Back in AD&D, each class had its own experience point table. Partly this was because the characters gained abilities at different rates, so a thief gaining levels quickly kept it more in line with the abilities of the fighter. And part of it was because that is just how they did things then. Different classes, different rates of advancement.

The most iconic advancement was the fighter, which started off as requiring 2000, 4000, and 8000 for the first four levels. After that, the XP didn’t quite double. And at level nine, the progression became flat.

There is an early note by Gygax that expects characters to reach level 9 after about a year of play, and to gain a level or so every year thereafter! It was a different world! Part of that was that they expected 9^th level characters to retire – and certainly – the game did not support high-level games that well. Not that that stopped people trying!

In addition, in those days, about 80% of the experience points you gained was for treasure.

So, what would AD&D experience point tables look like when applied to D&D 5E xp values?

This is a quick-and-dirty calculation, which assumes that 5^th level is the same point for everyone, and everything else changes around that!

It is not a pretty result!

Right. That makes little sense! How powerful is the wizard under this scheme, anyway? (This is due to the Magic-User’s XP table being VERY unusual in AD&D – in fact, it’s the closest to a 5e progression in the middle levels.)

One of the reasons I am attracted to the older scheme of XP – though it is totally impractical under 5E without completely rewriting how XP awards work – is that the near doubling of XP allowed new characters to catch up very quickly. If you start at level 1 when everyone else is level 7, by the time they are level 8, you are level 6! There is some of that in 5E, but the flatter progression doesn’t allow catching up as easily – and it’s the big drawback with milestones.

I also miss XP for treasure, as it changes the focus of the game. Doing that is not appropriate for all the story-based games these days, but I do enjoy an old-fashioned dungeon delve from time to time!