buying xp

[mhensley]

Tired of characters hoarding their money to spend on magic items? Conan certainly didn't live this way! He would steal a fortune in gems and then proceed to blow it on Ale & Whores(tm). Why not let characters have that option as well? What if you allow pc's to buy xp with their gold? 1gp = 1xp. This way players wouldn't have to deck out their characters with a bunch of magical doodads to be more powerful.

Would this work? The recommended wealth per level and xp per level is almost the same so it seems like it would. If a player spent most of his money on xp every level, he would probably be 50% ahead of the other players in xp and would level much faster.

 

[erf_beto]

What if you allow pc's to buy xp with their gold? 1gp = 1xp. This way players wouldn't have to deck out their characters with a bunch of magical doodads to be more powerful.

Ok, I like that - I'm all for that 'its you, not your gear' aproach. It would take care of some problems, and both players and DMs would be pleased... but how do you explain it? In-game, I mean.

"oh, Master John, do you happen to know where is that big pile of gold we gathered on our last journey?"
"ahn... well, I dunno... but look what I can do now! Fireballs! Isn't THAT something truly amazing, my child?"

 

[Malhost Zormaeril]

Heh.

This 1 gp = 1 xp existed in OD&D. Please see this for the logical conclusion.

Of course, back then you got the XP for finding the treasure, not spending it, so you got both the XP and the money. But I hold that an excess of gold is less of a game-breaker than an excess of levels.

YMMV.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

This sounds very similar to the approach in one of my campaigns. Basically I wanted to put prices more in line with real medieval prices using the big Fordham's lists. But then I had the problem of PCs becoming even more insanely wealthy than normally.

So I added an XP bonus to each level, anything from the XP bonus you didn't spend rolled over but that was too catch the equivalent of loose change. Here's roughly the formula I used. Take the wealth by level guideline, divide it by 200 this is the number of XP they have for magic effects. Then let them use it to buy magical effects that would normally go on items but make them an an inherent effect.

To relate an anecdote caused by this, at one point the PCs(they were mid-level) were drinking in a tavern after having held off a barbarian assault against a town. Now this (one) guy wielded a greatsword I'm sure he'd modeled off FF7 or maybe some anime, big impressive weapon and he had a flaming burst enhancement kind of thing that got noticed. So I had a couple of thieves try to make off with the sword while he was drinking. He makes the spot-check(not hard when parts of the revelers in the tavern saw and were shouting and pointing). And proceeds to beat the thieves to death with a flaming tankard full of ale.

 

[mhensley]

Ok, I like that - I'm all for that 'its you, not your gear' aproach. It would take care of some problems, and both players and DMs would be pleased... but how do you explain it? In-game, I mean.

"oh, Master John, do you happen to know where is that big pile of gold we gathered on our last journey?"
"ahn... well, I dunno... but look what I can do now! Fireballs! Isn't THAT something truly amazing, my child?"

It's really no more of an issue than the idea of your craft(carpentry) skill going up because you killed some kolbolds and leveled up. The money spent for xp should only take place in a downtime. What actually takes place is up to the player depending upon their class. You could spend it on training, carousing, research, donations to your temple or monastery, etc. Maybe each 1000gp spent in this way should take up a week of game time.

 

[mhensley]

Of course, back then you got the XP for finding the treasure, not spending it, so you got both the XP and the money. But I hold that an excess of gold is less of a game-breaker than an excess of levels.

YMMV.

In older editions more money didn't buy you a lot of magical gear that made you better. You usually had to find everything you used and a lot of it may be sub-optimal or not very useful for your class. In 3rd edition, money = power. So a character with more levels and little gear should be more or less equal to one with less levels but more gear.

 

[bestone]

OO i kind of like this idea, i've had xp+gold to buy feats before, but i like this gold for xp, You could rationalize it as paying for training in your down time. Or if your a barbarian (ala conan!) any reasonably priced whore and mug of ale should net you some xp at least.

 

[erf_beto]

It's really no more of an issue than the idea of your craft(carpentry) skill going up because you killed some kolbolds and leveled up. The money spent for xp should only take place in a downtime. What actually takes place is up to the player depending upon their class. You could spend it on training, carousing, research, donations to your temple or monastery, etc. Maybe each 1000gp spent in this way should take up a week of game time.

About carpentry (or anything else) going up, you ''''assume'''' that the character takes some time off and (almost magically) returns with new knowledge or power, wich is not a material good (you can put a 'scroll of fireball' in your pocket but not the 'ability to cast 3rd level spells'). You go in empty-handed and 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas', as the saying goes, so you don't have to care about how the knowledge comes to the character. But I get your point, it's irrational to upgrade something you have never tried to do before. As a matter of fact, leveling up in DnD is a preety weird thing (saves, hit points, skills, feats, all going up at the same time?!?), but that's a discussion far beyond the scope of this thread anyway.

We are talking about vanishing gold and other expansive itens, so rationale should be mandatory, IMO. A week for each 1000 gp seems ok, really, but I'd say that you also need someone to take the gold - unless you want people making offerings to the gods and burying money in desert islands... (maybe this is why we find money laying around on most eletronic games ) Perhaps they can do this only in a town with reasonable resources, as the DM sees fit. As an option, allowing caster types to 'absorb' the powers of magic itens or ancient relics, draining them into XP on a very long ritual, instead of selling, sounds cool enough

Either way, i like this idea. It's worth considering it

 

[Notmousse]

No way on a 1 to 1 ratio.

5gp to 1xp at a minimum, and I've likely have it increase with level.

Though there is the problem of not getting as much experience for things you whack after getting levels buying xp.

 

[StGabe]

Broken.

Or at least it sounds that way to me. Just give your players less gold. The recommended treasures in the DMG are way too high IMO. IMC, 1,000gp is a lot even at level 10.