NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 6039356" data-attributes="member: 32740">Quite true.  I have long perceived of xp as a PLAYER reward rather than something that is owed to a character because the character was simply created.  Part of that had to do with repeated insistence of certain people on having NPC's "earn" their xp in the same way as player characters - going on adventures, hoarding loot, killing monsters. Without earning xp just as PC's earn xp NPC's could not/should not level up.  DM's were supposed to be able to explain what an NPC did to become x level in their class just as a player would be able to recount his PC's adventures. But XP doesn't work like that.  A DM ASSIGNS levels to an NPC, the NPC only "earns" xp when he is adventuring with player characters.  Player characters earn XP and advance in level not by simply existing at the same game time as other player characters but by the player conducting the character THROUGH actual game play.  As Gary mentioned in the DMG the sensible way for a PC to earn xp would be for MU's to sit in a library and just read books of magical theory and practice casting.  A fighter would improve in his abilities not by killing a few orcs, but by training.  A thief would improve not based on the amount of money he stole, but on his practicing repeatedly at picking pockets.  But again, D&D xp doesn't work like that.  It works by accumulation of points awarded for participating in adventures - killing monsters and taking their loot. A player who is not there to run his PC makes that character, virtually by definition a NON-player character.  I'm not going to tell anyone they're wrong (as such) for awarding xp to a character who isn't being run by a player, but... that's just not how I understand D&D xp to work.</blockquote>

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