I posted before the idea of using a single number for advancement, and Krome brought it up again in another thread. I'd like to suggest it again, because I'm a fan of making an advancement process that uses simple, quick numbers.
I also think the current advancement tables are not all that user friendly, since they don't have a consistent pattern and they make the system appear to be more complex than it is.
I'm going to suggest two versions, one that is a tweaked version of my original suggestion (based in part on the encounters per level that Jason mentions here), and one that is based on that and the current Alpha rules.
The second is the new one, and I think I like it better.
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Version One: One Path
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1. It takes 1500 Experience Points to get to the next level. It doesn't matter what level, it's just another 1500 XP.
2. The difficulty of the encounter, not the CR of the individual elements of the encounter, determines how much experience each encounter is worth. Using Table 12-1 (Encounter Design):
Easy: 75xp
Average: 100xp
Challenging: 125xp
Hard: 150xp
Epic: 175xp
This would mean 13 Average encounters per level for fast advancement (Again, I'm basing this on what Jason notes here).
For slower advancement, shift everything over by 25xp.
Medium: Easy is 50xp, Average is 75xp, etc...
Slow: Easy is 25xp, Average is 50xp, etc...
(Using the above numbers, Medium is approximately 20 Average encounters per level. Slow is approximately 30 Average encounters per level.)
The result is less tables, an easy to remember goal for the players and the DM (it is always 1500xp to the next level), and the experience award is always relative to the challenge of the encounter regardless of how many PCs are in the party.
And all the math for how fast you advance is on the DM's side. Players don't need to check a column of numbers. No matter how fast or slow advancement is for your game, the players just need to know that it's 1500xp to the next level.
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Version Two: Three Paths
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1. Three Experience paths. One for each of Slow, Medium and Fast.
Fast: It always takes 1000 Experience Points to get to the next level.
Medium: It always takes 1500 Experience Points to get to the next level.
Slow: It always takes 2000 Experience Points to get to the next level.
2. The difficulty of the encounter, not the CR of the individual elements of the encounter, determines how much experience each encounter is worth. Using Table 12-1 (Encounter Design):
Easy: 50xp
Average: 75xp
Challenging: 100xp
Hard: 125xp
Epic: 150xp
This still means 13 Average encounters per level for Fast advancement (20 for Medium and 27 for Slow, so it increments by 7), but the DM doesn't have to shift XP based on advancement speed. There is still one number for the leveling goal (assuming one advancement speed is used for a whole campaign), so players never have to look at a chart to figure out the XP for their next level.
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Thoughts?
I like this type of an XP system much better than the default 3.5 rules or the Alpha rules, though I'd like to see the system based around 1000XP per level instead of 1500 just for neatness sake and then use the shift of XP/encounter to adjust leveling so it's always 1000XP per level no matter what system you use.
I use a very simple and effective experience system with my current group. Whenever I feel like the group has done enough to level up or that they need a higher level, I give them a level. No tracking of experience points is needed.
I like this type of an XP system much better than the default 3.5 rules or the Alpha rules, though I'd like to see the system based around 1000XP per level instead of 1500 just for neatness sake and then use the shift of XP/encounter to adjust leveling so it's always 1000XP per level no matter what system you use.
I tried that. With 13 encounters per level as a standard for fast advancement it required weird numbers for rewards on the slow advancement track. So I chose 1500, which make for neater numbers (increments of 25) for every form of advancement. Since the amount needed stays the same every level, 1500 is pretty much just as neat as 1000.
I use a very simple and effective experience system with my current group. Whenever I feel like the group has done enough to level up or that they need a higher level, I give them a level. No tracking of experience points is needed.
In my experience, most people want mechanics for character advancement in their RPG rules. In addition, I don't think your rule would be what most people expect from a D&D-inspired game. Maintaining a feel of "this is D&D," even if the name is now Pathfinder, I think is important for the game.
Decipher's CODA LotR RPG used a similar flat rate per level of 2000xp. It seemed to work pretty well. A shame they made the system so setting specific to LotR and Star Trek...had some nice potential.
-Weylin Stormcrowe
I've honestly never been a fan of the set experience per level system.
Is there a reason why you're not a fan?