Spark's Awarding XP

by TheCrimsonSpark

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Awarding Experience

In fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons, there are 3 pillars of gameplay. These pillars are Combat, Exploration, and Roleplay. However in the original rules, only one of these three pillars actually awarded experience to the players. The alternative was milestone, however it was never stated what a good rate for that was. Another alternative was session based levelling, though beyond level 4 it wasn't consistent to a scaling length for more experience.

Under my system, I have devised a streamlined way to award experience points to players that feels steady, and consistent across all pillars of the game. The table below details the amount of experience you should award for efforts based on DC. This table is referenced in each section of this document.

Experience Awarded for Difficulty Class
Level Easy (DC 10) Medium (DC 15) Hard (DC 20) Daily Budget
1 25 xp 50 xp 75 xp 300 xp
2 50 xp 100 xp 150 xp 600 xp
3 75 xp 150 xp 225 xp 1200 xp
4 125 xp 250 xp 375 xp 1700 xp
5 250 xp 500 xp 750 xp 3500 xp
6 300 xp 600 xp 900 xp 4000 xp
7 350 xp 750 xp 1100 xp 5000 xp
8 450 xp 900 xp 1400 xp 6000 xp
9 550 xp 1100 xp 1600 xp 7500 xp
10 600 xp 1200 xp 1900 xp 9000 xp
11 800 xp 1600 xp 2400 xp 10500 xp
12 1000 xp 2000 xp 3000 xp 11500 xp
13 1100 xp 2200 xp 3400 xp 13500 xp
14 1250 xp 2500 xp 3800 xp 15000 xp
15 1400 xp 2800 xp 4300 xp 18000 xp
16 1600 xp 3200 xp 4800 xp 20000 xp
17 2000 xp 3900 xp 5900 xp 25000 xp
18 2100 xp 4200 xp 6300 xp 27000 xp
19 2400 xp 4900 xp 7300 xp 30000 xp
20 2800 xp 5700 xp 8500 xp 40000 xp

This table is based entirely off of combat experience based on the encounter difficulty. This table is meant to be used as a benchmark for what players should get at each level. The important part is to use this table to bridge all columns of play into one cohesive and equal play experience.

You can give more or less are your discretion but I have found that granting xp for each check towards a goal and each combat equally to be the most successful. This system does not conflict with running mostly combat, mostly roleplay, or any mix between, as the players only recieve an equal amount of experience per encounter.

Social Encounters v2

Social encounters are primarily governed by your Charisma score. When you engage a creature in a Social Encounter, the character you engage is rated as either Friendly, Indifferent, or Hostile.

Friendly creatures want the character to succeed, and often will try to help.

Indifferent creatures will most often only help the character if they perceive that helping the character benefits them.

Hostile creatures will most often hinder the character.

What is a Social Encounter?

To engage in a conversation is to engage in a verbal combat of sorts. You begin a Social Encounter when a player asks an NPC to do something they are not innately inclined to do.

When engaged in a social encounter you must make 3 successes in order to win over the character. 3 failures result in failure. This operates in a “Best of 5” check, where you explain what you want to say before making the Charisma check and the DM determines whether the character must roll Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion.

A single critical success moves the disposition of the character up by 1 temporarily, while more than one will permanently improve your relationship by 1 step. A critical failure will reduce your relationship status 1 step, while more than one will do so permanently.

How do i run a Social Encounter?

When making a Charisma check in a social encounter the DC is determined by the creature’s current standing with the participating characters, taking the lowest standing of all participating characters. Friendly creatures have a DC 10, Indifferent creatures have a DC 15, and Hostile creatures have a DC 20.

Every roll can be modified by adding or subtracting 5 to the roll based on the creature’s natural reaction to the statement made for the check. This is based on the Ideals, Bonds or Flaws of the creature the character is interacting with.

For example, if a character is in parlay with an enemy general who does not respect magic and the character wants a ceasefire, and the character says that they should call a temporary ceasefire while their wizards recover and the general’s soldiers regroup, that would be a -5 to their check towards their desired ceasefire due to the General’s belief on magic.

Gaining knowledge of a creature’s dispositions based on their Ideals, Bonds, or Flaws requires a Wisdom (Insight) check against the creature’s passive Deception, which is 10 + the creature’s bonus to deception. If a character fails a check by 10 or more, they run the risk of obtaining a false interpretation of one of their characteristics.

Additional characters participating in the encounter may roll for the encounter using their own skills and their roll is then added to the total successes and failures.

Social Encounter Table
Failures Friendly Creature's Reaction Indifferent Creature's Reaction Hostile Creature's Reaction
3 Does not perform the task, though harbors no ill will for being asked May attempt to harass or exploit the character May take some action against the character
2 Does as asked, without making any sacrifices. Offers no help, nor harm Opposes character, though won’t attack on sight.
1 Accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked Does as asked, with no risk or sacrifices involved Offers no help, nor harm
0 Accepts significant risk or sacrifice to do as asked Accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked Does as asked, with no risk or sacrifices involved

Award experience according to the Experience Awarded for Difficulty Class table for each of the characters that successfully participated in completing the encounter.

Group Experience

Alternatively, you may instead have the party all gain experience equally instead of individually. Simply halve all awarded experience rounded down during this step and grant it to all players. If a player is to level up with this experience, remember that you do not gain your next level features until you have completed a long rest.

Exploration Encounters

Exploration is one of the three main pillars in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. It is also the most diverse, and yet the most underused reward loop in common practice. With these new guidelines and rules you should be able to reward players with both a compelling narrative for your main story and side quests as well as rewarding them with experience and loot in a streamlined gameplay loop that will allow them to feel progression more smoothly.

Step One: Finding the Discovery

When the players encounter something of interest, the players will be immediately aware of what makes this Object, Person or Location unique. We will be calling this a Discovery. Be ready to have Discoveries readily available for your players to encounter them, and place them in places where they are, or where there are going to be. If they don't end up going where you thought, simply move the discovery to a new location.

For example, While traveling on the road towards the next town for their current quest, they discover a strange book.

Step Two: Unusual Properties

The Discovery needs to have at least 2 unusual things about it in order for it to catch the attention of the players. These 2 or more unusual things should be abundantly obvious to the party, as that is what will make them interested enough to investigate it. Be ready to have each unusual part of the discovery be investigated.

Players will often latch on to one part of the weirdness, and will want to investigate further.

Following our example, the book has bite marks in it, and it is in the middle of the road. We know this object is strange from the onset because a book in the middle of the road is strange, and we know that bite markings across the surface is also strange.

Step Three: Investigation

When players investigate the Discovery, they have to make a check in order to find more information about the properties that are involved. This is always awarded with information, but a failed check might not give them the information they wanted, but it will direct them into a different unusual property that they may want to investigate.

Any player may only make a check to find clues about a particular discovery only once. The check involved is based on what the DM deems appropriate, but the Difficulty Class is determined by the Experience Awarded by Difficulty Class table, where Easy is 10, Medium is 15, and Hard is 20.

Upon a successful investigation of an Unusual Property of the Discovery, the player who made the successful check is awarded with an appropriate amount of experience based on the table mentioned above. In addition they are also awarded any information they uncovered with their check, which is called a Lead.

Furthering the story from our example, Ryn the Bard makes an Intelligence (History) check to recall any information she knows about the book. With an Easy Difficulty Class of 10 and a roll of 14 she was able to figure out that the book was written by a man named Caranion Flamel, and it was a Cookbook. The DM would then award her with Easy experience based on her level which is 4, granting her 125xp. She could then pass the book to Roland the Rogue, who has thieves cant, and making an Intelligence (Investigation) check against a Hard DC of 20, was able to determine that the book is actually an Alchemy Handguide written in thieves cant about curing lycanthropy. He would then be awarded 375xp as per the table.

Group Experience

Alternatively, you may instead have the party all gain experience equally instead of individually. Simply halve all awarded experience rounded down during this step and grant it to all players. If a player is to level up with this experience, remember that you do not gain your next level features until you have completed a long rest.

Step Four: Follow your Lead

Now that you have a Lead, following it will bring you to your next story beat, whether that ends up being the climax, or just a new clue is determined by the DM. This is where the party is headed should they choose to follow this Lead, or continue down their existing path if they have one. In either case, be ready for what that may hold.

In our example, we see that the book is about lycanthropy and that it was written in a way to hide what it was about. They also know that it has bite marks in it. They follow their lead by looking for the author, which leads them to a social encounter with the author.

Step Five: Finding the End

Your Lead will lead them to either a new lead, or an encounter. In this situation, either return to step 1 or engage the party in an encounter. The kind of encounter is up to the dungeon master, and should be handled appropriately. A social or combat encounter will result in awarding XP and some possible loot.

In our example, Ryn and Roland find the author of the book’s home, where they find a werewolf, and a ragged scholar on the ground. After slaying the werewolf, the party examines the house, finding all the evidence that this werewolf was the one wanting to be cured from this scholar’s book, but wasn’t satisfied with the answers given. Poor soul.

Step Six: The Crossroads

Finally, when you come to the end of the adventure, you can either let your party have downtime as outlined in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, or set them up for yet another adventure. Maybe the ending wasn’t the real ending, maybe there is more to that story, or maybe there is a whole new adventure to uncover.

Exploration: Tools

When exploring you may encounter an obstacle that is simply unsolvable with some smarts and your physical body. That is where Tools come in. When you need to accomplish a task using tools, be sure to use your proficiency with those tools in applicable.

Every set of tools can be used with many different ability scores, but every check will be 10, 15, or 20 as the DC. Refer to the Experience Awarded for Difficulty Class table in order to see the appropriate XP to award for each check. Below are some tests you can make with tools in order to achieve these checks. Additional tools and their appropriate checks are found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything starting on page 78.

Tool Skills

Crowbar
Action DC
Pry open a sealed wooden crate 10
Dislodging a Large object 15
Prying open a steel padlock, or steel door. 20
Rope
Action DC
Tying a Knot 10
Devising a simple pulley system 15
Constructing an advanced pulley system 20
Tinderbox
Action DC
Start a small fire (candles, Torches) as an action 10
Lighting a Campfire in a Minute 15
Staring a Large Bonfire hot enough to work metal 20

Award experience to the character that successfully completed the task, as per the Experience Awarded for Difficulty Class table.

Group Experience

Alternatively, you may instead have the party all gain experience equally instead of individually. Simply halve all awarded experience rounded down during this step and grant it to all players. If a player is to level up with this experience, remember that you do not gain your next level features until you have completed a long rest.