Help! No EL\XP rules in the SRD!

Halivar

First Post
I'm trying to do adventure design away from my books (by necessity), but using strictly an electronic copy of the SRD. It's a great resource, but it doesn't have EL, XP per EL, or XP per level rules! Are these not in the SRD at all? It makes it well-nigh impossible for me to properly design an adventure away from my DMG. It's also illegal for me to solicit or otherwise obtain these tables! So, what should I do? Should I design my own tables? Am I allowed to copy the tables out of my DMG for my own use away from home?

I would just chuck the whole system and use the Immortal's Handbook revision, but it isn't released yet. :(
 

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Halivar said:
I'm trying to do adventure design away from my books (by necessity), but using strictly an electronic copy of the SRD. It's a great resource, but it doesn't have EL, XP per EL, or XP per level rules! Are these not in the SRD at all?

They are not in the SRD at all, by design. They want you to still have a reason to buy the PHB and DMG.


It makes it well-nigh impossible for me to properly design an adventure away from my DMG. It's also illegal for me to solicit or otherwise obtain these tables! So, what should I do? Should I design my own tables? Am I allowed to copy the tables out of my DMG for my own use away from home?

I think that making copies out of your own DMG would be a "fair use", as long as you don't sell or distribute them.
 

Halivar said:
I'm trying to do adventure design away from my books (by necessity), but using strictly an electronic copy of the SRD. It's a great resource, but it doesn't have EL, XP per EL, or XP per level rules! Are these not in the SRD at all?
They're intentionally left out of the SRD. The XP per level formula is extremely simple -- you can just memorize that one. For EL and XP per EL, d20srd.org has an encounter calculator page that will calculate everything for you, though it doesn't provide the raw tables.
 

Why would you need the XP rules to design an adventure? That doesn't make any sense. The calculation of EL I can understand, but not the XP rules. That occurs after the adventure has been completed.
 

Infiniti2000 said:
Why would you need the XP rules to design an adventure? That doesn't make any sense. The calculation of EL I can understand, but not the XP rules. That occurs after the adventure has been completed.
I would think he is proactively looking to the xp tables to determine if the adventure is being written with enough/insufficient amounts of xp for his PCs to advance (or to ensure that he is not giving out too much making advancement too fast for their tastes).

But then again, I am guessing as to his actual motives.
 

smootrk said:
I would think he is proactively looking to the xp tables to determine if the adventure is being written with enough/insufficient amounts of xp for his PCs to advance (or to ensure that he is not giving out too much making advancement too fast for their tastes).

But then again, I am guessing as to his actual motives.

He is away from his books. He only has the SRD in soft copy. I think that is why he asked the question.

Thanks,
Rich
 


smootrk said:
But then again, I am guessing as to his actual motives.
Nope, you got it about right. I want to pace PC advancement so I can hit the major plot points in a predictable fashion.
 

The XP bit is easy. They need 1000 x their current level to advance to the next level. So at first level (with 0 xp) you need 1000 xp to advance to second level. At the start of second level (1000 xp) you need 2000 more xp to advance to third level (and thus must have 3000 xp to reach third level). Just add up the thousands to reach the desired level. So if you want to have enough xp to be 12th level you need:

(1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11)*1000 xp, or 66,000 xp. To reach 13th level they would need 12000 more xp, or 78,000 xp.

Now, the CR/EL is a bit more complicated. I can't recall the equation right now, but I think the party is supposed to go through about 13 or 14 encounters (on average) per level to level up. So, to use the above example, a "typical" or "average" encounter for a group of four "typical" PCs at 12th level working towards 13th level would grant about 890 xp (per individual PC). Make it an even 900 xp per encounter and it works out to 13.3333 encounters rather than 13.5 encounters. Either way works, but the second gives a nice round number.

Now, as for how xp increases / decreases as one moves up or down from the suggested CR level, I do not know. I do recall that eight levels higher or lower than the suggested CR gain no xp as it is presumed that either the encounter was too easy or that success was only due to luck. (I'd still give some ad hoc xp anyway in the latter instance, however.) Also, the increase or decrease of monster HD, whether or not the monster has class levels (and whether the class levels are particularly useful or not - less useful ones granting only half a CR increase as I recall), and how many PCs more or less than 4 also impact CR. Then there is the fact that a PC receives differing xp differently if they differ in level from their compatriots. If someone can give a hint as to how xp differs based on +/- 1, 2, ..., 7 levels from the suggested CR then you would have all you need.

Does this help any?
 
Last edited:

CD = challengeRating – partyLevel
if CD is even, then -- award = partyLevel * 2 ^ (CD / 2) * 300
if CD is odd and CD < 0, then -- award = partyLevel * 2 ^ ((CD+1) / 2) * 200
if CD is odd and CD > 0, then -- award = partyLevel * 2 ^ ((CD-1) / 2) * 450
 

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