D&D General Experience Points & Leveling: A Brief Primer on XP in the 1e DMG, and Why It Still Matters

[Hussar]

So something that's somewhat random counts as the DM playing favourites?

Sorry, not buying that.

And I can't speak for your game, but were a party with no magic to find a +5 holy avenger* here there's no way in hell one character could afford to claim/buy it from treasury; hence it's ironclad guaranteed it'd be sold during treasury division and the proceeds shared out.

* - a magic item I have never yet DMed lo these 37 years.

Heh. Talk about different experiences.

Our groups were completely socialist. Whenever we found an item that would best fit a particular PC, that PC got the item. If it benefitted multiple characters, we rolled for it. But, the idea that a PC had to "buy" an item from his or her share of treasure is something I've only ever seen from one player in all the years I've gamed. I was so taken aback by it when he brought it up to the group that he had to explain it to me three times before I understood what he meant.

Render unto Caesar and all that. Having a paladin with a holy avenger in the party makes the party SO much more powerful than one without that it wouldn't even occur to me to not give it to the paladin.

Does explain a lot of why we have such differing experiences. The only time we sold magic items was the "extra" ones that inevitably cropped up. That extra +1 sword that no one has a use for, that sort of thing.

 

[TheSword]

The only thing that would nark me off more than a party member finding a holy avenger when all the rest of us were fighting with basic weapons...

... would be playing a paladin, finding a holy avenger and being told it had to be sold for party loot!

 

[S'mon]

Of course 5e doesn't have training rules either...

5e has perfectly cromulent training to level rules in the 5e DMG.

 

[Marc_C]

5e has perfectly cromulent training to level rules in the 5e DMG.

Indeed!

Seems l like many people didn't actually read the 5e DMG. They look for these things in the PHB. They can't find it so it doesn't exist...

 

[Oldtimer]

Moldvay Basic Page B22:

"MAXIMUM XP: A character should never be given enough XP in a single adventure to advance more than one level of experience. For example, if a beginning (0 XP) 1st level fighter earns 5000 XP (a rare and outstanding achievement), he or she should only be given 3999 XP, enough to place the character 1 XP short of 3rd level."

Also, MEN & MAGIC, page 18:

"It is also recommended that no more experience points be awarded for any single adventure than will suffice to move the character upwards one level. Thus a "veteran" (1 st level) gains what would ordinarily be 5,000 experience points; however, as this would move him upwards two levels, the referee should award only sufficient points to bring him to "warrior" (2nd level), say 3,999 if the character began with 0 experience points."

 

[David Howery]

Does explain a lot of why we have such differing experiences. The only time we sold magic items was the "extra" ones that inevitably cropped up. That extra +1 sword that no one has a use for, that sort of thing.

generally, but in one 1E campaign, I had a ranger PC who was approaching 'get followers' level, so I started paying for/keeping some of those extra magic weapons/armor we found... and when he finally did get his followers (which tend to heavily favor human and demi-human fighters), they were all pretty well equipped right at the start....

 

[Voadam]

The only time I can remember there being an actual opportunity to sell magic items in AD&D I ran or was playing in was when I was DMing and the party was in Greyhawk when I was using the 2e city boxed set. As a player I never encountered an opportunity to sell magical stuff to a magic item store or broker until 3e.

For the most parts magical loot was kept in the AD&D games I was in. In one campaign I remember becoming something of a political patron and giving my giantslayer two handed sword to a variant paladin champion of a Norse god as part of him agreeing to work for me.

 

[David Howery]

in 1E (especially if you played the published modules), you encountered scads of 'lesser' magic items... +1 and +2 things that are great when you're low level, but you tended to find better stuff later on. Selling this stuff was always kind of an off stage grey area... I think we basically assumed that you could always sell excess magic items, but no DM in any group I was in let us just buy anything other than scrolls... I don't think we could even buy potions. But we always found so many of them, it didn't matter...

 

[Lanefan]

Heh. Talk about different experiences.

Our groups were completely socialist. Whenever we found an item that would best fit a particular PC, that PC got the item. If it benefitted multiple characters, we rolled for it. But, the idea that a PC had to "buy" an item from his or her share of treasure is something I've only ever seen from one player in all the years I've gamed. I was so taken aback by it when he brought it up to the group that he had to explain it to me three times before I understood what he meant.

And yet, equitable-by-value treasure division is even more socialist; in that everyone ends up getting the same value worth of loot.

Otherwise it's all too easy to end up with a situation I DMed once. Treasure division is entirely up to the players, and one group decided that instead of equitable division of the whole lot they'd divide the cash and non-magic evenly and then use a sports-league-like draft system for the magic items, with the pick order

Render unto Caesar and all that. Having a paladin with a holy avenger in the party makes the party SO much more powerful than one without that it wouldn't even occur to me to not give it to the paladin.

In our crew I'd be surprised if the paladin had managed to stay in the party long enough to even claim the avenger.

Does explain a lot of why we have such differing experiences. The only time we sold magic items was the "extra" ones that inevitably cropped up. That extra +1 sword that no one has a use for, that sort of thing.

At a guess I'd say about half the magic they find gets sold, either because nobody's proficient with it (we use individual weapon proficiencies), or nobody wants it (it's either inferior to what they already have or it's just not of any real use), or less commonly, nobody in the party can afford it and for whatever reason it isn't or can't be carried forward as a party-owned thing.

 

[Maxperson]

So something that's somewhat random counts as the DM playing favourites?

Sorry, not buying that.

And I can't speak for your game, but were a party with no magic to find a +5 holy avenger* here there's no way in hell one character could afford to claim/buy it from treasury; hence it's ironclad guaranteed it'd be sold during treasury division and the proceeds shared out.

* - a magic item I have never yet DMed lo these 37 years.

That seems odd to me. Why wouldn't they just give it to the Paladin? That would strengthen the party to an incredible degree, increasing survivability. Why make a potentially suicidal move just because the Paladin can't afford to buy it from the treasury?