Talk:Experience Tables/@comment-70.82.210.45-20191229175832/@comment-3045005-20191229190802

This was addressed earlier in this comment section.

In early versions of D&D, druids were more akin to a global organization with different tiers of leadership, and as you leveled up you reached new tiers within the organization.

http://www.angelfire.com/games/Oerth3/Druids/AppendixA.html

"High-level Druids

The number of druids above 11th level in a given land is limited. (See Table 7.)

Druid. A land can have only nine 12th-level Druids; when druids earn enough experience to achieve 12th level, they gain this level's powers only if the land presently has fewer than nine 12th-level Druids. A character also could gain the level by defeating one of the land's nine Druids in magical or hand-to-hand combat. Losers that survive must drop just enough experience points to place them at the beginning of the next lower level (11th).

Archdruid, Great Druid. The same procedure applies when a 12th-level Druid gains enough experience to become an Archdruid, and when an Archdruid reaches Great Druid level. There are only three positions for Archdruids in a given region, and only one Great Druid.

Grand Druid. Ranking above the Great Druids stands a single Grand Druid, the ultimate overseer of all a world's druids. Besides knowing six spells of each level, the Grand Druid has the ability to cast up to six spell levels (as one additional spell or in any combination that totals six levels--one 6th-level spell, six 1st-level spells, one 4th- and one 2nd-level spell, etc.).

Hierophant. The Grand Druid has an essentially political job, and most adventurers eventually tire of it. After attaining 500,000 experience points as a Grand Druid, the character may appoint any worthy Great Druid with 1,500,001 or more experience points as the successor. The former Grand Druid then rises to the 16th experience level, becoming a Hierophant.

As a Hierophant, the character relinquishes the Grand Druid's six bonus spell levels and, furthermore, loses all but 1 experience point (yet remains at 16th level). The character then begins counting experience points again and progressing using Table 8 (next page)."