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<blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 7378582" data-attributes="member: 6669384">The specific game was D&amp;D 3.5, but the question can be asked about most role playing games.Premise:&nbsp; Not every encounter is one that the party is ready for.&nbsp; There exist in the game world things that the party isn't yet ready to handle.In my game we had a party of seven PCs, levels ranging from 11 to 13, who elected to go after the Big Bad of the entire campaign in his home base.They knew that there were two distinct sets of airborne opponents on guard, but they didn't know how tough they were.&nbsp; The opponents were a flight of HArpy Archers, straight from the MM I, reskinned as &quot;Flying monkeys&quot;.&nbsp; Seven of them, each a CR 11, should have been a tough fight for the party, particularly if the party is light on archery and/or sustained ranged combat.The second monster was a CR 14 &quot;Mature Adult&quot; Black Dragon.&nbsp; They knew there was a Dragon there, they'd seen him at a distance, but hadn't faced him before.To my mind this combined encounter is one where &quot;Success&quot; is in the form of evading/avoiding/escaping, rather than standing/fighting/winning.&nbsp; It isn't really winnable in the normal, straight combat sense.&nbsp; The only achievable goal here is to survive it, find a way past it to deal with whatever it is the monsters are guarding.So, when it comes to handing out Exp, how would you calculate it?&nbsp; Full Exp for the monsters, based on the CR, seems like way too much.&nbsp; The PCs didn't manage to drop or drive off any of the foes.&nbsp; Quite the opposite, PCs were at the edge of dead (one died but I allowed something that I shouldn't:&nbsp; Healing, applied almost instantly by another PC within arms reach when it happened, and acting on the very next Initiative.&nbsp; I let it save the PC's life.That detail aside, the party's &quot;victory&quot; didn't involve beating their foes in any real sense.So how would you give out Exp for this type of thing?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Greenfield, post: 7378582, member: 6669384"] The specific game was D&D 3.5, but the question can be asked about most role playing games. Premise: Not every encounter is one that the party is ready for. There exist in the game world things that the party isn't yet ready to handle. In my game we had a party of seven PCs, levels ranging from 11 to 13, who elected to go after the Big Bad of the entire campaign in his home base. They knew that there were two distinct sets of airborne opponents on guard, but they didn't know how tough they were. The opponents were a flight of HArpy Archers, straight from the MM I, reskinned as "Flying monkeys". Seven of them, each a CR 11, should have been a tough fight for the party, particularly if the party is light on archery and/or sustained ranged combat. The second monster was a CR 14 "Mature Adult" Black Dragon. They knew there was a Dragon there, they'd seen him at a distance, but hadn't faced him before. To my mind this combined encounter is one where "Success" is in the form of evading/avoiding/escaping, rather than standing/fighting/winning. It isn't really winnable in the normal, straight combat sense. The only achievable goal here is to survive it, find a way past it to deal with whatever it is the monsters are guarding. So, when it comes to handing out Exp, how would you calculate it? Full Exp for the monsters, based on the CR, seems like way too much. The PCs didn't manage to drop or drive off any of the foes. Quite the opposite, PCs were at the edge of dead (one died but I allowed something that I shouldn't: Healing, applied almost instantly by another PC within arms reach when it happened, and acting on the very next Initiative. I let it save the PC's life. That detail aside, the party's "victory" didn't involve beating their foes in any real sense. So how would you give out Exp for this type of thing? [/QUOTE]

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