Experience Points

As characters adventure, they earn Experience Points (XP). These awards come from achieving goals, completing social encounters, exploring new places, fighting monsters, overcoming hazards, and other sorts of deeds. You have a great deal of control over when the characters gain XP, though the following guidelines are what you’re expected to give out in a standard campaign.

Normally, when a player character levels up, reduce their XP by the amount needed to gain that level, and start progressing toward the next level (See Advancement).

XP Awards

Experience Points are awarded for encounters, exploration, and progress in an adventure. When the PCs face direct opposition, such as a fight or a social conflict, the XP earned is based on the level of the challenge the party overcame. Characters can also gain XP from exploration, such as finding secret areas, locating a hideout, enduring a dangerous environment, or mapping an entire dungeon.

Any XP awarded goes to all members of the group. For instance, if the party wins a battle worth 100 XP, they each get 100 XP, even if the party’s rogue was off in a vault stealing treasure during the battle. But if the rogue collected a splendid and famous gemstone, which you’ve decided was a moderate accomplishment worth 30 XP, each member of the party gets 30 XP, too.

Accomplishment XP Awards

Accomplishment	XP Award
Minor	10 XP
Moderate*	30 XP
Major*	80 XP

*Typically earns a Hero Point as well.

Adversaries and Hazard XP Award

Level	Simple Hazard	Adversary or Complex Hazard
Party level -4	2 XP	10 XP
Party level -3	3 XP	15 XP
Party level -2	4 XP	20 XP
Party level -1	6 XP	30 XP
Party level	8 XP	40 XP
Party level +1	12 XP	60 XP
Party level +2	16 XP	80 XP
Party level +3	24 XP	120 XP
Party level +4	32 XP	160 XP

Adversaries and Hazards

Encounters with adversaries and hazards grant a set amount of XP. When the group overcomes an encounter with creatures or hazards, each character gains XP equal to the total XP of the creatures and hazards in the encounter (this excludes XP adjustments for different party sizes; see Creating Adventures).

Trivial encounters don’t normally grant any XP, but you might decide to award the same XP as for a minor or moderate accomplishment for a trivial encounter that was important to the story, or for an encounter that became trivial because of the order in which the PCs encountered it in a nonlinear adventure.

Accomplishments

Characters’ actions that move the story forward—like securing a major alliance, establishing an organization, or causing an NPC to have a change of heart—are considered accomplishments and should be rewarded with XP. Their significance determines the size of the XP award. Determine whether the achievement was a minor, moderate, or major accomplishment and award an appropriate amount of XP. Minor accomplishments include all sorts of significant, memorable, or surprising moments in the game. A moderate accomplishment typically represents a goal that takes most of a session to complete, and a major accomplishment is usually the culmination of the characters’ efforts across many sessions. Moderate and major accomplishments usually come after a heroic effort, so that’s an ideal time to also give a Hero Point to one or more of the characters involved.

Party Size

The rules for advancement assume a group of four PCs. The rules for encounters (Creating Adventures) describe how to accommodate groups of a different size, but the XP awards don’t change—always award the amount of XP listed for a group of four characters. Be careful of providing too many ways to get accomplishment XP when you have a large group, though, since they can pursue multiple accomplishments at once, which can lead to the PCs leveling up too fast.

Group Parity and Party Level

If the whole group is not at the same character level, you’ll need to select a party level to determine your XP budget for encounters. Choose the level you think best represents the party’s ability as a whole. Use the highest level if only one or two characters are behind, or an average if everyone is at a different level. If only one character is two or more levels ahead, use a party level suitable for the lower-level characters, and adjust the encounters as if there were one additional PC for every 2 levels the higher-level character has beyond the rest of the party.

Party members who are behind the party level gain double the XP other characters do until they reach the party’s highest XP total. When tracking individually, you’ll need to decide whether party members get XP for missed sessions.

Treasure

The treasure you award to the party should be monitored and adjusted as you play. You might need to give out treasure you hadn’t originally planned for, especially if the group bypasses part of an adventure. Keep an eye on the party’s resources. If they’re running out of consumables or money, or if they’re having trouble in combat because their items aren’t up to the task, you can make adjustments.

This is especially common in adventures that have little downtime or that take place far from civilization. If the group goes a long time without being able to purchase or Craft useful items, the PCs will be flush with coins and valuables but behind on useful equipment. In a situation like this, you can either place more useful treasure in the adventure or introduce NPCs who are willing to trade.

Megadungeons and Sandboxes

For a simple guideline to these situations, increase the treasure as though there were one more PC in the party. If the structure is especially loose, especially in sandbox adventures, you can increase this amount even further.

Treasure by Level

The Party Treasure by Level table below shows how much treasure you should give out over the course of a level for a group of four PCs. The Total Value column gives an approximate total value of all the treasure, in case you want to spend it like a budget. The next several columns provide suggestions for breaking down that total into categories of treasure. The final column gives the amount of currency to add for each PC beyond four in the group; use this only if you have more than four characters in the game.

For instance, between the time your PCs reach 3rd level and the time they reach 4th level, you should give them the treasure listed in the table for 3rd level, worth approximately 500 gp: two 4th-level permanent items, two 3rd-level permanent items, two 4th-level consumables, two 3rd-level consumables, two 2nd-level consumables, and 120 gp worth of currency.

When assigning 1st-level permanent items, your best options are armor, weapons, and other gear from Chapter 6 worth between 10 and 20 gp. The treasure listed in the row for 20th level represents a full level’s worth of adventures, even though there is no way to reach 21st level.

Some creature entries in the Pathfinder Bestiary list treasure that can be gained by defeating an individual creature; this counts toward the treasure for any given level.

Party Treasure by Level

Level	Total Value	Permanent Items	Consumables	Party Currency	Currency per Additional PC
1	175 gp	2^nd: 2, 1^st: 2	2^nd: 2, 1^st: 3	40 gp	10 gp
2	300 gp	3^rd: 2, 2^nd: 2	3^rd: 2, 2^nd: 2, 1^st: 2	70 gp	18 gp
3	500 gp	4^th: 2, 3^rd: 2	4^th: 2, 3^rd: 2, 2^nd: 2	120 gp	30 gp
4	860 gp	5^th: 2, 4^th: 2	5^th: 2, 4^th: 2, 3^rd: 2	200 gp	50 gp
5	1,350 gp	6^th: 2, 5^th: 2	6^th: 2, 5^th: 2, 4^th: 2	320 gp	80 gp
6	2,000 gp	7^th: 2, 6^th: 2	7^th: 2, 6^th: 2, 5^th: 2	500 gp	125 gp
7	2,900 gp	8^th: 2, 7^th: 2	8^th: 2:, 7^th: 2, 6^th: 2	720 gp	180 gp
8	4,000 gp	9^th: 2, 8^th: 2	9^th: 2, 8^th: 2, 7^th: 2	1,000 gp	250 gp
9	5,700 gp	10^th: 2, 9^th: 2	10^th: 2, 9^th: 2, 8^th: 2	1,400 gp	350 gp
10	8,000 gp	11^th: 2, 10^th: 2	11^th: 2, 10^th: 2, 9^th: 2	2,000 gp	500 gp
11	11,500 gp	12^th: 2, 11^th: 2	12^th: 2, 11^th: 2, 10^th: 2	2,800 gp	700 gp
12	16,500 gp	13^th: 2, 12^th: 2	13^th: 2, 12^th: 2, 11^th: 2	4,000 gp	1,000 gp
13	25,000 gp	14^th: 2, 13^th: 2	14^th: 2, 13^th: 2, 12^th: 2	6,000 gp	1,500 gp
14	36,500 gp	15^th: 2, 14^th 2	15^th: 2, 14^th: 2, 13^th: 2	9,000 gp	2,250 gp
15	54,500 gp	16^th: 2, 15^th: 2	16^th: 2, 15^th: 2, 14^th: 2	13,000 gp	3,250 gp
16	82,500 gp	17^th: 2, 16^th: 2	17th: 2, 16^th: 2, 15^th: 2	30,000 gp	7,500 gp

Different Party Sizes

If a party has more than four characters, add the following for each additional character:

One permanent item of the party’s level or 1 level higher
Two consumables, usually one of the party’s level and one of 1 level higher
Currency equal to the value in the Currency per Additional PC column

If the party has fewer than four characters, you can subtract the same amount for each missing character, but since the game is inherently more challenging with a smaller group that can’t cover all roles as efficiently, you might consider subtracting less treasure and allowing the extra gear help compensate for the smaller group size.

Currency

A party will find money and other treasure that isn’t useful on its own but that can be sold or spent on other things. The gp values in the Party Currency column don’t refer only to coins. Gems, art objects, crafting materials (including precious materials), jewelry, and even items of much lower level than the party’s level can all be more interesting than a pile of gold.

If you include a lower-level permanent item as part of a currency reward, count only half the item’s Price toward the gp amount, assuming the party will sell the item or use it as crafting material. But lower-level consumables might still be useful, particularly scrolls, and if you think your party will use them, count those items at their full Price.

Other Types of Treasure

Not all treasure has to be items or currency. Crafters can use the Crafting skill to turn raw materials directly into items instead of buying those items with coins. Knowledge can expand a character’s abilities, and formulas make good treasure for item-crafting characters. A spellcaster might get access to new spells from an enemy’s spellbook or an ancient scholar, while a monk might retrain techniques with rarer ones learned from a master on a remote mountaintop.

Different Item Levels

The levels listed for items on the Party Treasure by Level table above aren’t set in stone. You can provide items of slightly higher or lower level as long as you take into account the value of the items you hand out. For instance, suppose you were considering giving a party of 11th-level PCs a runestone with a fortification rune (with a Price of 2,000 gp) as one of their 12th-level items, but you realize they’ve had trouble finding armor in their recent adventures, so you instead decide to give them a suit of 11th-level +2 resilient armor (1,400 gp) instead. Since the armor has a lower Price than the rune, you might also add a 9th-level shadow rune (650 gp) to make up the difference. The total isn’t exactly the same, but that’s all right.

However, if you wanted to place a 13th-level permanent item in a treasure hoard, you could remove two 11th-level permanent items to make a roughly equivalent exchange. When you make an exchange upward like this, be cautious: not only might you introduce an item with effects that are disruptive at the party’s current level of play, but you also might give an amazing item to one PC while other characters don’t gain any new items at all!

If you’re playing in a long-term campaign, you can spread out the treasure over time. A major milestone can give extra treasure at one level, followed by a tougher dungeon with fewer new items at the next level. Check back occasionally to see whether each PC’s treasure is comparable to the amount they’d get if they created a new character at their current level, as described under Treasure for New Characters below. They should be a bit higher. but if there’s a significant discrepancy, adjust the adventure’s upcoming treasure rewards accordingly.

Treasure for New Characters

When your new campaign starts at a higher level, a new player joins an existing group, or a current player’s character dies and they need a new one, your campaign will have one or more PCs who don’t start at 1st level. In these cases, refer to the Character Wealth table below, which shows how many common permanent items of various levels the PC should have, in addition to currency. A single item on this table is always a baseline item. If the player wants armor or a weapon with property runes, they must buy the property runes separately, and for armor or a weapon made of a precious material, they must pay for the precious material separately as well.

If your party has kept the treasure of dead or retired PCs and passed it on to new characters, you might need to give the new character less than the values on the table or reduce some of the treasure rewards of the next few adventures.

Character Wealth

Level	Permanent Items	Currency
1	-	15 gp
2	-	20 gp
3	1^st: 1	25 gp
4	2^nd: 1, 1^st: 2	30 gp
5	3^rd: 1, 2^nd: 2, 1^st: 1	50 gp
6	4^th: 1, 3^rd: 2, 2^nd: 1, 1^st: 2	80 gp
7	5^th: 1, 4^th: 2, 3^rd: 1, 2^nd: 2	125 gp
8	6^th: 1, 5^th: 2, 4^th: 1, 3^rd: 2	180 gp
9	7^th: 1, 6^th: 2, 5^th: 1, 4^th: 2	250 gp
10	8^th: 1, 7^th: 2, 6^th: 1, 5^th: 2	350 gp
11	9^th: 1, 8^th: 2, 7^th: 1, 6^th: 2	500 gp
12	10^th: 1, 7^th: 2, 6^th: 1, 7^th: 2	700 gp
13	11^th: 1, 10^th: 2, 9^th: 1, 8^th: 2	1,000 gp
14	12^th: 1, 11^th: 2, 10^th: 1, 9^th: 2	1,500 gp
15	13^th: 1, 12^th: 2, 11^th: 1, 10^th: 2	2,250 gp
16	14^th: 1, 13^th: 2, 12^th: 1, 11^th: 2	3,250 gp

Item Selection

You should work with the new character’s player to decide which items their character has. Allow the player to make suggestions, and if they know what items they want their character to have, respect their choices unless you believe those choices will have a negative impact on your game. At your discretion, you can grant the player character uncommon or rare items that fit their backstory and concept, keeping in mind how many items of those rarities you have introduced into your game. The player can also spend currency on consumables or lower-level permanent items, keeping the rest as coinage. As usual, you determine which items the character can find for purchase.

A PC can voluntarily choose an item that has a lower level than any or all of the listed items, but they don’t gain any more currency by doing so.

Epic 10 Pathfinder 2e

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