Class and Level Geekery VIII (spoilers ahoy!)

[Emanick]

The assumption that enemies met by the Order are merely default creatures from the Monster Manual is very far-reaching.

The basic rule of random encounters (spelled out in the DMG) is that they should be "level-appropriate". This has even been spoofed in the comic itself. Fighting creatures who give zero xp due to being too weak is not "level-appropriate". It is not fun, their loot is pathetic, and the whole exercise is just a waste of time, as any D&D player will tell you.

So, a better way of going forward would be to assume that, on average, all encounters were on the average level of the party, and calculate the xp accordingly.

However, this would still be inconclusive, since there is basically no way of knowing the exact level of all enemies the Order vanquished, apart from Rich telling us openly; and thus, all such assumptions are still only speculation.

That's a valid point. However, the assumption we're working under pegs both random encounters as below EL 13, so if we were assuming that they were level-appropriate encounters, Roy would actually have MORE XP, and we would still have to make the assumption that Roy was level 13+, even 14+ (since if we take Eugene at his word, Roy is close to 14 if not there already).

I feel comfortable making the assumption that the purple worm we saw was not an unusually weak one, or that the beetles we saw were not weaker than the ones we see in the Monster Manual. There aren't even rules for such monsters.