Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
When is an encounter 'beat'?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="DestroyYouAlot" data-source="post: 3063914" data-attributes="member: 36618"><p>I was pondering this one just the other night. Luckily, I don't hand out XP until the next session, so I have a few minutes to ponder. </p><p></p><p>The PCs fought two abishai (draconic, devilish servants of Tiamat), downing one and driving off the other. They already saw one go down with a critical hit (arrow in the eye), and then get back up two rounds later to fly away, so they know that these things regenerate, and they saw that their non-magical weapons weren't cutting the mustard, so they know that they have damage reduction. I left the encounter at a "what the hell were those things?" cliffhanger, and there's a couple of things they <em>don't</em> know: </p><p></p><p>a) Unless it occurs to them to use holy water or a <em>blessed</em> weapon, they have no way of killing the one that's still there (these mothers have 5/+1 damage reduction, regenerate 4 hp a round, and only holy water / blessed weapon damage is permanent). </p><p></p><p>b) The abishai have several nasty spell-like abilities, none of which require somatic gestures to use, so if (as I suspect will happen) they bind this thing and try to question it, it's going to try to <em>charm</em> somebody into releasing it, and - failing that - summon baatezu (dretches, I believe) to make their lives miserable.</p><p></p><p>This presents several intersting XP-related questions. First, the dretches: XP for them? This is an easy one, the DMG is real clear that summoned monsters are woth no XP, as the ability to summon is taken into account in figuring the Challenge Rating of the creature that's doing the summoning. (Which raises an interesting question - should I even award <em>any</em> XP for the abishai, until the PCs discover and defeat the villain who's summoning <em>them</em>? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> Hehehe...) </p><p></p><p>But, here's the sticky thing: What about regeneration? Sure, the PCs defeated the beasties, from a certain point of view - they reduced <em>both</em> of their HPs to negative numbers, at one point or another - but they're not dead, they're still a threat, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the one they've got is going to get away inside of five minutes, next session. You could make the case that they've bested the abishais in combat, and deserve XP for this (which interpretation I am leaning towards), only there's that nagging voice that says <em>it's in the Challenge Rating...</em> After all, an ability like regeneration surely figures into a CR calculation, and the thing that makes that such a pain isn't that they're healing damage during a battle, but that they can get back up afterwards unless you do the <em>right</em> kind of damage. </p><p></p><p>The answer is really simpler than all that, I'm just playing devil's advocate (literally), here. Here's how I handle it: The PCs get XP for the battle - <u>once</u> - whether they have to "re-kill" the things eight times, or they figure out the "magic number" and kill them "for real", or they get away and are gone. What they <em>won't</em> get XP for is downing them more than once in a battle, or for driving them off only to have them fly overhead out of bow range to heal for a minute and come back for more. It's all gotta come down to DM common sense, in the end, and what "feels right" for your game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DestroyYouAlot, post: 3063914, member: 36618"] I was pondering this one just the other night. Luckily, I don't hand out XP until the next session, so I have a few minutes to ponder. The PCs fought two abishai (draconic, devilish servants of Tiamat), downing one and driving off the other. They already saw one go down with a critical hit (arrow in the eye), and then get back up two rounds later to fly away, so they know that these things regenerate, and they saw that their non-magical weapons weren't cutting the mustard, so they know that they have damage reduction. I left the encounter at a "what the hell were those things?" cliffhanger, and there's a couple of things they [i]don't[/i] know: a) Unless it occurs to them to use holy water or a [i]blessed[/i] weapon, they have no way of killing the one that's still there (these mothers have 5/+1 damage reduction, regenerate 4 hp a round, and only holy water / blessed weapon damage is permanent). b) The abishai have several nasty spell-like abilities, none of which require somatic gestures to use, so if (as I suspect will happen) they bind this thing and try to question it, it's going to try to [i]charm[/i] somebody into releasing it, and - failing that - summon baatezu (dretches, I believe) to make their lives miserable. This presents several intersting XP-related questions. First, the dretches: XP for them? This is an easy one, the DMG is real clear that summoned monsters are woth no XP, as the ability to summon is taken into account in figuring the Challenge Rating of the creature that's doing the summoning. (Which raises an interesting question - should I even award [i]any[/i] XP for the abishai, until the PCs discover and defeat the villain who's summoning [i]them[/i]? ;) Hehehe...) But, here's the sticky thing: What about regeneration? Sure, the PCs defeated the beasties, from a certain point of view - they reduced [i]both[/i] of their HPs to negative numbers, at one point or another - but they're not dead, they're still a threat, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the one they've got is going to get away inside of five minutes, next session. You could make the case that they've bested the abishais in combat, and deserve XP for this (which interpretation I am leaning towards), only there's that nagging voice that says [i]it's in the Challenge Rating...[/i] After all, an ability like regeneration surely figures into a CR calculation, and the thing that makes that such a pain isn't that they're healing damage during a battle, but that they can get back up afterwards unless you do the [i]right[/i] kind of damage. The answer is really simpler than all that, I'm just playing devil's advocate (literally), here. Here's how I handle it: The PCs get XP for the battle - [u]once[/u] - whether they have to "re-kill" the things eight times, or they figure out the "magic number" and kill them "for real", or they get away and are gone. What they [i]won't[/i] get XP for is downing them more than once in a battle, or for driving them off only to have them fly overhead out of bow range to heal for a minute and come back for more. It's all gotta come down to DM common sense, in the end, and what "feels right" for your game. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
When is an encounter 'beat'?
Top