D&D Level Advancement: Milestones vs. XP (Part 1 - Milestones)

Players love to see their characters grow in power. And we as dungeon masters control the pace of that growth. So how do you let characters gain levels: based on milestones or experience points (XP)? In this two-part series we take a look at one of the undying controversies of D&D: Milestones vs. XP. This first article investigates milestones as a tool for character growth.

In the end, each one of us will have to decide for themselves which method serves their group’s needs best. These two articles are intended as a thought-provoking guide for every dungeon master to find their own way of level advancement in D&D.

The importance of leveling up in D&D

Gaining class levels is a core feature of Dungeons & Dragons. Characters grow with a campaign in a purely narrative sense. They forge alliances, make enemies, and learn long lost secrets of the world. But as characters evolve with the fiction of the game, players expect their mechanical options to improve as well. This progressive structure of D&D makes sense narratively, and it is a big part of why players come back to the game week after week.

The case for milestone leveling

Milestone leveling takes the arithmetic of experience points out of the game and instead focuses on big narrative beats. Players don’t track XP. Their characters simply gain a level when they complete a milestone. They might have defeated a villainous lieutenant, saved the townsfolk, or cleansed the forgotten city of the elder evil. The Dungeon Master’s Guide gives examples for milestones that include “discovering a hidden location or piece of information relevant to the adventure” or “reaching an important destination” (pg. 261). Ultimately, we can determine many different types of accomplishments that qualify as a “milestone.”

This technique takes away some of the “gamey” nature of experience points. The only thing that matters for character progression is the story. If executed well, milestone leveling can lend a greater sense of accomplishment to the big moments of our campaign. When level progression is tied to the narrative of the game, players earn their characters’ advancement by engaging with the story. Marrying level progression with narrative goals, incentivizes players to actively drive the story towards these goals.

Milestone leveling in a player-driven campaign

If we are looking to run a non-linear, heavily player-driven campaign, defining milestones might be challenging. A published adventure tells us which accomplishments warrant a level advancement. The DMG recommends we designate certain events or challenges as milestones when we build our own campaign. But if we start the campaign without a rigorous outline in mind, there might be no clear milestones that we can define. We can run a great campaign by simply following the players’ lead and letting their characters’ actions drive the narrative. Even if we cannot define milestones from the outset, milestone leveling can still work for such open campaigns.

Instead of creating a fixed outline of milestones that the characters can accomplish, we can stay flexible with potential goals. We might create a list of potential milestones, based on the characters’ backstories and the central tension of our campaign. Here is a list of ten potential milestones for a player-driven campaign set in the Forgotten Realms:

Uncover the fate of the disappearing wood elf tribes in the High Forest.
Save the people of Mornbryn’s Shield from the Zhentarim mercenaries.
Save a nobleman’s son who ventured too deep into Undermountain.
Find an artifact to free the archfey patron of the warlock character.
Drive the orc warbands out of the Tower District in Neverwinter.
Help the Battlehammer Clan defend Gauntlgrym against a drow invasion.
Cleanse the Vault of the Sages in Silverymoon of the psychic terrors that lie beneath it.
Stop the plans of the evil sorceress to infiltrate the Lord’s Alliance.
Find the cure to the frigid evil that has befallen Icewind Dale.
Defeat Klauth, the Great Wyrm of the North.

We can keep these milestones vague because many of them will never come into play. We can throw adventure hooks to any of these milestones towards our players, and simply follow their lead. As the campaign progresses we will throw out irrelevant milestones, and come up with new ones based on the characters’ chosen path. This way, milestone leveling can work even if we don’t know where the campaign is eventually headed.

Milestone leveling and random encounters

Milestone leveling takes away one of the appeals of random encounters. When we award experience points for defeating monsters, players will appreciate the challenge because it means they advance closer to the next level. With milestone leveling, there is no immediate reward for a random encounter besides treasure. That is why we need to pay careful attention to the frequency and content of our random encounters when we are using milestone leveling.

Every such encounter must drive the characters towards another milestone. Random encounters should either directly contribute to reaching the next milestone, or they should provide information about another milestone. 1d4 Wyverns should be servants of the red dragon Klauth. 2d6 orcs become an outpost of the warband in Neverwinter. We should consider this technique whenever we utilize random encounters but it is especially relevant when we use milestone leveling.

Milestone XP – A middle way from the DMG

What we have so far referred to as “milestone leveling” is actually not what it is called in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The DMG calls this method Story-Based Advancement (pg. 261). What the DMG calls milestones (pg. 261) poses something of a compromise between experience points and milestone leveling as it is commonly understood.

The DMG advises us that we can award experience points when the players reach a milestone. This puts some of the incremental nature of counting XP back into our game while still tying character advancement to story advancement. We reward players for accomplishing meaningful goals, while maintaining the sense of incremental advancement that tracking experience points provides.

Awarding XP exclusively for milestones

We can break with the DMG and award milestone XP not in addition to regular experience points, but as the sole method of awarding XP. In that case we need to increase the amount of experience gained for each milestone. If we only award the XP equivalent of an easy combat encounter for a minor milestone, and that of a hard combat encounter for a major milestone, leveling will be slow. We can double these numbers to achieve a more balanced pace of level advancement with experience points awarded solely for milestones. The number of major or minor milestones needed to advance to the next level would roughly break down like this.

Character Level	# of major milestones required	# of minor milestones required
1st	2	6
2nd	2	6
3nd	4	12
4th	5	15
5th	5	15
6th	5	15
7th	5	16
8th	5	16
9th	5	15
10th	8	18
11th	4	10
12th	4	10
13th	3	10
14th	4	10
15th	4	11
16th	4	10
17th	4	10
18th	4	10
19th	3	9

I rounded the number of milestones required for a level-up, so that at almost all levels, characters will overshoot the target number of experience points. That means in actual play, some levels will take fewer milestones.

Gaining XP by advancing the story

As we can see in the table above, with a few outliers, it will take 3-5 major milestones, 10-15 minor milestones, or a combination of the two for characters to advance to the next level. If this feels right for our campaign, we can use milestone XP as the exclusive method for characters to gain experience points. We can shift the number of XP that individual milestones grant up or down depending on the specific accomplishment.

By using this method, we combine the feeling of incremental advancement of tracking experience points with the story-based approach of milestones. Players can watch the number of XP on their character sheets grow with their characters’ achievements in the campaign world. We preserve the incentive structure of experience points, while tying level advancement to the grand narrative beats of our game.

Milestones: D&D level advancement tied to the story

Focusing on milestones as our method for character advancement lets us do away with some of the “gamey” bits of experience points. Instead, players are incentivized to drive the story forward and watch their characters’ power grow with the narrative. We need not define milestones before we start a campaign. Instead, we can keep a loose list of potential milestones handy but let the characters’ choices redefine that list as we progress in the game. Random encounters require special attention when we use milestone leveling. Since defeating random monsters will not grant experience points, we need to make sure that random encounters drive the story forward.

We can marry experience points and milestone-based advancement by awarding XP when characters reach milestones. Giving out twice the amount of XP of a hard combat encounter for a major milestone, and twice the amount of an easy combat encounter for a minor milestone is a good starting point. With this method, players will feel the incremental nature of tracking experience points, while advancement remains firmly tied to the story of our game.