Treasure and XP

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Experience Rewards and Advancement Speed

At the bottom of each monster's entry in the bestiary, there is an Experience Reward value listed. If you the refer to the Character Creation chart, you will see that there are three recommended 'speeds' for Level Progression, "Slow XP", "Medium XP" and "Fast XP", each of which has its own values.

Since each combat in Epic Path is designed for one equal-CR monster for each character in a party, it is easy to see that the basic speed of advancement is set to be five encounters per level for Fast advancement, eight encounters per level for Medium advancement and twelve encounters per level for Slow advancement.

Now, this may seem a little slow to some, but you must understand that Epic Path is inspired by the modern video game environment, and we have decided to implement a Quest system of experience rewards.

Quest XP

What are quest rewards? Very simply, 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. Namely, fulfilling a Quest gives you exactly as much experience and money as winning a combat.

So, yes, it is entirely possible to roleplay 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 roleplaying, 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 ten or fifteen 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 CR7 monsters, but his players are only level three, he can certainly lower the number of XP rewards needed to level from fifteen 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 thirty 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!

Using the Medium XP table is recommended, and 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 medium XP table assumes approximately 12-16 hours of gameplay per level, with roughly 4 combat encounters and 4 quest XP parcels.

Treasure

At the bottom of each monster's entry in the bestiary is a Treasure value. Each creature has a value to the PC's 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 Creation 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.