Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7036972" data-attributes="member: 42582">The PHB (p 106) says that[T]he Dungeon Master will award experience points to the character for treasure gained and opponents captured or slain and for solving or overcoming problems through professional means.It then goes on to refer to "[g]aining experience points through the acquisition of gold pieces and by slaying monsters", but then the sources of XP open up again towards the bottom of the page:Monsters captured or slain always bring a full experience point award. Captured monsters ransomed or sold bring a gold piece: experience point ratio award. Monsters slain gain a set point award.This leaves it ambiguous as to what XP one gets for a monster captured but not ransomed. The comment about "always bring[ing] a full experience point award" is also contradicted by the DMG (p 84), which establishes that monster XP can be awarded fractionally for mis-matches, just like treasure XP.Pages 84 and 85 of the DMG present kills and loot as the default means of gaining XP. (I say "kills" deliberately, because there are multiple occurrences of "slaying"/"slaying monsters"/"monsters slain".)However, p 84 also says thatTricking or outwitting monsters or overcoming tricks and/or traps placed to guard treasure must be determined subjectively, with level of experience balanced against the degree of difficulty you assign to the gaining of the treasure.As with captured monsters in the PHB, it's not clear whether this is identifying a discrete source of XP, or a potential factor to be taken account of in the award of treasure XP. (Ie if the degree of difficulty was low, award only fractional XP.)Finally, pp 85-86 have the following optional rule for a "Special Bonus Award to Experience Points":If your campaign is particularly dangerous, with a low life expectancy for starting player characters, or if it is a well-established one where most players are of medium or above level, and new participants have difficulty surviving because of this, the following Special Bonus Award is suggested: Any character killed and subsequently restored to life by means of a spell or device, other than a ring of regeneration, will earn an experience point bonus award of 1,000 points. This will materially aid characters of lower levels of experience, while it will not unduly affect earned experience for those of higher level. As only you can bestow this award, you may also feel free to decline to give it to player characters who were particularly foolish or stupid in their actions which immediately preceded death, particularly if such characters are not "sadder but wiser" for the happening.And a slightly tangential point: in the DMG (p 86), fidelity to class role is used to measure training time (from 1 week if Excellent, to 4 weeks if Poor). But p 106 the PHB suggests that fidelity to class role is used to adjust XP earned:Finally, clerics' major aims are to use their spell abilities to aid during ony given encounter, fighters aim to engage in combat, magic-users aim to cast spells, thieves aim to make gain by stealth, and monks aim to use their unusual talents to come to successful ends. If characters gain treasure by pursuit of their major aims, then they are generally entitled to a full share of earned experience points aworded by the DM.This probably makes more sense than the DMG approach, although what the fraction should be is left unstated (maybe full for Excellent, 5/6 for Superior, 2/3 for Fair and 1/2 for Poor - or a formula of [7-rating]/6).</blockquote>

Verification