Unearthed Arcana WotC's Mearls Presents A New XP System For 5E In August's Unearthed Arcana

I have to say...not terribly impressed with this month's article...

http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA-ThreePillarXP.pdf

I think my thread should be closed. So I repeat myself here:
Streamlined and probably very useful. I think level 1 and 2 should get an accelerator. Should be considered tier 0 probably.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yeah, it is like saying it is a bad XP system because leprechauns and yetis will find a way to abuse it.

Heh, well that was a given. Yetis are some of the most min-maxer powergamers out there. Fockers couldn't actually roleplay their way out of a bags of rats.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm a little baffled that this had to exist at all. If this gets more DMs handing out XP for things other than combat, I'm all for it, but - I don't know, did folk need permission to do that in the first place? Did folk not know how to hand out XP for exploration or interaction accomplishments to encourage that kind of player behavior? I could be wrong, but I swear i read some advice on how to do that in the 5th edition DMG.

So you're saying that presenting variant rules in D&D products are unnecessary?

Well, that'll make Mike & Co. happy, they don't have to waste their time designing any more stuff! Their job is done!

 

[Jester David]

I can imagine some 10th level Rogue edgelord sneaking out at night and killing 50 chickens and taking a level. This system is silly

I hope you'll point out that flaw in the feedback. Which is the purpose of playtesting.
When that loophole is closed, what do you think of the system?

I'm also confused why the rogue needs to be an edgelord in this situation...

There is also the follow up scene. The rogue sneaks off and kills 50 chickens, wiping out all the poultry of two farmers. The farmers, irate at losing half their breakfast and livelihood, raise an angry mob to chase the villager out of town or arrest them for the slaughter.
Killing a chicken has derailed more than one game of Skyrim for me... Don't see why mass poultricide is forgivable here.

 

[ninjayeti]

Anyway, I think you're kind of missing the point. We've all experimented with different ways of handing out XP, whether by giving out extra XP for fighting multiple enemies at once, or giving out XP for treasure, or something else. This UA is about tailoring the XP system on the requirements side to suit your campaign goals. What you see as unnecessary complication is actually the whole point of the exercise.

Sure, I am all in favor of changing ANY rules to suit your particular campaign goals. My point is that Mearls articulates a narrow goal and then proposes a wholesale rewrite of the xp rules when a simple tweak would achieve that goal just as well. To use an analogy: Mearls wants to rebuild a car engine because he thinks the spark plugs are getting old; I am saying that there is an easier fix and the extra work just risks messing up a bunch of stuff that was working fine before. Or as the cliche goes, he is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. *

So, yeah purposeful changes are good, arbitrary changes for the sake of change are bad.

*(That is a figure of speech - I am NOT accusing Mike Mearls of being anti-baby).

 

[dave2008]

I basically like it. I wouldn't use it unmodified (chunkosauruswrex's concerns about chickens are valid--but easily-fixed) but it leads in an interesting direction. If you want to go in a really interesting direction you could track each kind of XP separately, and require at least 25 XP of each kind in order to level up. (So, 50 combat XP and 50 social XP = no level up until you gain 25 exploration XP.)

As with last month's UA, the real value in this UA isn't so much the rules provided as the encouragement it gives to DMs to think outside the box. I hate milestone levelling and will not use it (it completely misses the point of level-based systems, which is all about operant conditioning and Pavlovian rewards), and I've already messed around with my own XP tables, but this UA has me thinking once again about new and different XP tables and ways to award XP.

For example,

"Earn 1 point of XP per game session. Every 10 XP earned gives you a level. A player or the DM may also reward XP to another PC who does something particularly awesome, and/or in keeping with their bonds/flaws/ideals."

I wouldn't have thought of that method without this UA, because this UA very pointedly makes the point that the semi-exponential shape of the XP tables in the PHB are not important to the design of 5E as a whole.

For some reason I can't XP in this thread so I thought I would reply instead. I like your perspective and the idea of tracking multiple types of XP required to level is really interesting.

 

[jimmytheccomic]

I really like this article, and it had something I'll be implementing ASAP!

So, I'm not going to change the XP system wholesale- I feel like this is too simple to be satisfying for my table. BUT, the tier tables are crazy helpful for me. I always give out XP for exploration and social interaction, but the amount I gave out has always been really arbitrary. I love codifying "10 Percent of XP needed to level", and applying it to the tiers provided. I'll be putting the tier tables on my DM screen, and now my players and I will have a really clear idea of what kind of treasures, exploration, and NPCs they should be interacting with, and the exact XP they'll get for it. This is great.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

There is also the follow up scene. The rogue sneaks off and kills 50 chickens, wiping out all the poultry of two farmers. The farmers, irate at losing half their breakfast and livelihood, raise an angry mob to chase the villager out of town or arrest them for the slaughter.

Even better... a young farmer swears revenge on the rogue and, in a dark ritual, slays ten thousand lady bugs to become a 20th level warlock who then True Polymorphs into an ancient white dragon and sets off on the trail of the rogue to seek justice for his murdered chickens and starving family.

 

[Jester David]

Even better... a young farmer swears revenge on the rogue and, in a dark ritual, slays ten thousand lady bugs to become a 20th level warlock who then True Polymorphs into an ancient white dragon and sets off on the trail of the rogue to seek justice for his murdered chickens and starving family.

"Now that I'm a third level cleric I'll eat this expired pork! And then cast lesser restoration on myself, killing millions of bacterium and parasites and gaining dozens of levels!!"

 

[Azzy]

I can imagine some 10th level Rogue edgelord sneaking out at night and killing 50 chickens and taking a level. This system is silly

Said edgelord never played Zelda.

 

[Arilyn]

WOTC Mearls presents a new exp. syztem

I hope you'll point out that flaw in the feedback. Which is the purpose of playtesting.
When that loophole is closed, what do you think of the system?

I'm also confused why the rogue needs to be an edgelord in this situation...

There is also the follow up scene. The rogue sneaks off and kills 50 chickens, wiping out all the poultry of two farmers. The farmers, irate at losing half their breakfast and livelihood, raise an angry mob to chase the villager out of town or arrest them for the slaughter.
Killing a chicken has derailed more than one game of Skyrim for me... Don't see why mass poultricide is forgivable here.

Or, make sure the chickens are from Hyrule. Just ask Link what chicken abuse will get you.