Monsters and XP costs

[TYPO5478]

This question is kind of jumbled up in my mind, so pardon me if it doesn't make any sense.

Do monsters earn experience? I know they do if they take character classes, but do monsters who don't advance by character class gain experience? If not, are they prohibited from casting spells with XP components?

Spell-like abilities have no XP costs. Spells as a special ability describe the circumstances for somatic and material components, but not for XP. Rules for monster advancement say that intelligent, non-humanoid monsters advance by HD and not character class (i.e. not by accumulating a certain number of experience points).

Can a Solar who normally has miracle prepared as a cleric spell actually cast it? Where does the XP expenditure come from? It seems silly for it to be included as a spell if they can't cast it, but how do you tell whether they have enough experience to get the spell off? Since dragons advance by age rather than experience total, can dragons who choose limited wish or vision as one of their sorcerer spells spend XP to cast them?

Could creatures who don't earn experience but who can cast spells craft magic items? How would they cover the experience costs for such an endeavor?

I feel like there's a reference somewhere that specifically addresses this, one way or the other, but I can't find it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Maleketh]

From a mechanical standpoint, only PCs earn experience - any that NPCs (including monsters) might earn is entirely DM perogative. If you want an NPC to expend XP via item crafting or spellcasting, assume it has enough XP to do so. I'd imagine, though, that most NPCs would be reluctant to do so, just as a player would.

At last, this is all true as far as I know. I've never seen any official rulings on NPCs earning XP, but if there are any I'd at least be curious to see it.

 

[frankthedm]

Can a Solar who normally has miracle prepared as a cleric spell actually cast it? Where does the XP expenditure come from?

Since dragons advance by age rather than experience total, can dragons who choose limited wish or vision as one of their sorcerer spells spend XP to cast them?

Could creatures who don't earn experience but who can cast spells craft magic items?

How would they cover the experience costs for such an endeavor?

Those are good questions the system does not answer.

 

[Dross]

From my perspective (i.e.: The world runs the same/similar for NPCs as PCs): While there isn't a rule written down, it is implied that others besdes PCs get experience. How, why etc isn't mentioned as pointed out, but the only known mechanic is XP. To me that says that when advancing monsters etc, its from XP.

Mind you, I don't bother with bookwork for such things, I assume that the Solar has enough XP to cast Miracle once, but may not have enough to cast it again depending on the situation.

 

[TYPO5478]

Fair enough. Thanks everyone! Maybe that's something they'll address in 4e.

 

[Pinotage]

Fair enough. Thanks everyone! Maybe that's something they'll address in 4e.

Unlikely. The assumption in 4e, and to a certain extent in 3.5e, is that a monster is only around for one combat, so anything beyond that you don't really have to worry about. 4e emphasizes this much more than 3.5e, but the principle remains the same. NPCs on the other hand are around for typical more than one combat, or even more than one game year, so there's every reason for the DM to assume a 'rate of advancement' within the aims of the plot of the campaign. That may very well be addressed, but I guess again it would be more within a plot context than a XP context.

Pinotage

 

[Jhaelen]

Can a Solar who normally has miracle prepared as a cleric spell actually cast it? Where does the XP expenditure come from? It seems silly for it to be included as a spell if they can't cast it, but how do you tell whether they have enough experience to get the spell off? Since dragons advance by age rather than experience total, can dragons who choose limited wish or vision as one of their sorcerer spells spend XP to cast them?

Having just read 'Elder Evils' I noticed one of them (Pandorym) actually has been assigned an XP budget (IIRC, 30k XP) for such purposes. You could do something similar, I guess. Personally, I've always ignored XP costs for monsters/npcs.

 

[Christian]

Unlikely.

I agree, but for a different reason. It looks (from the tidbits we've seen) that the mechanic of XP as a resource that can be spent (for casting powerful spells or creating magic items) or stolen (by level-draining monsters) is on the 4E chopping block. So this question won't even arise ...

 

[eamon]

Having just read 'Elder Evils' I noticed one of them (Pandorym) actually has been assigned an XP budget (IIRC, 30k XP) for such purposes. You could do something similar, I guess. Personally, I've always ignored XP costs for monsters/npcs.

To avoid any "unfairness" I usually don't use XP-cost abilities if the opponents don't expect the PC's to win. If they know the PC's, or judge them accurately - and generally thus know that they're pretty lethal - then I assume they're willing to part with any amount of XP necessary for an encounter.