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Szilard
2008-05-29, 09:24 PM
I've been meaning to ask this for a while. You know the saying that you can learn from your mistakes? It would give you experiance right? So would someone be given experiance for not defeating a monster or other encounter?(If they were alive from the encounter of course, ane the experiance award would probably be at a fraction of the usual.)

Behold_the_Void
2008-05-29, 09:28 PM
I do this on occasion, especially if I decide to beat down and capture my PCs for dramatic effect.

quiet1mi
2008-05-29, 09:59 PM
If they lose (no xp) but show character growth,create new goals, or otherwise Rp their character learning from their mistakes, i will give them Xp. Not a lot of Xp but some for rollplaying

Chronicled
2008-05-29, 10:16 PM
Sometimes being alive is all that's needed to overcome an encounter. If running away was the smart choice, or allowed the PCs to better achieve another objective (ex: Running past the zombies instead of fighting so that they could get to the necromancer before his ritual was finished), then I'd give them xp.

That said, I usually give PCs enough xp to level after a story milestone or after a certain amount of sessions, depending. (I'd change this if the PCs were using xp to craft or the like, but none of the players I've had have been interested in that.)

drengnikrafe
2008-05-29, 10:55 PM
My PCs were 4 lvl 8's fighting 2 animated objects of the largest size (CR 10 each). They didn't know they were animated houses until they knocked on the door. Furthermore, they were playing on a spellcasting nerf, and the party consisted of a Custom Created Class Gunner with a Arquebus, a Monk, a Cleric, and a Sorcerer. They ran after the sorcerer got strike 1 (We run on a 3 strikes your out DM empathy quasi-rule). I gave them 2/3rds experience, because it was reasonable. Sure, they didn't kill the houses, but they didn't need to, and they made the right choice (I made the wrong one sending them at them. I am, after all, a new DM. They just defeated the Purple Worm so well, I thought they could handle another CR 12, since it was a new day).

FlyMolo
2008-05-30, 07:50 AM
My PCs were 4 lvl 8's fighting 2 animated objects of the largest size (CR 10 each). They didn't know they were animated houses until they knocked on the door. Furthermore, they were playing on a spellcasting nerf, and the party consisted of a Custom Created Class Gunner with a Arquebus, a Monk, a Cleric, and a Sorcerer. They ran after the sorcerer got strike 1 (We run on a 3 strikes your out DM empathy quasi-rule). I gave them 2/3rds experience, because it was reasonable. Sure, they didn't kill the houses, but they didn't need to, and they made the right choice (I made the wrong one sending them at them. I am, after all, a new DM. They just defeated the Purple Worm so well, I thought they could handle another CR 12, since it was a new day).

the CR system is at best a rough stab at the strength of a monster. Two CR 10s are a little stronger than a CR 12 if the players are weaker (action economy), while a little weaker if the players are stronger (action economy, plus no flanking bonuses, plus save-or-lose spells need to be cast twice)

Tsotha-lanti
2008-05-30, 08:33 AM
D&D's experience system is stupid. Just do ad hoc experience awards instead of requiring PCs to defeat or kill enemies to advance.

"Well, you didn't succeed at your goals, but you survived a big fight against awful opponents, so I guess you'll get (level * 100) XP. If you'd succeeded, you would've gotten another (level * 250) XP."