D&D 5E Traps and XP

[Archade]

Hey all,

I've been reading my DMG, and it has details on traps, but nothing about XP given for overcoming them ... is that something that only appears in the Starter Set? I'm curious ...

Thanks!

 

[Jester David]

Nope. No xp for traps. Kinda a silly oversight really. But, then again, traps only get a few short pages.

I'd award experience as if defeating an encounter of a difficulty comparable to the lethality of the trap.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The following is a VERY rough outline, using the monster building guidelines to approximate an offensive CR for a given damage/level:

http://daedaluswing.wikidot.com/xp-values-for-traps

Treat 'em like a monster in terms of XP.

 

[Scorpio616]

Thankfully the concept of getting XP for traps has finally been excised from D&D with its removal from the DMG. That players somehow deserve earn XP from just walking into a trap was a wotc era mistake.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Thankfully the concept of getting XP for traps has finally been excised from D&D with its removal from the DMG. That players somehow deserve earn XP from just walking into a trap was a wotc era mistake.

You say that, and I'm inclined to agree, but the reason I whipped up these XP values was more so that I could figure out how MANY traps to put in my dungeon. I wanted to know how a trap compared to a monster in terms of using up party resources. The DMG does a good job of saying what the ramifications of putting in a trap might be, but it's hard to judge how many or what strength of trap to use if you want traps to be something the party is expected to overcome as part of a general adventure.

Like, if I'm throwing down a deathtrap dungeon, how many traps do I put in it? Where? What happens if there's some monsters in there too? How likely is the party to die horribly in this, and how likely are they to survive?

Plus, in terms of looking at XP as an award for overcoming challenges rather than just an incentive to fight, traps are definitely part of the challenge of an adventure, and a party who isn't interested in combat should be able to get XP from cleverly defeating traps and tricks as much as they would for cleverly defeating goblins and orcs. It's hard to account for that without trap XP.

 

[Archade]

I'm fine with either solution of xp or not, I just was confused with the contradiction of the starter set.

Thank you for the xp charts! I imagine I would award xp if a trap was story based (ie you must make your way through the trapped door to rescue the princess) ...

 

[ExploderWizard]

Thankfully the concept of getting XP for traps has finally been excised from D&D with its removal from the DMG. That players somehow deserve earn XP from just walking into a trap was a wotc era mistake.

This makes some sense but then we have the ( albeit optional) one time 1000 XP for dying in AD&D! A little XP for overcoming a trap isn't any sillier than awarding XP for getting killed.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Thankfully the concept of getting XP for traps has finally been excised from D&D with its removal from the DMG. That players somehow deserve earn XP from just walking into a trap was a wotc era mistake.

This is something that has always bugged me about XP arguments. Surely, surviving a trap (if it was ment to kill you or not), ought to add to the character's EXPERIENCE? Especially if the character managed to defeat it in some way. (Disarm, destroy, avoid, etc.)

 

[I'm A Banana]

This is something that has always bugged me about XP arguments. Surely, surviving a trap (if it was ment to kill you or not), ought to add to the character's EXPERIENCE? Especially if the character managed to defeat it in some way. (Disarm, destroy, avoid, etc.)

Possibly the idea is that traps are not a standard part of the challenge -- if you put in traps, you're doing it so that players might screw up and fall into them and get punished for thus screwing up. And so of course there wouldn't be a reward for that. You fell into a trap, your reward is "I'm not dead!"

For me, it's more like, "I am making a dungeon full of kobolds and so would like to employ a lot of traps, but I still want the party to succeed, so how many traps is enough? How many is too many?"

 

[pming]

Hiya!

You say that, and I'm inclined to agree, but the reason I whipped up these XP values was more so that I could figure out how MANY traps to put in my dungeon. I wanted to know how a trap compared to a monster in terms of using up party resources. The DMG does a good job of saying what the ramifications of putting in a trap might be, but it's hard to judge how many or what strength of trap to use if you want traps to be something the party is expected to overcome as part of a general adventure.

Like, if I'm throwing down a deathtrap dungeon, how many traps do I put in it? Where? What happens if there's some monsters in there too? How likely is the party to die horribly in this, and how likely are they to survive?

Plus, in terms of looking at XP as an award for overcoming challenges rather than just an incentive to fight, traps are definitely part of the challenge of an adventure, and a party who isn't interested in combat should be able to get XP from cleverly defeating traps and tricks as much as they would for cleverly defeating goblins and orcs. It's hard to account for that without trap XP.

The problem with this is much like the CR system; it more or less becomes a "well, I'll have to just guesstimate XP the value" the instant that the parties 'condition' changes. A trap is worth X amount of experience. This assumes 'perfect situation'. What if the party only has Dim light? Oooo....now the find traps check is at disadvantage...so that makes it much harder...is it then worth more xp? How much? What about if the Ranger casts Find Traps? Is the trap even worth any XP then? What if the party doesn't have anyone capable of detecting traps at the moment? (say the ranger doesn't have that spell and the thief is dead/unconscious) The trap could be a potential TPK...if the party survives, do they get any XP for surviving it? Do they get nothing?

In short, there are FAR to many "What If...?" situations for traps. Right now I'm more or less running "90% by the book" because it's still new to me. That said, I'm finding myself making more and more DM decisions for my campaign (how 'natural' healing works, how/when class-level training is needed, etc.). I, and my players, are becoming more experienced with how 5e works and we are adding in our own preferences...as expected, and as it should be.

I've never been really happy with how XP is handled in D&D. The best XP systems I've seen are from Palladium Fantasy, or from Powers & Perils. Palladium hands out XP based on 'actual game play results' (e.g., if a fight is barely won, it's worth more xp...regardless of what was fought; coming up with a clever idea, successful or not, is worth xp; making everyone laugh at the table so much that everyone has to take a break to wipe the tears from their eyes and catch a breath...you guessed it, worth xp). Powers & Perils does give XP for monsters, but it is based on how difficult the creature is as well as how much danger the character was in simply because how much damage they do to the creature determines how much "Combat Experience" they get; all skills get better as you use them...e.g., how much "combat" you get in is irrelevant (except for your combat skills used in that particular combat, like your Sword skill or Shield skill). Magic is handled similar; defeating opponents and casting magic makes you a better magic-user, but you only get better in spells that you actually cast (same as the skill system, basically). With these systems, "xp from traps" is handled automatically; you get better based on the actual danger posed (Palladium), or if you succeeded or not (P&P). No need for "trap XP values" as it's handled in the system already.

For D&D, I'd go with Palladiums way as it is a 'closer system' to D&D than P&P is.