DMs - a druid question

[ForceUser]

I am a DM myself, and also the player of a 6th-level orc druid in a bi-weekly campaign. In said campaign world, the tribe of orcs my character belongs to reveres animal and ancestor spirits which are interpreted by tribal gothis - the druids - who also act as advisors and counsellors to the chiefs. The Tribes of the Beast, as they are called, have left behind an evil heritage and strive to live in harmony with the land and in peace with some of their neighbors, the humans, dwarves, and halflings. Other neighbors, such as the hill giants, gnolls, and evil orcs, are a constant threat. As gothi, my character has fostered goodwill between his tribe and the humans, earned a respect for orcs from a colony of giant owls, and defended his people's lands against giants and their minions.

Now that you have the gist of things, here's the question: would you award my character XP for single-handedly killing a trio of hill giants if he did so using a combination of owl form, the Natural Spell feat, and call lightning while attacking at night from extreme range?

Think about it. Using said combination, my character could rain down a 6d10 lightning bolt every ten minutes with very little risk to himself from three CR 7 monsters. Assume the giants are normal example of their race and are "trapped" out in the open, with no place to seek shelter from my attacks.

So what you have is a very specific set of circumstances (nighttime, stormy, Natural Spell, normal hill giants, no cover for miles) that allow for an encounter decidedly in the druid's favor. You might even ask yourself, in such a scenario, if there is even any point to rolling the dice. Given that, did the druid earn the XP from defeating his enemy?

Discuss

 

[Fenes 2]

If he earned xp, then not much imho - there was no risk for himself. Shooting fish in a barrel is about as risky.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

You should get full experiance points. All you did was use the characters powers to thier fullest extent. It's not as if you were using a powerful artifact to make them kill themselves.

The skilled use of a characters abilities should be applauded. Otherwise a Rogue would never level up.

Take your EXP and laugh all the way home with them.
(besides We Druid players never get any respect unless we do massive damage from a distance.)

 

[ejja_1]

I would give reduced exp, just becuase there is no real challenge to what happened in the encounter. However it would still be a substantial amount even with the reduction.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

You should get full experiance points. All you did was use the characters powers to thier fullest extent. It's not as if you were using a powerful artifact to make them kill themselves.

The skilled use of a characters abilities should be applauded. Otherwise a Rogue would never level up.

Damn straight. Unless your group only give XP for your own danger, not your accomplishments, you deserve full XP for scouting the problem, identifying the right way to deal with it and taking them out. One could just as easily ask if a wizard deserves XP for using the right save or die spell on a creature with a known weakness, or an archer assassin for using cover and stealth to kill in one blow. If those would be penalized, so be it, but otherwise, give the xp as the cr requires...

Note - if you decided to go "big slow thing that can't fly but has a high CR" HUNTING, XP would be much less if any. There's a difference between dealing elegantly with a threat and going out looking for (a complete lack of) trouble. Then again, I wouldn't award much XP for any sort of hunting trip.

Kahuna burger

 

[dave_o]

I'd give you full XP, and even more, for the sheer cool factor.

And it sounds like you do a lot of roleplaying, so there's more.

I'd rain down XP.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Until I read Kahuna_Burgers post, I was going to say that there should be a reduction in xp for that, since you weren't at risk.

But then I figured, you WERE at risk. You were dealing with three giants, who would likely squish you into the ground very fast if you got near them. So using your abilities to the fullest in this way was clever playing, and you deserve full xp for it.

But if it was the only tactic you ever used, after a while I'd start penalising you, or encouraging the group in other directions. It's not that much FUN, after all.

 

[kengar]

I'd go with Kahuna B & Tallarn. Full XP for using your class abilities intelligently. If you kept re-using (or trying to re-use) the same tactic over & over, though; then you wouldn't see as much XP later because you weren't really learning or doing anything new.

 

[Umbran]

The DMG, pg 167, "Modifying Encounter Levels":

"Adjust the XP award and the EL depending on how greatly circumstances change the encounter's difficulty."

So, I'd probably give you fewer XP, because the circumstances mad the encounter very easy for you.

The first time you pulled such a trick, I'd probably give you a bit of an XP bonus for crafty thinking. Softens the "easy encounter" reduction somewhat.

 

[Gothmog]

Ok, lets see here. Three hill giants are EL 10, and CR 7 each respectively for a total of 7200 XP! You didn't put yourself in any danger, used only one spell on a set of basically defenseless targets (even though they were giants). I'd say little to no XP for it- maybe something along overcoming a CR 3-5 encounter at most (600-1200 XP). Yes, its a cool tactic, and using your head, but involved no real danger to the PC, and it seems like he learned very little from it. If you disagree, think about how much you would learn from shooting a gun from 10' up into a barrel of rattlesnakes.

This is also why I HATE the XP for killing things standard that D&D takes. Give XP for accomplishing goals and missions, and for good roleplaying, not for simply killing monsters.