I am a little bit confused on how to award XP for traps. I know the CR assigned to the trap determines the XP just like a monster combat encounter, but what constitutes "overcoming" the challenge of the trap? Obviously successfully disabling it would overcome the challenge, but what about setting it off, but successfully making the save to avoid the effect? How about merely surviving it?
I am leaning toward mere survival being enough to award the XP figuring that the "I'll never do THAT again" factor would be pretty strong after setting off a particularly nasty trap. How do you handle awarding XP for traps in your campaign?
I am a little bit confused on how to award XP for traps. I know the CR assigned to the trap determines the XP just like a monster combat encounter, but what constitutes "overcoming" the challenge of the trap? Obviously successfully disabling it would overcome the challenge, but what about setting it off, but successfully making the save to avoid the effect? How about merely surviving it?
I am leaning toward mere survival being enough to award the XP figuring that the "I'll never do THAT again" factor would be pretty strong after setting off a particularly nasty trap. How do you handle awarding XP for traps in your campaign?
Yup - surviving is enough by me. Barbarians just walk through them.
usually, circumventing any challenge earns the XP. Just as getting past a potential combat by using diplomacy etc will still get you the total CR's worth.
:)
I agree with the other posters, CR is given for the trap any time it is bypassed by any means. If the goal is to get to the room on the other side then disarming the trap, setting off the trap, or even burrowing through the wall next to it to avoid it should all give XP for the trap.
Sean Mahoney
I run traps like monster encounters. If you encounter it, you get XP for it, assuming you generally accomplished what you wanted. Get past the orc guard? Options include stealth, knock-out spells, full combat, diplomacy, and even skipping via teleportation. All acceptable, all resulting in accomplishing your goal. Get past the pit trap? Traps by their very nature tend to bring the resolution more towards the "full combat" spectrum, because you can't really sneak past a trap or negotiate with one.
My big sticking point is that the trap, like the monster, must be encountered. If the PCs all manage to blindly walk down the left side of the hallway, unknowingly avoiding the series of pressure plates on the left, and thus not tripping the scything blades in the wall, they don't get XP for it, because they didn't encounter it. Same if they stayed away from the water's edge and thus didn't encounter the aquatic assasin vine.
Dungeonscape has some interesting expansion material on traps, including making them into more than "rogue sidequests".
When I DM, I usually award XP for any means of defeating the trap, including setting it off and surviving. However, due to the relative ease with which they are defeated, I generally only give one half XP for traps, hazards or haunts; or any other immobile encounter.
-Jack
When I DM, I usually award XP for any means of defeating the trap, including setting it off and surviving. However, due to the relative ease with which they are defeated, I generally only give one half XP for traps, hazards or haunts; or any other immobile encounter.
-Jack
That's an interesting idea. What sort of prompted this question was seeing all the Haunts in an upcoming AP installment involving a haunted house that shall remain nameless. I just felt that with all those haunts the characters are bound to encounter they'd just be mopping up XP for things that 1) often affect only a single character and 2) that they have little to no chance to actually "defeat" in the traditional sense. With a few exceptions, it seems most of the haunts are flavorful encounters, but only so lethal.
Of course, I do have 6 PCs in the party, so maybe a little easy XP is not a bad thing - help to keep them in line with the expected power level of the campaign. I'll have to give this a little more thought.
When I DM, I usually award XP for any means of defeating the trap, including setting it off and surviving. However, due to the relative ease with which they are defeated, I generally only give one half XP for traps, hazards or haunts; or any other immobile encounter.
-Jack
That's an interesting idea. What sort of prompted this question was seeing all the Haunts in an upcoming AP installment involving a haunted house that shall remain nameless. I just felt that with all those haunts the characters are bound to encounter they'd just be mopping up XP for things that 1) often affect only a single character and 2) that they have little to no chance to actually "defeat" in the traditional sense. With a few exceptions, it seems most of the haunts are flavorful encounters, but only so lethal.
Of course, I do have 6 PCs in the party, so maybe a little easy XP is not a bad thing - help to keep them in line with the expected power level of the campaign. I'll have to give this a little more thought.
They might affect only a single character but the party is still in support. Imagine a scenario where the party encounters 5 goblins (in a market - Kidding) and the fighter pretty much cleans them up in two rounds without the wizard doing anything. The wizard still gets a share of XP.
Similarly, the traps may only be for flavour and not all that dangerous but they would be at a lower CR so only small amounts of XP would come from them. Probably wouldn't upset the apple cart all that much in the larger scheme of things.
Just my ideas. In the end, do what suits your game. Also, check out Traps and Treachery by Fantasy Flight Games. Awesome books for traps. They even give working diagrams for how they work.