experience points

[Torchiest]

I just started a new 2e campaign, and I'm puzzling over how to give out certain individual XP rewards. In the DMG, the recommended way of giving out points seems a little unbalanced to me, and also a little confusing.

For warriors, it recommends giving out, per HD of monster slain, 10 XP/level. I guess that means 10 XP per hit die per level of the character? If that's correct, that means a 1st level fighter would get 10XP for killing, say, an orc, while a 5th level fighter would get 50XP. Is that right?

For rogues, it says 2 XP per gold piece value of treasure. I'm assuming that includes everything from coins to works of art to magic items.

Also, an optional rule is giving EVERYONE one XP per gold piece value of treasure obtained. What I'm doing so far is giving everyone 1/2 XP per gold piece value of treasure, and giving rogues double that, just one XP/gp, not two. Even so, it seems like this could give rogues a lot more XP than everyone else fairly quickly. I'm debating not using it.

I'm curious what XP reward rules everyone else uses. Do you use individual awards and gold piece value awards, or do you have other rules not in the DMG? Thanks for all input.

 

[airwalkrr]

In my AD&D campaigns fighters always got 1 XP per hit point of damage dealt. Rogues got 1 XP per GP stolen or seized. Clerics and magic-users got 10 XP per spell for each spell successfully cast.

Edit: But there's no reason to complicate things. If you don't mind your characters leveling a little slower, just hand out awards for monsters beaten and divide them equally. You can also hand out the occasional story award or roleplaying award.

 

[Torchiest]

Oh, I'm using some of the other recommended common individual awards. I gave out a couple hundred XP for good roleplaying and some for a good idea as well. I guess part of my question is how quickly people like to advance the PCs. We just played our first session, which lasted about five hours, and the XP earned ranged from 900 for a cleric to 1400 for a thief. So it seems like most everyone will have hit second level after another session. I imagine the first few levels will come relatively quickly, like once every other session, then things will settle down to a slower pace, perhaps five or more sessions per level.

 

[airwalkrr]

Yea, that is pretty much how it works. The early levels come quickly so you don't have to spend too long with such piddly amounts of hp. The later levels, not so much. I remember how much of a grind it was to get my magic-user in AD&D from 6th to 7th. Felt like torture. I guess that isn't exactly true. The campaign was a lot of fun. But I had many sessions to salivate over those 4th-level spells that I was looking forward to, especially since I had already acquired a few scrolls that I was ready to learn.

 

[AuldDragon]

I never used those guides, since they seemed pretty insane, nor did I give experience for treasure. I divided the monster experience between the party members, gave a "story award" divided amongst the party members, and gave out individual experience awards for roleplaying and inventive solutions or use of abilities (thieves disarming traps, etc.).

 

[Torchiest]

I've thought about it some more, and found some other threads discussing this now, and I think I'm going to keep doing it the same way for a while and see how it goes. If it seems like everyone is leveling up too quickly, or if characters are getting too spread apart, I'll adjust it, but a single gaming session is almost certainly too soon to know. Thanks for all comments.