Simplified 5e XP System

 

After looking for a better way to award XP for my current 5e campaign, I find myself circling back to a little hack I wrote a few years ago. Presently, I've been using the milestone method, but the players seem hungry for a system with a little more substance. Likewise, I want the player's creativity and success to have an actual metric of value. I like the idea of awarding XP, but I find the system as written too granular, too many inflated numbers, and too fixated on monster death. This proposed new system allows for easy, intuitive XP calculation and accounts for actions like problem solving, roleplaying, as well as old fashioned goblin murder.

 

 

XP COSTS REQUIRED TO LEVEL

• To reach levels 2-5, spend 10 XP to level up.
• To reach levels 6-10, spend 20 XP to level up
  
• To reach levels 11-15, spend 25 XP to level up
• To reach levels 16-20, spend 30 XP to level up. 

A more familiar looking progression chart:

ACTIVITY NECESSARY FOR LEVELING

• A character may not always automatically gain a level when the requisite XP is earned.
•  At the GM's prerogative and according to the needs of the adventure, an appropriate quest, task, period of training, or downtime may be necessary.

  EARN XP FOR

• 1 XP- Overcoming an encounter that is designed to challenge the party (moderate threat).
• 2 XP- Overcoming an encounter that is particularly dangerous and life-threatening (deadly threat).
  
• 3 XP- Overcoming a climatic encounter designed to end a story arc.
• 1 XP- Exceptional problem solving, uncovering secrets, story progression, puzzles, circumventing encounters, etc.
  
• 1 XP (once per session)- Exceptional scene of creative, extraneous and out of the box awesome character action.
• 1 XP (once per session)- Exceptional scene of roleplaying a character's Alignment, Ideal, Bond, or Flaw. 

An observation--with this system an average player is likely to net 4-5 XP per session, and assumes a fairly brisk pace of advancement (through lower levels at least). A DM may want to dial this amount by a few points in either direction depending on how quickly they want their players to advance. As it stands with a net average of 5 xp per session, a player can expect to reach reach level 10 after 28 session and level 20 after 83 sessions.