D&D 5E Some XP Award Ideas

Reynard · Apr 19, 2021

not-so-newguy said:
There's a 5E supplement at DriveThruRPG called Into the Unknown that tries to model the B/X game. The game does gold for XP and combat for XP, along with higher xp requirement for gaining levels (e.g. it took 1,250 xp to get to 2nd level). The game is broken down into 5 booklets costing about $5 each in PDF.

Aaanyway, my point to this post is to provide a potential way to calculate xp through Combat using that game's method:
For every 1 H.P. damaged caused, the player gets 5xp.
For every 1 H.P. lose, the player gets 10xp.

I've used it before as a DM and, yes, it was slightly fiddly but still manageable.

Did you notice people throwing themselves in the way of fireballs to get greater XP rewards?

kenada · Apr 19, 2021

Reynard said:
Interesting. I think if you have all the "lesser" XP sources -- challenges, treasure, etc... -- then they would be motivated to find a "mission" for any given run in order to up the XP reward for what would otherwise have been just a treasure run.

The way I did this (since it was focused on player goals) was to start the session out asking them what they wanted to accomplish. My players can be bad at deciding what they want to do during the session, so this would give them a little more structure and take some of the pressure off. If they weren’t sure, they could look at their notes for a reminder. I also made it a point to never write these things down because they were primarily for the players’ benefit.

The way I did it previously was to ask for two goals per player. If you completed the first, you got XP. If you completed the second, you got some kind of perk (hero points, inspiration, etc). People usually completed one goal but not always. Since it was decided by group consensus, no one felt like they got screwed out of XP.

Using a group goal is something new I want to try. I think a group mission can be more like a multi-session goal (e.g., the current adventure). It’ll work within the same framework (consensus, etc). It may seem superficially like milestone advancement, but since it is determined and rewarded by the players (via consensus), it should feel very different in play.

not-so-newguy · Apr 19, 2021

Reynard said:
Did you notice people throwing themselves in the way of fireballs to get greater XP rewards?

Lol, no. My players joked about doing that, but it never happened. It was much safer to try to get the treasure. According to the writer, combat should account for about 25% of total XP.

THEMNGMNT · Apr 19, 2021

Hmmm. I'm not sure if this is what Reynard is looking for, but I would probably just use this XP award system from DM David and then divide by two to slow down progression.

Rabulias · Apr 19, 2021

not-so-newguy said:
Lol, no. My players joked about doing that, but it never happened. It was much safer to try to get the treasure. According to the writer, combat should account for about 25% of total XP.

You have to watch out for the real munchkins who will stab themselves, getting XP for dealing and receiving damage.

iserith · Apr 19, 2021

Reynard said:
Another thing I have to start thinking about, especially if I am going to give XP for treasure, is how to build the treasure economy in the boomtowns above the Hellstair and what PCs can/should/must spend money on. I am ambivalent about training costs.

What you can do is allow the PCs to buy magic items as a downtime activity and then have higher level adventurers doing the training for 1 GP:1 XP. Do I buy this +1 sword to deal with the fiends on Level 5 or do I level up?

These NPC trainers are also adventurers so they use the gold they make training lower-level adventurers to buy more rare magic items for themselves so they can delve deeper.

To tie this in even further, allow PCs to undertake the Work downtime activity and a work activity can be training adventurers a tier below them. Their ability check result on this downtime activity can net them a certain amount of gold for being a trainer (the higher the roll, the more gold they get). You'd just have to make sure that the amount they earn doing this isn't as much as delving would earn them. Time constraints can be implemented in the form of opportunity cost. If they stick around town for too long, Level 5 is cleared out by someone else and takes time to repopulate.

Charlaquin · Apr 19, 2021

Since you want to encourage doing quests, exploring, and gathering treasure, I would think awarding XP for those three things would be the most intuitive approach. XP for gold (or gold value) on a 1:1 basis, XP for completing quests, and XP for new locations discovered. Maybe a certain amount whenever they reach a new level of the mega dungeon and a certain amount whenever they find a hidden area or something. Obviously give more XP for harder quests and for harder to reach/find areas.

Charlaquin · Apr 19, 2021

iserith said:
What you can do is allow the PCs to buy magic items as a downtime activity and then have higher level adventurers doing the training for 1 GP:1 XP. Do I buy this +1 sword to deal with the fiends on Level 5 or do I level up?

These NPC trainers are also adventurers so they use the gold they make training lower-level adventurers to buy more rare magic items for themselves so they can delve deeper.

To tie this in even further, allow PCs to undertake the Work downtime activity and a work activity can be training adventurers a tier below them. Their ability check result on this downtime activity can net them a certain amount of gold for being a trainer (the higher the roll, the more gold they get). You'd just have to make sure that the amount they earn doing this isn't as much as delving would earn them. Time constraints can be implemented in the form of opportunity cost. If they stick around town for too long, Level 5 is cleared out by someone else and takes time to repopulate.

This sounds really cool.

Shiroiken · Apr 19, 2021

I use a system you might be somewhat interested in. You'll probably need to modify it for your desire for slower advancement, but it should give you a starting point. The premise behind it was to reduce the desire to jump into combat just to get XP, while rewarding players for non-combat challenges overcome.

All experience is broken into the following categories: Exploration Experience (EXP), Monster Experience (MXP), Quest Experience (QXP), and Social Experience (SXP). MXP is the normal xp, but cut in half to make the risk/reward worse. SXP can equal MXP (if monsters are negotiated with instead of fought) or equal to a full party challenge (easy, average, hard, or deadly) based on the average DCs and quantity required for success. EXP is equal to a partial party challenge, depending on the number of PCs involved; traps usually only affect a handful of PCs, for example. QXP is reserved for the completion of a quest that doesn't have a built in reward of its own, as a way of encouraging PCs to follow through. All of them are only given out with success, except for tricks and traps (EXP) which can be awarded after simply enduring them.

I start each adventure by figuring out how much XP it's worth by normal XP rules. I then cut the amount in half and use it for the remaining challenges. This way the total amount of XP given out isn't any more than it normally would be; I've simply shifted the way they get it.