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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Weirdness: The more monsters, the less the XP.
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6800633" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>It did once, especially at first. I went through a brief phase of awarding "adjusted XP" instead of raw XP. Decided I didn't like it because it meant that there were physical consequences to the players for whether I decided to call two connected battles one encounter vs. two: e.g. if 1d4 umber hulks emerge every round (up to a total of 25 available), and every round the players kill or disable some, what multiplier should I use for the ones they manage to kill before having to retreat? Should I pretend all 25 are there the whole time? Clearly false. Should I use however many umber hulks are in play at the time, changing from round to round? It's a mess.</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, the adjustment process doesn't stop at a "number of monsters" multiplier. There's also a situational modifier, bumping difficulty up or down based on environmental concerns like "Are there lots of hiding places for the goblins?" If you commit to awarding adjusted XP, you are awarding extra XP for one way of making encounters harder, but ignoring another factor. How would you adjust XP awards for Stone Giants on a cliff face? (20d6 falling damage every time they shove you off the edge with their Athletics +12 skill.)</p><p></p><p>So after a brief flirtation with awarding adjusted XP, I went back to awarding base XP. If my players want an easier fight, it's now their job to defeat the enemy in detail; and if they want higher XP rewards, they can go hunt beholders instead of hobgoblins. (Although the hobgoblins give pretty good non-XP rewards, in the form of arms and equipment, and occasional prisoners-turned-allies.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 6800633, member: 6787650"] It did once, especially at first. I went through a brief phase of awarding "adjusted XP" instead of raw XP. Decided I didn't like it because it meant that there were physical consequences to the players for whether I decided to call two connected battles one encounter vs. two: e.g. if 1d4 umber hulks emerge every round (up to a total of 25 available), and every round the players kill or disable some, what multiplier should I use for the ones they manage to kill before having to retreat? Should I pretend all 25 are there the whole time? Clearly false. Should I use however many umber hulks are in play at the time, changing from round to round? It's a mess. Furthermore, the adjustment process doesn't stop at a "number of monsters" multiplier. There's also a situational modifier, bumping difficulty up or down based on environmental concerns like "Are there lots of hiding places for the goblins?" If you commit to awarding adjusted XP, you are awarding extra XP for one way of making encounters harder, but ignoring another factor. How would you adjust XP awards for Stone Giants on a cliff face? (20d6 falling damage every time they shove you off the edge with their Athletics +12 skill.) So after a brief flirtation with awarding adjusted XP, I went back to awarding base XP. If my players want an easier fight, it's now their job to defeat the enemy in detail; and if they want higher XP rewards, they can go hunt beholders instead of hobgoblins. (Although the hobgoblins give pretty good non-XP rewards, in the form of arms and equipment, and occasional prisoners-turned-allies.) [/QUOTE]
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Weirdness: The more monsters, the less the XP.
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