Forfeiting XP

[DarkMaster]

Is it possible for a character to refuse his/her share of XP to give more to another character.

My player would like to find a way to take the burdens of the XP cost of creating magic object off from the caster when they create magic object for them. I can house rule something but was just wandering first if there was a legal way of doing it.

 

[Shallown]

Not that I know of but I have seen several Third party Feats that allow the person creating a magic item to have someone else donate the experience for it. Seems reasnable to me if you treat it like any two people making an item which is allowed and already has rules.

later

 

[Scion]

I have always simply allowed a character to 'assist' in an item creation process either by providing a spell, the exp (or fraction thereof), or some other necissary component (such as, need to be an elf to create). I've never seen it to be unbalancing, even without the cost of a feat, especially since it effectively makes both characters unable to do anything else for days at a time.

 

[Blood Jester]

Ditto what Scion said. Just let the recipient of the item donate part or all of the XP. Making someone burn a Feat on that is way to much.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I have always simply allowed a character to 'assist' in an item creation process either by providing a spell, the exp (or fraction thereof), or some other necissary component (such as, need to be an elf to create). I've never seen it to be unbalancing, even without the cost of a feat, especially since it effectively makes both characters unable to do anything else for days at a time.

I agree with Scion. It's, IMO, the simplest way, and actually encourages making magical items since it splits the burden of the XP loss.

AR

 

[UltimaGabe]

Exactly. One problem with magic items in most campaigns is that too many PCs would rather buy them instead of making them- and in the campaign I'm in right now, I'm the character with all of the Item Creation Feats. I've made almost all of my magic items, as well as the items of others- but at times I've considered just buying them instead, since I'm almost an entire level behind the other characters. Allowing characters to share experience not only encourages more magic items being made, it also helps keep party levels even (so that it's not a group of 20th-level PCs and one 15th-level Wizard).

 

[DarkMaster]

Exactly. One problem with magic items in most campaigns is that too many PCs would rather buy them instead of making them- and in the campaign I'm in right now, I'm the character with all of the Item Creation Feats. I've made almost all of my magic items, as well as the items of others- but at times I've considered just buying them instead, since I'm almost an entire level behind the other characters. Allowing characters to share experience not only encourages more magic items being made, it also helps keep party levels even (so that it's not a group of 20th-level PCs and one 15th-level Wizard).

I personally have a hard time with XP cost for creating magic object. A wizard is a magic craftsman, and can only improves his skill with practice. I understand that this rule was made for balance (damn balance), but it is completly broken when you give the item to someone else. The object creator loses XP and another character gain a free or reduced cost Magic object.
The way to balance it is to have the Wizard sell the object at market price to the other character, but then why would a PC give the money to the greedy wizard when he can buy it from the store or whatever.

My player are more of a commune group. They have a pool of gold and decide together how the money is best redistributed in the group under the form of various Items magical or not. That is why we feel that the current rulling is unfair to the creator. They would want to redistributes the XP cost the same way.

My question was, is it possible to do it "legally".

Thanks

 

[CalrinAlshaw]

Based on current core rules, no. You will either have to house rule it, or go find some third party stuff. There is no "rule" for sharing exp, or donating exp, or letting others forfeit exp to let the wizard gain more.

Calrin Alshaw

 

[dcollins]

Is it possible for a character to refuse his/her share of XP to give more to another character.

Reiterating what the last poster said -- That's not possible under the core rules.

 

[FireLance]

Just to add that there is already a built-in balancer for this in 3.5e. You won't find it in the SRD because it has to do with the way a character gains experience.

Basically, each character gains experience as if he was adventuring in a party composed of characters of his level. Hence, if a 3rd-level PC, a 4th-level PC and a 5th-level PC adventure together and overcome a CR 3 challenge, a CR 4 challenge and a CR 5 challenge, the 3rd-level PC earns 1,350 xp, the 4th-level PC earns 1,200 xp and the 5th-level PC earns 1,083 xp. This allows lower-level PCs to slowly "catch up" to their higher-level counterparts.

So, if your item-creating spellcaster uses enough xp that he lags behind the others in terms of levels, this will enable him to catch up after a while. If not, then there really isn't any problem apart from just having a lower xp total.