[Quick!] DM Question about XP for Traps

[RedSwan78]

Hey all! I'm gaming here in about 2 hours (it's currently 10:30am pst, 1:30pm est) and I have a question for you DM's regarding Traps.

How do you handle XP for traps? Say the party is 4 lvl 2 characters and you throw a CR2 trap at them.

A- the party does not find the trap and sets it off suffering it's consequences (dmg, poison, whatever). How much, if any, xp should they get? Do you give them the xp for a CR2 Encounter?

B- the party *does* find the trap, and they don't set it off, but do NOT disarm it. How much, if any, xp should they get?

C- the party *does* find the trap and they *do* disarm it. How much, if any, xp should they get?

Are there any rules stated somewhere that I'm missing about how to reward xp for traps, and/or that describe how much you should give them based on the three scenarios above? OR, have you come up with your own style of how to give xp based on those above? (You *could* lump B and C together, because they found the trap and did not suffer it's consequences)

Thanks for reading/helping! (count-down till game time, 2 hours )

Edit- changed title.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Full XP in all cases. They overcame the challenge in all three times, be it in soaking the damage, avoiding the trap or disarming the trap.

 

[Dimwhit]

If you're wanting a second opinion, I second what KaeYoss said.

 

[RedSwan78]

Hmm.. ok.. It just kind of doesnt' make sense to me.. hehe. There's that whole "13 encounters to lvl" thing, and with the traps that people would set up on certain things this seems to accelerate it. Also a trap of 2 lvls higher then the pc's isn't as fearsome (that is a word, yes?? lol!) as a Creature of 2 lvls higher then them.

OK, so I just looked up traps in the DMG index and it took me to page 167 where it says that "Overcoming the challenge of a trap involves encountering the trap, either by disarming it, avoiding it, or simply surviving the damage it deals".

I guess that answers my question right there OK, if ya'll don't mind getting into a bit of DM's Advice/House Rules discussion over it a bit, how do you feel as a DM? (I'm running my first game as a DM here shortly) Does this make sense that the pc's should get full xp for setting off the trap? The reason I ask is becuase of the way you're supposed to lvl PC's, the whole "13 encounters". Do you just throw lower-dc traps at the pc's so they aren't getting a ton of xp from traps, or do you have no problem with the pc's lvling up faster because of XP from traps?

Any suggestions/comments/ways you run your game would be appreciated

 

[Dimwhit]

In our campaigns, we've never run across enough traps for it to be an issue, so I'm not a good one to answer. If there's a problem, I would say that the traps are simply given too high a CR. If they're causing too rapid advancement for your taste, just lower the CR or don't have so many traps. To be honest, I don't like having many traps. Bogs things down a bit. But that's just my opinion. I know a lot of people enjoy traps, especially creative ones.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

XP for traps is OK. You certainly learn from them, and that's what experience is all about.

 

[Brista]

I dont know much about very high level games but from levels 1-10 traps are brutal

Traps plus monsters are so brutal it isn't funny. We were playing some random dungeon generator games last weekend and I rolled trap + monster - a 40' pit trap plus 6 kobolds. I put the kobolds behind cover on the far side of the room, party charged, one dying character in the trap while the party dealt with the kobolds. Character died before they rescued him

If you feel traps aren't doing enough don't be afraid to position the monsters to exploit the trap - they will often know it's there and will make full use of it