D&D 5E XP Tables Across the Editions

[Sunseeker]

I always felt like 4th had the slowest higher-level progression, but I didn't see a noticable difference in the earlier levels than most editions.

I do definitely notice the speed at which you level in 5th. It's kinda insane, especially if you keep to the 6-8 combats a day and run it by-the-book hard. You usually level almost every session.

 

[JohnLynch]

And an orc (HD=1d8) in 1e granted 10xp+1xp per HP. For a max of 18xp.
If our thief were trying to hit lv.2 solely by orc slaying in 1e he'd need to kill 15.79545455 of them (assuming he qualified for the +10%xp bonus for having high stats) (2nd lv = 1251xp for 1e thieves)
He'd need slightly more without the stat bonus. And if he were multi-classed he'd need double or triple - so 32-64 orcs
And it goes up each lv.
No matter what, that's a lot more than 3.333/6.666 creatures per lv.
And that's the # of orcs needed for ONE character, with the fastest advancement chart, to reach lv.2

But that ignores that the bulk of xp gained in 1e came not from killing monsters, but from treasure. 1GP value = 1xp.

I am not ignoring the fact the bulk of the XP comes from treasure, but am assuming 4/5ths or 3/4s of the XP is coming from it. Divide 15 orcs by 5 and you get 3 orcs which matches the analysis that until around 8th level 3.5 and AD&D advance at the same rate.

 

[Zardnaar]

I am not ignoring the fact the bulk of the XP comes from treasure, but am assuming 4/5ths or 3/4s of the XP is coming from it. Divide 15 orcs by 5 and you get 3 orcs which matches the analysis that until around 8th level 3.5 and AD&D advance at the same rate.

Beats me how you get 3 orcs= level in AD&D.

An average Orc is 15xp so 100 of them for a cleric to level IIRC and 80 odd for a thief.
2E you got less xp for monsters IIRC and you did not get xp for gp.

AD&D 1E adventures ( Gygax ones in particular) early on you will level at a similar speed to 3.5 a little slower perhaps (4 levels or so in 30 hours of gaming roughly). Due to copious amounts of treasure to find being the main reason.

 

[JohnLynch]

Beats me how you get 3 orcs= level in AD&D.

An average Orc is 15xp so 100 of them for a cleric to level IIRC and 80 odd for a thief.
2E you got less xp for monsters IIRC and you did not get xp for gp.

AD&D 1E adventures ( Gygax ones in particular) early on you will level at a similar speed to 3.5 a little slower perhaps (4 levels or so in 30 hours of gaming roughly). Due to copious amounts of treasure to find being the main reason.

3.5e and AD&D 1e level at roughly the same pace as while monsters give less XP in 1e, XP for treasure compensated for that. 3.5e levels at a rate of 3.33 at CR monsters. Ergo to get AD&D 1e levelling at the same pace as 3.5e up to name level it must also face the same number of foes.

 

[JohnLynch]

It was an interesting thought experiment that took 5 minutes to put together. To truly get an AD&D 1e advancement rable that completely mirrors 1e you would have to recalculate XP for foes (and also convert CR to AD&D 1e XP guidelines) and then recreate treasure tables to flesh out the rest of the advancement requirements. I wasn't going for something that detailed with all of the 5 minutes I put into it

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Beats me how you get 3 orcs= level in AD&D.

An average Orc is 15xp so 100 of them for a cleric to level IIRC and 80 odd for a thief.
2E you got less xp for monsters IIRC and you did not get xp for gp.

I just checked my 2nd edition Monstrous Manual and the Orc is also 15 XP in 2nd. Same as 1st, apparently, assuming you were citing 1st when you said 15.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Here's the actual monsters-per-level for 2nd edition, assuming that you're always fighting monsters with HD = your level. (Of course in AD&D, you never fight monsters strictly of HD = your own level. The whole idea of CR and a "balanced encounter" is foreign to the AD&D mindset; monsters just are what they are, where they are. But for the sake of analysis I am ignoring this fact.)

Table 7 (how much faster 5E advancement is than 2nd edition) is the most interesting table.

Table 1
Additional XP required to advance to next level in AD&D 2nd edition
Level Fighter Paladin Cleric Wizard
1     2000    2250    1500    2500
2     2000    2250    1500    2500
3     4000    4500    3000    5000
4     8000    9000    7000    10000
5     16000   18000   14500   20000
6     32000   34000   27500   20000
7     61000   75000   55000   30000
8     125000  150000  110000  45000
9     250000  300000  225000  115000
10    250000  300000  225000  125000

Table 2
XP per hit dice in AD&D 2nd edition
HD  XP
1   15
2   35
3   65
4   120
5   175
6   270
7   420
8   650
9   975
10  1400

Table 3
Same-level monsters required to advance to next level in AD&D 2nd edition (table 1 divided by table 2)
Level Fighter Paladin Cleric  Wizard
1     134     150     100     167
2     58      65      43      72
3     62      70      47      77
4     67      75      59      84
5     92      103     83      115
6     119     126     102     75
7     146     179     131     72
8     193     231     170     70
9     257     308     231     118
10    179     215     161     90

Table 4
5E XP for AD&D 2nd edition-equivalent monster
(AD&D orcs were weaker relative to PCs than a 5E orc, so I'm using CR=two steps below level as an equivalent for equal HD even though that makes AD&D orcs equivalent CR 1/4 monsters instead of CR 1/2)
PC level  Equivalent CR   XP
1         0.25            25
2         0.5             50
3         1               100
4         2               200
5         3               450
6         4               700
7         5               1100
8         6               1800
9         7               2300
10        8               2900

Table 5
AD&D 2nd edition-equivalent level advancement tables in 5E (table 3 times table 4)
How many 5E XP monster experience a 2nd edition PC would need to earn to advance to the next level
Level Fighter Paladin Cleric  Wizard
1     3350    3750    2500    4175
2     2900    3250    2150    3600
3     6200    7000    4700    7700
4     13400   15000   11800   16800
5     41400   46350   37350   51750
6     83300   88200   71400   52500
7     160600  196900  144100  79200
8     347400  415800  306000  126000
9     591100  708400  531300  271400
10    519100  623500  466900  261000

Table 6
Additional XP required to advance to next level in 5th edition
Level XP
1     300
2     600
3     1800
4     3800
5     7500
6     9000
7     11000
8     14000
9     26000
10    21000

[B]Table 7
(Rough measure of) How much faster advancement is in D&D 5th edition than AD&D 2nd edition (table 5 divided by table 6)
Level Fighter Paladin Cleric  Wizard
1     11.17   12.5    8.33    13.92
2     4.83    5.42    3.58    6.0
3     3.44    3.89    2.61    4.28
4     3.53    3.95    3.11    4.42
5     5.52    6.18    4.98    6.9
6     9.26    9.8     7.93    5.83
7     14.6    17.9    13.1    7.2
8     24.81   29.7    21.86   9.0
9     22.73   27.25   20.43   10.44
10    24.72   29.69   22.23   12.43
[/B]

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

[Posting the following caveat to be scrupulously analytically honest and placate Richard Feynman's ghost]

By the way, I think my analysis above may exaggerate the differences between the editions at levels 8-10. That is because in AD&D, there is no HD = level equivalency. Typically monsters would scale both in terms of actual HD and effective HD (due to high-damage attacks, low AC, or whatever), so I think you could very well argue that an "equivalent" 5E CR is lower than (level - 2) at high levels and that the values in Table 5 are therefore inflated at high levels. But I think they are good(ish) up through at least level 7.

If you wanted to recreate the 2nd edition feel I would recommend just using the 2nd edition tables instead of trying to create some kind of conversion between them via "monster equivalency."

 

[ccs]

I am not ignoring the fact the bulk of the XP comes from treasure, but am assuming 4/5ths or 3/4s of the XP is coming from it. Divide 15 orcs by 5 and you get 3 orcs which matches the analysis that until around 8th level 3.5 and AD&D advance at the same rate.

So you think my 1st lv orc slaying 1e thief is going to;
A) manage to kill 3-4 orcs for about 72xp total (the value of 3 max HP orcs to work with your math)
B) then personally claim all 1,179xp worth of loot. (though the odds are real good the orc lair contains far less than that)
C) advance happily to 2nd lv

 

[Zardnaar]

So you think my 1st lv orc slaying 1e thief is going to;
A) manage to kill 3-4 orcs for about 72xp total (the value of 3 max HP orcs to work with your math)
B) then personally claim all 1,179xp worth of loot. (though the odds are real good the orc lair contains far less than that)
C) advance happily to 2nd lv

I would like to see that adventure.