Treasure and XP

Experience Rewards and Advancement Speed

Experience rewards and treasure values for monsters are based on the assumption of eight encounters per level. Since each combat in Epic Path is designed for one equal-CR monster for each character in the party, one can easily see how this math works out. However, depending on how your gaming sessions are structured, and your gaming group's tolerance for character progression tends to be, this rate may not be a good fit for you. By default, it takes approximately 8 encounters before characters will gain a new level (though this number increases at higher levels).

Level	XP / Encounter		Level	XP / Encounter		Level	XP / Encounter		Level	XP / Encounter
1	400		11	12,800		21	409,600		31	13,120,000
2	600		12	19,200		22	615,000		32	19,680,000
3	800		13	25,600		23	819,200		33	28,240,000
4	1,200		14	38,400		24	1,228,800		34	39,360,000
5	1,600		15	51,200		25	1,640,000		35	52,480,000
6	2,400		16	76,800		26	2,460,000		36	78,720,000
7	3,200		17	102,400		27	3,280,000		37	104,960,000
8	4,800		18	153,600		28	4,920,000		38	157,440,000
9	6,400		19	204,800		29	6,560,000		39	209,920,000
10	9,600		20	307,200		30	9,840,000		40	314,880,000

The easiest way to adjust campaign advancement speed is to adjust the XP and Treasure values listed for any monster encounter upwards to speed things up, or downwards to slow things down.

Recommended values are:

• For a faster advancement, multiply the monster's listed XP and Treasure awards by 162% (approximately five encounters before characters gain a new level)
• For a slower advancement, multiply the monster's listed XP and Treasure awards by 75% (approximately twelve encounters before characters gain a new level)

You can also speed up campaign advancement by using Quest rewards as non-encounter incentives for role-playing or achieving adventure goals.

Quest XP

Quest XP is gained by fulfilling the story elements of a game.

Many groups of players just want to roll dice and kill things. And that's fine! But many more groups of players want to get together and role play. In Epic Path, whenever the party fulfills a quest (bring me a hundred oak truffles and I'll give you a treasure map), they get a Quest XP reward. The Quest XP reward is exactly the same as a Monster Reward of a CR equal to the campaign's level. Namely, fulfilling a Quest gives you exactly as much experience and money as winning a combat.

So, yes, it is entirely possible to role-play your way through an entire level, just like it's possible to kill your way through an entire level. The point is to reward FUN. If your players like role-playing, that should never slow down the advancement of their characters.

Now, just because there are tables does not mean those numbers are etched in stone. Indeed, as you will notice the amount of XP per level rarely if ever is exactly eight times the reward value for that challenge rating. The reason is, we find that most parties, once they get a few levels and get good at playing together, can and do tackle things above their CR from time to time. To keep their advancement speed tolerable, the chart includes a 'fudge factor'.

Also, the referee may alter the advancement chart level-by-level if he so desires. If the referee has a great story in mind using CR 7 monsters, but his players are only level three, he can certainly lower the number of XP rewards needed to level from eight to five for a while. As a result, the players will shoot up in level to the point where they can play his adventure.

The referee can then decree that the level of his adventure takes twelve or more XP rewards to get through. Using this system ensures that the players don't level up so much during a long story arc that they make it trivial to win at the end. But referees are strongly encouraged to stick close to these guidelines over the course of several levels!

It is advised that referees work to grant one Quest XP reward and run one combat for an XP reward in each four-hour gaming session. If you follow these recommendations, you will level your adventurers at a non-grinding pace, but slow enough that they can learn to effectively use their character's abilities at each level. The XP table assumes approximately 16 hours of gameplay per level, with roughly 4 combat encounters and 4 quest XP parcels.

Dealing With Missing or Sporadic Players

There are two schools of thought regarding how to handle players who can't make it to every game:

• allow your player characters to earn XP and treasure at different rates, depending on which sessions they attend
• keep everyone even, whether they show up or not

The first option rewards your diligent players, and punishes the ones who are too busy to regularly attend. In our experience, this can lead to such a disparity in the power level of your players that your lagging players get frustrated (sometimes leaving the game), and planning challenging encounters becomes difficult. This can be a useful tool for getting your players motivated to show up, but if you all have lives, it's maybe not the best way to treat your friends when the goal is just to have fun. It's not our recommended approach.

The second option avoids both of the issues above, at the expense of letting your absentee players freeload off the hard work of the players who actually show up. In the end, this isn't that big a deal, as long as the players who are actually showing up still have fun, and aren't, themselves, punished for having to carry the weight of the missing player(s).

Why would they have to carry that weight? Well, as written, encounters are designed to be one monster for each player present. If players are absent, they fight fewer monsters in an even encounter, meaning less XP and treasure per encounter, if the total earned is split among everyone (including those who are absent). This can noticeably slow the pace of character advancement, and can be frustrating for the players who consistently show up, since they're effectively being punished for propping up their absent players.

To solve this, it is recommended that the GM calculate treasure and XP on a per-character basis, based only on the players present and the monsters defeated. This amount of XP and treasure is then given to all players, including any absent players. This gives the present players the full award for the deeds they have performed, and keeps the absent players at the same treasure and XP total as everyone else.

Of course, as GM, you can deal with this however you prefer. This is merely our recommendation.

Treasure

At the bottom of each monster's entry in the bestiary is a Treasure value. Each creature has a value of this amount, whether that be in the form of treasure the creature was carrying, or the value of its bones when sold to an apothecary. The Character Advancement page also lists the approximate wealth each PC should have at the start of each level, as well as how much wealth they are expected to accumulate by the time they reach the next level.

Treasure values listed for monsters must be adjusted if the XP values are adjusted, otherwise characters being advanced more slowly will end up with more wealth than is assumed for their level, and conversely, characters being advanced quickly through the levels will have dramatically less wealth than Epic Path assumes they will. Being under-geared can make encounters very difficult, while being over-geared can make encounters too easy, so both of these possibilities should be avoided.