Granting XP

[Granamere]

So I know in DND 5e there is a table that shows if the encounter is above the party level you would get a higher amount of xp for the fight. I thought I saw a place where if you were like a level 10 fighting a single goblin the xp was lowered. Currently I can not find what I was reading so maybe it was a homebrew rule I read.

How does everyone else handle this?

[Zacchaeus]

AFAIK you get the XP for the monsters in the encounter regardless of the difficulty of the encounter. There is a method described in the DMG for how this encounter difficulty is calculated and that may be what you are thinking about since it does use factors to multiply the actual XP depending on the party level and number of monsters.

[LordEntrails]

In 5th edition, there is no bonus XP for fighting more dangerous opponents compared to your level. Their is table for calculating equivalent XP for balancing the encounter day based upon the number of opponents the party is facing (i.e. 10 creatures worth 50 XP each is harder than one creature worth 500 XP, but both encounters still only award 500 XP to the party.

[Granamere]

OK I went back and reread the section on adjusted XP and it does state that it is only for figuring out the difficulty level. I misunderstood this. Does this make sense to award XP this way? So you could get to level 20 an do nothing but kill a bunch of Camels or Ponies?

[LordEntrails]

Sure, you could, if your DM was incompetent. Remember, there are humans in the equation and it is assumed that they are making good decisions for their play group. And one of those assumptions is that the DM is varying the encounter mix up creatures.

XP it is a guideline anyway. It's not an exact science, hence one reason NPC XP is based into large chunks, and even though every creature at CR 10 is worth the same XP, depending upon the encounter, the party and a dozen other factors, one such creature may prove a simple encounter while another may cause the party to flee in defeat.

[Zacchaeus]

OK I went back and reread the section on adjusted XP and it does state that it is only for figuring out the difficulty level. I misunderstood this. Does this make sense to award XP this way? So you could get to level 20 an do nothing but kill a bunch of Camels or Ponies?
Mathematically, yes. But realistically no. You would takes years to slaughter enough camels and ponies to reach level 20.

You don’t need to use XP to determine levelling. See the section in the DMG about milestone based levelling.

[Granamere]

Sure, you could, if your DM was incompetent. Remember, there are humans in the equation and it is assumed that they are making good decisions for their play group. And one of those assumptions is that the DM is varying the encounter mix up creatures.

XP it is a guideline anyway. It's not an exact science, hence one reason NPC XP is based into large chunks, and even though every creature at CR 10 is worth the same XP, depending upon the encounter, the party and a dozen other factors, one such creature may prove a simple encounter while another may cause the party to flee in defeat.

I am the DM and I am far from incompetent. Find somewhere else to troll.

[damned]

The poster is not trolling you.
You are welcome to throw and endless stream of camels and ponies at your players.

[Granamere]

My point is I think once you get to a certain level you should not be getting experience that is from things that are so far below your level. A tenth level fighter walks through a barn kills 4 ponies and says DM ok give me my 100 XP now. I would say no you learned nothing from it but the books would side saying that cr 1/8 creatures are worth 25 XP each.

Yes this is moving into home rules here and why I was interested in seeing what others do.

[Griogre]

Also I would advise you to use the encounter difficulty rules from Xanther's Guide to Everything over the DMG ones. For me they are bettered balanced than the way the DMG scales the encounters.

Personally I wouldn't give out XP for animals like that, but it really depends on your campaign too. I'm running a dungeon crawl styled adventure path right now and I won't level them, regardless of the number encounters til they fight certain bosses and mini bosses since that's the main driver of the adventure story. If I was running a sandbox thing I would be looser but I still wouldn't give XP for animals or other PCs for that matter.

However all that said, 5E bounded accuracy does make lower level monster still dangerous past earlier editions.

[Trenloe]

My point is I think once you get to a certain level you should not be getting experience that is from things that are so far below your level. A tenth level fighter walks through a barn kills 4 ponies and says DM ok give me my 100 XP now. I would say no you learned nothing from it but the books would side saying that cr 1/8 creatures are worth 25 XP each.
That’s why you need more XP to reach higher levels - so the lower level creatures defeated have less and less impact, in the end close to zero, on actually leveling up.

Your group can obviously house rule this if required.

[LordEntrails]

My point is I think once you get to a certain level you should not be getting experience that is from things that are so far below your level. A tenth level fighter walks through a barn kills 4 ponies and says DM ok give me my 100 XP now. I would say no you learned nothing from it but the books would side saying that cr 1/8 creatures are worth 25 XP each.
As you are aware, perhaps the most important rule for any and every DM, and expressed explicitly in the DMG from every edition is, that except for this rule, no rule in any book is absolute and they are always up to the DM to decide when and how to use.

I agree, I would not give a tenth level fighter experience for something that does not threaten or challenge them. But, even if I did give the 10th level fighter a 100 xp for killing some 1/8 CR creatures, it won't matter. The character needs 21,000 XP to level up, are you going to give them 84000 ponies to kill? Of course not. You are not incompetent. Are your players going to want to roll attacks and damage to kill 84,000 ponies? Of course, not.

I'm not saying this to upset you, and I think you know and hopefully will agree with this at some level, but your question is moot. Its never going to happen anywhere but in someone's imagination.

In short, I don't worry about giving XP for weak/unchallenging opponents. Sure, I'll award it if I remember, but because they are weak the amount of XP they give will be inconsequential to the story. Maybe, just maybe it means they will level up one long rest than if I did not give it to them, but rarely is the difference between leveling and not that small.

[Marquis_de_Taigeis]

for the horse analogy,
if the horses pose a threat to the players, then awarding the xp would be justified
if the players went out of their way in order to kill relatively defenceless animals, but did it in a very role play/story advancing manner then xp may be awarded but most likely it would be an arbitrary figure based on how it helps with the story
if they were just doing it to try and farm xp, i would happily have them roll all the attacks and damage, gain no xp and then throw in consequences for these actions, maybe a city wide man hunt for the horse slaughterer, which would then add a story issue where they might be able to survive and gain xp from other encounters, but nothing from the horses.

and if ive read it correctly and based on the way fantasy grounds semi-automated xp awarding is done,
1 player tries to gain the system or even the whole party partakes in trying to gain xp this way
4 horses = 100xp (4x25xp) this would then be evenly split so say average party of 4-6 players, an individual might get between 18-25 xp for a lot of effort

so this is definitely not worth the time

so in my opinion xp should only be awarded if a challenge to the party is overcome be it through combat (not necessarily killing, also knowing when to run away) or character based roleplay (information gathering, tough negotiations), and trying to farm the xp is a waste of time.