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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 2831583" data-attributes="member: 151">A wise choice, I think.  Obviously, you want to tread lightly when it comes to anything regarding 'death penalties'....both from a paperwork standpoint and a story framework.  I disagree with RW about negative levels...I think they're mechanically very easy to remember (1 negative level is essentially a -1 to every d20 roll you make) and conceptually understandable.  I also think he underestimates one of the most significant values of levels....the carrot.  As Monte Cook himself points out, levelling is generally considered a reward...cool new powers or advanced abilities.  It's a powerful motivator for a PC.  At high levels, magic is powerful and can be arbitrary.  Melee characters can reduce a physically frailer PC to chop-suey in a single round; powerful magic can kill with a single saving-throw.  One of the mantras of our games is..."Everyone can roll a '1'."  How did my players beat a winterwight?  He rolled a '1' versus disintegrate.  He'd weathered 18 spells by that point without a sweat...but 5% is 5%.  PCs are no less vulnearble.  One Greater Dispel, and all your protection magic is stripped.  Good Planning can avoid most of this...but death becomes a much more likely consequence of the adventuring life (which is why Raise Dead, Res, True Res, Reincarnate, Wish and other such spells arrive on the scene).IMHO, the best way to handle such stuff is the DM quest.  That's how I handled my players desire for Epic weapons when the time came.  Buying them seemed ludicrous, but crafting them wasn't an option for most players, either.  I view levelling as something of a hybrid between real-world experience, training, gained insights and a certain spark that is fired by adversity.  My general policy has usually been, partial benefits immediately upon obtaining sufficient XP, and class benefits after a night's rest.  So hit points and BAB increase on the spot, but new spells, feats and skill bonuses require a little quiet time.  I have violated this rule on occasion, as the story required. I think the thing to keep in mind is determining what the benefits are you're trying to reap from banishing xp, and what will make life simpler for everyone.Here's another thought:  if the ultimate problem is that "Math is Hard" (as my players often hear my cry around the table), perhaps the real issue is that you simply remove the xp award model, and award xp based on a tier system.  What I mean is this, rather than figure out xp awards for creatures, modify it for difficulty, compensate with story award, then tailor it up or down depending, just figure out the difficulty for the night, and then award a flat xp bonus based on THAT, using some level related formula.For example:Tier 1 - Low Activity Session (ex: not much RPing, not much combat, players go shopping): xp =300Tier 2 - Med. Activity Session (ex: some excellent rping, no combat or vice-versa, players deal with politics, or fight a giant zombie worm) xp=600Tier 3 - Full-Contact Spira! (ex: head-to-head with the undead dragon followed by guiding a dwarf to make the ultimate sacrifice for his people and his god) xp=1000I'm making up the strata and I've given you no way to calculate xp, relatively, but I'm just suggesting the idea of a system.  I'm only pointing this out as a way of thinking: rather than re-engineer the entire system to accomodate a new levelling idea, maybe the best option is to streamline the xp calculation instead.</blockquote>

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