How to get rid of xp.

[Tyndmyr]

What are some good ways to burn off experience at early levels for something of value...at a rate as fast or faster than you could be expected to accumulate gold.

The thought here is that since lagging behind the party results in more xp per encounter later, if you have a way to sacrifice xp for power early on, you end up paying very little.

Scrolls are obvious, for a wizard, but the xp/gold ratio is such that it won't do much for you before you level anyway. Also, in terms of gold, the power gained is still kinda expensive.

Anyone know a better way?

[Foryn Gilnith]

Item Familiar or some similar ability? But those cost gold too...
Maybe some creature creation rituals that cost a disproportionate amount of XP? I'm sure they're in some obscure campaign book somewhere.

[Cyclocone]

LA buy-Off?

That works pretty simmilar to what you're suggesting.

[J.Gellert]

Anything worth crafting requires a minimum level to do it, which kind of defeats the purpose... Besides, you can't spend too much XP early on because XP loss can't result in a level loss...

[Tyndmyr]

Well, even between level 2 and 3, you could craft quite a bit...given that anything up to around 1.5k xp is doable.

The issue is funding. Very little crafting of note is available cheaply, and it's a rare game in which a level 1 or level 2 player has significant wealth. Of course, if I could find useful craftables that mainly cost xp instead of gold, that would be awesome.

LA buyoff is excellent, but generally, that's a one time event, so exploitation is limited.

[Tyndmyr]

Mmm, items that replicate spells with xp components cost 5xp per xp in the spell....

What level 0-2 spells have xp components?

[Johel]

Well, even between level 2 and 3, you could craft quite a bit...given that anything up to around 1.5k xp is doable.

The issue is funding. Very little crafting of note is available cheaply, and it's a rare game in which a level 1 or level 2 player has significant wealth. Of course, if I could find useful craftables that mainly cost xp instead of gold, that would be awesome.

LA buyoff is excellent, but generally, that's a one time event, so exploitation is limited.

If gold isn't an issue, then you must aim for wands.
Even better are at-will or continuous wonderous items.

You can craft Wonderous items by level 3.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems...tm#bagofTricks
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems...#handoftheMage
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems...ofMinuteSeeing
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems...#hatofDisguise
If your GM agree for "custom" magic items, this can be profitable and usefull.

You can craft Wands by level 5.
Aim for massive damage spells and healing spells.
Most of the 750 gp wands are useful and yet cheap.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wands.htm

You can also craft magical traps with the "Craft Wonderous Item" feat.
But your GM might not be happy...

[Kylarra]

Donate your exp to a friendly crafter in exchange for discounts.

[Tyndmyr]

The traps strike me as too likely to get the banhammer to be useful more than a few times. Of course, Craft Wonderous Item is a good feat in it's own right even without traps.

The friendly crafter comment got me thinking...the gap between create price and market price is sufficient that even a slight markup over cost allows you to effectively sell xp for a solid rate. The party is the first obvious group of customers, but beyond that, finding a steady supply of customers might be difficult. Hmmm.

[Myou]

The friendly crafter comment got me thinking...the gap between create price and market price is sufficient that even a slight markup over cost allows you to effectively sell xp for a solid rate. The party is the first obvious group of customers, but beyond that, finding a steady supply of customers might be difficult. Hmmm.

Well xp is valued at 5gp/xp, so just sell it at cost to casters in each town.

[lsfreak]

Donate your exp to a friendly crafter in exchange for discounts.

This. You can donate your xp to a crafter as they craft the item. Standard gold->xp ratio is 5:1, so you continue to lend your xp to the crafter in exchange for an item you want but can't actually afford yet except by paying in experience. So say you want a wand for 750gp, you pay 30 experience for the wand itself as well as 150 experience (750gp worth, really it should be a little less) to the crafter in exchange for the item without any exchange of gold.

EDIT: This will, of course, require significant downtime if you're getting high-price items, since you have to be present for the entire crafting time of any items you assist in crafting via your experience.

[Johel]

The traps strike me as too likely to get the banhammer to be useful more than a few times. Of course, Craft Wonderous Item is a good feat in it's own right even without traps.

The friendly crafter comment got me thinking...the gap between create price and market price is sufficient that even a slight markup over cost allows you to effectively sell xp for a solid rate. The party is the first obvious group of customers, but beyond that, finding a steady supply of customers might be difficult. Hmmm.

The problem is to find WEALTHY customers. Magical Items are expansive to BUY. But the COST is, as you said, much lower. And nothing forces you to sell magical items at full price.

A Hat of Disguise costs about 900 gp to craft and 36XP
If you can sell that for 1.620 gp, you get paid about 720 gp for the XP, which is about 20 gp per XP. Worth it or not ? You judge.

[Tyndmyr]

Hmm, so resale is going to be a better deal provided you get >5gp per xp. Not bad, even if it's just selling low level scrolls(since market default price ends up being 25gp per xp) at a discount.

[jiriku]

This tactic may be more effective at higher levels than lower. By default, created items always have an XP cost of 4% of the base cost of the item, these abilities hit your XP-to-gold ratio equally regardless of your level. The only exception is items with spells that require an XP burn per cast. Not many of those at low levels.

Permanency and limited wish, on the other hand, will give you pure XP drain for no gold cost, and permanency in particular can be used to seriously enhance your personal power. Always-on darkvision, see invisibility, and arcane sight? Yes please! A permanent symbol of pain scribed onto a banner that you can unfurl in combat? Sure! Permanently enlarge Sir Giacomo? Why not!

[Fishy]

If you're just looking to burn XP, you can be an Artificer. Spell-Storing Item is a first level infusion that lets you temporarily turn any handy item into a single-shot wand of the spell of your choice. It costs XP and no gold, and you can do it twice a day at 1st level, but obviously it's not power you can use later in your career.

[Johel]

Hmm, so resale is going to be a better deal provided you get >5gp per xp. Not bad, even if it's just selling low level scrolls(since market default price ends up being 25gp per xp) at a discount.

Hum... Selling scrolls won't be effective. Most customers will have to be casters or have UMD ranks. Plus, who's going to pay for 1st level-spell scrolls ?

[ericgrau]

Magic item creation is well known to be worth it because it fits exactly the idea you had. Someone's figured it all out before.

So just scribe lots of scrolls, and be ready for anything. Later add other items.

[Tyndmyr]

The artificer is sick...good idea. xp only is perfect, since mundane items are ridiculously cheap, it's basically a scroll paid for entirely with xp. Exxxxcellent.