DragonQuest
Guide to Experience Points

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Gaining Experience Points
• How to gain Experience Points
• Character levels
• Adventuring Experience Points awards
• Practice awards
• Spending Experience Points
• Tips for beginners

Introduction

This document discusses the Experience Point system for DragonQuest, and specifically as it is used in the Alusia campaign. It is not meant to apply to any other situations.

The Alusia campaign uses the DragonQuest version 2.19 rules, unless otherwise noted below. All numeric references are to the relevant sections of the DragonQuest rules unless otherwise noted.

Gaining Experience Points

For a detailed explanation of how Experience Points are earned, see DQ section 160.

How to gain experience points

In general, Experience Points are gained in one of two ways:

1. By adventuring; that is, by playing DragonQuest in a campaign. Every gaming session (or every 2–3 hours, for longer sessions) results in one award of Experience Points. See below for details on adventure awards.
2. By practicing when not on adventure. See below.

Character levels

Adventure and practice awards are based on character level. Each ability (weapon, spell, ritual, Skill, etc.) is individually Ranked; a character level is based on how many Ranked abilities are at a given level or higher. There are three character levels:

• Mercenary level is where all characters start.
• Adventurer level characters have at least eight (8) abilities at Rank 4 or above.
• Hero level characters have at least eight (8) abilities at Rank 8 or above.

Adventuring Experience Point awards

Characters gain Experience Points awards on adventure per the following table:

Practice awards

While not adventuring or engaging in other activity (such as practicing in order to spend Experience Points), a character may practice various abilities. The Experience Points earned per day depends on the character level:

Spending Experience Points

Under most circumstances, going up a Rank in an Ability means expending Experience Points, time (for practice), and money (to hire a teacher). See DQ section 161 for details.

The following table summarizes the Experience Point, time and money expenditures to gain one Rank in an Ability:

In the above table:

• Where two Experience Point costs are given, the first is for the first characteristic point gained and the second is for each subsequent point gained. Thus, a character with an Endurance of 15 must pay 5000 EP to increase it to 16, and (after another adventure) another 2500 EP to increase it to 17. (See house rules for exceptions pertaining to Perception.)
• See DQ 161.8 refers to the Experience Point Cost Charts on pp. 206–208.
• Rank refers to the new Rank the character is achieving.
• N refers to the ordinal number of the spell or ritual. This is dependent on the College. For example, the Spell of Walking Unseen is G-4 of the College of Ensorclements and Enchantments, G-5 of the College of Earth Magics, G-9 of the College of Celestial Magics, and G-3 of the College of Black Magics. Members of each of these Colleges would take different amounts of time and pay different Experience Point costs to learn Special Knowledge spells from each of these Colleges.
• The money needed to learn or advance in a Skill varies on whether you hire a teacher, use a book, or self-study. This may also affect the total Experience Point expenditure necessary; see DQ 161.5.

Important: Remember that all Experience Point costs are multiplied by the Racial Experience Multipler for the character race, and may be changed by other racial factors as well. For example, learning the Ranger skill at Rank 0 would take different amounts of Experience Points and time:

• Human: 1000 EP, 8 weeks
• Elf: 900 EP, 8 weeks
• Elf (specializing in Woods): 450 EP, 8 weeks
• Giant: 1500 EP, 8 weeks
• Orc: 900 EP, 9 weeks 1 day

Also note that you can spend time learning or improving up to two (2) Ranked abilities at a time. You might learn Healer while studying to gain a rank in Spell of Mage Wind, or practice with two weapons, for example.

Tips for beginners

1. Perception (PC) is an often-overlooked characteristic. It is used in virtually any ability check involving noticing details, and used heavily by many skills, including Merchant, Ranger, Spy, and Thief. Furthermore, thanks to house rules, you can increase Perception at any time and by any amount, provided you have the Experience Points for it.
2. It's a good idea to increase Rank in a number of Rankable abilities up to Rank 4, so that you can advance to Adventurer level and double your Experience Point awards. A number of weapons skills are fairly inexpensive (in terms of Experience Points) to advance in, as is Horsemanship.