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, which lists the gold piece value of sellable goods which each defeated monster drops for the players, when they search for loot after an encounter.

Much like experience points, it is recommended that treasure be split out into the amount each character receives, rather than a cumulative amount. The reason for this is that any absent players receive the same portion, even though the encounter didn't really generate enough loot to accommodate that (since the absent player(s) also reduce the size of the encounter, presumably). Even if the present players fought a tougher-than-normal encounter, the portion size should be calculated based only on the players that are present. In general, if the encounter is a uniform batch of monsters of a quantity equal to the number of players present, this means 1 monsters' worth of sellable goods is given to each player (including any absent players). For example, if you have five level 8 player characters, but one of them is absent for this week's game, and the players face and defeat an equal CR encounter of four CR 8 monsters (one for each player present), each player, including the absentee player, would receive 3,875 gold pieces worth of sellable goods.

If the encounter features creatures of differing CR's, or a different number of creatures than the number of player characters present, the total gold piece value of the treasure of each defeated creature should be added together, then that total should be divided by the number of players present, to create an average treasure parcel for each player.

Sellable goods have a weight which varies by the CR of the creature which dropped them. The formula for this is 10 + (10 * CR) lbs. If the encounter featured creatures of different CR's, the weight should be calculated off the average of the CR's, just like the gold piece value of sellable goods is calculated per character.

The bulkiness of sellable goods is 1 cubic foot per 25 lbs of sellable goods carried.

Level	Sellable Goods / Creature	Weight		Level	Sellable Goods / Creature	Weight		Level	Sellable Goods / Creature	Weight		Level	Sellable Goods / Creature	Weight
1	219 gp	20 lbs		11	9,375 gp	120 lbs		21	141,500 gp	220 lbs		31	1,523,000 gp	320 lbs
2	500 gp	30 lbs		12	12,875 gp	130 lbs		22	185,300 gp	230 lbs		32	2,015,533 gp	330 lbs
3	813 gp	40 lbs		13	17,625 gp	140 lbs		23	221,909 gp	240 lbs		33	2,538,813 gp	340 lbs
4	1,188 gp	50 lbs		14	23,625 gp	150 lbs		24	293,545 gp	250 lbs		34	3,438,063 gp	350 lbs
5	1,625 gp	60 lbs		15	32,125 gp	160 lbs		25	351,417 gp	260 lbs		35	4,082,176 gp	360 lbs
6	2,125 gp	70 lbs		16	43,125 gp	170 lbs		26	475,417 gp	270 lbs		36	4,205,879 gp	370 lbs
7	2,875 gp	80 lbs		17	51,444 gp	180 lbs		27	591,769 gp	280 lbs		37	4,337,313 gp	380 lbs
8	3,875 gp	90 lbs		18	67,889 gp	190 lbs		28	783,154 gp	290 lbs		38	4,477,226 gp	390 lbs
9	5,125 gp	100 lbs		19	89,889 gp	200 lbs		29	954,929 gp	300 lbs		39	4,626,467 gp	400 lbs
10	6,875 gp	110 lbs		20	119,667 gp	210 lbs		30	1,246,929 gp	310 lbs		40	4,786,000 gp	410 lbs

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 typical for their level. 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.

Sellable Goods

Note that the defeated monsters drop "sellable goods," not money or items. Sellable goods are an abstract collection of items claimed from the defeated creatures which some merchant, apothecary, wizard, or other collector of odd monster bits would pay good money for. In and of themselves, sellable goods are not really tradable as currency. Furthermore, as described above, they are both heavier and bulkier than simple money. Players should want to go back to town to turn in their loot after several successful battles. Beyond that, it can become difficult for them to haul all of this loot around, without some tool, like a Handy Haversack, to increase their ability to carry it.

Once the players are in a location where trade can occur, sellable goods can be transformed into money (gold pieces, platinum pieces, astral diamonds, etc.). Alternatively, sellable goods can be turned into crafting materials, if they are taken to a workshop.

Turning Sellable Goods Into Gold

Once in a town, settlement, or some other place where goods can be exchanged (which can also include magic wishing wells, a passing tinker's wagon, a genie at a crossroads, etc.), players can exchange their sellable goods for money of an equal value.

It is not possible to haggle for better exchange rates for sellable goods, even with a high Barter skill. Barter can only be applied to the purchase of goods that a vendor is selling, or when selling a piece of equipment that the character no longer needs.

As mentioned on the Money and Merchants page, money, in the form of coins, weighs only 1 lb per 100 coins, and takes up 1 cubic foot of space per 200 lbs (20,000 coins).

Remnants (Optional)

This is an optional rule. GM's may use this or discard it, as best fits their campaign. It is included as a way of diversifying treasure in the game, while keeping things abstract and simple enough that the GM doesn't have to spend a lot of preparation time deciding just how many rusty short swords those skeleton soldiers should drop. Not using these rules will not significantly alter the economy of player loot, but it does add a certain element of interest to looting monsters that a simple "300 gp worth of Sellable Goods" fails to do.

Remnants are an abstract form of crafting material, with a magic aspect to them. GM's are encouraged to choose a means of describing these in a manner which fits their campaign, but the general idea is that they are the collected and crystallized form of the slain creature's mana, aura, and/or spirit. They can appear in the form of glowing crystals, or they can be a particularly high-quality part of the monster's body (a tooth, scale, eye, etc.), an unusual gem or shell carried by the creature, or any of a wide variety of objects which could then be applied toward a magic item's creation or enhancement. The exact description of a remnant is entirely dependent on the GM's willingness to be creative. Or, just call them remnants, and let the players imagine what they look like. Lazy isn't always bad, after all.

Players who are of a mind to build their own magic items, or who wish to ask a craftsman to create a specific item on their behalf may be called upon to provide remnants of a certain quality and worth a specific amount of gold, in order to build the item in question. Instead of trading away all those valuable monster bits for mere money, crafty players can take those sellable goods to a workshop, and transform them into low grade remnants instead.

Remnants come in nine tiers of quality:

Remnant Quality	CR of Creatures Which Drop Them
Languid Remnant	1 - 12
Pale Remnant	13 - 24
Bright Remnant	25+
Intense Remnant	—
Blazing Remnant	—
Vital Remnant	—
Prime Remnant	—
Mythic Remnant	—
Empyrean Remnant	—

As you can see, the highest quality of remnants cannot normally be created from the bodies of typical monsters. These remnants are, instead, rare drops which nearly any creature can drop, if you are very lucky. Creatures with roles, such as Threats or Heavies, have a much greater chance of dropping these rare-tier remnants, so players who need such materials for a project they're working on should seek out tougher monsters.

Goods which are converted to remnants retain their same gold piece value as when they were sellable goods. No value is lost. In fact, remnants weigh less and take up less space than sellable goods, so it is sometimes advantageous to convert sellable goods to remnants just to reduce carrying weight, if you are in that odd circumstance where a workshop is available but a place of trade and commerce is not.

Remnants weigh half as much as the sellable goods from which they are created. This is based on the CR of the creature (or encounter or quest) which dropped the sellable goods.

• Sellable Goods weigh the (creature's / encounter's / quest's CR x 10) + 10 lbs. For example, a CR 3 treasure parcel weighs 40 lbs ((3 x 10) + 10 lbs).
• Remnants created by converting sellable goods at a workshop weigh (creature's / encounter's / quest's CR x 5) + 5 lbs. For example, a CR 3 treasure parcel converted to Languid Remnants weighs 20 lbs ((3 x 5) + 5 lbs).

Chance for Bonus Treasure

This is an optional rule.

GM's who want to add a bit more flavor and variety to their treasure rewards can take one of two approaches:

The first is to jot down notes during game preparation about what sorts of treasure the monsters will drop, replacing the Sellable Goods treasure. This doesn't need to be "all or nothing". The GM can decide that intelligent creatures that sometimes interact with civilization may carry a certain portion of their treasure in the form of money (gold pieces, etc.). Alternatively, GM's who like realism and enjoy prepping for game sessions can describe each piece of loot the monsters drop in loving detail. Getting a warped longbow, and some tattered (and heavily used) leather armor off those Ogre Trappers is definitely more interesting than getting Sellable Goods of an equivalent gp value. However, this sort of detailed loot can also cut deeply into preparation time, so it is purely optional.

The second is to maintain the abstract nature of the sellable goods, but to roll on the tables below to determine whether, among the Sellable Goods, an unusually valuable Crafting Material is present. Rolls on this table are only performed once per encounter (not per monster defeated), and the value of the materials found is based on the average player parcel of Sellable Goods, not the total value for the encounter — the point of this is not to change the value of the treasure award, but to add some color and interest to the treasure given.

Table 1: Roll a d20:

Result	Bonus Materials Found
1 - 15	Nothing Extra
16 - 19	1 item of mythic quality, 10% of parcel value
20	roll on table 2 below

Table 2: Roll a d20:

Result	Bonus Materials Found
1 - 15	2 items of mythic quality, 15% of parcel value
16-19	1 item of transcendent quality, 10% of parcel value
20	roll on table 3 below

Table 3: Roll a d20:

Result	Bonus Materials Found
1 - 15	2 items of transcendent quality, 15% of parcel value
16-19	3 items of transcendent quality, 25% of parcel value
20	1 item of empyrean quality, 10% of parcel value

If the encounter included any creatures with roles (such as Heavies or Threats), find the most powerful role of those present, and adjust the above die results as follows:

Highest Role Present	Adjustment to d20 Roll
Minion, Henchman	No adjustment
Heavy, Killer, Leader, Shooter, Sneak, Tank	Add +2 to all die rolls
Threat, Villain	Add +4 to all die rolls