Earning XP
The progress of the player characters through a campaign is measured in the amount of experience points they earn. Experience points, or XP for short, are a resource that can be spent to make characters stronger and more capable. See the Character Advancement section for more details. In total, it takes 2,310 XP to progress a character from the beginning of tier 1 to the end of tier 10. Planning out the relative amount of XP that players will earn from different sources is one way for the GM to determine what elements of a campaign to emphasize. There are five different ways that player characters can earn XP:
- Combat XP is earned by defeating enemies and Antagonists in battle. Defeating a Normal enemy in combat is worth 1 XP, defeating an Elite enemy is worth 5 XP, and defeating an Antagonist is worth 10 XP per Form defeated, adjusted for the relative tier of the players and their enemies.
- Discovery XP is earned by discovering new and interesting places in the overworld. Coming across a landmark, arriving at a new, easily accessible node, discovering a new level of a dungeon, and overcoming a natural hazard are all worth 1 XP, while discovering a hard-to-reach node or secret area is worth 5 XP.
- Lore XP is earned by learning and recording previously unknown or actionable knowledge about the world. Each small piece of Lore is worth 1 XP, each secret or larger chunk of Lore is worth 5 XP, and campaign-defining revelations are worth 20 XP each.
- Puzzle XP is earned each time players successfully solve a stage of a puzzle. Each stage of a puzzle is worth 5 additional XP.
- Quest XP is earned when player characters advance the plot of a campaign. Each stage of a quest the players complete is worth 5 XP, while completing a whole quest that is more than two stages long is worth an additional 10 XP.