DotMM: gold and XP per level
If you’re curious about how much gold and xp is really available for characters descending into Halaster’s dungeon, I got ya covered! As part of my project to add some classic sensibilities to Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, I’ve been tallying up the monsters and treasures in each level. Here they are in a massive table with some comparative values.
Level | XP | gp | Total XP (per char) | Char lvl (by book) | Char lvl (by xp) | Character wealth | Expected character wealth |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 33,550 | 1,297 | 14,888 | 6 | 6 | 324 | 2,272 |
2 | 47,550 | 10,097 | 26,775 | 7 | 7 | 2,849 | 4,746 |
3 | 79,575 | 2,163 | 46,669 | 8 | 8 | 3,389 | 6,349 |
4 | 65,650 | 4,186 | 63,081 | 8 | 9 | 4,436 | 7,952 |
5 | 49,300 | 5,975 | 75,406 | 9 | 10 | 5,930 | 9,657 |
6 | 75,400 | 9,705 | 94,256 | 9 | 11 | 8,356 | 11,361 |
7 | 36,300 | 17,835 | 103,331 | 10 | 12 | 12,815 | 13,633 |
8 | 61,000 | 9,935 | 118,581 | 10 | 12 | 15,298 | 15,905 |
9 | 144,750 | 8,455 | 154,769 | 11 | 14 | 17,412 | 18,178 |
10 | 106,200 | 3,325 | 181,319 | 11 | 15 | 18,243 | 20,450 |
11 | 73,225 | 13,760 | 199,625 | 12 | 16 | 21,683 | 24,977 |
12 | 100,500 | 17,430 | 224,750 | 12 | 16 | 26,041 | 29,503 |
13 | 75,500 | 10,000 | 243,625 | 13 | 17 | 28,541 | 34,030 |
14 | 99,625 | 26,925 | 268,531 | 13 | 18 | 35,272 | 38,556 |
15 | 79,550 | 19,618 | 288,419 | 14 | 18 | 40,177 | 47,609 |
16 | 243,700 | 49,065 | 349,344 | 14 | 19 | 52,443 | 56,662 |
17 | 84,050 | 30,750 | 370,356 | 15 | 20 | 60,130 | 65,716 |
18 | 174,200 | 42,510 | 413,906 | 15 | 20 | 70,758 | 74,769 |
19 | 94,200 | 21,960 | 437,456 | 16 | 20 | 76,248 | 88,349 |
20 | 139,800 | 28,465 | 472,406 | 16 | 20 | 83,364 | 101,928 |
21 | 222,400 | 34,800 | 528,006 | 17 | 20 | 92,064 | 115,508 |
22 | 177,750 | 71,775 | 572,444 | 17 | 20 | 110,008 | 129,087 |
23 | 322,700 | 19,050 | 653,119 | 20 | 20 | 114,770 | 804,762 |
Legend
Level: level of the dungeon.
XP: the experience points gained on this level.
gp: the gold gained on this level.
Total XP (per char): how much cumulative experience points a single character has after finishing this level (based on 4 character party). Note that starting XP is 6500.
Char lvl (by book): what character-level a character should be according to the book, after finishing this level of the dungeon.
Char lvl (by xp): what character-level a character will be if they gain all available XP on this level and each preceding one.
Character wealth: how much gold a single character will have after finishing this level, including treasure from previous levels.
Expected character wealth: going by the DMG advice of how many treasure hoards a party finds over the course of a campaign, how much wealth a character is expected to have at the end of this character-level.
Observations
- There’s plenty of XP to be had, players don’t need to clear every level.
- The amount of treasure is not far from the expectation. DotMM can feel a bit bare at times, but gold-wise it’s following 5e norms. People do complain about magic items but I haven’t done a comparison there.
- XP rewards spike on level 9 and 10, and later 16 and 18 jump out also.
- Large treasure hoards are in level 2, 7, 16 and 22.
- At the end of character-level 20, the expected wealth of a character skyrockets, but DotMM doesn’t follow suit.
Spikes
Level 2 – Arcane Chambers (gp spike)
There’s about 8k worth of ale down here but good luck getting that back to the surface!
Level 7 – Maddgoth’s Castle (gp spike)
No barrels of ale this time, but a full longship worth 10k. Just don’t speak the command-word indoors.
Level 9 – Dweomercore (XP spike)
This level of the dungeon is stuffed with archmages (CR 12). They are a massive source of XP if cleared out, but it’s fairly clear that this level is more about roleplay and that the actual adversaries are the students.
Level 10 – Muiral’s Gauntlet (XP spike)
There’s just a whole buncha stuff in here. Lots of Drow. Cloud giants. Muiral.
Note that these two levels are around the famous “level 11 hump” where the XP needed to gain a level spikes as well. 5e is setup for this level to take quite long, while the next ones are a lot quicker.
Level 16 – Crystal Labyrinth (Stardock) (XP and gp spike)
This level has 7 dragons in it, and a ton of Githyanki. Like Dweomercore, it’s not clear if the party is supposed to murder their way through Stardock.
As for gold, the dragon’s hoard is insane here, at 30k. But stealing from it will probably make sure you’re going to have to get all of that XP as well.
Level 18 – Vanrakdoom (XP spike)
I love the pacing of this level. It’s actually low on encounters, helping with the horror feel, and the first few are ridiculously easy (CR ⅛ cultists). Then it goes off the rails and throws a full vampire and adult dragon at you, accompanied by groups of vampire spawn and shadow assassins. Particularly those last ones, at CR 9, appear a lot and add a large chunk of XP. It seems like one of those instances where they changed the power level of a monster last-minute and forgot to compensate in the adventure, like how in Hoard of the Dragon Queen there’s a low level encounter with 6 assassins that are supposed to be veterans.
Level 22 – Shadowdusk Hold (gp spike)
Dracolich with a 55k treasure hoard.
So now what?
My idea is to eventually use gold instead of XP. Using these numbers will be a good way to figure out how much extra treasure I need to spread around. Watch this space!
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