DotMM: gold and XP per level

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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