Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
[Very Long] Combat as Sport vs. Combat as War: a Key Difference in D&D Play Styles...
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 5829710" data-attributes="member: 5143"><p>I used to be a Triad member for Living Greyhawk, the official campaign in 3e/3.5e. We were not allowed to give out XP for anything that wasn't combat encounters and traps. Word came down from our superiors(through WOTC) that giving out XP for anything other than that was a house rule and not the intention of the rules.</p><p></p><p>That section is about overcoming obstacles that could hurt you. If you didn't risk dying, it wasn't worth XP. That's why the CR system was used to determine XP. CR is a challenge of how difficult things are in combat in relation to the power level of the group. XP was given out based on how MUCH you risked death by fighting it.</p><p></p><p>In Living Greyhawk, we were allowed to give out XP for a combat encounter where the PCs used spells/skills to avoid the combat. But if they avoided seeing the encounter at all, no XP was given. For instance, teleporting passed it without knowing it was there didn't give you XP but showing the royal seal to a group of guards that attacks anyone without it counted....unless you expected every group to go through the adventure to have it...then it was never intended as a combat encounter. Basically, if the default position was "these enemies attack you immediately UNLESS you do something extraordinary", it was a combat encounter. If a diplomacy check gets you passed, then you get no XP. If it takes 3 Diplomacy checks of DC 30 while fighting the enemy, you do.</p><p></p><p>If the PCs fought an encounter that was never intended as a combat encounter, no XP would be given out.</p><p></p><p>It's almost completely irrelevant. It's POSSIBLE that a CR 20 creature has good skills. It's just as possible that some of their skills will be worse than CR 1 monsters...since CR has no relationship whatsoever with skills.</p><p></p><p>It's impossible to use CR as a guideline for how difficult a monster will be outside of combat. Some of them have extensive non-combat abilities and some have none.</p><p></p><p>Even then, how one "defeats" them out of combat is entirely up to the DM and determining the "challenge" of that is highly subjective. Since XP is based on risk, how much risk does a party really have if you determine that a bluff check against their sense motive of -2 makes them go away?</p><p></p><p>That's the case sometimes. Each person runs their game differently. However, my experience is that the vast majority of encounters in a game go like this: "You are walking down a path when out of the woods jumps 3 dire tigers...roll for initiative." or "You walk down the corridor into the next cave, you see that the group of drow you were chasing appear to be doing some sort of ritual. Their apparent leader yells, 'Intruders! Stop them!'. They draw their weapons, roll for initiative."</p><p></p><p>CaS can work when given freedom as well. Basically, you arrange things so that when a battle happens(or is even likely to happen), the enemies you have prepared are an appropriate challenge and number for the PCs.</p><p></p><p>The thieves guild that they wanted to attack conveniently has blocked themselves off into rooms of 1-10 members depending on their individual CRs, and they don't move to reinforce the others except after a reasonable amount of time to make sure the PCs aren't overwhelmed. They fight each room as a set piece.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Majoru Oakheart, post: 5829710, member: 5143"] I used to be a Triad member for Living Greyhawk, the official campaign in 3e/3.5e. We were not allowed to give out XP for anything that wasn't combat encounters and traps. Word came down from our superiors(through WOTC) that giving out XP for anything other than that was a house rule and not the intention of the rules. That section is about overcoming obstacles that could hurt you. If you didn't risk dying, it wasn't worth XP. That's why the CR system was used to determine XP. CR is a challenge of how difficult things are in combat in relation to the power level of the group. XP was given out based on how MUCH you risked death by fighting it. In Living Greyhawk, we were allowed to give out XP for a combat encounter where the PCs used spells/skills to avoid the combat. But if they avoided seeing the encounter at all, no XP was given. For instance, teleporting passed it without knowing it was there didn't give you XP but showing the royal seal to a group of guards that attacks anyone without it counted....unless you expected every group to go through the adventure to have it...then it was never intended as a combat encounter. Basically, if the default position was "these enemies attack you immediately UNLESS you do something extraordinary", it was a combat encounter. If a diplomacy check gets you passed, then you get no XP. If it takes 3 Diplomacy checks of DC 30 while fighting the enemy, you do. If the PCs fought an encounter that was never intended as a combat encounter, no XP would be given out. It's almost completely irrelevant. It's POSSIBLE that a CR 20 creature has good skills. It's just as possible that some of their skills will be worse than CR 1 monsters...since CR has no relationship whatsoever with skills. It's impossible to use CR as a guideline for how difficult a monster will be outside of combat. Some of them have extensive non-combat abilities and some have none. Even then, how one "defeats" them out of combat is entirely up to the DM and determining the "challenge" of that is highly subjective. Since XP is based on risk, how much risk does a party really have if you determine that a bluff check against their sense motive of -2 makes them go away? That's the case sometimes. Each person runs their game differently. However, my experience is that the vast majority of encounters in a game go like this: "You are walking down a path when out of the woods jumps 3 dire tigers...roll for initiative." or "You walk down the corridor into the next cave, you see that the group of drow you were chasing appear to be doing some sort of ritual. Their apparent leader yells, 'Intruders! Stop them!'. They draw their weapons, roll for initiative." CaS can work when given freedom as well. Basically, you arrange things so that when a battle happens(or is even likely to happen), the enemies you have prepared are an appropriate challenge and number for the PCs. The thieves guild that they wanted to attack conveniently has blocked themselves off into rooms of 1-10 members depending on their individual CRs, and they don't move to reinforce the others except after a reasonable amount of time to make sure the PCs aren't overwhelmed. They fight each room as a set piece. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
[Very Long] Combat as Sport vs. Combat as War: a Key Difference in D&D Play Styles...
Top