evildm
Explorer
I was looking over Unearthed Arcana, wondering which variants I'd like to make use of for my upcoming Warcraft campaign, and I noticed something odd about the alternate XP system. Why, exactly, do they have an alternate XP table if the awards are proporionately the same as XP awards were before? Just to test my theory, I whipped up a spreadsheet to determine exact percentages and whatnot between the two systems, and if anything the new one seems to have some trouble staying consistent towards the later levels.
For instance, in the original XP system, if a group of 4 characters beats a creature of their CR, they invariably get 7.5% of the XP they need to ascend in level. But in the new system, past 10th level, it varies between 7% and 8% (1 extra or 1 less encounter needed to go up a level, sometimes). It's really not a major deal, or anything, but if the awards are proportionately the same to what a character needs to ascend a level in BOTH systems, why not just use the previous one (ie: each monster's XP value is equal to their CR and what a party of their equivalent level would get)?
It just strikes me as needless complication, unless there's something I'm missing.
For instance, in the original XP system, if a group of 4 characters beats a creature of their CR, they invariably get 7.5% of the XP they need to ascend in level. But in the new system, past 10th level, it varies between 7% and 8% (1 extra or 1 less encounter needed to go up a level, sometimes). It's really not a major deal, or anything, but if the awards are proportionately the same to what a character needs to ascend a level in BOTH systems, why not just use the previous one (ie: each monster's XP value is equal to their CR and what a party of their equivalent level would get)?
It just strikes me as needless complication, unless there's something I'm missing.