Sráidbhaile Level Independent XP Awards (3.5e Variant Rule)

Sráidbhaile Level Independent XP Awards

This variant replaces Table 3-2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits (page 22 of the D20 System) as a way of easing the DM's job of adventure design and the task of experience-point calculation at the end of a game session. This Variant is a compromise between the typical D&D Experience and Leveling system and the Level-Independent XP Awards variant.

Use the following table to determine when characters gain new levels, rather than Table 3-2 in the D20 System.

To advance to a new level beyond 20th, a character needs to gain double the amount of XP he needed to advance from two levels below his current level to one level below his current level. Experience resets at each new level.

For example, to advance from 20th to 21st level, a character needs to gain double the amount of XP he needed to advance from 18th level to 19th level. Since he needed 171,000 XP to go from 18th to 19th level, he needs 342,000 XP (171,000 x 2) to go from 20th level to 21st level.

Table 1-1: Sráidbhaile Alternative Experience Point Progression

Character Level	XP	Class Skill Max Ranks	Cross-Class Skill Max Ranks	Feats	Ability Score Increases
1st	0	4	2	1st	-
2nd	1,000	5	2-1/2	-	-
3rd	3,000	6	3	2nd	-
4th	6,000	7	3-1/2	-	1st
5th	10,000	8	4	-	-
6th	15,000	9	4-1/2	3rd	-
7th	21,000	10	5	-	-
8th	28,000	11	5-1/2	-	2nd
9th	36,000	12	6	4th	-
10th	45,000	13	6-1/2	-	-
11th	55,000	14	7	-	-
12th	66,000	15	7-1/2	5th	3rd
13th	78,000	16	8	-	-
14th	91,000	17	8-1/2	-	-
15th	105,000	18	9	6th	-
16th	120,000	19	9-1/2	-	4th
17th	136,000	20	10	-	-
18th	153,000	21	10-1/2	7th	-
19th	171,000	22	11	-	-
20th	190,000	23	11-1/2	-	5th

Regardless of a character's level relative to the rest of the party, he gets the same numerical XP award, so the math at the end of the night is a lot easier. Table 2-6 on page 38 of the D20 System is no longer used. Monsters just have flat XP awards, which are divided up among the participants.

For example, a frost worm (CR 12) is worth 7,800 XP. If four characters defeat it, they each earn 1,950 XP (7,800 divided by 4), regardless of their level.

Table 6-14: Experience Award (Single Monster)

Monster CR	XP Award
1	300
2	600
3	900
4	1,200
5	1,800
6	2,250
7	3,150
8	3,700
9	5,000
10	5,700
11	7,000
12	7,800
13	10,200
14	10,800
15	13,800
16	14,400
17	18,300
18	20,000
19	21,850
20	22,650

For monsters beyond CR 20, simply double the XP reward for a monster of that CR minus 2. For instance, a CR 22 monster is worth twice as much as a CR 20 monster, or 45,300 XP.

Behind the Curtain: Sráidbhaile Level Independent XP

DMs who use this variant gain flexibility in two areas: individual monster design and encounter design. Because you're assessing specific XP awards to monsters, you don't have to restrict yourself to the numbers that appear on the table. If you think a monster you've designed is CR 7-1/2, you can simply give out 3,425 XP for defeating it. At higher levels, the numbers on the table should suffice because it's hard to discern a meaningful difference between a CR 18 monster and a CR 18-1/2 monster. But at lower levels, the flexibility is potent because you can fill in the gap between CR 1 and CR 2 (which otherwise represents a 100 % power increase) and between CR 2 and CR 3 ( a 50% power increase).

This variant also makes it easier to design encounters with mixed groups of monsters. Rather than combining monsters of different CRs, then consulting a table to figure out what the Encounter Level (EL) is, simply add up the XP award for each monster until you reach the XP total you want. For example, if you want to create an average encounter for 15th-level characters, put enough monsters in the encounter to total roughly 58,000 XP (the amount the PCs would earn for a single CR 15 monster).

As with the standard experience point system, the DM should closely watch the experience awards for large numbers of weak creatures, which often provide little or no meaningful challenge to characters.

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