How do you award XP?

[JoeGKushner]

It's a lot more like 1e or 2e was. The XP per an encounter's CR doesn't slide up or down vs. party level. After about 6th level or so, the XP for a character to advance in level begins to differ from what is listed in the PHB (it takes more XP), but the XP listed for a given CR is a little higher, as well...so it seems to balance out.

Hope that was relatively clear.

I forgot about that. That's more like 2nd ed or basic D&D as in 1st ed, it was a flat award plus a bonus amount per hit point the creature had so that tougher creatures were worth more experience points per hit point! If 3rd ed combined that with the chart they have, we'd all be insane!

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I loved the charts... I miss 'em sometimes.

 

[Crothian]

I pretend to hav a very complex system based off of logrythems but in realty I have a table based on die rolls.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

I've used the 3.5 method since 3.0

It has a big advantage, which is that the lower level folks catch up over time to the higher level folks. That's not true for the 3.0 method.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

In the beginning I do it by the book - up until about level 6 or so. I also add in extras for problem solving, role playing, bribes, etc. Then at about 6th level I switch gears and do straight up role playing, problem solving and a little bit of monster slaying.

As to when I dole it out, well, I generally give it out at 'natural breaks' in the adventure.

 

[Psion]

40 xp/hour/level

add percentage bonus for group for difficulty of the adventure and goals acheived

add percentage bonuses to individuals for participation, advancing the game in a significant way, cleverness, roleplaying, etc.

+/- 20% bonus for those below/above current average level (encourages item creation and takes some sting out of new characters and level loss.)

XP awarded at end of session.

Absentees simply do not get the individual awards.

 

[Pseudonym]

The 3.5 CR vs specific level/number of players?

When I DM, that's the approach I take. Usually I will calculate the xp earned between sessions, and e-mail the number to the PCs so that they can note it, and deal with leveling up on their own time if it is necessary, so we can begin play without having to deal with it.

 

[devilbat]

3.5 version, CR vs specific level/number of players. I add in xp bonuses for roleplaying and other miscelleneous things like showing up on time, online character journals, making the group laugh out loud, funny quotes, etc.

I should mention, we adjusted the xp levels required for certain classes and prestige classes higher then standard. Not quite to the extent of second edition, but somewhere between 2nd E. and 3.5.

 

[lukelightning]

In my soon-to-be-concluded Star Wars campaign, I just gave levels when I felt the players should go up a level. I'd say "ok, you're about 4th and a half level, start thinking about what you'll do in 5th level."

 

[Conaill]

Wing it, based on a combination of how fast I want the campaign to advance, how well the party met the various challenges, cool ideas, role-playing, and the like.

A man after my own heart!

In fact, I see the XP more as a reward system to encourage player behavior, than as a system to measure PC experience.

If you want to encourage players to kill more stuff and to "steal kills" from other players... reward them for killing individual monsters.

If you want to encourage players to only pay attention to "encounters"... only reward them for encounters.

If you want to encourage "how well the party met the various challenges, cool ideas, role-playing, and the like"... then that is what you should reward.

Overall, the CR system works well to provide some guidelines for designing encounters. Especially for beginning DM's playing fairly vanilla encounters. But i would never consider using it to calculate XP...