(for low-level characters) Right, stirges have 2 HP so if you surprise them they die really easily and aren't really worth 25XP, but if they surprise you then they can get you really hurting for HP (as far as 1/8 CR monsters go). This can lead to situations where you either get loads of XP for nothing or a tiny amount given your injuries - how might this be adapted? ie. things like less xp if you surprise them?
I agree with Utticer. Stirges are usually the ones doing the ambushing, not the other way around. If the players can spot and defeat them preemptively they deserve the XP.
If you punish players for playing smart they're going to start playing stupid and I don't think anyone at the table wants that.
Fair enough - I just had a party this one time that farmed stirges for XPs because they all had ridiculously high passive perception and they'd go looking for them.
Fair enough - I just had a party this one time that farmed stirges for XPs because they all had ridiculously high passive perception and they'd go looking for them.
You probably shouldn’t be awarding any XP at all for that. Fights that don’t actually matter, that players seek out just for the heck of it, shouldn’t give XP in most games.
Fair enough - I just had a party this one time that farmed stirges for XPs because they all had ridiculously high passive perception and they'd go looking for them.
Not per se unreasonable, but as others noted, any truly trivial fights are not generally worth xp. Also, it's not like D&D has specific spawn tables, just because you go looking for stirges doesn't mean that's what you find. Or you can find unreasonable numbers of them, sure, one stirge per PC isn't much, but ten stirges per PC will do a fine job of killing lower level parties.
You probably shouldn’t be awarding any XP at all for that. Fights that don’t actually matter, that players seek out just for the heck of it, shouldn’t give XP in most games.
If the fight is a challenge, it should give XP. If XP is arbitrary you might as well just use milestones.
I think there's better ways to encourage players to not be murderhobos within an XP-based system, like making it more lucrative to stick to the quest goal and including consequences for destroying the ecosystem.
Fair enough - I just had a party this one time that farmed stirges for XPs because they all had ridiculously high passive perception and they'd go looking for them.
As the DM, isn't it your job to change the narrative, then? If you don't want your players "farming" the Stirges.... maybe change the story? Alter events to take the party elsewhere. Stop giving them Stirges to hunt. Whatever.
But you should never punish your players for something like this. Otherwise you're encouraging players vs DM, which ends badly for everyone.
One time I was DMing a group of level 7 PCs and they had recently used ALL their gold. In my world, one of the local lords pays for goblin ears. Instead of making my players fight the goblins that live in the local area (4 level 7's vs goblins, c'mon) I turned it into a skill challenge to see how many goblin ears they could collect. All the players wanted was a little bit of money, they weren't advancing a plot or wanting to be murderhobos for the sake of XP. Even though we used an XP leveling system, everyone liked the idea of the skill challenge instead of making them fight a bunch of goblins.
Yeah that sounds quite fun - I have a reward for the number of kobold heads my party can collect because they've been terrorising the local area and they've been working for a black dragon that I want the party to confront. They bought loads of buckets to carry them all - they turned out to be quite useful for bailing out they boat they nearly sank
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Chilling kinda vibe.
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(for low-level characters) Right, stirges have 2 HP so if you surprise them they die really easily and aren't really worth 25XP, but if they surprise you then they can get you really hurting for HP (as far as 1/8 CR monsters go). This can lead to situations where you either get loads of XP for nothing or a tiny amount given your injuries - how might this be adapted? ie. things like less xp if you surprise them?
Chilling kinda vibe.
If a party surprises anything, they should be rewarded for coming up with a plan that surprised the thing, not punished.
I agree with Utticer. Stirges are usually the ones doing the ambushing, not the other way around. If the players can spot and defeat them preemptively they deserve the XP.
If you punish players for playing smart they're going to start playing stupid and I don't think anyone at the table wants that.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Fair enough - I just had a party this one time that farmed stirges for XPs because they all had ridiculously high passive perception and they'd go looking for them.
Chilling kinda vibe.
Its hard enough to get parties to play smart anyway - one player I knew tried to put half a kitchen table in their backpack once
Chilling kinda vibe.
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D&D Beyond FoundersAs a DM, you get to choose how much XP you award the party.l
You can base this on the standard calculations in the book - which are advice on a base level.
You are also at full liberty to decide that there was zero risk to an activity and the characters didn't learn anything, so don't gain XP from it.
"Farming for XP" is something that happens in video games, because people want to level up in an efficient and safe manner.
You could also drop additional threat in, that they're not expecting! 😉
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You probably shouldn’t be awarding any XP at all for that. Fights that don’t actually matter, that players seek out just for the heck of it, shouldn’t give XP in most games.
Not per se unreasonable, but as others noted, any truly trivial fights are not generally worth xp. Also, it's not like D&D has specific spawn tables, just because you go looking for stirges doesn't mean that's what you find. Or you can find unreasonable numbers of them, sure, one stirge per PC isn't much, but ten stirges per PC will do a fine job of killing lower level parties.
If the fight is a challenge, it should give XP. If XP is arbitrary you might as well just use milestones.
I think there's better ways to encourage players to not be murderhobos within an XP-based system, like making it more lucrative to stick to the quest goal and including consequences for destroying the ecosystem.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
As the DM, isn't it your job to change the narrative, then? If you don't want your players "farming" the Stirges.... maybe change the story? Alter events to take the party elsewhere. Stop giving them Stirges to hunt. Whatever.
But you should never punish your players for something like this. Otherwise you're encouraging players vs DM, which ends badly for everyone.
Thanks for the tips everyone! Will bear all your comments in mind
Chilling kinda vibe.
Good advice that ...
Life's hard - get a helmet!
One time I was DMing a group of level 7 PCs and they had recently used ALL their gold. In my world, one of the local lords pays for goblin ears. Instead of making my players fight the goblins that live in the local area (4 level 7's vs goblins, c'mon) I turned it into a skill challenge to see how many goblin ears they could collect. All the players wanted was a little bit of money, they weren't advancing a plot or wanting to be murderhobos for the sake of XP. Even though we used an XP leveling system, everyone liked the idea of the skill challenge instead of making them fight a bunch of goblins.
Yeah that sounds quite fun - I have a reward for the number of kobold heads my party can collect because they've been terrorising the local area and they've been working for a black dragon that I want the party to confront. They bought loads of buckets to carry them all - they turned out to be quite useful for bailing out they boat they nearly sank
Chilling kinda vibe.