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View Full Version : Experience Debt Variant?



TaintedLight
2010-01-12, 03:35 AM
Pika's thread on static XP gain made me recall the idea I had for my next campaign.

If any of you ever played City of Heroes or City of Villains, you probably remember experience debt very well. It was that annoying red thing that would fill up your XP bar and slow the leveling process down without being too frustrating to deal with at all. I think this is a much fairer and less messy system than losing one level, so I decided that something along those lines should exist in D&D. Here's how it works:

When a character of level X dies, they're dead as per usual. Upon being resurrected, they incurr an amount of experience debt equal to 250*X. Experience debt must be paid off at the same time that a character gains XP. To determine how XP is distributed, you take the discrete chunk of XP that the character gains from overcoming a challenge or what have you and divide it in half. One half of that amount goes to paying off debt and the other half goes to leveling up as per normal. That way, you aren't totally out of the game but you are definitely paying a price for dying.

As an example, Beatstick the 8th level fighter dies and is resurrected by his good friend Healbot, a 9th level cleric. Beatstick now has 2000 points of XP debt to work off. When he gains 500 XP for overcoming another encounter, Beatstick reduces his debt to 1750 and increases his character's experience by 250. Once he reduces his XP to 0 this way, he resumes XP gain as per normal conditions.

Thoughts?

FishAreWet
2010-01-12, 03:37 AM
We houserule that you lose as much XP as it would take you as if you lost a level, but you never actually lose the level.

TaintedLight
2010-01-12, 03:43 AM
We houserule that you lose as much XP as it would take you as if you lost a level, but you never actually lose the level.

While that seems like a sensible way to replicate the presented rule without the hassle, I think the penalty is pretty obnoxiously harsh. Hopefully this variant will lessen the impact somewhat.

Rixx
2010-01-12, 03:48 AM
It would be cool if you could craft items and such by accruing EXP debt instead of spending EXP, too.

KillianHawkeye
2010-01-12, 02:41 PM
It would be cool if you could craft items and such by accruing EXP debt instead of spending EXP, too.

This is an idea I like.

Eloel
2010-01-12, 02:59 PM
This is 'worse' than the current position actually, since you get more XP if you're lower level, equalizing your XP over time. Under this variant, lost XP is gone forever.

Tyndmyr
2010-01-12, 03:02 PM
It's better in the very short-term...but yeah, it takes you longer to get back to parity. In terms of total power differential, it should be the exact same.

Since it involves less hassle(saving xp for magic items and such), I'd consider it an overall win.

Edit: Just use straight debt. It's easier.

Mastikator
2010-01-12, 04:13 PM
My head spontaneously explodes upon the notion of basing level adjustment balance on the character dying. Dying should be much harsher than XP-penalty. Dying should be something you fear.

Anyway I'm not a big fan of the whole leveling system at large. But I do think a "overpowered race penalty balance" system would have to be non-systematic, each race would have a different method of being toned down.
A Drow could be in terms of ECL equal to humans, but could incur heavy social penalties in all social situations. Basically, races above land have a kill first, don't bother to ask questions later policy with Drow. And the Drow also have that policy with each other.
Whereas an Orc will only have that penalty to humans, elves, halflings etc, but are friendly (or neutral) to goblins, ogres, trolls, etc.
The social penalty is just one type of penalty, I advocate having many types of penalties, each depending on the fluff of the race.

Tyndmyr
2010-01-12, 04:18 PM
Oh, you will still fear it...and you'll be exactly as far behind as you would be otherwise.

It just comes out of future leveling rather than past leveling, resulting in less changes to the character sheet.