Coup De Grace and XP

[NapazTrix]

I've been looking far and wide but haven't found a definite answer to how EXP should be given for killing an enemy through the use of Coup De Grace, either by killing them in their sleep or helpless.

Obviously this is a way to overcome an encounter, so I would assume full exp is to be awarded, but to whom should it go and how should it be split?

Right now I've been ruling it that the person who does the Coup De Grace is the only one to get the exp. ONLY if it is not in combat and they are the only one engaging with the Coup De Grace, so killing someone who is sleeping on guard duty.

So: Killing a CR 6 guard as a Lv12 rogue would give him 450 exp.


But it then comes up that a Rogue could get grossly over-levelled because of this. Going alongside Trap rules that the whole party gains exp if a trap is discovered and dealt with, should a Coup De Grace split the exp between all party present?

So: Killing a CR 6 guard as a Lv12 rogue would give him 113 exp, along with a level 13 cleric gaining 81xp and their 2 melee's gaining 138 exp each.


If possible can you reference where you have this knowledge from? Thanks.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Even if the CdG was performed by only one person, the whole party (at least, those present/involved in the encounter) gets XP for an encounter overcome. In addition, level differences between party members are not good, in my opinion, so it's useful to rule this way, to keep XP more or less even.

In D&D, you can't pull the MMORPG-style 'I kill five billion goblins at one xp each' trick to level up. Simply killing CR 6 guards at level 12 is not going to get you to level up, not so much because of the CR/XP rules don't allow it, but because you, as DM, don't consider it an 'encounter' that has to be 'overcome' - it's just a PC murdering a guard. Now, if the guard was actually an obstacle in some quest you've defined, then sure, award full XP. Just don't allow anyone to get 'overleveled' by being a bigger murderhobo than the next player.

[NapazTrix]

Of course I wouldn't just let them kill bystanders for exp, that just sounds like someone got bored and wants to do something.

What then, if the rogue goes into a camp on their own, or a room out of view of the party to kill a commander or something? The party is waiting outside to hear the good word, do they get exp?

[Theobod]

DnD gives XP based on overcoming encounters, not just killing monsters, DnD may only have listed CRs for monsters and traps but that assumption encourages XP to be given for other encounters, such as skill challenges and the like. Also: just because a CR6 creature was killed doesn't mean that the encounter was CR6, in a fair fight it would probably be, ambushed probably less, being ambushed by it probably more.

Killing a creature in its sleep isn't based on how tough the monster is, its based on how hard it was to CDG to death.
They had to find it unawares, which may have required planning and observation
They had to sneak up to it, possibly bypassing sentries and magical defences like alarm spells
They had to do enough damage to force it to fail its fort save

All of these factor to the XP of that encounter. If that creature was found, bound, without any effort by the party to search for it or incapacitate it and had no chance to pass the fort save OR no chance to retaliate if it managed to do so once or twice ISNT a challenge at all, thus no XP.
If the party have to research the schedule of a nobleman, disguise and bluff their way into his keep, sneak past or otherwise incapacitate his guards, enter his locked chambers, approach his bed silently AND have managed all this with a weapon in tow dangerous enough to kill him in one fell swoop....

That's a much more difficult encounter than a straight up fight vs a CR6 foe.

[Inevitability]

XP is, at its core, an abstraction. It represents how you become better at your chosen role as you learn more. By that logic, the rogue should get full XP while the others gain nothing.

However, you should ask yourself if you're willing to let realism get in the way of equal play and table-wide fun. If you aren't, consider splitting any XP earned by any party member amongst all party members.

You could take it a step further and give the entire party a single pool of XP. As soon as the pool contains enough XP for all of them to level up, they do. The upside is that item crafting becomes a lot more 'fair': the downside is that any level adjustment gained mid-campaign will screw things up.

[frogglesmash]

In general I try to always hand out the same amount of XP to everyone to prevent level disparity, and so players don't feel cheated out of XP.

[Quertus]

Older editions had individual xp, which I always calculated dutifully. Then 3e came along with the notion of group xp, and it was like a breath of fresh air. And not just because it was easier.

Instead of the mindset of players vs DM, and players vs each other for xp, it started to put the focus on D&D as a team game.

In 2e, I saw a lot of that guy / that ****, who always wanted all the attention, all the limelight, all the treasure, and all the xp. They would go off on their own and solo challenges whenever possible. They would generally build the über character who really didn't need the rest of the party. It was like playing with a dmpc, except that, at least with a dmpc, you get to watch them solve the campaign, and maybe pretend to participate. Even that was usually not an option with that guy.

Don't encourage that guy.


You could take it a step further and give the entire party a single pool of XP. As soon as the pool contains enough XP for all of them to level up, they do. The upside is that item crafting becomes a lot more 'fair': the downside is that any level adjustment gained mid-campaign will screw things up.

Using xp components fixes crafting xp imbalances.

And your stated method works just fine for gaining LA. When the party reaches level 10, the fighter 9 / half golem (3 LA) just doesn't level, because he's already there.