Experience and Rewards

Experience and rewards are here for groups that want advancement tracked through play instead of only through story beats. Milestone leveling is still the suggested method. If a major arc is finished, a personal goal is resolved, a faction changes because of the party, or the story reaches a place where new power makes sense, it is usually a good time to level the party.

Experience points are for groups that want to see their progress. They are useful in more open campaigns, when characters can choose between many jobs, or when the group wants advancement to come from accumulated danger and effort.

Starting Gold

Starting gold is how much wealth a character should have when beginning play at that HD. This assumes the character starts with appropriate equipment instead of earning every coin through play.

HD	Starting Gold
1	65 gp
2	180 gp
3	540 gp
4	1,080 gp
5	1,800 gp
6	2,600 gp
7	3,800 gp
8	5,400 gp
9	7,200 gp
10	9,800 gp
11	13,200 gp
12	17,600 gp
13	22,200 gp
14	30,000 gp
15	40,000 gp
16	52,000 gp
17	68,000 gp
18	88,000 gp
19	116,000 gp
20	152,000 gp

Experience to Level

The progression chart lists cumulative XP. To find the amount needed for the next HD, use the following:

XP to next HD: Current HD x 1,000

For example, going from HD 5 to HD 6 takes 5,000 XP. Going from HD 12 to HD 13 takes 12,000 XP.

Standard Advancement Rate

A character should normally reach HD 5 after four Challenging encounters at each HD before it. Going from HD 5 to HD 6 takes five Challenging encounters. Going from HD 6 to HD 7 takes six. After that, the expected number of encounters is equal to the character's current HD.

Expected Challenging Encounters: Current HD, with a minimum of 4

Challenging XP per Character: (Current HD × 1,000) ÷ Expected Challenging Encounters

This produces the following awards:

Current HD	Next HD	XP Needed	Expected Challenging Encounters	XP per Challenging Encounter
1	2	1,000	4	250
2	3	2,000	4	500
3	4	3,000	4	750
4	5	4,000	4	1,000
5	6	5,000	5	1,000
6	7	6,000	6	1,000
7	8	7,000	7	1,000
8	9	8,000	8	1,000
9	10	9,000	9	1,000
10	11	10,000	10	1,000
11	12	11,000	11	1,000
12	13	12,000	12	1,000
13	14	13,000	13	1,000
14	15	14,000	14	1,000
15	16	15,000	15	1,000
16	17	16,000	16	1,000
17	18	17,000	17	1,000
18	19	18,000	18	1,000
19	20	19,000	19	1,000

These encounters do not all have to be fights. Story awards, discoveries, solved problems, social victories, dangerous travel, and major objectives can grant the same XP.

This is the expected pace. It does not require the party to complete a specific number of fights before leveling.

Difficulty Level

Difficulty Level, or DL, is the rough difficulty of an enemy. It is not a perfect formula; it communicates how dangerous a creature is expected to be.

A DL 5 sapient NPC is built at about HD 5 with the same kind of equipment a player character would have at that point.

Effective Difficulty Level

To find the group's Effective Difficulty Level, or EDL, add together the current HD of every player character and their pets. Divide that total by the number of player characters, then round down to the nearest whole number.

Animal companions and personal constructs count as pets when calculating EDL. Familiars do not.

Moderate Encounter EDL: Group EDL

This playtest model is calibrated so six HD 10 characters against six ordinary DL 10 creatures is Moderate. The initial scaling rate is 6 EDL per doubling of enemy threat. That rate is provisional; further playtests should check outnumbered groups, mixed-DL encounters, and especially strong individual enemies.

Each enemy adds to the encounter's threat. An enemy 6 DL above Group EDL contributes twice as much as an enemy at Group EDL; an enemy 6 DL below contributes half as much. This avoids an average that can fall when weaker enemies join a fight.

A creature with two full turns per round counts as 1.5 creatures of its DL. A creature with three full turns counts as 2 creatures. Multiply this turn weight by the quantity in each creature group.

Equivalent Enemies for Each Creature Group: Quantity × Turn Weight × 2^((Creature DL − Group EDL) ÷ 6)

Add these contributions together. They represent the number of ordinary enemies at Group EDL with the same total threat. Compare that total to the number of player characters and pets:

Threat Ratio: Total Equivalent Enemies ÷ (Number of Characters + Number of Pets)

Encounter EDL: Group EDL + 6 × log2(Threat Ratio), rounded to the nearest whole number

Here, log2 is the base-2 logarithm. Do not round the individual contributions or the threat ratio. At an exact half, round toward the higher EDL. The existing Group EDL calculation above still rounds down.

Total Enemy Threat Compared to the Moderate Baseline	EDL Difference
One-quarter as much	−12
Half as much	−6
The same amount	+0
About 1.26 times as much	+2
About 1.59 times as much	+4
Twice as much	+6
About 2.52 times as much	+8

For enemies all at Group EDL with one turn each, these threat ratios are also enemy-to-friendly count ratios. Stronger enemies reach the same threat with fewer bodies. Additional weaker enemies always increase raw threat, though rounding may leave the displayed EDL unchanged. Adding enemies cannot lower the encounter's rating.

Encounter EDL is an effective rating, not a creature's DL, and can fall below 1. This lets small encounters still rate as Easy for HD 1 groups. A low EDL does not automatically make an encounter Trivial; it must be unable to meaningfully threaten the group. Apply the difficulty ranges below to the rounded Encounter EDL.

Encounter Difficulty

Use the table below to determine the encounter's difficulty.

Difficulty	Use When
Trivial	The encounter cannot meaningfully threaten the party
Easy	The encounter is below Group EDL
Moderate	The encounter matches Group EDL or is Group EDL +1
Challenging	The encounter is Group EDL +2 or +3
Difficult	The encounter is Group EDL +4 or +5
Severe	The encounter is Group EDL +6 or +7
Deadly	The encounter is Group EDL +8 or higher

XP Awards by Encounter Difficulty

Find the character's current HD and the encounter's difficulty, then grant the listed XP. These awards are per character; do not divide them by the number of characters in the group.

Current HD	Easy	Moderate	Challenging	Difficult	Severe	Deadly
1	75	125	250	375	500	750
2	125	250	500	750	1,000	1,500
3	200	375	750	1,125	1,500	2,250
4–19	250	500	1,000	1,500	2,000	3,000

For example, each HD 5 character who completes a Challenging encounter receives 1,000 XP. A Difficult encounter awards 1,500 XP, while a Severe encounter awards 2,000 XP. Characters at different HD use their own row, even though they completed the same encounter.

EDL Examples

Six HD 10 Characters: Group EDL is 10. Six ordinary DL 10 enemies contribute six Equivalent Enemies, giving a threat ratio of 6 ÷ 6 = 1. Encounter EDL is 10, so the encounter is Moderate and awards 500 XP per character.

Ordinary DL 10 Enemies Against Six HD 10 Characters	Encounter EDL	Difficulty
3	4	Easy
6	10	Moderate
7	11	Moderate
8	12	Challenging
9	14	Difficult
12	16	Severe
15	18	Deadly

Stronger Reinforcements: Add one ordinary DL 16 enemy to the six DL 10 enemies above. It contributes 2^((16 − 10) ÷ 6) = 2 Equivalent Enemies, bringing the total to eight. Encounter EDL becomes 10 + 6 × log2(8 ÷ 6) = 12.49, rounded to 12: Challenging. Adding a DL 4 enemy instead contributes only 0.5, producing EDL 11: Moderate. Both additions increase threat, but the stronger enemy contributes four times as much.

Extra Turns: Six DL 10 enemies with two full turns each count as nine Effective Creatures and nine Equivalent Enemies against six HD 10 characters. Their threat ratio is 1.5, giving EDL 14: Difficult. Six of those enemies with three full turns each count as twelve, giving EDL 16: Severe.

Characters with Pets: Four HD 5 characters accompanied by two HD 5 pets have Group EDL (5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5) ÷ 4 = 7.5, rounded down to 7. Six ordinary DL 9 enemies contribute 6 × 2^((9 − 7) ÷ 6) ≈ 7.56 Equivalent Enemies. Divide by six characters and pets for a threat ratio of about 1.26. Encounter EDL is 9, which is Group EDL +2: Challenging, awarding each player character 1,000 XP.

EDL and XP Calculator

Group identical player characters and pets into HD and Quantity rows. Animal companions and personal constructs belong in the Pets section, but familiars do not. For each kind of encounter creature, select its DL, turns per round, and quantity.

Characters

Pets

Encounter

The encounter cannot meaningfully threaten the group and should be treated as Trivial.

The Definition Master should still look at the whole situation. Terrain, surprise, preparation, resources already spent, enemy intelligence, and escape routes all matter.

Awarding XP

Every character who participated in the encounter or objective gains XP. Participation does not always mean dealing damage. Scouting, healing, negotiating, disabling traps, carrying the wounded, and solving the actual problem all count.

If the party avoids an encounter through good planning, stealth, diplomacy, or clever use of resources, they should usually gain the XP for that encounter. The point is overcoming the problem, not making sure everything dies.

If the party creates a problem and then defeats it for no meaningful gain, the Definition Master does not need to award XP.

Treasure from Encounters

Starting gold and earned treasure are not the same thing. A character beginning at HD 10 receives appropriate gear. A character who plays from HD 9 to HD 10 will spend money, use consumables, miss some loot, sell things below full value, pay for services, and find rewards that are useful without being perfectly efficient.

As a result, an encounter-based campaign should grant more treasure than the difference between two starting gold values.

Each HD should offer about 150% of the difference between the current starting gold and the next starting gold. This is the reward budget for that HD. Divide it by the expected number of Challenging encounters at the character's current HD to find the average reward per Challenging encounter.

These numbers are per character. For a group reward, multiply by the number of player characters.

Current HD	Reward Budget to Next HD	Average per Challenging Encounter
1	150 gp	38 gp
2	550 gp	138 gp
3	800 gp	200 gp
4	1,100 gp	275 gp
5	1,200 gp	240 gp
6	1,800 gp	300 gp
7	2,400 gp	343 gp
8	2,700 gp	338 gp
9	3,900 gp	433 gp
10	5,100 gp	510 gp
11	6,600 gp	600 gp
12	6,900 gp	575 gp
13	11,700 gp	900 gp
14	15,000 gp	1,071 gp
15	18,000 gp	1,200 gp
16	24,000 gp	1,500 gp
17	30,000 gp	1,765 gp
18	42,000 gp	2,333 gp
19	54,000 gp	2,842 gp

Treasure can be coins, gems, trade goods, useful equipment, magical items, favors with clear value, land rights, rare materials, or anything else the party can use or convert.

Enemy gear counts as treasure if the party can recover, use, or sell it. Bonded gear, broken gear, cursed objects that cannot be sold, and equipment that only exists as part of a monster should not count at full value.

Land, workshops, civic rights, and other productive assets use the broader assumptions in Setting Economics. These rewards can be worth far more than personal gear while still being difficult to sell, divide, move, or convert into adventuring equipment.

Milestone Rewards

If using milestone leveling, keep an eye on the starting gold table. Characters should not be wildly below their expected wealth unless the campaign is deliberately about scarcity.

When the party levels by milestone, the Definition Master should make sure rewards, recovered equipment, favors, and opportunities keep them close to the starting gold value for their new HD.