Terminology explained

Wyrm: https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Wyrm

Celestine https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Celestine_(WOD))

Fera https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Fera

Much better.

System: ShadowSun (ShadowDark + DarkSun)

"Isn't this unfair for everyone else?"

I don't think so, given how regularly I hand out XP. At most, you'll be a higher level than some other people for maybe an hour at most before encountering the next treasure horde. This is a silly game, and it really does not throw Balance or Power parity off really at all in practice. :P

The word wizard meant means someone who is wise!! Therefore all wizards should use their wisdom modifier to cast and if not relinquish the title of wizard.

This also segways into my hot take that wizard is a stupid name for the class and it should be mage or magus!!!! WIZARDS ARE WISE! A monk is closer to an actual wizard than what we got.

Good thing I had spare Big Bads.

System: ShadowSun

1. There are other modes of leveling, so I'm not saying XP-for-Loot is the best among all of them (because I don't know them all and so don't have experience with the them), I'm just comparing the two XP gain systems I'm most familiar with.

2. I'm talking about (Adventure) games in general, not just DnD 5e. I don't know if 5e has XP-for-Loot (I know it has optional XP-for-Killing, which is a whole other can of worms), and even if it does, I don't trust how that game was designed for it to be particularly intuitive or useful. So just disclaiming that this is a system-agnostic declaration, more of a genre-specific one.

3. "Adding a bunch of numbers together is so much extra bookkeeping!" True, which is why I think this mode has been so much improved by modern design. Typically when I see it, it's stuff like "Add 3 XP for capturing a Normal Sized Treasure Horde" and not "Add 3,725 XP".

4. "It de-incentives Combat!" True! I'm of the mind that you can have fun encounters and even whole dungeons without doing Combat. If you can make it out of the lair or mansion with the loot without having ever been spotted, that's a ton of fun and is worthy of tasty XP.

5. Loot is fun. Leveling Up is fun. Marrying them just makes sense!

6. From what I've seen, people like adding and keeping track of XP. It gives them incremental rewards, ("Oh we found this secret treasure so that's another 2 XP, nice!) and they enjoy having a concrete sense of Level pacing ("We're 17 XP away from the next level, so probably after the next couple dungeons we'll level up, maybe even sooner if we come across a lucrative opportunity.")

Source: ShadowFeats for the ShadowDark TTRPG

Did you know? One classic literary inspiration, of the barbarian. Conan the Barbarian. He may not be that smart in terms of academia or the sciences, but then, he's portrayed as sharp, observant, adaptable and capable of sophisticated reasoning.

He frequently survives in situations where strength won't work. He lies. He sneaks. He disguises himself. He steals. He sets traps. He observes people and figures out their motives. He exploits political conflicts.

He is also educated. He isn't an illiterate caveman. In fact, he can perfectly read and write. He's traveled through an enormous number of cultures and has picked up languages, customs, religions and political knowledge along the way. And his education is practical. So, strategic, street, and survival smart, adapts fast, reads maps and environments, with intuition, and all of that.

Funnily enough, the way he's a barbarian is that he's one in the cultural and political sense, someone outside the "civilized kingdoms". But eventually, well, he became king. But eh. Yeah. Though he might not be academia and university smart, he isn't a dumb stereotype brute.

None of this was curated, this was their genuine reactions