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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34819
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34819
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It only prevents development if the earning of new experience stagnates.

As in most RPG's the challenges your characters face should become harder and harder, which means that they will earn more experience with each higher-level encounter.

If you would like some guidance as to how this could be done I recommend taking a look at the Cypher system or one of its implementations, such as Numenera. There you have four different categories of "gaining levels", each of which you have to choose exactly once in whatever order you choose before you can advance to the next tier. Experience is handled a bit differently there: Two players get one EXP whenever the GM introduces some difficulty or all PCs get EXP when they encounter something. With 4/5 EXP you can choose a level-up. The amount of EXP required doesn't rise and therefore there is no need to adapt the amount of EXP you get for doing something. There is also no EXP for the normal "monster slaying". It might give you some inspiration.

Either you have static EXP gain and static level-up cost or you have increasing EXP cost accompanied by higher difficulty challenges that award more EXP. Combining static gain and rising cost will stall the progress and require a lot of grinding, making your book come to a halt. But at the same time it would more realistically show the real world if you are going for such a direction. You can't do everything - there is just not enough time to become a master of all. Either you are a Jack of all trades and a master of none, or you are a master of one, but a beginner in most everything else.

Original score: 2