Reward questions

[SRD]

I've read about Rewards in the DMG. But it leaves some empty spaces:

1) What if a PC just moves around iin a tough fight while the others are hard at work? Why should he gain XP?
2) Or: what if he takes 1 swing or 2 at a monster, so he can justify asking for his "earned" XP, the same as the others? And how much XP should I award him then?

 

[aboyd]

Unfortunately, for me this would come down to intent. I say "unfortunately" because intent can be difficult to determine. Here are 3 scenarios:

1. The character is a coward, using motion to make people think he's helping when he's really just covering his own butt. In this case, I might award nothing or very little.
2. The character is trying hard, but the way the battle went, he was just ineffective. In this case, full XP.
3. The character is role playing a trap or betrayal -- he will be feigning attack while leading comrades to their death. In this case, full XP for success, or % XP for various levels of success. However, there are exceptions. For example, if this was a paladin acting completely against alignment simply because the player was grumpy IRL, then probably no XP and the paladin becomes fallen.

 

[GilaMonster]

I'd give equal with everyone else. He's there, he's part of the battle, he's as likely to be targetted by a foe as anyone else.

I have a character who has never attacked a foe once. She casts support spells only. does that mean she deserves less xp than the other characters?

Giving varying xp makes life difficult and tends to lead to disagreements. If a player isn't pulling his weight, either speak to him about it or let the other players speak to him about it.

 

[amethal]

The basic rule is that if you are there, you get the XP.

Personally, I like the players to at least make some effort

e.g. if the fighter is winning the fight easily and the wizard wants to conserve his spells for more challenging foes (and doesn't see the point of firing a crossbow into melee and hoping for a natural 20) then the player of the wizard can ready an action to shot anyone approaching from the rear, or hold the lantern, or something.

Withholding XP because the player hasn't "earned it" is likely to annoy the player concerned and lead to "out of character" arguments.

If a character is not being useful, I offer advice and suggestions on making the character more effective.

If characters are deliberately not pulling their weight then I prefer to treat it as an in-character problem to be dealt with by the other characters via role-playing.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I don't use XP at all... Granting the characters a level more of less whenever I feel like it and using Action Points as a reward for daring play and for things which would normally have an XP cost.

Were I using XP, though, in a scenario like the one you described I would give all of the PCs the same share of experience. If the player was having some difficulty in understanding what his character should be doing during a combat, I might take some time to talk it out with him... If the player was, for some bizarre reason, acting to the detriment of the gaming group by purposefully not participating in the battle, I'd probably ask him to leave.

Later
silver

 

[roguerouge]

If the player was, for some bizarre reason, acting to the detriment of the gaming group by purposefully not participating in the battle, I'd probably ask him to leave.

Later
silver

Nah. I'd see if the players handled it themselves first. Said player would, after all, be endangering every other character's life in a spectacularly obvious way. The role playing would build character.

 

[Keith Robinson]

I've read about Rewards in the DMG. But it leaves some empty spaces:

1) What if a PC just moves around iin a tough fight while the others are hard at work? Why should he gain XP?
2) Or: what if he takes 1 swing or 2 at a monster, so he can justify asking for his "earned" XP, the same as the others? And how much XP should I award him then?

It's a DM call really. The RAW assumes that the team is pulling together, so hence everyone gains xp, but if a PC is just turning up and doing nothing then I'd wait to see what the other players did and would even encourage some in game conversation on the matter, where it might be more easily resolved, and to try to avoid any out of game resentment building up. If that didn't work, then I'd take them aside and directly ask them about it. They might have a reason that you're not aware of - I find it's always best to avoid assumptions.

It would be dependant upon the outcome of what the reasons are behind these actions which would decide whether I gave them full, some, little, or no xp.

 

[irdeggman]

Try this link.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=229394


It seems that this question is coming up more frequently recently.