor of ten more powerful than hers. Needless to say...he hated it! And, IME, any munchkin/powergamer that complains that something isn't "fair" is proof that whatever 'it' is, 'it' is definitely FAIR. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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