Figureing XP for an odd encounter

[Crothian]

What is the lay of the land? Does the fort have weaknesses? Can you answer these with out helping the PCs?

The biggest weakness is the secret door the orcs didn't use but the PCs guarded. The strength though of the out post, the Pcs really were noty able to take advantage of becasue they just didn't have enough numbers. There were at least 4 good archer spots that were not used to the full extent becasue the PCs needed to be other places.

 

[Crothian]

1. i'm a little confused here. Crothian, are you a player or the DM in this instance. at times you refer to "the PCs" but then you say things like "We gave better then we got." and "our goal was..." so which side of the screen are you on?

I'm a player in this case. But I also DM and really had never had to give out XP for this type of encounter so was curtious what others would do. I am not second guessing my DM or anything like that. .

2. are there social factors involved in the orc tribe in question? what i mean is, on your world (or the world you play on) are the orcs less intelligent or something? if not, i would definatly take away some XPs from the orc leader...

We never saw an orc leader and no, there is no special social factors.

 

[geflin]

a leader of mice....no wait...

what i meant by asking about the orc leader is this:

it appears that he acted (whoever was leading the orcs) in a very stupid way... if players in my world do something OVERLY stupid (now mind you, i let people get away with mildy and moderatly stupid things) they get a negative XP award. i've only ever awarded this twice... and once was to my own NPC because i did something REALLY stupid.... anyway....

i think your DM needs to take a negative XP award for the way his orcs attacked your party... thats all...

 

[Crothian]

Negative XP for the DM, check

 

[ThirdWizard]

Actually, that's similar to how I run orcs in my campaign. The main tactic is: Charge! They have no real tactical knowlege nor do orcish leaders care about their own men. They usually do use goblins for this kind of thing, though. I actually run goblinoids smarter than orcs, goblins are too scared on their own, so they fight smart out of fear, bugbears are somewhere the same as orcs but a bit more cautious and less bloodthirsty, and hobgoblins are the real tacticians. Gnolls have no sense of working in groups at all. I love gnolls.

Gives 'em some character, I think.

 

[Dracomeander]

There has been no mention of any archer contingent among the orcs. Without ranged support, the only advantage the orcs had was numbers so they pretty much had to charge if they wanted to dislodge the PCs. While that might be tactically unsound, it seems that that was all the orcs could do if they didn't know of the route to the secret door that was mentioned earlier.

 

[S'mon]

If they were MM standard orcs they could throw javelins...

 

[Thondor]

I find it impossible to believe that in a group of 90 orcs not one orc had a ranged weapon. Yes they should charge across, but they shouldn't keep on charging across when there's a flaming sphere blocking the way, the logical thing is to pull back at that point. No not logical, instinctual.

 

[Crothian]

I find it impossible to believe that in a group of 90 orcs not one orc had a ranged weapon. Yes they should charge across, but they shouldn't keep on charging across when there's a flaming sphere blocking the way, the logical thing is to pull back at that point. No not logical, instinctual.

I think the instinct is kill the people, not shy away from a few victims. And it is n't like hoards were dieing on the bridge, many made it it across and died there but the situtaion of the players was slowly geting worse. THe Archers on the other side had cover so ranged weapons would have helped little. It isn't like the orces were going to have feats to help out. Also, on their side of the bridge they didn't have lot of room, they came through a door and ran across the bridge. THe landing was not big.

 

[Shadowdweller]

If the players knew about the approaching army and planned the attack with using this position as a defense point, then they should not get full XP due to the fact that they set it up in their favor. As has been mentioned, probably about half XP for the defeated creatures.

If they were just in the area when the orcs attacked and made use of the current situation on the fly, then they should get normal XP for the encounter.

Except we run into that little "PCs getting PENALIZED for intelligence" thing. My inclinations run to the opposite.

Of course, I wouldn't really give full xp either way. However you think about it, the PCs made use of a significant terrain advantage which kept the orcs/worgs from fighting to the best of their abilities.