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View Full Version : How do you handle Trap-disabling EXP?



Keinnicht
2011-01-15, 03:49 PM
Who do you give experience points to for disabling traps? I mean, most of the time, it's just going to be the rogue or rogue equivalent who does all the work. Do you give them XP for overcoming an encounter of the same CR? This just seems like a good way to make the rogue way higher level than the rest of the party.

So...What's a reasonable XP reward guideline?

Pink
2011-01-15, 03:56 PM
Well, this obviously depends a bit on how you play. If you have such a game where if one PC kills an enemy without the help of the others, they get all the exp for it, I suppose you should give rogues full exp for traps and not give the party any. But that way of playing would be ill-advised by me.

The general assumption is you share it equally with the rest of the party. Just as any other challenge experience.

WarKitty
2011-01-15, 04:08 PM
Personally I like to eliminate both trap and combat xp in favor of story awards.

Shpadoinkle
2011-01-15, 04:09 PM
The rest of the party uses the Aid Another action to give the rogue +2 per person to his Disable Device check. There, everyone contributes so everyone gets XP.

T.G. Oskar
2011-01-15, 04:11 PM
Go with the premise of the game; Pink is right on that one. If you grant XP only to those who actually defeat the enemy in comparison to those who collaborate to its defeat, then it makes sense that Rogues get XP for defusing traps.

Recall, though, that traps are presented as challenges, akin to battles or roleplaying experiences (though the game presents XP bonuses for only the first two; the latter doesn't have a CR to overcome). Once a challenge is dealt with, the group gains XP; with traps, whether the trap is defused or sprung, people get XP. Thus, the basis is that everyone gets XP, since you'll always give XP when dealing with traps anyways.

If you want, though, you can give a minor XP bonus based on who defused the traps; thus, if the Rogue is a bit left behind, you can make him gain slightly more XP than the average because the trap was defused (instead of sprung), but everyone gains XP because the challenge was overcome anyways (and you'll make the party Rogue really, really, really happy...alongside those with high Disable Device and Trapfinding). But that's opinion, in any case. Usually, ad hoc XP covers that.