I'm prepping my first campaign as a DM.
I have several pieces of information or choices that can only be discovered when the player/PC requests something specific. These are mostly basic skill checks (mostly things like Knowledge, Linguistics, Diplomacy, Sense Motive) but I'm trying to design it so the PCs are rewarded for picking up on smaller clues, etc.
What's an appropriate way to reward XP or at least measure the CRs of these types of things? Should the XP go to the whole group? The players who figured it out? The PCs that succeeded in the skill check?
(Note, I don't want to develop all of these into full fledged skill encounters requiring dozens of rolls, but simply reward the players themselves for realizing that *now* is a great time to Sense Motive/etc)
With the removal of level loss upon resurrection and XP costs for spells and magic item creation, Pathfinder has moved away from having different characters with different numbers of levels. Not having DMed (or GMed if you believe in copyrights) Pathfinder just yet, I'd suggest keeping along those lines and having XP awards the same across all PCs. Others may have more sagely advice, however.
With the removal of level loss upon resurrection and XP costs for spells and magic item creation, Pathfinder has moved away from having different characters with different numbers of levels. Not having DMed (or GMed if you believe in copyrights) Pathfinder just yet, I'd suggest keeping along those lines and having XP awards the same across all PCs. Others may have more sagely advice, however.
Thanks! This makes sense, most things assume PCs are all close to equal in a variety of ways.
Any ideas on calculating the XP (or CR) for such things?
Thanks! This makes sense, most things assume PCs are all close to equal in a variety of ways.
Any ideas on calculating the XP (or CR) for such things?
Take this with a grain of salt because I'm hardly an expert in these areas, but I would say look at how far you want them to get and how much XP they're going to get from the planned combat encounters. It gives a lot of flexibility, just like quest rewards.
The other guideline is somewhere in the 25 (for easy things) to 100 (for bigger picture items) per PC, at least at 1st level. You should scale it up from there so it's relevant at their level, but you don't want one knowledge check to give more XP than a combat. This is especially true if this isn't getting them treasure. As much as leveling gives power, loot gives power, too.
Another way you could play it is giving them actual combat information. It's incredible how much easier it is to handle opponents when you know what's going on vs. when you know little about them. For instance, if they intercept a communique telling them where and when the enemy will be meeting so they can set up an ambush, that alone is a great reward, whether they get bonus XP for it or not.
Thanks! This makes sense, most things assume PCs are all close to equal in a variety of ways.
Any ideas on calculating the XP (or CR) for such things?
Take this with a grain of salt because I'm hardly an expert in these areas, but I would say look at how far you want them to get and how much XP they're going to get from the planned combat encounters. It gives a lot of flexibility, just like quest rewards.
The other guideline is somewhere in the 25 (for easy things) to 100 (for bigger picture items) per PC, at least at 1st level. You should scale it up from there so it's relevant at their level, but you don't want one knowledge check to give more XP than a combat. This is especially true if this isn't getting them treasure. As much as leveling gives power, loot gives power, too.
Another way you could play it is giving them actual combat information. It's incredible how much easier it is to handle opponents when you know what's going on vs. when you know little about them. For instance, if they intercept a communique telling them where and when the enemy will be meeting so they can set up an ambush, that alone is a great reward, whether they get bonus XP for it or not.
Thanks. This is very helpful, both the XP ranges and the combat information idea.
If they are single skill checks I would take a look at traps. Disabling a trap is essentially 2 skill checks (perception to find it and disable device to disable it). So I would look at the dc's for the traps and compare it to your skill rolls. That would set the CR but I would probably cut the reward in half since there is only a single check and depending on the check there is less danger in failure.