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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6598046" data-attributes="member: 20323">I haven't had much reason to look at the most powerful monsters in the MM until now when I'm adventure writing. I noticed the discrepancy between the XP values, and was wondering if anyone has any thoughts about how these are calculated? Maybe [MENTION=84774]surfarcher[/MENTION]?To be clear, I'm asking from an "encounter design" standpoint, and am not actually concerned with the awarding of experience points.All monsters in the game from CR 0 to CR 20 follow the table that is on the Monster Manual page 9. There is no variations form what you'd expect, so one CR 3 displacer beast has the same XP value as another CR 3 owlbear.Above CR 20, however, this is no longer true.For example, the expected XP value for CR 21 is 33,000.The CR 21 monsters in the Monster Manual include:Ancient Black Dragon (27,500 XP)Ancient Copper Dragon (27,500 XP)Lich, not in lair (33,000 XP)Solar (33,000 XP)So the two dragons are worth 83% of the expected XP value, but still have an XP value above that which is expected for CR 20.Another example, the expected XP value for CR 23 is 50,000.The CR 23 monsters in the Monster Manual include:Ancient Blue Dragon (32,500 XP)Ancient Silver Dragon (32,500 XP)Empyrean (32,500 XP)Kraken (50,000 XP)The two dragons and empyrean are worth 65% of the expected CR value, and what's more their actual XP value is less than what you'd expect for a CR 21 monster!Any thoughts on how to make sense of this?</blockquote>

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