D&D 5E Milestones vs XP in Hoard of the Dragon Queen

[MrZeddaPiras]

So I started DMing HotDQ and we're halfway through the first chapter. I was set on using milestones to regulate level advancement for easier bookkeeping, but we noticed that, at least in the beginning, characters level up much slower than with the conventional method. One of the players calculated that they should have gotten around 600 xp each, and like I said we're not even at the end of the chapter. This would change the difficulty of the first bit of the adventure dramatically, and I was wondering if this is true even for the rest of the campaign. Before I try to make some very long and boring calculations , did anyone play HotDQ roughly as written, and used xp? And did the characters stay at the appropriate level throughout the campaign?

 

[Astrosicebear]

I used actual XP for the first 3 chapters. It gave them a slight boost, but not much. But it helped as they could more easily survive chapter 3. Chapters 4/5 i went to milestone. Chapter 6 they pretty much screwed around so I went back to XP (thankfully they didnt jsut attack the castle). Chapter 7 I just awarded milestone since they talked with Talis. In chapter 8 now and I will probably see what they do as they pretty much just bee-lined for the dragon, and took it down.

 

[Zaran]

I felt like Chapter 7 was the worst. It lasted only a session and I didn't want my players to level two weeks in a row. So I held off another session into Chapter 8 before I let them level. XP wise it will be even worse. Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 are mostly RP. If you are good with giving encounter level XP for RP then it will work for you. In Chapter 7 my players bypassed many of the monsters by making the deal with Talis. granting full XP for bypassing them won't give the XP necessary to level from level 6 to 7.

 

[MrZeddaPiras]

So if I don't use milestones I'll need to get creative later on? That's good to know

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'm using regular XP only and it worked fine for the first chapter, they were all L2 after that but they got hammered in a few fights during that part and didn't do everything they could have. It was their actions in Ch 2 that caused them to miss nearly all the XP and things have been touchy from them. So to try and get them up to speed while in the long journey of Ch 4 I tried spicing up the trip with some side stuff, which they are passing on since they don't want to "get off mission", and a main PC is dragonborn and is stuck in the back of a wagon for the entire trip lest someone recognize him as he is quite distinctive. Due to deaths and players jumping off the tracks here and there its looking like they will go into Ch 5 with 2x L4, 2xL3, and 2xL2. I think the adventure is assuming 4x L5. I think they will be OK due to numbers. Well I hope.