D&D 5E XP Tables Across the Editions

[delericho]

That's not right at all. IIRC an orc in 2nd edition would grant you 7 XP. A thief needed to either kill 178 orcs, or steal a lot of treasure (thieves got XP for stealing treasure, off the individual class XP award table) in order to hit 1250 XP and second level.

15 XP for an Orc in 2nd Ed. And Individual XP awards, including Rogues getting XP for treasure, were optional.

A fighter needed to kill 19 orcs (he got 107 XP per orc, 7 XP for the orc + 100 XP off the fighter individual XP award).

Considerably more than that - the individual XP award for a Fighter was 10 XP per hit dice per level, not 100!

 

[Zardnaar]

15 XP for an Orc in 2nd Ed. And Individual XP awards, including Rogues getting XP for treasure, were optional.



Considerably more than that - the individual XP award for a Fighter was 10 XP per hit dice per level, not 100!

Ding ding. Without optional rules or large story/roleplaying rewards of xp 2E is the slowest levelling version of D&D ever.

 

[JohnLynch]

I've gone looking for a thread where it demonstrated that at low levels 3.5e and 1e advanced at roughly the same but annoyingly I cannot find it. This was more intended as a fun exercise rather than an in depth analysis, although I do appreciate the analysis you guys have put into it.

 

[S'mon]

A 4e PC is roughly equivalent to an Elite monster of his level - ie 2 standard monsters. A Solo of PC level is a moderate challenge for a 5 PC group, roughly equals 2.5 PCs.

A 3e PC is not really equivalent to a monster of CR equal his level, for the monster to provide a 'moderate challenge' for a 4 PC group it has to roughly equal 2 PCs.

So a CR 3 3e monster equates to a level 3 Solo 4e monster. IME the result is that 3e/PF PCs do advance faster than 4e PCs, but not nearly as much faster as the OP indicates.

Edit: Even running published modules, giving XP for treasure, & bonus XP, 1e or Classic is not as fast as
3e/PF IME. I recently ran Pathfinder AP on Medium Track and in the single digit levels the PCs were levelling up every 2 sessions, whereas in 1e or Classic it's closer to 5 sessions. 5e is the fastest at one level 1>2
and one or two 2>3, then slows down to a more normal pace of 2-4 sessions/level up to 10. It seems to speed up again after 10.

Time to Level:
1e: Gygax suggested a year of weekly play 1-9, then a couple levels/year thereafter.
Classic Rules Cyclopedia: Suggests 5 sessions/level, so 1-10 in a year of weekly play, 1-36
about 3.5 years. In practice IME there is a slow spot around 6-8 and I expect levels 26-36 go
fairly fast.
3e: Stated aim 1-20 in a year of weekly play. Seems possibly right if no death penalties, otherwise 1-10 is about half a year but 11-20 seems to take longer.
4e: Stated 1-30 will take 1.5 years weekly play at max rate, but most groups will be slower.
IME is much slower, 4 sessions/level and would be closer to 2.5 years.
5e: Seems to be designed for 1-20 in a year, but with irregular advancement - very fast 1-3 and
11-13, slower 8-10. Suggests 2-3 sessions/level, so 20 levels would cover 50 sessions.

 

[CapnZapp]

So a CR 3 3e monster equates to a level 3 Solo 4e monster.

I don't recognize my own experiences in this at all.

3rd Edition monsters are not nearly as equipped to solo a group as 4th Edition solos.

I agree regular 4th Ed monsters are more considered to be cannon-fodder or "trash mobs" than in 3rd Ed, but suspect that's more because of the changed mindset than because of any real reduced ability.

(While monsters are considerably simplified in 4E compared to PCs, they at least have plenty of hit points. 3rd Ed monsters were supposed to "follow the same rules as PCs", which often leads to woefully fragile critters. Add how 3E spellcasters could much more often press the win button, and the picture is much less clear than you make it out to be)

 

[S'mon]

I don't recognize my own experiences in this at all.

3rd Edition monsters are not nearly as equipped to solo a group as 4th Edition solos.

I agree in practice - the general rule is that 3e monsters do more damage relative to PC durability, but are more fragile. They may be slightly less tough overall too, but that may be an artefact of 15 years of min-maxing on the player side. But the design intent was that "CR 3" meant "moderate challenge to 3rd level party" and that is what "level 3 Solo" means in 4e.

 

[CapnZapp]

A level-appropriate 4E solo would take longer to defeat than a regular 3E monster, counted in play hours. Is what I'm sayin'

If you really want to farm XP and level fast in 3E, try asking your DM to only pit NPCs against the party... Incomparable loot for minimal effort

(Minimal on the PCs part, that is. Not on the DMs! You would easily kill off a NPC in seconds that it took hours to stat up!)