I just killed 1000 orcs! How much xp do I get? None!?

[BLACKDIRGE]

I simply don't get the XP chart that does not give xp for low CR critters when you reach a certain level. Last night we killed a veritable horde of orcs and my 11th level gnoll paladin got 0 xp. I don't get it. I don't fault the DM because he runs a very by the book game, which we have all agreed on, but I simply don't understand why it was incorporated into the sytem in the first place.

I know that a single orc or even 10 orcs is really no match for my PC but when the numbers get into the dozens those 1/2 CR orcs could, with the right tactics cause me and my party some serious problems.

We also killed some ankhegs, violet fungi and defeated some CR 3 traps that I got squat for as well. Frustrating.

Does anyone else have the same problem? If so how have you dealt with it.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

Did you waste many of your resources killing 1,000 orcs? Were you in danger? Did you take alot of damage?

 

[LuYangShih]

A thousand Orcs presents no true threat to a standard party of 11th level characters, thus they gain no experience from such encounters. A few Fly spells, and you are immune to most if not all of the Orcs attacks. Any Archers they have will only be able to hit you on a 20, and meanwhile you are decimating dozens at a time with spells and attacks.


The only way this would change is if you had to fight one battle with many orcs at once, with no cessation in the fight. In which case the CR of the encounter is calcuated at the total CR of the Orcs you fought. But this only applies if you encounter them in one, continous combat with no chance to rest or prepare yourself for the next battle.

 

[Bauglir]

An 11th level party would have serious problems with an army of 1000 orcs, unless they came prepared for exactly that.

So the archers need a 20 to hit? Lets say half of them are archers using longbows (arbitrary I know)

Average damage per round per archer = (4.5 * 0.05) + (9 *0.05 * 0.05) = 0.2475 damage

0.2475 * 500 = 123.75 average damage per round.

Ouch

Better hope your wizard has cast improved invis / protection from arrows / wins initiative. Even if the casters are fully prepared, they will burn a LOT of spells on this - ie resources will be consumed as with a 'normal' encounter.

It's for this reason that there's a section in the bit about XP in the DMG that says the DM may need to modify the XP for an encounter depending on circumstances.

 

[Vecna]

Epic xp

Another semiserious problem is the xp gained by very high level characters.

Where can a level 100 character find many CR 90 monsters to level up?

Pseudonatural Kaiju Hecatoncheires?
Paragon Advanced Ancient Wyrm Prismatic Dragons?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Re: Epic xp

Where can a level 100 character find many CR 90 monsters to level up?

87th level Ogre Clerics and 90th level Kobold Sorcerers, surely?

-Hyp.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I simply don't get the XP chart that does not give xp for low CR critters when you reach a certain level. Last night we killed a veritable horde of orcs and my 11th level gnoll paladin got 0 xp. I don't get it.

How seriously hurt were you? How many hp did you lose out of your total? Did any party member nearly die?

 

[hammymchamham]

You could always take on 1000 commoners and get the same result. Oh, did I mention, they're evil commoners?

 

[Vecna]

Re: Re: Epic xp

87th level Ogre Clerics and 90th level Kobold Sorcerers, surely?

-Hyp.

Doh! I should have thinked about it before!

 

[daTim]

Instead of gaining xp for each wimpy orc, you could rate all 1000 orcs as one encounter, and buff up that EL. 1000 orcs is alot of orcs for an 11th lvl party. Even if you are casting fireballs out the wazoo and flying you arent going to kill more than 300'ish tops that way. So who carrys around 700 arrows? Someone is going to have to go down there and wade through the orcs. With that many orcs you are bound to get hit a few times, if of the 700, only 400 get a chance to swing (these are very generalized numbers) then 20 are going to roll a 20 and auto hit, possibly crit. It becomes even more likely they will get critical hits when the ones in the back are aiding the others who are in striking distance, or maybe all 8 orcs who can surround you just decide to grapple and pin you while the others poke you with spears. As the previous poster said they may have bows incase you decide to fly around. Besides, its not like this army is going to sit around and let you kill them. I would say an 11th lvl party should get some decent experience for 1000 orcs, played correctly it could make quite a challenge, especially if they had to kill them in a certain ammount of time, like while a town is getting decimated by the other orcs etc etc.