D&D 5E Downtime XP farming with animate dead or conjuration spells

[Benjamin Olson]

XP farming? I guess some people just want an MMO in Tabletop's clothing.

If you're all fans of computer RPGs with XP farming then yes, it may amuse your group from a flavor standpoint to say you did this weird kill your summons for XP "exploit", but actually playing it out sounds ludicrous. Just saying you just spent all your downtime practicing destruction magic on your own zombies and getting some XP would be fine if XP gaining downtime activity is a thing in your group. But then just saying you spent it practicing spells should merit the same treatment. Grinding through the actual repetitive spellcasting in actual table time is meaningless, unless maybe there are some sort of complications.

 

[GrahamWills]

Forget the rules then. You get a dagger and I'll grab a greatsword. Then we hit a stump or something and see which does more damage. This isn't rocket science.

Me, if I had decent chainmail and both a stiletto wielding guy and a guy with a greatsword were attacking me, I'd take out the stiletto guy first as he might kill me. I'll take a big hit from the greatsword guy and might get a broken rib and some serious bruising, but he's nowhere near the threat to my life the other guy is.

A greatsword is not actually terribly great in practice. It's too slow, and too easy to read, so you'll nearly always be able to take the blow on an armored area. A dagger will either do nothing, or incapacitate you.

Rolemaster models this well. A rapier against plate will almost never do any damage, until it kills you. A greatsword will almost always do a bucketload of concussion hits, but not often a critical, and even then mostly bleed / stun / bruise as apposed to "... and you die"

 

[snickersnax]

I think there is a fundamental disconnect going on here, illustrated by the way the topic was framed ("Downtime XP farming") as well as your reference to seeing this on a board discussing loopholes in the system.

Simpy put, there is no need to "farm" in D&D. You do not win this game. You do not have to "farm" GP or XP by continuing to do mundane tasks, or grinding, or whatever.

As others have stated, if playing at a certain level is an issue, then ... just play at that level.

The use of XP is a completely arbitrary game mechanic; you can award it for monster kills, or for gold, or for good roleplaying, or just have it for milestones. It doesn't reflect the real world, or even the game world (Wizards probably don't get better at casting spells by killing orcs, you know). It's just an abstract game mechanic used to map out the whole "zero to hero" feeling to allow players to have a sense of fun and advancement over the course of a campaign.

And this would be the exact opposite of that. But, again, this is supposed to be fun. If creating rules for farming and grinding out XP is fun for you, no one will stop you.

I can imagine PCs in a sandbox where an encounter is clearly above their level, and the players thinking the solution to "winning" this otherwise unwinnable encounter is more levels,

Or a more story-based plotline where the players have managed to bypass significant parts of the plot through brilliant play, luck or stupidity and end up facing encounters that they can't handle and again recognize that success would be achieved if they had more levels.

Now the party may just table the overly difficult encounters and come back when they are ready, or they might look for other ways to solve the question:

How to we solve a problem to which the answer is : We need more levels?

 

[Oofta]

Me, if I had decent chainmail and both a stiletto wielding guy and a guy with a greatsword were attacking me, I'd take out the stiletto guy first as he might kill me. I'll take a big hit from the greatsword guy and might get a broken rib and some serious bruising, but he's nowhere near the threat to my life the other guy is.

A greatsword is not actually terribly great in practice. It's too slow, and too easy to read, so you'll nearly always be able to take the blow on an armored area. A dagger will either do nothing, or incapacitate you.

Rolemaster models this well. A rapier against plate will almost never do any damage, until it kills you. A greatsword will almost always do a bucketload of concussion hits, but not often a critical, and even then mostly bleed / stun / bruise as apposed to "... and you die"

A broken rib from a greatsword? More like cut almost in half. Oh, and the reach with the greatsword is going to be far far better. Need a spear? Done. One handed? Done. (link one) Hold off a group? Done. (link two) Chop someone in half? Done. (link three).

Check out some of the demos
One-Handing a zweihander
One against many
Chop-chop

Not the right tool for every job, but it's a myth that they were just metal clubs.

 

[Salthorae]

How to we solve a problem to which the answer is : We need more levels?

Go adventure like you were doing before!

 

[Oofta]

I can imagine PCs in a sandbox where an encounter is clearly above their level, and the players thinking the solution to "winning" this otherwise unwinnable encounter is more levels,

Or a more story-based plotline where the players have managed to bypass significant parts of the plot through brilliant play, luck or stupidity and end up facing encounters that they can't handle and again recognize that success would be achieved if they had more levels.

Now the party may just table the overly difficult encounters and come back when they are ready, or they might look for other ways to solve the question:

How to we solve a problem to which the answer is : We need more levels?

Tell the PCs that need more levels "You now have more levels. Starting next game you will be level x and have y more gold. I'll give you an inspiration point if you come up with a good story for how you got there."

 

[Baron Opal II]

How long it would take to gain a level at a rate of 10 xp per point of damage inflicted and 20 xp per point of damage sustained?

~edit~

Just noticed this: "How to we solve a problem to which the answer is : We need more levels? "

Well, if this is semi-serious, then this is how I do it.

a) You want to summon something and beat the snot out of it for xp? Rock on! You get the aforementioned 10xp per hp dealt, 20xp per hp suffered. If your friends help, the total xp award is diluted appropriately. It has no treasure, obviously, and it is going to try to kill you. If you get killed or maimed that's your own fault.

b) You can buy training / coaching / mentoring / whatever for 1gp per xp. You can gain 1000 xp per week this way. This is great when your just a bit shy of the next level.

c) I run an AD&D game, so you're needing hundreds of thousands of xp to gain a level pretty quickly. This works until you get to 5th level or so. Then, you just need to adventure to get the volume of xp needed from combat, treasure, and objectives.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Me, if I had decent chainmail and both a stiletto wielding guy and a guy with a greatsword were attacking me, I'd take out the stiletto guy first as he might kill me. I'll take a big hit from the greatsword guy and might get a broken rib and some serious bruising, but he's nowhere near the threat to my life the other guy is.

Much of the time they used half-swording techniques with the greatsword to mitigate these issues, but really they were a specialized and very late weapon (arising when plate was supplanting chainmail) which were a compromise between having something with heft, having something with some versatility, and having something with threat range. But they have these things and will potentially bash you up real good, with a lot higher chance of succeeding on causing some injury than Mr. Stiletto who has no reach on you, unless you're also carrying something comparable.

If an equal opportunity arises to take out each of them, kill the greatsword guy, because there will be fewer opportunities to get past his defenses. Alternatively kill the stiletto guy because he's crazy enough to take you on with just a stiletto, who knows what he'll do.

 

[Maxperson]

When was the last time an easy or medium difficulty encounter TPK'd your party?

Super bad luck on the part of the players, coupled with super good luck with my dice happens about once every campaign or two.

 

[Maxperson]

Me, if I had decent chainmail and both a stiletto wielding guy and a guy with a greatsword were attacking me, I'd take out the stiletto guy first as he might kill me. I'll take a big hit from the greatsword guy and might get a broken rib and some serious bruising, but he's nowhere near the threat to my life the other guy is.

A greatsword is not actually terribly great in practice. It's too slow, and too easy to read, so you'll nearly always be able to take the blow on an armored area. A dagger will either do nothing, or incapacitate you.

Rolemaster models this well. A rapier against plate will almost never do any damage, until it kills you. A greatsword will almost always do a bucketload of concussion hits, but not often a critical, and even then mostly bleed / stun / bruise as apposed to "... and you die"

That explains why all the knights historically went into battle and attacked each other with daggers.