D&D deserves a better XP system

[Kazuel]

reply

Oh, I only read this one and sometimes House Rules. Guess I fell for the troll. No biggy, I've seen worse.


When I wrote the reply, this thread was on the Rules board.

 

[Haradim]

First off, I like that D&D has levels. My problem is that the current system over values the kill and doesn't allow consideration of how skillfully the players handled the combat.

The only thing it places value upon is whether or not the encounter is defeated.

Extra awards are solely on the descretion of the DM, as the game doesn't care how the players decide to solve their problems.

Did they stumble into a trap they could have easily avoided, did the wizards brilliant use of just the right spells save the day? How well the players fight should factor into level rewards and the current system does[n't] allow that.

Because such things aren't really all that critical as a rule. The XP system is oriented around 'defeating the encounter'; it doesn't concern itself with specifics, because, as with many things, those are left up to the DM. It provides a base amount of XP that players will receive if they solve the problem posed to them. One might say/interpret that they didn't want a system that appeared to be directed toward a specific group within the DnD playerbase (something that could be said about a lot of 3.x elements; the game is designed to be playable right out of the book, with the DM encouraged to change anything to suit their needs); as such, pure combat games are, by default, rewarded the exact same way as convoluted political games where combat is avoided or impossible.

If the DM wants to reward someone for specific actions, it is at their descretion. And the book talks about that, too.

Players often think that if they're not killing something they're not making "progress."

In many (if not most) games, they wouldn't be.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Sorry it still sounds to me like you're against killing and more about social skills. Not everyone can have Shakespeare or Milton as DM. The system DOESN'T encourage it. It merely acknowledge it. It's STILL up to the DM to determine how much combat is involved. I know a number of games where NO ONE killed anyone and they still leveled.

With respect, the game rules encourage killing opponents because that is the core method of awarding experience. The DMG has considerably more space devoted to calculating xp's based on encounter difficulty and challenge ratings than it does for story awards and free form experience.

Of course any GM can change these rules for his/her campaign, but the default system is to award xp's based on body count. And this encourages (not requires) play to revolve around conflict and, typically, killing.

 

[Nightfall]

Yes but that depends on HOW you set the encounter up. I mean if you have it so they figure out why a town is being haunted, and then do research and find ways to undo the curse, with no killing involved, seems to me you succeeded and the rules didn't force you to do ANYTHING.

And yes this is kind of trollish but it's worth at least discussing somewhat.

 

[Dark Jezter]

My hate of d02 know no limit.

 

[Nightfall]

My hate of d02 know no limit.

Geez. And here I was hoping we'd stay way from almost Adult Swim/RPG.net references.

 

[Corinth]

Paragraph breaks and proper formatting ceased to be optional over a century ago.

 

[Olive]

Have you read pages 40-41 of the 3.5 DMG? Cos there seems to be lots of information given for non combat XP awards.

I'm starting to get kinda sick of people complainign about the fact that 'x isn't covered in DnD' when it is.

 

[Acid_crash]

You mean the DMG actually has guidelines for non-combat encounters...??? Oh My God, it does...wow. To bad the majority of players don't care about that (referencing majority of players to majority of players that I have personally encountered).

 

[Tewligan]

Olive speaks delicious words of truth, Aethelstan. There is, in fact, a section of the DMG detailing XP for non-killin'-stuff actions. Now, get your crazy-hippy-merit talk outta here before I go all Gygax on yer ass! Sheesh, the kids these days - no respect for tradition!