D&D 5E D&D's XP & advancement system is a bit broken. I have a solution.

[Flamestrike]

Tangentially related, something I noticed after-the-fact is that the daily experience budget is supposed to follow the adjusted experience values based on numbers. The only way to get everyone to level 2 in one day, while following both the per-encounter and per-day budgets, is if they only encounter one enemy at a time.

As a whole, the system is definitely more complicated than it needs to be. I would strongly suggest leaving the experience framework in place, but completely ignoring the per-encounter and per-day guidelines.

Read it again. It refers to adjusted difficulty XP in the chart itself, but in the text of what the XP in the chart represents it refers to 'earnt' XP.

Its a clear as mud.

I find the values in the chart lines up with earnt XP if youre sticking to 6-8 medium to hard encounters in a day.

 

[DEFCON 1]

So basically... one of the game systems in D&D doesn't work well for some people, and they've made adjustments to fix it for themselves.

That sounds about right to me.

 

[Istbor]

So basically... one of the game systems in D&D doesn't work well for some people, and they've made adjustments to fix it for themselves.

That sounds about right to me.

I agree, sounds like business as usual.

 

[ExploderWizard]

It's supposed to represent the combat experience that the character gains by trying to fight scary monsters, while not being killed in the process. In that sense, it makes sense that the characters should only gain experience from combat. That's why you gain so much more experience from wading into a room full of zombies, and so much less for just burning down the whole building.

If you hand out experience points for role-playing, or cleverly bypassing an obstacle without ever lifting your sword, then it stops being that. At some point, it becomes meaningless meta-game currency.

That point was 1974.

The AD&D DMG released 5 years later explained in detail that XP makes no rational sense and that it works the way it does because its a game.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

That point was 1974.

The AD&D DMG released 5 years later explained in detail that XP makes no rational sense and that it works the way it does because its a game.

Which was an untenable position from a simulation standpoint, and thus quickly reversed in time for AD&D 2E.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Which was an untenable position from a simulation standpoint, and thus quickly reversed in time for AD&D 2E.

The 1E DMG went into the whole simulation rabbit hole. It pointed out that in a simulated fantasy world fighters should get more XP from combat, thieves from stealing loot, clerics for converting folks to their faith, and magic users for studying ancient tomes and scrolls and how all of that works great in theory but plays out terrible if the PCs are adventuring together.

Treasure was the best method neutral way of keeping score. You could fight, trick, bargain, or explore to gain it. There was less pressure to move from encounter to encounter or to fight X number of times per day.

 

[Halivar]

The 1E DMG went into the whole simulation rabbit hole. It pointed out that in a simulated fantasy world fighters should get more XP from combat, thieves from stealing loot, clerics for converting folks to their faith, and magic users for studying ancient tomes and scrolls and how all of that works great in theory but plays out terrible if the PCs are adventuring together.

This. D&D is not and never was a simulation. Seems RuneQuest would be a better fit for that style of play anyhow.

 

[Whirlingdervish]

one session to go from first to second level aggravates my inner grognard my party played a month of sundays before they hit second level ...

edited because i have fat fingers sometimes

 

[ChrisCarlson]

edited because i have fat fingers sometimes

Careful. Rapid fluctuation in weight can be a sign of something serious. Or of being Christian Bale...

 

[The Crimson Binome]

This. D&D is not and never was a simulation. Seems RuneQuest would be a better fit for that style of play anyhow.

It was pretty simulation-y during the AD&D days, apparently moreso in 2E than in 1E, but I guess it could also vary wildly between DMs (as it still does).

From what I gather, Gygax was never one for simulation, or really for role-playing at all. I seem to recall his once suggesting that advanced players should just go ahead and create characters at high levels, since character level was supposed to correlate to player skill. Much of what was coming out in the late eighties and throughout the nineties was designed as a reaction to Gygaxian Game-ism, just as modern day has so many games that seem to be a reaction to the predominant Simulation-ism which took its place.