Wonky XP Tables

At the start of the D&D game, Gary did a lot of fiddling with the XP tables of the several classes in a putative effort to balance the differing power levels. However, even though the classes have different XP requirements, the differences are basically a wash. Even the Cleric, which is significantly less XP-intensive than the other base classes, only leads the pack by a couple of levels until Name level. 

   After Name level, for some reason, Wizards and Clerics zoom past Fighting-Men. In fact, at certain XP totals, Clerics fight better than Fighting-Men, which seems pretty stupid to me.

    Soon after the start and then coming forward, those tables were sacrosanct and each iteration of the game kept them mostly the same until 3rd edition obliterated the tables and made new, uniform XP tables. 

    In the long view, I think there is a middle path between the two. I will show you a proposed set of new XP tables. They are based on power at XP level rather than power at character level and scale regularly. 

    The three classes of Men advance at the same rate from level 1 to level 14. Each increment is the same multiple times the last level, ending at 1 million XP at level 14 (which is the highest level for the classes of Men in my Crown and Valor retroclone.)

    Dwarfs and Hobbits also start at the same level, but need more XP to reach each subsequent level - their multiplier is higher. This will better simulate the reason for level caps to exist in the first place: to limit the eventual power level in search of better game balance. It will also suggest the worldbuilding element that demi-men are simply not as ambitious as Men are. 

    Elfs also follow the same kind of advancement as Dwarfs and Elfs, but since they have the abilities of two classes at the same time, their base Xp is much higher (4000 XP) and their multiplier is higher too. 

    In the case of Dwarfs (12 levels) and Elfs (10 levels), their max XP is the same at their caps as Men classes (14 levels.) Since Hobbits have considerably fewer levels to go (8 levels), their cap is also lower. While Dwarfs' level progression behaves mostly like Men, the Elf and Hobbit are special cases that are a little kludgy. Elfs start at double XP for level 2 and Hobbits have a relatively high number to get to their level cap. I'm okay with this though, since the "standard" old school progressions are basically a kludge as they are. It also keeps the classes (other than Hobbit) about equal in power at each XP level.

    On the following chart, you will see that the interval for Men is lowest, followed by the three other races in order. This is good because it confirms our assumption that Men are the most ambitious and the other races are less so in descending order.

These are the raw numbers with the interval n listed at the bottom. I'm going to clean up the numbers a little now but keep the spirit of the chart intact. After looking at the Hobbit's interval, I think it's too large. They will lag too far behind. Therefore, I changed 600k to 500k and that lowers the interval to 2.51. It will all look like this: 

I'm happy with this alternate table. It enforces the concept of ambition even more and keeps XP relevant for the demi-men longer, at a cost of raw power per XP level. It also keeps the magic Men from zooming past Frighting-Men at Name levels.