Experience Points & Going Down the 1st rd

[Nytmare]

Much like how hit points are not a direct mathematical derivation of how physically resilient a character is, experience points are not some kind of metaphysical measure of how much time a character is an awake and conscious participant of murder.

For me, XP is divorced entirely from the characters and is solely a metagame incentive for the players to add to the overall game. If you show up and play, your character gets more powerful. If you write up a character log on our mailing list, your character gets more powerful. If you help me figure out a problem I'm having with one of the programs we use when we play, if you draw a picture of a big fight from the previous week, if you show up and you brought pizza for everybody, your character gets more powerful.

 

[holywhitetrash]

your question might as well have been i don't like one of my players should i give him xp

 

[Plane Sailing]

Not giving him xp would be a total dick move for the reasons already stated

Calm down, and don't be offensive.

There are all kinds of stylistic reasons why games can vary things. In some game systems it is just those up at the end who get the xps. In others (Bushido) only the person delivering the killing blow gets the xps for a particular creature!

In 4e some people ditch xp altogether and just grant a level when dramatically appropriate. Some give it to everyone who took part in a fight, some give it to everyone who finished the fight, some give it to the whole party, even if someone wasn't there.

It is all just choices, and as long as everyone knows how it is going to be run in advance, none of them make more or less of a difference than any other.

Regards

 

[Starfox]

The trouble with giving such a character less xp is that it presumably, over time, will mean that the weaker characters will get less xp. Thus becoming even weaker, relative to the rest of the group.

This is a big part of the reason why I use party xp - even a player that is absent from the session altogether gets full xp.

 

[Aulirophile]

In the campaign I DM we use group XP. In the campaign I play in the players have to actively conspire to give the "people who are behind" chances to catch up by "taking naps" when we think an easy encounter is coming up. Give your players XP, of the two it works much better for the "fun" factor.

 

[Haltherrion]

If a character goes down in the first round of a big fight, would you give him or her the EXP's for the encounter afterward? I'm thinking, no?

I would grant the XP unless a player willfully took themselves out of an encounter. In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn't matter that much to overall character progression either way. But it will almost always irritate a player and for good reason: not only do they have to sit around doing nothing for what is anywhere from a 30 minute to 90+ minute encounter, they get docked XP as well? Talk about a good way to piss off players It isn't worth it penalizing them.

Personally, I don't grant encounter XP anyway. I just to do session XP. I'll use the rules as a guide on XP but will also factor in out of battle stuff the players did as well as our agreed upon sessions-per-level rate. That's not to say lots of tough battles doesn't give you more XP for the night but I find it just as meaningful and less prone to argument to do a session-lump sum with some input from the players.

 

[N0Man]

I always thought that was the usual rule. It just seems counter-intuitive.

Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Not really. He got hit with Drow poison, and the effect was that he remained unconscious for the duration of the encounter.

The problem with denying them XP is that it's kind of arbitrary and being determined by an NPC special effect, not based on a decision of the player or anything else.

At first, I thought you meant he was unconscious, as he was knocked out from going to 0 or lower hit points and was dying. If that were the case, I'd still say to give him xp, just as much as if it happened on the last round. He participated in the combat, even if it meant he took that blow for someone else, intentionally or not. ;-)

However, considering it was a poison effect, I feel especially strong he should get XP. Otherwise would be even more unfair to that player.

Afterall, would you give half XP if a character were dazed the entire combat and could only take half their actions? The fact that it was an effect that knocked him unconscious is really beside the point. If you go that route, you are effectively giving NPCs a power of "prevent PC from getting experience".

A player would likely feel doubly cheated if they were denied being able to play, and denied xp.

 

[Herschel]

Looking at it from a player perspective, how could it seem anything other than unnecessarily punitive? The player participated in the encounter, he just went down fast. Whether poison, massive damage, stun-lock, whatever, the player made no active choice to miss the encounter and his character was there. And unless a DM makes sure that the penalty hits others and in an even fashion, then even more hard feelings would ensue.

If the player chose to miss the encounter or was dead and waiting to be raised, that's another issue.

 

[Kingreaper]

If I was in that situation, and was then told I was being denied XP, I would take the hint, and quit the gaming group. Well, at least until a GM rotation/revolution.


If I can't play, and I'm being punished for not being allowed to play, I'm outta there.

Hell, just not being able to participate for a whole "big fight" because the GM targeted me with a "fail and you're out for the whole fight" move would make me seriously reconsider whether I was welcome.

 

[DracoSuave]

Looking at it from a player perspective, how could it seem anything other than unnecessarily punitive? The player participated in the encounter, he just went down fast. Whether poison, massive damage, stun-lock, whatever, the player made no active choice to miss the encounter and his character was there. And unless a DM makes sure that the penalty hits others and in an even fashion, then even more hard feelings would ensue.

If the player chose to miss the encounter or was dead and waiting to be raised, that's another issue.

Yeah, there's only two ways this could have gone down:

1- Either the player got really unlucky

Luck should never determine or take away XP. Luck can take away actions, hps, or even a character's life. XP is not a luck-based mechanic, nor should it be.

2- The DM targetted the player for whatever reason

In this case, it's not really fair to then say the character gets no XP for what amounts to a DM action. Hell, I continue to give XP to dead characters, while having a back-up character for them to play until they can get the other one rezzed. Or at least I try to.