D&D 5E Gain 50 xp in the Abyss

[iserith]

Either system would work for me. But is it too much to ask for a WotC campaign book to spell out exactly how they want level progression to work? If they want a milestone system, then why are there xp awards?

Not that they may have included enough XP for characters to be at the intended levels, but milestone advancement does use XP. See DMG page 261. Non-XP advancement is either story-based or session-based.

 

[tardigrade]

I have a related problem: I'm playing SKT almost as a sandbox (which is basically the only way to play it, I'd argue), but am using milestone levelling. They've followed all but two possible side-quests so far (currently they're haring off on a Feywild adventure between Nightstone and the Dripping Caves). This means they've been stuck at level 4 for *ages*...

 

[CapnZapp]

I have a related problem: I'm playing SKT almost as a sandbox (which is basically the only way to play it, I'd argue), but am using milestone levelling. They've followed all but two possible side-quests so far (currently they're haring off on a Feywild adventure between Nightstone and the Dripping Caves). This means they've been stuck at level 4 for *ages*...

I suggest you level up your party whenever that makes sense to you.

 

[iserith]

I have a related problem: I'm playing SKT almost as a sandbox (which is basically the only way to play it, I'd argue), but am using milestone levelling. They've followed all but two possible side-quests so far (currently they're haring off on a Feywild adventure between Nightstone and the Dripping Caves). This means they've been stuck at level 4 for *ages*...

Milestone advancement uses XP. Do you mean you're using story-based advancement? For a sandbox, I would say standard XP or milestone XP is a better choice, the latter being true only if specific goals or quests are tied to XP.