Can you get a treachery card with the starting 15 exp that the overlord gets at the start of the campaign?

You never buy a Treachery card with your XP, merely Treachery points, which then can be used to get access to Treachery cards.

As for the starting XP, I think it is not allowed to buy Treachery points, although I am not aware of (or too lazy to search for) the actual rules passage.

Page 24 of the rtl rule book defines the different type of upgrades available to the overlord. As you can see the upgrades that you are allowed do not include either treachery, or upgrading monsters. In addition there has been a statement by KW that you can not buy additional LT's with the starting 15xp.

"Avatar Upgrades
Avatar Upgrades are represented by Avatar Upgrade cards.
There are 15 generic Avatar Upgrades that any Avatar can be
upgraded with. (These say “Any Avatar” on them.) There are
also five Avatar Upgrades specific to each Avatar, which can
only be purchased when the overlord has chosen that Avatar for
the current campaign.
Avatar Upgrades can improve the Avatar itself, upgrade a
specific type of monster, or bring into play a lieutenant for the
overlord to command.
The XP cost of each individual Avatar Upgrade card is listed on
the card itself, in the upper left corner. Once the cost is paid,
the overlord takes the card in question and keeps it faceup on
the table during play.
Treachery Upgrades
The overlord can use XP to increase his treachery. The cost to
purchase one point of treachery of a given type, as well as the
maximum number of points of each type the overlord can have,
vary based on which Avatar the overlord has chosen. Both
values are listed on the Avatar sheet.
Treachery works best with the rules presented in The Well of
Darkness and The Altar of Despair. Players without either of
those expansions, however, can use the rules found under
“Simplified Treachery,” on this page.
Monster Upgrades
Each monster has a Copper, Silver, Gold, and Diamond form. At
the start of the campaign, all monsters begin in their Copper form.
The overlord can upgrade all of the monsters in one category
(humanoid, beast, or eldritch) by spending the XP shown on his
Avatar sheet, according to the following rules."

Doesnt mention about not being allowed to not upgrade treachery or monsters. Monsters is a mute point cause 15 isnt enough to upgrade them anyway. The only thing it specifically mentions in the FAQ is luets.

So far im getting a bunch of arguments, spliting hairs that treachery is not concidered an avatar upgrade because of semantics.

Another split hair, right from the FAQ:

Q: Exactly what cards and upgrades can the overlord spend his initial 15 XP on? Can he purchase lieutenants?
A: Avatar upgrade cards only . No lieutenants.

See page 24 of the RTL rule book. The main section is OVERLORD UPGRADES. Under this are three sub areas Avatar Upgrades, Treachery Upgrades, and Monster Upgrades. It is fairly clear that they are seperate upgrades types under the overall heading of OL upgrades.

Brian

As mentioned on page 24 of the RtL Rules, there are three types of Overlord Upgrades. They are Avatar Upgrades, Treachery Upgrades, and Monster Upgrades. Of those, only Avatar Upgrades may be purchased with the initial 15 XP for the OL. This is clarified in the FAQ entry stated above. Therefore, Treachery points may NOT be purchased with the initial 15 XP.

So, if I'm understanding correctly, there are three types of upgrades: avatar, treachery, and monster. Only the avatar ones are available in the setup stage, and of those lieutenants got nixed by the FAQ?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

James McMurray said:

That is correct. This only applies to the 15xp that the OL gets to start with. I think that part of the reason for the lt's being nixed is that having 3 lt's from turn one would be almost impossilbe to stop as they go a sieging. It would only take a couple of turns with all three on the city to start rolling for a raze. The chances of the hero's having enough equipment to take all three down in only one turn is pretty small. Even if they survived the first two lt's the OL obvious trick would be to flee when all of the hero's were badly damaged. If they continued they would be easy to get a TPK with the next lt. As you noted the monster catagory is a non starter as they are all greater than 15xp. Treachery would be available, but one treachery is not going to make much difference to start with.

If you are starting at Gold or Silver level, then all of the xp is available to buy any upgrade, including the lt's and treachery. Of course the hero's also get a bigger pot to start out with.

Brian