View source for Book of Gears (3.5e Sourcebook)/Character Advancement

===== A Little Note on XP Costs =====
I know that you're probably thinking "If XP rewards are handed out in a less per-diem manner, doesn't that mean that XP costs would be more noticeable and even actually have meaning?" And of course the answer is "yes." Sort of.

The problem with XP costs isn't just that they don't really cost anything "in the long run" (which they don't), the problem is that they are bad for the game. Like Age increases before them, an XP cost is essentially running up a credit card bill. You get whatever it is that you were buying with the XP cost ''now'', and you pay ''later'' (by death from old age or not going up in level when you otherwise would). That's never balanced, because there's no guarantee that the character in question will still be being played when that credit card comes due.

So even though staggering XP gains out longer as suggested in this book ''would'' make XP costs more meaningful than the hoax they are in the basic rules, we still strongly advise you to do away with them in your home games as we have in ours.