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View Full Version : Easy way to earn XP in DnD?



Cizak
2010-04-30, 03:39 PM
I don't play DnD (all the rules I know I've learned in oots), but just got this thought and wanted to know the answer.

Is it possible for party members to just "defeat" each other, heal, repeat and gain levels that way? Just a sillly thought I got, and would be nice if i got it answered :smalltongue:

BizzaroStormy
2010-04-30, 03:40 PM
If you mean sparring, then I see no reason why it would not work. However, I doubt a DM would let you abuse said system just to level up.

Lin Bayaseda
2010-04-30, 03:41 PM
You don't gain XP unless there's a "real" challenge. Of course it's up to the DM to decide what a real challenge is, but what you're describing is essentially a light practice joust. So I'd say no XP.

senrath
2010-04-30, 03:41 PM
No. Unless your DM specifically allows it, you can't do that.

Kobold-Bard
2010-04-30, 03:43 PM
No DM would let you farm each other for XP. The one parallel I have for this is Trance in Final Fantasy 9.you get a temporary mega-boost when the gauge fills. It only fills when enemies hit you, but not allies because that would basically be cheating.

Edit: Though if they'd allow this take it one step further. To obtain Divine Rank 0 (and be basically a very minor Deity) you only need a couple of dozen believers. Basically 1-2 party members take leadership/Thrallherd and order all their followers to worship the party as a pantheon. The party then worship themselves and each other as a pantheon and BOOM! - Mini pantheon of immortals.

Best part is Dr0 never goes away, even if people stop worshipping you, so you're immortal and have some other goodies forever :smallbiggrin:

Escheton
2010-04-30, 03:46 PM
If party dynamics are so warped that they actually try to kill each other. Sure. It's what ya get for grouping with evil characters/players.

Sparring however, no

Prodan
2010-04-30, 03:48 PM
Unless you actually try to kill each other, probably not.

Sir_Elderberry
2010-04-30, 04:31 PM
Yeah, remember that D&D doesn't work like a video game. The rules are run by a human, not a computer, and the human can always cut in and say, "No, it doesn't work like that."

On the other hand...I think I might actually allow this? To some degree at least. After all, in real life, martial artists generally aren't out killing people--they fight each other, within certain boundaries. You'd probably want to stick to nonlethal damage, though.

Siosilvar
2010-04-30, 04:37 PM
Sparring? I'd give you around 1/10 normal XP as long as you're below ~8th level.

And you're not getting that bonus more than once per level.

Johel
2010-04-30, 04:39 PM
Maybe divide the XP by 10 or more, since there's absolutely no challenge, let alone danger.

A priest is never far.
They can stop whenever they want to rest.
Unless there's serious grudge, no combat shall end with a dead.


Also, am I the only one who snicker at the image of two squishy wizards beating the living **** out of each others with their staffs, screaming "-Power !! Unlimited Power !!" as their experience slowly increase (and with it, their arcane mastery...) ? :smallamused:

Ashram
2010-04-30, 04:47 PM
Easy experience? I think Belkar sums it up best.

Role play.

(Unless your DMs are asshats like mine and refuse to give experience for good role playing.)

Sir_Elderberry
2010-04-30, 04:58 PM
I think it might make sense to say that it starts at full xp at level 1. But as you get more and more powerful, "holding back" becomes more and more of a joke. A character of level n receives 1/2n-1 experience from the sparring match. Level 1, it works. Level 2, you're only getting half. By level six or so, you're at 1/36 and may as well go find an orc.

Starscream
2010-04-30, 05:02 PM
no combat shall end with a dead.

If I ever start a band, I'm calling it that.

Godskook
2010-04-30, 05:09 PM
Maybe divide the XP by 10 or more, since there's absolutely no challenge, let alone danger.

No challenge in non-lethal duels? What the hell? I'd argue that there's more challenge because both parties have a much better idea of what the other is capable of.

As a non-D&D example, take my local MtG group. We've got about ~10 of us, but I only play two of them regularly. As a result, I can field a weak deck that does fantastic cause it plays directly against my opponent's strengths(Running leonin elder against a flash-protean hulk deck, for instance). On the other hand, I have a decently strong deck that suffers because my primary opponent fields cards that directly screw with it or rely on the deck's tempo to survive(Such as grabbing wickerbough elder instead of thorntooth witch against my artifact deck).

Winning consistently is actually *HARDER* in my local MtG group, where-as if I play someone else, I get a lot more forms of "Holy cow! That Crusher has Crumple*!".

*Crumple is the amalgam of attaining trample, deathtouch, lifelink, double strike, and enough p/t to ignore blockers. Using evasion explicitly defeats the purpose, while must-block abilities are just fun! Modular just makes it silly.

KillianHawkeye
2010-04-30, 05:10 PM
Edit: Though if they'd allow this take it one step further. To obtain Divine Rank 0 (and be basically a very minor Deity) you only need a couple of dozen believers. Basically 1-2 party members take leadership/Thrallherd and order all their followers to worship the party as a pantheon. The party then worship themselves and each other as a pantheon and BOOM! - Mini pantheon of immortals.

Best part is Dr0 never goes away, even if people stop worshipping you, so you're immortal and have some other goodies forever :smallbiggrin:

You can't have it both ways. Either Divine Rank is based on worshippers or it's not. You can't say it is in order to get it and then say it's not so you can never lose it. (That's called cheating.)

Kobold-Bard
2010-04-30, 05:13 PM
You can't have it both ways. Either Divine Rank is based on worshippers or it's not. You can't say it is in order to get it and then say it's not so you can never lose it. (That's called cheating.)

I forget where but one of the sourcebooks says that the spark of the divine is unquenchable or something like that. Once you have DR0 it doesn't matter if you don't have a single believer (which technically you do if you believe in you) that little Divine Spark can't be put out unless another Deity of higher rank kills you.

Sir_Elderberry
2010-04-30, 05:13 PM
Well, DR0 is a whole new class of being. Mortals aren't even DR 0, they're DR --. It's kind of silly, but the idea that worshippers elevate you to being on the "divine scale", and once you're there, you're there, isn't all THAT crazy.

Godskook
2010-04-30, 05:14 PM
You can't have it both ways. Either Divine Rank is based on worshippers or it's not. You can't say it is in order to get it and then say it's not so you can never lose it. (That's called cheating.)

*CASTS ALTER REALITY*

You were saying?

Arakune
2010-04-30, 05:22 PM
You can't have it both ways. Either Divine Rank is based on worshippers or it's not. You can't say it is in order to get it and then say it's not so you can never lose it. (That's called cheating.)
Welcome to RAWhell, where poorly writen rules overwrites common sense.

hotel_papa
2010-04-30, 05:27 PM
I've allowed sparring for XP in my campaigns before. It's a handy tool for catching up those that lag behind due to to missing games. I'm a major stickler for story continuity, so usually if a person isn't there, there is a reason why their character isn't, as well. It also gives the players something to do when the arcanists and artificers are at work in their labs, and the social monkey is getting his/her talking fix in town.

HP

Twilight Jack
2010-04-30, 05:30 PM
I agree with the poster above who spoke about laws of diminishing returns in any such arrangements. To take it a step further, at a certain level of mastery of a skill, consistent practice and training becomes necessary, not to improve those skills, but simply to maintain them at a higher level than the human body and mind are capable of holding as a baseline.

Now then, I'd argue that in any rational D&D game it's assumed that the characters spend a portion of their downtime practicing their skills and training in new ones, including sparring with one another in the cases of more martial classes. In such a game, when your Fighter hits 4th level and picks up Improved Trip as a bonus feat, it isn't that knowledge of a better method of tripping folks lept unbidden to his mind, but that he's finally mastered a technique he's been working on in his off-time to the point where he's confident enough to test it in a real combat situation.

Within such a paradigm, sparring your party members doesn't net you XP so much as it provides a platform of continual testing and experimentation with which you build upon the skills and tricks that your XP earns for you.

randomhero00
2010-04-30, 06:12 PM
Reminds me of troll-in-a-box.

druid91
2010-04-30, 06:32 PM
the easy way to earn XP is to find a tribe of myconids enslave them, and use their souls to fuel your power, of course this is irrevocably evil. kudos to Volkov for discovering it.

Flickerdart
2010-04-30, 06:39 PM
Welcome to RAWhell, where poorly writen rules overwrites common sense.
Personally, I have never seen divine ascendancy rules in any official book or quoted on these forums. The "if you get X followers you become a god" notion has never had actual rules support.

Kylarra
2010-04-30, 07:05 PM
Personally, I have never seen divine ascendancy rules in any official book or quoted on these forums. The "if you get X followers you become a god" notion has never had actual rules support.Which is good, else nearly every cult you are trying to wipe would be led by a demigod with DR 0...

Divide by Zero
2010-04-30, 07:10 PM
Technically, you're assumed to be doing that sort of thing in your downtime anyway, which represents training for level gain that you don't get through normal adventuring (For example, why does a wizard who doesn't make any attack rolls still get +BAB on a level up? Because he's helping the fighter practice.).

eggynack
2010-05-01, 01:05 AM
You can't have it both ways. Either Divine Rank is based on worshippers or it's not. You can't say it is in order to get it and then say it's not so you can never lose it. (That's called cheating.) Actually there is no inconsistancy at all. If you gain levels by fighting you don't lose them by not fighting despite the fact that you would logically do so in real life.

Kylarra
2010-05-01, 02:46 AM
Actually there is no inconsistancy at all. If you gain levels by fighting you don't lose them by not fighting despite the fact that you would logically do so in real life.You don't gain levels by fighting. You gain levels by gaining exp, which can be earned by fighting. You lose levels if you lose exp.

Bogardan_Mage
2010-05-01, 02:56 AM
A similar suggestion was made in a recent Call of Cthulhu game I played. For those unfamiliar, Call of Cthulhu doesn't have levels but you do earn skill points after successful skill checks (yes, it's a bit more complicated than that, but those are the basics). The ruling was you can't just keep practicing your skill because it's assumed that you've already done that to the best of your ability, that's where your existing skill points came from. Perhaps something similar could be applied to D&D.

Eldariel
2010-05-01, 02:57 AM
Personally, I have never seen divine ascendancy rules in any official book or quoted on these forums. The "if you get X followers you become a god" notion has never had actual rules support.

Ice Assassin?

Anterean
2010-05-01, 03:08 AM
You could always boil an anthill (http://munchkin.wikia.com/wiki/Boil_an_Anthill)

Kobold-Bard
2010-05-01, 05:06 AM
Which is good, else nearly every cult you are trying to wipe would be led by a demigod with DR 0...

DR0 actually isn't actually that powerful. It's been worked out at a MAX of +LA. You get speed, immunities that can mostly be gained by being a Necropolitan, good SR but it never increases, and some resistances and DR that can be overcome relatively easily. You don't even get any stat boosts.

However it's awesome as hell.

Il_Vec
2010-05-01, 08:23 AM
1x1 sparring with a friend is an ECL - 3 easy (50%) XP encounter. It must be fought till 0 HP (letal or not), and victory must be taken seriosly by both parts, or it isn't challenging.
But if I was GMing, I'd allow it. Of course, something would interrupt the training, for the sake of Plot. Probably when the cure magic for the day is almost depleted...

EagleWiz
2010-05-01, 09:56 AM
Step 1: Gain poision immunity
Step 2: Make (or buy) a resetting poision needle trap
Step 3: Set off trap on self
Step 4: Repeat step 3
Step 5: Profit!
(Step 6: Dodge flying rulebooks)

aivanther
2010-05-01, 10:58 AM
Welcome to RAWhell, where poorly writen rules overwrites common sense.

Hence the reason Rule 0 gets liberal use by good DMs. Well, and bad DMs, but the good DMs usually have a good explanation/reason for what they are doing.

Kylarra
2010-05-01, 11:02 AM
DR0 actually isn't actually that powerful. It's been worked out at a MAX of +LA. You get speed, immunities that can mostly be gained by being a Necropolitan, good SR but it never increases, and some resistances and DR that can be overcome relatively easily. You don't even get any stat boosts.

However it's awesome as hell.It's a precedent that you don't want to try to set, because NPCs have a far greater access to the world than PCs do, and if they're functionally immortal, they will have lived that much longer, have that much greater of a power base, etc etc.

Kobold-Bard
2010-05-01, 11:10 AM
It's a precedent that you don't want to try to set, because NPCs have a far greater access to the world than PCs do, and if they're functionally immortal, they will have lived that much longer, have that much greater of a power base, etc etc.

True, but you have more levels. Meaning you can still just whoop them.

And if not and they try to challenge you, you point out that worshipping each other is taking power away from the existing Gods. A lot of them see things weeks before they happen and so will melt people to make a point long before this becomes an issue.

---------------
On topic: Create a load of undead, use Enervation on them so they gain levels, then set them loose of your control and the party battles them. If they're strong enough they count as enough of a threat to earn XP. Go kill some more Goblins and start again.

Kylarra
2010-05-01, 11:13 AM
True, but you have more levels. Meaning you can still just whoop them.Well you only have more levels if your DM is nice and hands you only encounters within your capabilities to handle. Some encounters are supposed to be overwhelming, and a pissed off demigod with the network to make your life miserable might certainly qualify.

Redrat2k6
2010-05-01, 11:15 AM
Make a magic Summon Monster trap of the appropriate challenge level with auto-reset. *POOF* let the magical XP farming gladiator games BEGIN!! :smallbiggrin:

Kylarra
2010-05-01, 11:18 AM
Make a magic Summon Monster trap of the appropriate challenge level with auto-reset. *POOF* let the magical XP farming gladiator games BEGIN!! :smallbiggrin:That's part of the tippyverse I think. :smalltongue:

goken04
2010-05-01, 12:54 PM
Reminds me of a game with a new player where we were supposed to go into a scary cave at level 1 and the newbie suggested we go kill squirrels in the forest "till we level up."

He never really did get why D&D didn't work like that.