Experiance Points question

[Falconsflight]

Hypothetical question:

You are the DM in some dungeon. Your players are all level 1, and you are playing by the Instant Kill variant Rule. (nat 20 2 times, and then a hit grants instant kill).

For some, legitimate, reason the players enter a room with a mind flayer, level 9 sorcerer. Now the DM, you, are thinking that the players will run from such an obvious threat. It's meant as a "Don't go this way" To help railroad a "freeform" game. Anyway. The Barbarian decides not to run, and instead attacks the Mindflayer, much to your, and probably the mindflayers suprise. He wins initative (+6 doesn't mean you can't roll a 1) and charges the mindflayer. He confirms and Instant Kill. THus killing the Mindflayer all by himself.

Now the actual question: (Without mentioning not allowing him to attack or not using a mindflayer.) How much experiance should the Barbarian gain for killing the mindflayer?

[Matthew]

Only enough to go up one level.

[Ulzgoroth]

By rights, the Barb. just earned...not less that 36k/party count, if you choose to split despite the single-character nature of the action.

10,800 might be a remotely reasonable grant (possibly split) instead, being the largest award the chart considers within the reach of characters around that level. This seems somewhat recommended by the DMG, and if divided leaves the party below level 3.

...to avoid horribly upsetting the game by boosting the barbarian to completely out of touch with the party level, Matthew's answer might be best. But you've also got some treasure that's still overwhelming at level 2, so things are going to be pretty out of kilter regardless.

[Paragon Badger]

You could be really mean and say that because the Barbarian did not 'learn' anything from the battle other than his axe can hurt things, he should get no experience... Or at least a fraction. :-P

I'd go with what Matthew said.

Bigger problem? Your reccurring villian/major plot device just got one hit KO'd.

[Damage Control]

But you've also got some treasure that's still overwhelming at level 2, so things are going to be pretty out of kilter regardless.

He's a VoP mind flayer. Those are pretty common, right?

[Zincorium]

See, this is one of the reasons I never, ever institute instant kills. Because if you do, they will happen at the worst possible moment, such as to the party healer when everyone is down to nothing, or as in this case, the powerful monster that was supposed to be intimidating.

That said, this is the time to handwave a level up for everyone and start adding in crit immune monsters (who should also be immune to instakills, but that's your ball).

Also, there is no reason to hold yourself to giving them legitimate treasure for a monster of that level. Give them a few useful things, and then a nifty looking but cursed item (I'd say belt, make the barbarian want it) that gives a -8 to constitution and prevents spellcasting. Make it seem like you intended the MF to be a reasonable encounter via that balancing.

[Ulzgoroth]

...Besides being impressively sadistic DM work, that would flip WBL off a bit in the opposite direction.

No XP, besides being cruel and unusual, violates the rule that luck of the dice, good or bad, doesn't impact the XP value of an encounter.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

By rights, the Barb. just earned...not less that 36k/party count, if you choose to split despite the single-character nature of the action.

10,800 might be a remotely reasonable grant (possibly split) instead, being the largest award the chart considers within the reach of characters around that level. This seems somewhat recommended by the DMG, and if divided leaves the party below level 3.

...to avoid horribly upsetting the game by boosting the barbarian to completely out of touch with the party level, Matthew's answer might be best. But you've also got some treasure that's still overwhelming at level 2, so things are going to be pretty out of kilter regardless.

I would rule that you cannot go up more than one level per encounter, and any encounter which would make you level more than once would instead give you exactly enough experience to get from your next level to the one after. Thus if you are shy 1,000 experience from level x, then the most you can get will put you at 1,000 experience from level x+1.

And also, you can quickly edit the mind flayer's possessions to be more suitable for their new level's weath by level guidelines chart, or perhaps have the majority of the items unusuable by the party (scrolls written in Illithid? enchanted weapons of some odd exotic weapon no one has proficency in, which is still good for half value cash when they get to a major town?)

[Nebo_]

You can't gain more than enough experience to give you more than one level. He gets enough XP to put him one shy of level 3.

Showing your players a mind flayer and expecting them to run away just because they should know it's too hard for them is really encouraging metagaming. How did they know, in game, that they should flee?

[bosssmiley]

A Mind Flayer in a 1st level adventure, and no-one thought to disbelieve? Nice use of an illusion/polymorph spell on a goblin by the BBEG there.

You are the GM, retcon at will (on the basis of what the players don't yet know).

[Dausuul]

You can't gain more than enough experience to give you more than one level. He gets enough XP to put him one shy of level 3.

Showing your players a mind flayer and expecting them to run away just because they should know it's too hard for them is really encouraging metagaming. How did they know, in game, that they should flee?

Depends on whether their characters, in game, know what a mind flayer is.

[Falconsflight]

Yes, I realize the whole situation seems rather stupid and wierd. but a similar situation might occur. Really what I'm asking is If your characters win via Luck ONLY, what kind of experiance should they gain?

[iop]

I think if they win via pure luck, they should still get xp, though when they win through impressive use of skill, they should get a bonus.

However, as a DM I don't keep count of xp, anyway (except if a caster requires it), and thus the question never really poses itself.