I'm happy to say that I like 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons that it may take over for the system of choice for my Pathfinder campaign : Throne of Bloodstone In Golarion ( the blog : ToBIG ).
1st edition was simple and very straight forward. The experience rewards are little and made every player work for their +1 thingamabob. There was some diversity from 2E - 3.xE D&D and more so with Pathfinder. With 5e they've combined best of all versions and made some improvements in my opinion.
Since I've played since then I have come p with some House Rules which will keep the XP penny counting to a minimum and I hope will expedite gameplay.
DnD5e House Rules
Expeditious Levelling
I don't like math as much as the next person and counting my pennies just sucks. So what I came up with was a REWARD TABLE which should move things along and up the levelling charts.
Encounter:
- seen event/target in person and lived
- seeing something new and proof to another outside of your party
- event/target may be encountered in any condition: Friendly, Neutral, or Hostile
Defeat:
- a hostile event/target in which said event was defeated during your immediate presence and time
- defeated need only surrender or flee but doesn't need to be killed/slain.
- you (or with party) need only survive this event to gain XP. You must have had dealt damage or "support" equal to or more than a quarter of its listed XP value from the Monster Manual (or its equivalent if a "Thing"; see later).
Kill (Fatality):
- a hostile event/target you (or with party) have dispatched temporarily from gameplay (storyline) until it is resurrected (or recreated)
- event/target is removed from gameplay until becoming fully healthy again, a condition called "Arisen" which mortals can only be Arisen be brought back a certain number of times. "Deific" designated targets have unlimited times to be Arisen being Defeated or Killed, however if Slain it is handled different.
- Arisen mortals start with a number of Arisen Points equal to his starting Constitution Bonus (or Modifier, whichever is higher during Character Creation)
- Cannot be changed or affected, ever
- from another variant AD&D 1E, equivalent to Death Points
- Killing an Arisen gives a one-time chance a bonus reward
- roll 1d20, on a 20 receive 150% of Arisen Kill Reward
- a kill means the hostile event/target was taken down to zero to negative ten health (0 to -10 hp)
Slay (Slain):
- hostile event/target which has taken so much damage (negative eleven or more) it cannot naturally heal itself, or no heal nor resurrection is possible
- a "Deific" classed hostile event/target must be slain twice
- once slain they attain a "Slain by (Hero's Name)" title as a marker for extinction.
- if slain twice (truly, a "true death") the hostile event/target will never come back and becomes a Historical Event
- slaying twice gives both slayers an extra reward chance
- roll 1d20, on a 1 receive 300% of Deific Slain Reward
Number of times the following much be achieved to obtain the next level, keeping in mind that you are in a party of four heroes of average party level (the basic APL)...
Encounter 16 Places, 8 Things, 4 Monsters
Defeat 8 places, 4 things, 2 monsters
Kill 4 places, 2 things, 1 monster
Slay/Destroy 2 places, 1 thing, 1 monster
All events based upon an average CR for your APL.
Defeat 8 places, 4 things, 2 monsters
Kill 4 places, 2 things, 1 monster
Slay/Destroy 2 places, 1 thing, 1 monster
All events based upon an average CR for your APL.
