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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 6835005" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!  I ignore all that. I use the XP in the monster description as what they are each 'worth'. I think fudge that total based on how the players interpreted the encounter and how well their characters actually did. For example lets say a group of 4, 5th level characters kills some monsters and the total XP for that is 1,000xp. If it was a cake walk and the players never felt any sort of 'danger', and didn't really do much other than swing their weapons at the monsters...then I probably reduce the XP to 400 or 500. However, if they really had a tough time, and the players were honestly afraid of defeat or death, and tried many different 'out of the box' (or at least somewhat creative) ways to win...then they get the full amount. Maybe even a bit more (say, +200xp, for a 1,200xp total). This does two things for me. First is that is that it reflects my idea that if the PCs are doing different or unusual things to win...they are learning new "tricks and techniques", working together, gaining self-confidence, etc. They are getting experienced at this whole 'try not to die' thing.Second is that it removes more incentive to min/max/optimize. If everyone has a min/maxed character, a combat will, by the book, be more 'powerful' than what the game is assuming. So the players are less incentivised to actually try and think and role-play (IME, at least). It also covers the fact that the PC's had a much easier time, or to put it another way, they didn't really have to do anything 'new'...they just did the same ol' same ol' of what they already know and laid the smackdown on some poor beast (think of it like a MMA pro fighting some regular 9-to-5 office working, couch-sitting dude with no real fighting skills). Yeah, this does piss off the power gamers that attempt to play in my games...and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Helps weed 'em out. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> They complain that they spent "all this time pouring over books to make a really good pole-arm fighter, and now it's taking forever to gain levels fighting the things that they should be fighting at their level". Well duh! The goblins and giant rats are no match for his "optimized" character. You know the old saying, "Desperation is the mother of all invention" (or something like that... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ).^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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