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<h1 id="three-pillars-xp-revisited">Three Pillars XP, revisited</h1>
<p>The <a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/3pillarxp">Three Pillars UA</a> had some problems. It wasn’t great that defeating 50 kobolds gained you a level no matter how good you were, but the biggest problem for me was this: when you have a party of mixed levels, the normal XP system from the PHB allows the lower leveled PCs to <a href="/almost_catching_up/">almost catch up</a>. That went away with the Three Pillar “100 xp” model.</p>
<p>So here’s my attempt at a revised version, partly inspired by <a href="http://walkingmind.evilhat.com/2011/10/05/roleplay-and-exploration-rewards/">this post on The Walking Mind</a>.</p>
<p><i>I don't use this rule anymore, so this page has been <b>obsoleted</b> by <a href="/xp-for-gold">XP for gold</a>, which uses the "discovering items" rules from here but ditches the locations, convincing people, or trouble xp.</i></p>
<h2 id="pillar-triggers">Pillar triggers</h2>
<h3 id="discovering-items">Discovering items</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Tier 1</dt>
<dd>A single item worth 100 gp or more, or a nonconsumable rare magic item</dd>
<dt>Tier 2</dt>
<dd>A single item worth 1,000 gp or more, or a nonconsumable very rare magic item</dd>
<dt>Tier 3</dt>
<dd>A single item worth 5,000 gp or more, or a nonconsumable legendary magic item</dd>
<dt>Tier 4</dt>
<dd>A single item worth 50,000 gp or more, or an artifact</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="discovering-locations">Discovering locations</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Tier 1</dt>
<dd>A location important to a small town or village</dd>
<dt>Tier 2</dt>
<dd>A location vital to a kingdom</dd>
<dt>Tier 3</dt>
<dd>A location important across a world</dd>
<dt>Tier 4</dt>
<dd>A location of cosmic importance</dd>
</dl>
<h3 id="convincing-people">Convincing people</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Tier 1</dt>
<dd>An NPC with influence over a small town or village, or the equivalent</dd>
<dt>Tier 2</dt>
<dd>An NPC with influence over a city or the equivalent</dd>
<dt>Tier 3</dt>
<dd>An NPC with influence over a kingdom, a continent, or the equivalent</dd>
<dt>Tier 4</dt>
<dd>An NPC (including a deity) with cosmic significance or influence across multiple worlds</dd>
</dl>
<h2 id="pc-tiers">PC tiers</h2>
<dl>
<dt>Tier 1</dt>
<dd>levels 1 to 4</dd>
<dt>Tier 2</dt>
<dd>levels 5 to 10</dd>
<dt>Tier 3</dt>
<dd>levels 11 to 16</dd>
<dt>Tier 4</dt>
<dd>levels 17 to 20</dd>
</dl>
<h2 id="the-table-then">The table, then</h2>
<p>There are some different ways to determine “party level”, you could do “average PC level”, or you could take the highest level, or the lowest, or the highest-that-at-least-two-people-have, or the medium, or w/e. Up to you but be consistent.</p>
<p><b>Our group's rule is: the second-highest level of a player character.</b></p>
<p>Then whenever the group does a pillar trigger, look up the xp reward for their level, relevant to the tier of the trigger compared to their own tier. Discovery triggers below their own current tier don’t give any xp, but convincing people of (any) lower gives half the xp that matching their current tier would.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Party level</th>
<th>Matching tier</th>
<th>One tier higher</th>
<th>Two tiers higher</th>
<th>Three tiers higher</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>30</td>
<td>60</td>
<td>90</td>
<td>120</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>60</td>
<td>120</td>
<td>180</td>
<td>240</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>180</td>
<td>360</td>
<td>540</td>
<td>720</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>380</td>
<td>760</td>
<td>1140</td>
<td>1520</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>750</td>
<td>1500</td>
<td>2250</td>
<td>3000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>900</td>
<td>1800</td>
<td>2700</td>
<td>3600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td>1100</td>
<td>2200</td>
<td>3300</td>
<td>4400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>8</td>
<td>1400</td>
<td>2800</td>
<td>4200</td>
<td>5600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9</td>
<td>1600</td>
<td>3200</td>
<td>4800</td>
<td>6400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10</td>
<td>2100</td>
<td>4200</td>
<td>6300</td>
<td>8400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11</td>
<td>1500</td>
<td>3000</td>
<td>4500</td>
<td>6000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12</td>
<td>2000</td>
<td>4000</td>
<td>6000</td>
<td>8000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13</td>
<td>2000</td>
<td>4000</td>
<td>6000</td>
<td>8000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14</td>
<td>2500</td>
<td>5000</td>
<td>7500</td>
<td>10000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15</td>
<td>3000</td>
<td>6000</td>
<td>9000</td>
<td>12000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>3000</td>
<td>6000</td>
<td>9000</td>
<td>12000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17</td>
<td>4000</td>
<td>8000</td>
<td>12000</td>
<td>16000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>18</td>
<td>4000</td>
<td>8000</td>
<td>12000</td>
<td>16000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>19</td>
<td>5000</td>
<td>10000</td>
<td>15000</td>
<td>20000</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>For these rewards, give out the full reward to each party member.<br />
The third pillar, fighting and killing, just use the normal xp for monsters, dividing it among the party as usual.</p>
<h2 id="trouble----a-fourth-pillar">Trouble – a fourth pillar</h2>
<p>I also like to give rewards for players getting out of deathly trouble especially when they didn’t fight their way out of it.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Party level</th>
<th>Sorta dangerous… I guess</th>
<th>Really dangerous!</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>50</td>
<td>100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>100</td>
<td>200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>150</td>
<td>400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>250</td>
<td>500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>500</td>
<td>1100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>600</td>
<td>1400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td>750</td>
<td>1700</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>8</td>
<td>900</td>
<td>2100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9</td>
<td>1100</td>
<td>2400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10</td>
<td>1200</td>
<td>2800</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11</td>
<td>1600</td>
<td>3600</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12</td>
<td>2000</td>
<td>4500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13</td>
<td>2200</td>
<td>5100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>14</td>
<td>2500</td>
<td>5700</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>15</td>
<td>2800</td>
<td>6400</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>3200</td>
<td>7200</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>17</td>
<td>3900</td>
<td>8800</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>18</td>
<td>4200</td>
<td>9500</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>19</td>
<td>4900</td>
<td>10900</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>20</td>
<td>5700</td>
<td>12700</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Like the discovery and the social pillar, and unlike fighting, these rewards are per person, not split between the group.</p>
<h2 id="bonus-two-player-campaigns">Bonus: two player campaigns</h2>
<p>If you’re using <a href="https://idiomdrottning.org/two-player-xp/">the XP curve for two player campaigns</a> you can use the same Trouble table, and you can also use the same pillar xp table if you shift the tiers, making the lower tiered discoveries and interactions relevant for longer.</p>
<h3 id="p-level-tiers">2P level tiers</h3>
<p><em>(for this purpose)</em></p>
<dl>
<dt>Tier 1</dt>
<dd>levels 1 to 9</dd>
<dt>Tier 2</dt>
<dd>levels 10 to 16</dd>
<dt>Tier 3</dt>
<dd>levels 17 to 20</dd>
</dl>
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