Questions tagged [experience-points]
For questions pertaining to "experience points" or any other kind of point gained during play and used to "level up" or otherwise permanently increase a character's abilities.
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Gaining XP for failures
I ran our first Dungeon World session yesterday, and we really had fun. We're all new to the game and to tabletop RPG's in general. I'm a fresh GM, so I forgot a few rules here and there, mostly ...
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How much XP do monsters or NPCs have for spending on spells and item creation?
How much experience do monsters, NPCs or other generated creatures have for the use of spells and item creation? When a demon uses wish, how does it spend XP, and from what pool does it draw on? Is ...
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General Gold value of XP
The context of my question is mostly related to crafting items (with an XP cost) and then trading them with other PCs within the party.
In the case where a Gold<>XP ratio does not scale the same (...
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Is XP earned every time one acts according to one's alignment?
In Dungeon World a character earns XP for following his alignment. Is this XP earned every time the character follows his alignment or only at the session's end?
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My party is leveling far too quickly in Thunderspire Labyrinth
My friends and I have recently decided to take up playing D&D after a 4-5 year hiatus and have started by making level 4 characters and jumping into Thunderspire Labyrinth (H2) (Only campaign I ...
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How can I substitute bonus XP in a non-XP campaign?
I have a party that have taken up sneaking past guards and avoiding traps and thus not getting encounter XP.
They all first time D&D players but long time boardgamers so they picked it up quite ...
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Development Points in HARP
In ICE's HARP System:
After level-up I bought skills, stats etc and had one DP left over. Can I carry it over to the next level up? Alternatively, is there something that can be gained with one point?
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Why even bother with XP? [closed]
Our group has run into irreconcilable differences of opinion, unfortunately. One of the players was not present for our first session of a new campaign and was not awarded any XP for that session.
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How much experience should players earn when fighting in a war? [closed]
I just finished a quest where the players were able to help determine which side won a war. How much experience should they receive for this?
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Item Creation Without Experience Points [closed]
Suppose you're playing an RPG with item creation rules that require you to spend experience points as part of creating the item, such as D&D or Numenera.
Suppose further that your gaming group has ...
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Removing XP as a requirement to level
I was reading on geek-related.com that there is a large debate on the effectiveness of using experience points as a means to level up for D&D Next. I want to start using a non-XP method of ...
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House rule for experience sharing between party members
There are possibly huge gap between caster and non-caster characters in a party. Caster have plenty of options of getting rid of own experience in exchange for various boosts. Item creation, wish ...
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Managing leveling too fast?
There seems to be an issue in pathfinder, when the party levels and gains power at almost an exponential rate. The power level raise from 3.5 has made it so non-power gamers can kill strong stuff a ...
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DM taking away XP from players as a form of punishment
So I got a group of friends in high school and were all nerds but with no way to play together. Not all of us had a computer or console. We found someone who claims to have a lot of experience as a DM,...
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How to ensure players spend XP on both short- and long-term benefits in Numenera?
I recently bought the core rulebook for Numenera. As well as reading through it to learn the system, I've been reading online reviews. It seems from reading what other experienced Role-Players think, ...
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How does the Fighter damage experience bonus work for low-HP enemies?
In AD&D 2nd edition, fighters gain experience bonuses from damage they've done. Experience=(Damage/8)*10. Compared to rogues or mages that gain exp from spells, it's a lot less.
My question is: ...
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What are experience points?
Here it was suggested more than once that running away from a too dangerous encounter should add as much experience points as defeating it. This struck me as really odd and made me wonder what exactly ...
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Is there a check list for dishing out Exp Points after a session? [closed]
I have a player who rare participates in game except for combat. I feel hes treating the game we're playing in a like a console game. For better or worse he being more like an NPC vs a PC. So I want a ...
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Is a high level Elite the same difficulty as a low-level Solo, as XP suggests?
For example, a Level 14 Elite Monster is worth 2000 XP.
A level 9 Solo is also worth 2000 XP.
Does this mean that these two monsters are of equal difficulty to an average party?
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Where do I go from the Red box?
Me and my group just finished the essentials red box, and are looking at moving to the full 4e game. I'm doing some preliminary reading of the books and one thing is confusing me a little.
The ...
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How Much XP is an NPC worth?
I'm trying to add an NPC (as explained on pages 186-188 of the DMG) to a DnD 4e encounter, and I'm having trouble finding any information on how much XP to subtract from the XP budget for the ...
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Awarding Experience for out-of-game activities, bias towards players with more time, how to fix?
I decided to reward players with extra experience if they wrote summaries of the game sessions in between our meetings.
Some players have the extra time to do this, and some don't.
What ends up ...
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Who popularised the abbreviation of XP for experience points? Was it Basic D&D?
Basic Dungeons and Dragons page B22:
Experience points (abbreviated XP, as ep stands for electrum pieces) are given for non-magical treasure and for defeating monsters.
Is this why in most games ...
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What would the effect be of zeroing your exp after every level?
Inspired by this question, what would the effect of setting your exp to zero after levelling be? Obviously, each level would take longer. Would there be any other effects?
Note: As BESW points out, ...
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Do I reset XP to zero on a new level?
In the D&D group I play with one of the players insists that when you reach a new level you have to zero your experience. However when I checked the PHB1 there is no reference to this. PHB1 uses ...
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In-game rewards for game-related work?
The other GM in my group and I are both big fans of giving XP rewards for things done out of the game. Ex: We have an artist who will draw and design all sorts of stuff to "fluff out" our campaign.
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Pitfalls of using the optional 'XP for Gold' rule in a Basic Fantasy RPG campaign?
Basic Fantasy RPG (a Basic D&D retro clone) has the XP for Gold optional rule: 1 GP of coin or treasure returned to a safe place rewards the party with 1 XP. This is in addition to normal XP ...
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How much experience should a vampire of a given age have?
I'm creating a setting for a Kindred of the East chronicle and I'm not sure how many discipline points or virtues characters should have.
There was an old trick in V:tM that consisted in giving an ...
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How is XP awarded for combat encounters?
I am a very inexperienced DM. I have here what must be an obvious question, but I can't seem to find any solid clarification.
How is XP rewarded after a combat encounter? Is the total monsters' XP ...
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Reward distribution and story continuity with rotating players/GMs
There are some people who like to GM, and maybe even like it more than role playing themselves. If you have one of those rare specimen in your group consider yourself lucky. Others are not averse to ...
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Does taking levels in a prestige class cause XP Penalty?
In D&D 3.5, does taking levels in a prestige class cause the XP penalty like multiclassing does? Please provide the source of the answer so I can show it to my players.
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Are my vassals ripping me off?
Consider the following points:
In ACKS, a character can only directly manage one domain, and the maximum size of a domain is fixed at 16 6-mile hexes. In order to control more land, a character has ...
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Savage Worlds: Do extras gain experience, take hindrances and edges?
I've just picked up PEG Inc's edition of "Savage Worlds," and the way experience works for me is unclear. Each player controls a Wild Card character and collaborates on controlling a pool of Extra ...
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What's the nicest way to handle lycanthropy when it comes to XP?
I've been running some published adventures in D&D 3.5 and two of the PCs in the party have contracted lycanthropy (they're now were-rats). They've had their first night of the full-moon. While ...
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Increasing experience gain in session
I want to increase the experience gain per game season for several reasons:
My group does not play too often, something like once a month, therefore some players seem to loose sense of achievement if ...
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How do I deal with absent players missing out on levels or XP?
If a player is absent and nobody chooses to play this absent character and instead I let it vanish for a while with a suitable reason or excuse, does this missing player gain levels and XP with the ...
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How many XP points should an enemy have?
How can I assign an amount of XP points to an enemy that I have created for a campaign that I am writing? What would be a good way to decide, and still be fair? The campaign that I wrote is for the ...
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In calculating Basic D&D monster experience, what's a special ability?
I really like my good ol' Moldvay Basic D&D. Every once in a while, it's missing a rule I want, and I make it up. Then I feel clever. Sometimes, though, I want to know what everybody else did ...
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Is the use of XP as a narrative currency for both GMs and players a novel idea?
In Monte Cook's new roleplaying game Numenera, XP is used as a narrative currency not only by the GM but by the players as well. Taken from his design diaries:
Say the PCs find a hidden console ...
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When to apply XP in Pathfinder?
I'm running a Pathfinder game from the beginners box, I can't find anywhere that states when to apply the XP earned from encounters.
The Game Master's guide states in Wrapping up a session (p21):
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What rewards can compete with experience points? [closed]
My group is running a series of published adventures. I am GMing one of the modules (level 21-24) after which another member will be taking the reins.
I have plans for a side-adventure that will take ...
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Experience gap closure and level adjustment
This question was raised at the latest session of my D&D group. I just changed my PC, so I got the xp penalty the Dungeon Master's Guide suggests (a little less than that, to be precise). To ...
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When is an activity practice instead of exposure?
While engaging in Overly Complex and Extremely Detailed* character generation with one of my players recently, he raised the point that I was being too stingy with XP in seasons when he was performing ...
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What is the purpose of slow experience gain in Pathfinder Society Organized Play?
Pathfinder Society Organized Play allows players to advance either 1XP or 1/2XP per session. There are no advantages offered by taking the slower XP (experience) gain, so why would someone use this ...
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Rebalancing Experience Point Totals?
Say that through legal game play some player characters have gained a lot more XP than others. Should the referee take steps to rebalance the player characters, or just let it go as it is part of the ...
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Do any games have XP (or a similar concept) as an in-game construct? [closed]
Experience Points (or Karma, or Legend-points, etc.) are given as an award to the players that can be used to improve the capabilities of their characters and to monitor general "progress". In all ...
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Amount of Ability Score on level up in Pathfinder?
First of all, I'm really new to RPGs, and I cannot find in the core rules or online how many ability score to give a character at level 4,8,12,16,20. The manual says "and possibly an ability score ...
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How much experience should a PC be worth?
Long story short, I'm about to betray my party (by trying to kill them). I'm playing this betrayer on behalf of the GM. Assuming they defeat me, how much experience should they get? I am a level 14 ...
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Who created the idea of Experience Points?
The idea of XP in all its many forms has been around for quite some time.
What designer had the idea of quantizing success and advancement through a numerical method? What game was it for?
The ...
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How should I budget for ally/third party NPCs in 4e combats?
I've done a few combats recently where the PCs and their enemies were not the only participants in the fight. I wasn't sure how to budget XP in this case.
In the case of an NPC ally to the PCs, I ...
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