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The idea for this first table is to go through the SRD (using the life-changing magic of structure and interpretation of computer programs) and calculate out the average XP, median XP, and the median CR.
For “HD” in this table, it’s the HD as listed in the 5e SRD. For example, a tiny li’l Sea Horse has 1d4 HD and is therefore counted as a 1 HD creature.
It does map up pretty well with only a couple of weird cases where average and median looks completely out of wack. Looking at you, Rakshasa at HD 13! Immune to everything & is worth 10000 xp. (BTW, can’t believe it’s in the SRD? I would’ve guessed it was product identity. But I’m glad it isn’t! Such a classic.)
5e HD|Average XP|Median XP|Median CR -|-|-|- 1| 14|10|0 2| 42|37.5|0.1875 3| 93|100|0.5 4| 123|100|0.5 5| 239|200|1 6| 359|450|2 7| 494|450|2 8| 644|700|3 9| 1000|700|3 10| 2005|1100|4 11| 1833|1800|5 12| 2300|1800|5 13| 4133|2600|6.5 14| 4350|3950|8 15| 5200|3900|8 16| 6581|6550|10.5 17| 9390|7200|11 18| 15958|15000|16 19| 16375|18000|17 20| 19333|15000|16 21| 27500|27500|20 22| 29500|29500|19.5 24| 33000|33000|21 25| 50000|50000|23 26| 50000|50000|23 27| 50000|50000|23 28| 62000|62000|24 33| 155000|155000|30
But in the B/X hit dice are always d8s (i.e. it doesn’t differ by size category), and there’s no con bonus to XP for monsters. Some creatures do have 1+2 or whatever (which means 1d8 + 2).
So looking at the 5e SRD again, with the 5e average hit points converted into an B/X HD equivalent, we get:
B/X HD equivalent|RC xp|ACKS xp|LotFP xp|2e XP|Average 5e XP|Median 5e XP|Median 5e CR -|-|-|-|-|-|-|- 0| 5|5|5|7|14|10|0 1| 10|10|10|15|15|10|0 2| 20|20|25|35|52|25|0.125 3| 35|50|50|65|48|50|0.25 4| 75|80|75|120|90|100|0.5 5| 175|200|100|175|130|100|0.5 6| 275|320|250|270|235|200|1 7| 450|440|500|420|372|450|2 8| 650|600|750|650|307|200|1 9| 900|700|1000|975|600|450|2 10| 1000|850|1250|1400|532|450|2 11| 1100|1000|1500|2000|450|450|2 12| 1250|1200|1500|2000|575|700|3 13| 1350|1400|1500|3000|564|450|2 14| 1500|1600|1500|4000|1125|1125|3.5 15| 1650|1800|1500|5000|878|700|3 16| 1850|2000|1500|6000|1800|1800|5 17| 2000|2200|1500|7000|2050|1100|4 18| 2125|2400|1500|8000|1250|1250|4 19| 2250|2600|1500|9000|1986|1100|4 20| 2375|2800|1500|10000|1433|1800|5 21| 2500|3000|1500|11000|1660|1800|5 22| 2750|3250|1500|12000|5900|4750|8 23| 3000|3500|1500|13000|2050|2050|5.5 24| 3250|3750|1500|14000|3860|2300|6 25| 3500|4000|1500|15000|1883|1800|5 26| 3750|4250|1500|16000|2900|2900|7 27| 4000|4500|1500|17000|1700|1700|5 28| 4250|4750|1500|18000|2843|2300|6 30| 4750|5250|1500|20000|6782|3900|8 31| 5000|5500|1500|21000|4450|4450|8.5 32| 5250|5750|1500|22000|6300|6150|10 33| 5500|6000|1500|23000|7200|7200|11 34| 5750|6250|1500|24000|6700|6700|10.5 35| 6000|6500|1500|25000|3950|3950|8 36| 6250|6750|1500|26000|6100|6100|10 37| 6500|7000|1500|27000|6100|6100|10 38| 6750|7250|1500|28000|6950|6950|10.5 40| 7250|7750|1500|30000|7300|5900|10 41| 7500|8000|1500|31000|10750|10750|13.5 42| 7750|8250|1500|32000|15000|15000|16 43| 8000|8500|1500|33000|9350|9350|12.5 44| 8250|8750|1500|34000|11040|10000|13 46| 8750|9250|1500|36000|13000|13000|15 47| 9000|9500|1500|37000|14000|14000|15.5 50| 9750|10250|1500|40000|16500|16500|16.5 51| 10000|10500|1500|41000|10000|10000|13 54| 10750|11250|1500|44000|24000|24000|18.5 55| 11000|11500|1500|45000|10100|10100|13 57| 11500|12000|1500|47000|18000|18000|17 58| 11750|12250|1500|48000|22000|22000|19 66| 13750|14250|1500|56000|25000|25000|20 67| 14000|14500|1500|57000|25000|25000|20 74| 15750|16250|1500|64000|25000|25000|20 76| 16250|16750|1500|66000|18000|18000|17 78| 16750|17250|1500|68000|33000|33000|21 82| 17750|18250|1500|72000|33000|33000|21 86| 18750|19250|1500|76000|41000|41000|22 99| 22000|22500|1500|89000|41000|41000|22 105| 23500|24000|1500|95000|50000|50000|23 107| 24000|24500|1500|97000|50000|50000|23 108| 24250|24750|1500|98000|50000|50000|23 121| 27500|28000|1500|111000|62000|62000|24 150| 34750|35250|1500|140000|155000|155000|30
Moldvay basic has monsters up to five HD and those all match up note for note with the RC, so I just used the RC for the rest because I can’t find my Cook expert set... it’s possible that the one I had was a loaner? Instantly revealed as OSR fraud & poser! T_T
The purpose of this is of course that even though it’s so easy to convert OSR and TSR monsters to 5e (to hit bonus is 2 + half HD, or 20 - THACO, and AC is 19-AC for B/X and 20-AC for 2e. For 3e, average normal and touch AC, and for to hit use the appropriate strength or dex mod +3. For all of these, to hits are capped at +12 and AC is capped at 22), the missing puzzle pieces has been XP. Blog of Holding showed that the XP calculator in the DMG is incorrect. so I wanted to try to find out another quick way to get “good enough” xp for these old monsters. 3e’s XP and CR system is too complicated for me #MathIsHard but how about the other games?
Blog of Holding showed that the XP calculator in the DMG is incorrect.
Looking at this table, it looks like you can use B/X monster XP pretty much straight up! That’s awesome. It matches up well enough for me. ACKS and B/X are close enough both to each other and to 5e, too, and so is LotFP up to its HD 11 cap.
I’m glad that 5e was made so compatible with B/X. In B/X you get most of your XP from gold and treasure, but the 5e XP curves are adjusted for this. Five points of XP in ACKS is about the same as one point of XP in 5e. Mostly.
Asterisks, and such... in these games you add on more XP for special abilites and asterisks. But it’s only a little bit of a difference and it’s still close enough.
It’s wonderful that you can use material from this classic OSR darling edition straight up with 5e.
I have a bunch of the al-Qadim boxes so I love being able to run 2e monsters straight up. The big problem is XP.
Looking at this table, we see that 2e XP is completely out of wack to 5e; sometimes it’s twice as much, sometimes it’s four times as much... That’s not what I was hoping for, I convert a lot of 2e stuff and these XP values are all over the place.
2e has its own system of “Hit Dice Value Modifiers” that’s easier to use than the B/X model of “asterisks“ but applying it only makes the results even more out of wack. It’s so typical of 2e; you see something and it’s cool and detailed and flavorful, like the State Machine weather system but then once you apply it the results are just... wtf.
In this case, it’s kind of defensible as it got rid of xp for gold. And, that also gives us an avenue to address this; 2e changed monster XP payouts from B/X (I guess from 0e/1e; I just live in such a B/X bubble that I forget about 0e, Holmes, 1e etc) while 5e instead changed the XP thresholds characters needed to level to get to the same result. So here is a quick conversion formula:
2e XP under 1000 : use 2e value straight up.
2e XP 4000 or more : divide 2e XP by four
2e XP 1001 to 3999 : just say it’s 1500, close enough
Now to the bad news. I love Veins of the Earth and I wanted to use some of its monsters.
In Veins of the Earth page 14 it says
EXPERIENCE POINTS: This the assumed experience points value, Lamentations of the Flame Princess standard. May be low for other games.
That wouldn’t be a prob for 5e; LotFP monster XP isn’t low for 5e, it’s on par. However, the XP values listed in Veins are all over the place. Twice the normal LotFP/5e value for its HD. Sometimes ten times! Sometimes more! For example, Atomic Bees on p 29. One hd. 1500 xp! In normal LotFP, it should be 10 xp. But... these have save vs death. So does B/X killer bee which is half a HD and one asterisk, for 6 xp. And is it 1500 per bee? The average number appearing is seven. 250 if you stumble upon a hive. (Not that far off from the killer bee in Moldvay which appears at an average of 3.5.) The next page over has a Blackfoot Gigaferret. 5hd. Also 1500 xp. Wait, what? And in normal LotFP, it should be 100 xp.
I’m not saying the players don’t deserve 1500 times seven for killing a patrol of atomic bees but... they kinda don’t...? The Moldvay killer bees AC is 13 in 5e terms and the Veins atomic bees AC is 18 in 5e terms. That’s a big difference, sure. On the other hand, the Moldvay bees are more dangerous because even on a successful save, the stinger slowly eats into you.
Other entities like the Funginid Slaves only have four times the normal XP, not 15 times or 150 times. It’s all over the place is what I’m saying. Not sure how to address!