XP for NPC = your favorite choices

[Greyblade]

Guys,

How do you award XP to your players for defeating NPC with class levels:

-use the xp rules in Monsters & Treasure and go from there
-award 5% to 10% of the xp needed to level up tothe npc's current level (say 3rd level fighter, he needed 4001 pts to reach that level, award 200 to 400xp for defeating him)
-eyeball it & meld npc xp into story awards
-something completely different?

I've been mostly using option 2, but maybe there are better choices?

Hit me with your ideas

[Omote]

10% of NPCs base XP total up to 9th level. 5% XP from levels 10-17. 2.5% XP for levels 18-24.

It's not perfect, but it works well enough.

~O

[Rigon]

I use the M&T xp guides and then eyeball it if I want it to be more or less. It works for my games.

R-

[serleran]

I don't really use XP but if I were to come up with something, I would probably see how much XP they have, add in their gear, and then cut it to 10%. So, a wizard with 2 million XP would be worth 200k.

If I found the values to be too high, which I think that would be, I would probably cut it again to 10%. Which would be the same as 1%. 20k is acceptable to me.

Just depends, I guess. I'm not a fan of using any limits and just flow with the go.... it might be worth less if they offed him quick, but more if they did it cool.

[Go0gleplex]

50 xp per level for melee types. 100 xp per level for spell casters. No adjustments for hit points.

[Captain_K]

Just like for all other things, one night of good gaming gets all players the same base experience so that after 6 games or so the average character will level. Those with less experience level usually 1 game faster and those with more one game longer.. thus no muss, no fuss, no bookkeeping and no worries..

Sorry it does not answer your question but it does solve all your concerns on experience and gives you more time to be creative, CK and play.

[Greyblade]

Guys,

It's actually pretty funny to read your answers (in a good way), cause on one hand we have people who give lots of XP and others that give little or way less.

Let's take a 4th level fighter as an example.

If I follow Omote, it's 10% of 8501, so 850XP
If I follow Rigon, and use M&T, we have 40 base xp + 4 per hp + special I 20 xp, say this guy has 30hp so its 40+4x30+20= 180xp
If I follow GooglePlex, it's 200XP

So hey, what am I supposed to do???? My brain hurts!!!!

Kidding, we'll all agree C&C is flexible enough to accomodate anyone's style and preference, and basically to eah his own. I'll think I stick to 10%, as my game is held on a quarterly basis at best, and I want the players to level up.

[pawndream]

I don't follow the XP rules as outlined in M&T. Those advancement rates are far to slow for my tastes. My sessions usually run about 4 hours, max, every other week. It would take forever for any character to level up using those rules, so I sort of eyeball XP instead.

1st level characters generally level after one to two sessions. 2nd level characters generally level up after two to four sessions. 3rd level characters level up after four to six sessions, etc.

At any rate, XP accumulates at the needs of the game.

[Arduin]

I don't follow the XP rules as outlined in M&T. Those advancement rates are far to slow for my tastes.

Once you add XP for treasure you are at what is was like in 1st AD&D which was Pre-video game, instant gratification expectations.

[Rigon]

Guys,

It's actually pretty funny to read your answers (in a good way), cause on one hand we have people who give lots of XP and others that give little or way less.

Let's take a 4th level fighter as an example.

If I follow Omote, it's 10% of 8501, so 850XP
If I follow Rigon, and use M&T, we have 40 base xp + 4 per hp + special I 20 xp, say this guy has 30hp so its 40+4x30+20= 180xp
If I follow GooglePlex, it's 200XP

So hey, what am I supposed to do???? My brain hurts!!!!

Kidding, we'll all agree C&C is flexible enough to accomodate anyone's style and preference, and basically to eah his own. I'll think I stick to 10%, as my game is held on a quarterly basis at best, and I want the players to level up.

I'd probably eye ball that up to 200 xp. But I also give xp for gold and magic items, so my players level fairly quickly at lower levels. Unless they multi-class, then it takes them a little longer than single classed PCs. Plus, the party had 8 PCs in it at one point, so that slowed down advancement, but now it's down to 6 players, so they should advance more quickly.

R-

[Captain_K]

For what its worth. I have reduced all player experience tables to a much lower and simpler numbers but all classes are as they were relatively. Our group wants to level every 6 games (every 6 months for us) so we basically give out simplified experience for a good night of gaming (after all is there a bad night?); see far columns. We give bonuses for best roll play, most heroic, most lucky, most unlucky, most lethal, nearest to death, whatever strikes our fancy by table vote with CK override (never had to do it).

No experience for gold, no hit point by hit point experience, book keeping becomes trivial.. easy peasy (not sure how to spell that??)

I'm happy to send the full excel to anyone who wants it this is just the summary table for the first eight levels.

[pawndream]

I don't follow the XP rules as outlined in M&T. Those advancement rates are far to slow for my tastes.

Once you add XP for treasure you are at what is was like in 1st AD&D which was Pre-video game, instant gratification expectations.

That might work if you award large amounts of treasure, but treasure plays a very small role in the games I run. It is not uncommon for 4th or 5th level characters to have perhaps only 1 permanent magic item, with most items of the consumable type.

Characters also generally don't have that much gold, gems and jewelry either. I keep them lean and hungry!

[Arduin]

I don't follow the XP rules as outlined in M&T. Those advancement rates are far to slow for my tastes.

Once you add XP for treasure you are at what is was like in 1st AD&D which was Pre-video game, instant gratification expectations.

That might work if you award large amounts of treasure, but treasure plays a very small role in the games I run. It is not uncommon for 4th or 5th level characters to have perhaps only 1 permanent magic item, with most items of the consumable type.

Characters also generally don't have that much gold, gems and jewelry either. I keep them lean and hungry!

Well, there's your prob with XP amounts right there. If there was a quick way to know the avg XP from treasure for the monsters you could just tack that on and voilà.

[Traveller]

@Greyblade: Read this thread to see a list of specials I use when determining NPC XP. To summarize that post, each class has one or more abilities that makes it readily apparent that you're dealing with that particular class. Using those abilities, I assign specials, and then generate the NPCs XP using the chart in Monsters & Treasure, using the NPC's level as hit dice.

Using that list, here's an example. A 10th-level fighter would have base XP of 600, +10 per hit point. The fighter's combat dominance is his distinctive ability, and at 10th level is a type II special (+450XP). Thus the NPC fighter would have an XP award of 1,050+10.

[Captain_K]

10th lvl being type II special due to multiple attacks? If the fighter is strong enough and has a big damage weapon you might also need to factor in the "damage" adds too? Just thinking out loud here..

[Arduin]

@Greyblade: Read this thread to see a list of specials I use when determining NPC XP. To summarize that post, each class has one or more abilities that makes it readily apparent that you're dealing with that particular class. Using those abilities, I assign specials, and then generate the NPCs XP using the chart in Monsters & Treasure, using the NPC's level as hit dice.

Using that list, here's an example. A 10th-level fighter would have base XP of 600, +10 per hit point. The fighter's combat dominance is his distinctive ability, and at 10th level is a type II special (+450XP). Thus the NPC fighter would have an XP award of 1,050+10.

That thread is very informative and thought provoking. Perhaps this needs to be refined into a definitive form and added into the next M&T...

[Traveller]

10th lvl being type II special due to multiple attacks? If the fighter is strong enough and has a big damage weapon you might also need to factor in the "damage" adds too? Just thinking out loud here..

The entire system is based off the concept that each class has a distinguishing special ability that allows the viewer to immediately know that they are dealing with a particular class. Bonuses aren't distinctive, and thus don't fall under the concept. Worse, they make the system too complex. Ideally, you want to eyeball this stuff and figure it quickly to keep the game moving.

With all that said, the linked post I wrote back in 2008, and I wrote it off the cuff. The good news is that, other than the fighter, the other classes all appear to be properly defined with their specials. The fighter on the other hand would need to be reworked slightly.

Since the fighter's Combat Dominance allows for 3 attacks/round against 1HD mooks at 8th level, he would get a Type I special at 8th level and above. Using my example 10th-level fighter, XP would change to 900+10 (600 base, +10/HP, +300 for Type I special). Fighters lower than 8th level would get no special at all, and no fighter would get a Type II special.

One caveat: this doesn't take into account the class expansions in the CKG. Back in 2008 I didn't have a copy of the CKG to look at.