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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6496092" data-attributes="member: 4937">This implies the wizards ECL is above his character level, since normally the ability to destroy a city is well above the ability of even a 20th level wizard.&nbsp; If the party is armed with nuclear weapons or equivalent, the parties ECL must be adjusted appropriately.&nbsp; I'd suggest adding at least 20 levels to the ECL.Perhaps you should have considered the implications before introducing explosives into a game, much less nuclear weapons.875 bugbears is normally about equivalent to a CR 18 encounter, though in practice for creatures with low CR the suggested practice of increasing CR by two each time you double the number of monsters will generate a CR that is too high for the actual challenge represented just because you can easily wipe out many foes with a single lowish level spell.&nbsp; Leaving that aside and assuming for the moment CR 18 is about right, you should be able to calculate XP based on the effective party level.&nbsp; However, this brings me back to my original point.&nbsp; You've messed with the system by providing the party with equivalent of high tech weapons worth far in assess of their normal wealth by level.&nbsp; As such, the parties effective level is now much higher than their parties character level assuming the party is less than about 40th level.&nbsp; Certainly if the parties average character level is below 20, ECL doesn't reflect their actual capabilities.&nbsp;&nbsp; So basically the rules need to be thrown out the window in the same way you threw balance out of the window.Long story short, if the party is above 6th level or so, I certainly wouldn't award any XP.&nbsp; If the party is below 6th level, I'm of the opinion you've screwed up your campaign world, but XP might be awarded depending on whether this particular outcome represents an actual creative solution that required overcoming some sort of challenge to set up.&nbsp; I'd suggest 300 XP or less be split up among the PCs that participated in constructing and deploying the weapon.&nbsp; Repeatedly deploying this weapon is obviously not creative and probably unchallenging, and so should not receive XP at all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6496092, member: 4937"] This implies the wizards ECL is above his character level, since normally the ability to destroy a city is well above the ability of even a 20th level wizard. If the party is armed with nuclear weapons or equivalent, the parties ECL must be adjusted appropriately. I'd suggest adding at least 20 levels to the ECL. Perhaps you should have considered the implications before introducing explosives into a game, much less nuclear weapons. 875 bugbears is normally about equivalent to a CR 18 encounter, though in practice for creatures with low CR the suggested practice of increasing CR by two each time you double the number of monsters will generate a CR that is too high for the actual challenge represented just because you can easily wipe out many foes with a single lowish level spell. Leaving that aside and assuming for the moment CR 18 is about right, you should be able to calculate XP based on the effective party level. However, this brings me back to my original point. You've messed with the system by providing the party with equivalent of high tech weapons worth far in assess of their normal wealth by level. As such, the parties effective level is now much higher than their parties character level assuming the party is less than about 40th level. Certainly if the parties average character level is below 20, ECL doesn't reflect their actual capabilities. So basically the rules need to be thrown out the window in the same way you threw balance out of the window. Long story short, if the party is above 6th level or so, I certainly wouldn't award any XP. If the party is below 6th level, I'm of the opinion you've screwed up your campaign world, but XP might be awarded depending on whether this particular outcome represents an actual creative solution that required overcoming some sort of challenge to set up. I'd suggest 300 XP or less be split up among the PCs that participated in constructing and deploying the weapon. Repeatedly deploying this weapon is obviously not creative and probably unchallenging, and so should not receive XP at all. [/QUOTE]

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