Experience Point Weirdness: Is my math funny or theirs?

[Elsidar]

So I'm trying to make a character, and I realized that the experience point values for reaching each level are radically different from 3.X edition. 3.X had an ingenious system, where (level X 1000) was the amount of extra XP you needed to get from one level to the next. I wanted to see if 4th Edition had a similar formula to the XP progression to make recording XP easier.

Here's what I came up with:

Level   Total XP       XP Difference        Difference of the Difference
1	0		
2	1000           1000	
3	2250           1250                  250
4	3750           1500                  250
5	5500           1750                  250
6	7500           2000                  250
7	10000          2500                  500
8	13000          3000                  500
9	16500          3500                  500
10	20500          4000                  500
11	26000          5500                  1500
12	32000          6000                  500
13	39000          7000                  1000
14	47000          8000                  1000
15	57000          10000                 2000
16	69000          12000                 2000
17	83000          14000                 2000
18	99000          16000                 2000
19	119000         20000                 4000
20	143000         24000                 4000
21	175000         32000                 8000
22	210000         35000                 3000
23	255000         45000                 10000
24	310000         55000                 10000
25	375000         65000                 10000
26	450000         75000                 10000
27	550000         100000                25000
28	675000         125000                25000
29	825000         150000                25000
30	1000000        175000                25000

At first, this looks like it follows a pattern, but there are weird glitches that pop up. Leveling from 2 to 6, the XP needed increases by 250 each level, and from 6-10, the necessary XP increases by 500. After that, though, the pattern breaks, as from 10 to 11, the necessary XP increases by 1500 points, then from 11 to 12 only by 500 points. A similar glitch happens between levels 21 and 22.

If not for these two glitches, there seems to be a pattern that in four level chunks, the XP needed to level increases by the same amount. I think some of the values were typos (between 11 and 12), and maybe fudged a bit to make the total XP at level 30 a nice round million.

Anybody else have any thoughts, or do I have too much time on my hands?

~Elsidar

 

[RandomCitizenX]

May be intended since 11 and 21 kick off new tiers.

 

[keterys]

Yeah, you're right, that is odd. Mistake, or on purpose? I wonder.

 

[Surgoshan]

I'm pretty sure they did it so they could get round numbers and to get to 1000000 XP for level 30, in addition to the big bumps at Paragon and Epic tiers.

 

[Mezzer]

Absolutely on purpose. They have very well defined ideas of how certain things scale across tiers, and XP is no exception.

Why would this bother you anyway? Besides not quite being easy to calculate on the fly? (which really isn't a problem if you ask me)

 

[shieldheart]

Sounds about right. Paragon and Epic tiers require premium experience requirements.

 

[Cryptos]

It makes sense to me. A DM should be able to pack in more stuff on an adventure at the end of a tier, to wrap up loose ends, ramp up the plot or transition from the Heroic levels when going to Paragon, or from the Paragon levels when going to Epic. If you think of each tier as a volume in a trilogy, for instance, then that last level is like the climax of a volume. It allows the DM to squeeze in more action before going on to the next phase of the campaign.

 

[Jack99]

Yeah, you're right, that is odd. Mistake, or on purpose? I wonder.

Nah, it's now clear that EQ, not WoW is the MMORPG that influenced 4e. 10 and 20 are hell levels!

 

[spunky_mutters]

I think they fudged things inelegantly to hit 1000000. Look at the monster xp. Standard monster xp starts at 100 at 1st, adds 25 xp each level for 4 levels, and then doubles the amount added every 4 levels. Except at 22nd, where it's messed up as well.

It's not as odd as character xp, but it struck me aberrant. I'm more curious about how this all plays out with regard to necessary encounters to level based on monster of appropriate level. I think it might bear some looking at.

 

[Zurai]

It's not as odd as character xp, but it struck me aberrant. I'm more curious about how this all plays out with regard to necessary encounters to level based on monster of appropriate level. I think it might bear some looking at.

How about just "how many monsters of appropriate level"?

Level	XP Needed	XP/Monster	Monsters/Level
2	1000		100		10	
3	1250		125		10	
4	1500		150		10	
5	1750		175		10	
6	2000		200		10
7	2500		250		10
8	3000		300		10
9	3500		350		10
10	4000		400		10
11	5500		500		11
12	6000		600		10
13	7000		700		10
14	8000		800		10
15	10000		1000		10
16	12000		1200		10
17	14000		1400		10
18	16000		1600		10
19	20000		2000		10
20	24000		2400		10
21	32000		2800		11.42857
22	35000		3200		10.9375
23	45000		4150		10.84337
24	55000		5100		10.78431
25	65000		6050		10.74380
26	75000		7000		10.71429
27	100000		9000		11.11111
28	125000		11000		11.36364
29	150000		13000		11.53846
30	175000		15000		11.66667

As you can see, very smooth progression until Epic, when it just goes wonky. There's a +1 monster (encounter) bump at 10->11, but it's still evenly divisible.