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2022-05-20, 01:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Apr 2019
XP Rules for Monsters With Innate Spellcasting
What rules, if any, govern how monsters with innate spellcasting such as dragons or Solars use spells with XP components? If a Solar casts Miracle, what resource is expended? Do they have some daily or weekly XP budget, or do they take negative levels after so many uses or something to that effect?
And for that matter, do NPCs in general have rules governing magic item creation and where they get the XP for that? I can't imagine every enchanter out there just happens to also be a mercenary adventurer going out and raiding dungeons all the time to keep up their business; and if they actually all are, I shudder to think of the ecological consequences for the monster species they must hunt.
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2022-05-20, 02:51 AM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2009
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- Perth, West Australia
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Re: XP Rules for Monsters With Innate Spellcasting
The starting point would be the SRD's entry for the Spells special ability, which any spellcasting (as opposed to (Sp) or (Su)s) monster has:
Originally Posted by SRD
That said, Solars have Wish at will as a spell-like ability, and ...
Originally Posted by SRD
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2022-05-20, 05:38 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2012
Re: XP Rules for Monsters With Innate Spellcasting
They follow the same rules as casters with class levels. NPCs have as much or as little spare XP as the DM decides they have.
And for that matter, do NPCs in general have rules governing magic item creation and where they get the XP for that? I can't imagine every enchanter out there just happens to also be a mercenary adventurer going out and raiding dungeons all the time to keep up their business; and if they actually all are, I shudder to think of the ecological consequences for the monster species they must hunt.
Joe Commoner can't become level 8 in a few weeks by going out to kill a CR 1 animal every day (a PC could) and NPC crafters don't need to go murderhoboing to collect the souls of their enemies as crafting fuel. Not by default at least.
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2022-05-20, 10:05 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2018
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- Nottingham, England
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Re: XP Rules for Monsters With Innate Spellcasting
This isn't addressed anywhere for creatures in general as far as I know, but it is addressed for two specific types: deities and dragons.
Originally Posted by D&DG p.29Originally Posted by Drac p.24
You do get XP for activities other than fighting monsters, but in most cases it's much slower. Exactly how this works has never been spelled out as far as I know. Tbh, how the world works in the background is always a bit of a handwave, from the fact that an ecosystem couldn't support nearly as many giant monsters as a typical D&D world seems to have, to the completely nonsensical demographics rules in the DMG. Don't examine this too closely, as they say on TV Tropes.
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2022-05-20, 01:00 PM (ISO 8601)
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- May 2006
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- Wandering in Harrekh
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Re: XP Rules for Monsters With Innate Spellcasting
There's a rule about this for summoned creatures. The "Spell Description" portion of the SRD says this about Summoned creatures:
A summoned creature cannot use any innate summoning abilities it may have, and it refuses to cast any spells that would cost it XP, or to use any spell-like abilities that would cost XP if they were spells.
There is a line in the "Monsters and Class Levels" section that might apply.
Monsters And Class Levels
If a creature acquires a character class, it follows the rules for multiclass characters.
...
Level Adjustment and Effective Character Level
To determine the effective character level (ECL) of a monster character, add its level adjustment to its racial Hit Dice and character class levels. The monster is considered to have experience points equal to the minimum needed to be a character of its ECL.
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2022-05-20, 02:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Jun 2013
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Re: XP Rules for Monsters With Innate Spellcasting
They're an abstraction, but they're not without grounding in phenomena observable in character. It's recognized that crafting magic items or casting XP component spells drains some sort or vital essence, and that attempts to do so will fail if you don't have enough. NPCs recognize that spells like Wish or Permanency are limited by forces other than spell slots.
That said, SLAs don't have any components, including XP. Supernatural abilities also probably don't. If a creature is casting actual XP spells you need to make up some nonsense for how much it can spend; the dragon example is probably a reasonable guideline for a very powerful and ancient creature.Last edited by Zanos; 2022-05-20 at 02:36 PM.