Racial Hit Dice and XP Cost

[Mousedigits]

All right, so, let's say we have a monster that casts spells as a sorcerer, such as a dragon. If it casts a spell with an XP cost, since it has no real XP, just racial hit dice from age, not XP, does the XP cost matter?

[tyckspoon]

If it's an NPC, not terribly; the DM gets to decide how much XP it has to work with, and he can pretty freely set that number wherever it needs to be for the creature to be able to cast that spell.

If it's a PC playing a spellcasting monster race, then he should know how much XP he has (because he'll be advancing by class in almost all cases, so he needs to know when he'll level just like everybody else) and be able to determine how much he might want to spend on casting spells.

[Chronos]

They do have XP, just an amount decided by the DM. He can decide that the monster has enough XP that he can cast the spells, but if he's playing it properly, the monster should still be reluctant to use such spells, and cast them only if really necessary.

[Urpriest]

If it's an NPC, not terribly; the DM gets to decide how much XP it has to work with, and he can pretty freely set that number wherever it needs to be for the creature to be able to cast that spell.

If it's a PC playing a spellcasting monster race, then he should know how much XP he has (because he'll be advancing by class in almost all cases, so he needs to know when he'll level just like everybody else) and be able to determine how much he might want to spend on casting spells.


They do have XP, just an amount decided by the DM. He can decide that the monster has enough XP that he can cast the spells, but if he's playing it properly, the monster should still be reluctant to use such spells, and cast them only if really necessary.

These guys have it on the money.

PCs have ECLs, which means they have easily calculated XP totals. Many NPCs don't have ECLs because they don't have valid Level Adjustments. Such NPCs can't gain XP in the normal manner, and instead just have however much XP the DM thinks they should.

At the high end of power, deities are assumed to have an XP budget for various projects, as described in Deities and Demigods.

[Mousedigits]

Ok, guys, thanks a lot!