D&D 5E cr ancient dragons

[crusaderbard]

This may have been asked somewhere; but how come the dragon xp amounts listed under it's stat bloc are different then the chart xp amount at the beginning of the monster manual on page 9? A CR 24 ancient red dragons xp value is listed as cr 36,500 while under the Xp Points By Challenge rating chart at the beginning of the monster manual has a CR 24 is listed as 62,000?

 

[steeldragons]

I don't have the MM yet. But is the expectation that they get added together?

Like, 62,000 for being a CR24 creature + 36,500 for being an ancient red dragon [all of he stuff an ancient red dragon can do that every CR24 doesn't have?].

98,500 sounds like a reasonable XP total of an ancient red dragon to me.

Again, don't have the book. Don't know. Just a guess.

PS: Welcome to ENworld! Have an XP.

 

[Dausuul]

This may have been asked somewhere; but how come the dragon xp amounts listed under it's stat bloc are different then the chart xp amount at the beginning of the monster manual on page 9? A CR 24 ancient red dragons xp value is listed as cr 36,500 while under the Xp Points By Challenge rating chart at the beginning of the monster manual has a CR 24 is listed as 62,000?

Looks like somebody messed up ancient dragon XP values. Everything else in the MM has the XP value listed for its CR on page 9.

 

[Ratskinner]

I expect that there may be something "official" to it. Dragons have the most lair and legendary perks and the XP values would be a way of making it subtly clear that they are "solos". IIRC, that (sort of thing) was part of the original plan with the changes to CR and XP. However, I think that plan lost a lot of steam as the impact of Bounded Accuracy became apparent during playtest.

..just a theory. I would hope for more clarity after the DMG, but the ToC from the preview doesn't leave me all that hopeful..page count-wise.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Huh... never noticed this... you're right. Seems somebody messed up.

 

[Cernor]

Dragons have the most lair and legendary perks and the XP values would be a way of making it subtly clear that they are "solos".

If that were true, the dragons would probably give MORE XP when killed, not less. As it is currently you lose 500XP for the weakest ancient dragons (White and Brass) by using the value in the stat block, all the way up to 25,500 XP for Red and Gold. What you really need to ask, though, is why it matters. Atm they have no levels above 20th and you shouldn't be fighting CR 20+ things before then, so the amount of XP is irrelevant.