Alternate D&D Monster XPs

In the wake of producing OSR conversion booklets for Calidar's new Series 3 collection, it occurred to me that the mechanics to calculate monsters’ experience points are unnecessarily fiddly and not always clear. I took a closer look at the system presented in the Rules Cyclopedia, pages 127-128. The standard process involves two sets of numbers that should be added up. One is the basic XP based on HD, and the other a bonus that is multiplied by the number of the monster’s special abilities. To make matters worse, the chart ends at 20 HD. After tallying scores of those XPs ad nauseam I thought of an alternate and simpler approach. I also questioned the extremely low value assigned to special abilities of monsters with few or less than 1 HD.

With this in mind, I came up with the idea of having just one set of values that could be multiplied directly by the number special abilities, plus one. So for example a HD ½*** creature would be worth 5 x 4 = 20 XP instead of the Rules Cyclopedia's mechanics calling for 5 + (1 x 3) = 8 XP. There’s a big difference but I don’t see this as a critical issue because, if anything, it enables low-level PCs to rise faster through the initial levels of play. Giving a 15 XP bonus for some tiny critter with, say, abilities like charm, poison, and some limited spellcasting, is somewhat better than just a lousy 3 XP bonus. Fortunately, this discrepancy gradually decreases to almost match standard XPs for 36 HD monsters.

Here’s the standard XP table, expanded to 36 HD.

HD	XP	Bonus	*	**	***	****
Under 1	5	1	6	7	8	9
1	10	3	13	16	19	22
1+	15	4	19	23	27	31
2	20	5	25	30	35	40
2+	25	10	35	45	55	65
3	35	15	50	65	80	95
3+	50	25	75	100	125	150
4	75	50	125	175	225	275
4+	125	75	200	275	350	425
5	175	125	300	425	550	675
5+	225	175	400	575	750	925
6	275	225	500	725	950	1,175
6+	350	300	650	950	1,250	1,550
7	450	400	850	1,250	1,650	2,050
7+	550	475	1,025	1,500	1,975	2,450
8	650	550	1,200	1,750	2,300	2,850
8+	775	625	1,400	2,025	2,650	3,275
9	900	700	1,600	2,300	3,000	3,700
9+ to 10	1,000	750	1,750	2,500	3,250	4,000
10+ to 11	1,100	800	1,900	2,700	3,500	4,300
11+ to 12	1,250	875	2,125	3,000	3,875	4,750
12+ to 13	1,350	950	2,300	3,250	4,200	5,150
13+ to 14	1,500	1,000	2,500	3,500	4,500	5,500
14+ to 15	1,650	1,050	2,700	3,750	4,800	5,850
15+ to 16	1,850	1,100	2,950	4,050	5,150	6,250
16+ to 17	2,000	1,150	3,150	4,300	5,450	6,600
17+ to 18	2,125	1,350	3,475	4,825	6,175	7,525
18+ to 19	2,250	1,550	3,800	5,350	6,900	8,450
19+ to 20	2,375	1,800	4,175	5,975	7,775	9,575
20+ to 21	2,500	2,000	4,500	6,500	8,500	10,500
21+ to 22	2,750	2,250	5,000	7,250	9,500	11,750
22+ to 23	3,000	2,500	5,500	8,000	10,500	13,000
23+ to 24	3,250	2,750	6,000	8,750	11,500	14,250
24+ to 25	3,500	3,000	6,500	9,500	12,500	15,500
25+ to 26	3,750	3,250	7,000	10,250	13,500	16,750
26+ to 27	4,000	3,500	7,500	11,000	14,500	18,000
27+ to 28	4,250	3,750	8,000	11,750	15,500	19,250
28+ to 29	4,500	4,000	8,500	12,500	16,500	20,500
29+ to 30	4,750	4,250	9,000	13,250	17,500	21,750
30+ to 31	5,000	4,500	9,500	14,000	18,500	23,000
31+ to 32	5,250	4,750	10,000	14,750	19,500	24,250
32+ to 33	5,500	5,000	10,500	15,500	20,500	25,500
33+ to 34	5,750	5,250	11,000	16,250	21,500	26,750
34+ to 35	6,000	5,500	11,500	17,000	22,500	28,000
35+ to 36	6,250	5,750	12,000	17,750	23,500	29,250

Now, here’s the “simplified” version:

HD	XP	*	**	***	****
Under 1	5	10	15	20	25
1 to 1+	10	20	30	40	50
2 to 2+	20	40	60	80	100
3 to 3+	35	70	105	140	175
4 to 4+	75	150	225	300	375
5 to 5+	175	350	525	700	875
6 to 6+	275	550	825	1,100	1,375
7 to 7+	450	900	1,350	1,800	2,250
8 to 8+	650	1,300	1,950	2,600	3,250
9 to 9+	900	1,800	2,700	3,600	4,500
10 to 10+	1,000	2,000	3,000	4,000	5,000
11 to 11+	1,100	2,200	3,300	4,400	5,500
12 to 12+	1,250	2,500	3,750	5,000	6,250
13 to 13+	1,350	2,700	4,050	5,400	6,750
14 to 14+	1,500	3,000	4,500	6,000	7,500
15 to 15+	1,650	3,300	4,950	6,600	8,250
16 to 16+	1,850	3,700	5,550	7,400	9,250
17 to 17+	2,000	4,000	6,000	8,000	10,000
18 to 18+	2,125	4,250	6,375	8,500	10,625
19 to 19+	2,250	4,500	6,750	9,000	11,250
20 to 20+	2,375	4,750	7,125	9,500	11,875
21 to 21+	2,500	5,000	7,500	10,000	12,500
22 to 22+	2,735	5,470	8,205	10,940	13,675
23 to 23+	2,970	5,940	8,910	11,880	14,850
24 to 24+	3,205	6,410	9,615	12,820	16,025
25 to 25+	3,440	6,880	10,320	13,760	17,200
26 to 26+	3,675	7,350	11,025	14,700	18,375
27 to 27+	3,910	7,820	11,730	15,640	19,550
28 to 28+	4,145	8,290	12,435	16,580	20,725
29 to 29+	4,380	8,760	13,140	17,520	21,900
30 to 30+	4,615	9,230	13,845	18,460	23,075
31 to 31+	4,850	9,700	14,550	19,400	24,250
32 to 32+	5,085	10,170	15,255	20,340	25,425
33 to 33+	5,320	10,640	15,960	21,280	26,600
34 to 34+	5,555	11,110	16,665	22,220	27,775
35 to 35+	5,790	11,580	17,370	23,160	28,950
36	6,025	12,050	18,075	24,100	30,125

You’ll notice the separate XP rows for “plusses” at levels 1-9 are now gone, again for simplicity. The extra XPs for special attacks more than make up for the deletion, at least in the long run.

Asterisks and Special Abilities

What constitutes a Special Attack isn’t entirely well defined. Here’s what I’m thinking:

• All special attacks listed on page 154, including Acid, Blindness, Charge, Charm, Continuous Damage, Disease, Energy Drain, Paralysis, Petrification, Poison, Spellcasting, Swallow, Swoop, and Trample.
• Special defenses, such as: immunity to normal weapons, spell immunity, and other types of immunities likely to affect combat.
• Magic items affecting combat, such as armor, weapons, and items with spell-like powers (one asterisk per power).
• Natural abilities affecting combat, such as breath weapons and other magical attacks, as well as others that aren’t magical, such as for example a thief’s backstab or a fighter’s weapon mastery (one asterisk per skill level).

Don’t forget that spellcasting awards one asterisk for each 2 spell levels that can be memorized. So a 3^rd level spellcaster should get 2 asterisks. Use your discretion to add or remove asterisks based on relevance.

Optional Rewards

Clearly, experience is earned when heroes circumvent or otherwise deal with a monster in ways other than combat. I've been toying with a system that helps estimate experience rewards for accomplishing other goals. I've implemented this in the latest Calidar adventure module (and I'm hoping for some feedback on this). Here's the material from Adventures in Alfdain, a collection of short adventures easily portable to D&D BECMI:

Heroes earn achievement bonuses in addition to normal gains from combat and treasure. Awards are suggested at the end of each adventure. A Basic Reward amounts to 10% of the experience between a hero’s previous and upcoming experience thresholds.

            For example: A novice fighter’s base experience starts presumably at “0” in the chosen RPG. The next career threshold may require an experience of 2,000. An entry-level adventure’s Basic Reward, therefore, amounts to no less than a +200 experience bonus until the next career threshold has been reached. Basic Rewards, therefore, become increasingly greater as the heroes’ careers progress.

Multiple Basic Rewards are often allocated to important adventuring goals, while minor ones may only yield fractions thereof. Use common sense and fairness when awarding these experience bonuses. Basic Rewards are allocated to each hero individually; they aren’t collective bonuses to be divided among survivors. Notoriety Points (NP) are also awarded in some of the adventures (see CAL1 pp. 86).

A few comments about the above: Some players may object to heroes earning the same percentage of experience (thus a wizard would progress up its advancement chart as fast as a thief). If this is the case, calculate a fighter's Basic Reward and apply it across the board. Generally speaking, if the players unlock all the Basic Rewards in an adventure, I make sure the bonus experience tops out at 50% of what the heroes need to level up. This comes in addition to experience earned from combat and treasure (if any). It ensures that PCs move up their advancement charts very quickly. After all, you do have 36 experience levels to go! As a DM, you can always tone down the number of Basic Rewards allocated to each adventure or how much each is actually worth (see examples below). This approach also makes adventures high on roleplaying but low on combat more appealing.

     Notoriety Points are a feature of Calidar that doesn't exist in BECMI. It's a separate track enabling heroes to earn divine favors in exchange for cult expectations. This connects with attaining demigodhood eventually.

Here are some examples of Basic Rewards listed in Adventures in Alfdain:

Adventure A: For each goal accomplished, each hero earns a Basic Reward. Goal #1: Seeing Nella and her barge to their destination. Goal # 2: Exposing Master Gabbot as a criminal. Goal #3: Handing Gabbot to the local militia. Goal #4: Any hero who consistently acted with creativity, panache, swagger, and daring in the face of adversity.

Adventure B: 1. Finding the nut (Basic Reward x2). 2. Enabling Arla’s capture (Basic Reward). 3. Handing the nut to Dialla (½ Basic Reward). 4. Capturing Arla’s crewmates (¼ Basic Reward for every 5 prisoners). 5. Returning Luriel’s compass to Dialla (¼ Basic Reward).

Adventure C: 1. Newán is killed (Basic Reward). 2. Newán is taken to Corellion (1 Notoriety Point + Basic Reward x2). 3. The heroes enable Newán’s escape (Basic Reward). 4. Newán is taken to Seághal (Basic Reward x4). With outcomes 1 or 2, heroes earn a +2 Cha bonus with Clan Melwë and a –2 with its rival. With outcomes 3 or 4, Clan Ilmarëan secretly compensates the heroes for their uncollected bounty; the heroes also earn a +2 Cha bonus with its people and a –2 with the other clan. Disgruntled clans may seek retribution against the heroes later on.

Adventure D: 1. Delathien is freed: all wounds are healed; heroes afflicted with the forest’s dreaming torpor are awakened (3 Notoriety Points + 1 Divine Favor + Basic Reward x3). 2. Alzeborath is slain (2 Notoriety Points + Basic Reward x2). 3. Alzeborath flees without the amulet (1 Notoriety Point + Basic Reward). 4. Heroes retreat: after challenging the fiend, they vow to return after earning more experience (½ Basic Reward).

Etc. You can see it's pretty flexible.  That's it for today’s pet peeve!