Experience Debt

The experience debt rule replaces normal experience costs
and level losses. Instead of actually losing experience,
characters must pay back experience costs from future
experience gains. Any time a character would lose
experience (be it from item creation, spell casting, or
even death or level loss from a level drain), no actual
experience is lost (and the character’s level remains the
same). Instead, a debt is accrued equal to the experience
that would have been lost. Whenever that character gains
new experience, half of it goes to paying off the debt.

For example, Jason plays Grimfal, a 6th-level fighter with
18,000 experience points. While facing a wight, Grimfal
suffers a level drain, losing one level. After 24 hours,
Grimfal must make a Fortitude save or have the loss be
permanent. Grimfal fails and thus should be at the midpoint
for experience between 5th and 6th level (12,500
XP). Because experience debt rules are in place, Grimfal
doesn’t actually lose a level (he’s still 6th level), but he
does incur a debt of 5,500 XP (18,000 – 12,500). From
now on, half the experience Grimfal earns goes to pay
off this debt, with only the remaining half adding to his
18,000. Once the 5,500 XP is paid off , Grimfal accrues
experience normally.

Using this system, characters never lose experience and
thus never lose what they have earned. Th ey do pay a
price for anything that has an experience cost, but that
price is less painful. Th is system has several advantages.
First, remembering exactly how many hit points a
character gained at his last level is never necessary, since
he does not lose XP. Secondly, a character can make
magic items even if he just went up a level, since XP
spent doesn’t actually come off his total.

To keep things in check, a GM should disallow willing
expenditure of XP if a character has a debt greater than
half his current XP total. Th us, a character with 20,000
XP and a debt of 11,000 XP can’t spend experience
points to make items or cast spells, though if raised from
the dead or level drained those XP costs would still go to
his (now vast) debt.