the rule for dnd 5e is if you role for initiative in a battle you get your fair share of the xp. but if you role for initiative and say take the hide action than should you a share of the xp? i think that you shouldn't get the xp if you don't participate.(but if you are just last in initiative so the monster is killed before you get a chance than you should still get xp.)
The question that needs to be asked is, "What is the point of playing D&D?"
If you want to run it like a video game, then perhaps everyone should get experience according their their individual accomplishments. Fighters would get more experience from combat, rogues would get extra exp from disarming traps and skill checks, etc...
That can be a lot of work, and would be difficult to handle fairly.
If you just want to have fun with friends, then the party should be treated as a cohesive unit. If one player ends up substantially lower level than the others, then they won't be having fun and may simply leave. Who wins in that scenario?
Well I think it's up to the DM. Personally, if a character isn't contributing due to something like being on their phone or just not paying attention, I would give them a reminder that they're going to get what they put in, so if they just hide because they don't want to participate then yes I'd deduct XP. But if it makes sense storywise, ex: a character that is conflicted about fighting the town guard just because the rest of the party picked a fight with them, I wouldn't deduct XP from that. It's situational though, so whatever you decide.
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— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fanδ — making a smoothie for meta ——————| EXTENDED SIG |—————— Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
I typically use milestone leveling, so it's not something I have to worry about. My question is, why is this character hiding? Is there a valid reason, or is it just because the player wants to keep their character safe at all times? Is it something I can weave into the campaign, something I should probably address out of character, something that happened just the once? I don't think this is something for which there is a blanket solution, or even something that's necessarily a problem that needs solving in the first place.
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I agree with everyone else. If hiding is accomplishing something or is part of the character’s role playing then yes. Otherwise no.
Off the top of my head I can think of the following valid reasons to hide.
The character is a non-combatant and is hiding because their contribution is healing or scouting and they’re doing that instead of fighting while the other characters are focusing on fighting.
The character casts a major buff or debuff spell that requires concentration and they’re hiding to avoid the rest of the party losing the benefit of that spell.
Not a lot of details to go on in the initial post, so I'll speak in generalities:
Experience points reflect going through the experience of the encounter. A character that hides and observes still goes through the experience and learns something from the fight. If you're already assigning experience points per encounter - not using milestone - then I'd say just award the experience points and move on.
Besides, once getting started on the road of adjudicating "did this person do enough in this fight to earn experience points" it turns into punishing people for bad luck. From a mechanical, "who pulled their weight?" perspective, someone who misses most of the fight by hiding looks pretty much the same as the player who's in it but has a bad streak of misses, looks the same as the player who tries to pull of a cool maneuver by doing something non-standard but it doesn't work out.
Honestly the only way I'd cut a player out of experience points is if they did something active and malicious to make the combat encounter miserable and un-fun for their fellow players. And then it's really not even a question of experience points anymore because in that case there's about to be a "come to Jesus meeting" after which that player may or may not be in the group anymore. Haven't had to deal with one of those so far, thankfully.
Step away from the dark path padawan, it leads back to the valley of Grognards. In that valley is XP for GP and XP for "what you kill" in the old and forgotten village of AD&D. The system we have now may seem unfair and a bit communist but that's because most don't remember the dark days of yore.
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the rule for dnd 5e is if you role for initiative in a battle you get your fair share of the xp. but if you role for initiative and say take the hide action than should you a share of the xp? i think that you shouldn't get the xp if you don't participate.(but if you are just last in initiative so the monster is killed before you get a chance than you should still get xp.)
The question that needs to be asked is, "What is the point of playing D&D?"
If you want to run it like a video game, then perhaps everyone should get experience according their their individual accomplishments. Fighters would get more experience from combat, rogues would get extra exp from disarming traps and skill checks, etc...
That can be a lot of work, and would be difficult to handle fairly.
If you just want to have fun with friends, then the party should be treated as a cohesive unit. If one player ends up substantially lower level than the others, then they won't be having fun and may simply leave. Who wins in that scenario?
Well I think it's up to the DM. Personally, if a character isn't contributing due to something like being on their phone or just not paying attention, I would give them a reminder that they're going to get what they put in, so if they just hide because they don't want to participate then yes I'd deduct XP. But if it makes sense storywise, ex: a character that is conflicted about fighting the town guard just because the rest of the party picked a fight with them, I wouldn't deduct XP from that. It's situational though, so whatever you decide.
— δ cyno • he/him • number one paladin fan δ —
making a smoothie for meta
——————| EXTENDED SIG |——————
Φ • redpelt’s biggest fan :) DM, minmaxer, microbiology student, and lover of anything colored red • Φ
I typically use milestone leveling, so it's not something I have to worry about. My question is, why is this character hiding? Is there a valid reason, or is it just because the player wants to keep their character safe at all times? Is it something I can weave into the campaign, something I should probably address out of character, something that happened just the once? I don't think this is something for which there is a blanket solution, or even something that's necessarily a problem that needs solving in the first place.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I agree with everyone else. If hiding is accomplishing something or is part of the character’s role playing then yes. Otherwise no.
Off the top of my head I can think of the following valid reasons to hide.
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Not a lot of details to go on in the initial post, so I'll speak in generalities:
Experience points reflect going through the experience of the encounter. A character that hides and observes still goes through the experience and learns something from the fight. If you're already assigning experience points per encounter - not using milestone - then I'd say just award the experience points and move on.
Besides, once getting started on the road of adjudicating "did this person do enough in this fight to earn experience points" it turns into punishing people for bad luck. From a mechanical, "who pulled their weight?" perspective, someone who misses most of the fight by hiding looks pretty much the same as the player who's in it but has a bad streak of misses, looks the same as the player who tries to pull of a cool maneuver by doing something non-standard but it doesn't work out.
Honestly the only way I'd cut a player out of experience points is if they did something active and malicious to make the combat encounter miserable and un-fun for their fellow players. And then it's really not even a question of experience points anymore because in that case there's about to be a "come to Jesus meeting" after which that player may or may not be in the group anymore. Haven't had to deal with one of those so far, thankfully.
Step away from the dark path padawan, it leads back to the valley of Grognards. In that valley is XP for GP and XP for "what you kill" in the old and forgotten village of AD&D. The system we have now may seem unfair and a bit communist but that's because most don't remember the dark days of yore.