As the name says. I am referring to monsters summoned by an enemy, just so we are clear.
137ben has the rule of it.
Still I think there are situations where you could award xp for summoned monsters. Imagine an adventure designed around a summoner. A party could go many encounters fighting summoned creatures before they ever actually meet and fight the summoner. In that case I could see awarding XP for summoned creatures in encounters where they are the only adversary and the party will not actually come to grips with the summoner.
Not sure if that is RAW but I would certainly do that as a GM in a home game.
Typically, summoned/called monsters are counted as part of the CR of the creature who summoned them, however if said monsters were already summoned/called prior to combat and the summoning creature had an opportunity to regain any spent resources (spell slots, /day abilities, etc.) then they should probably give XP.
As a general rule, if I include a monster while populating a dungeon (during pre-game prep), I award XP. If the monster is added on the fly during the session I do not.
got it! Thank you guys
137ben has the rule of it.
Still I think there are situations where you could award xp for summoned monsters. Imagine an adventure designed around a summoner. A party could go many encounters fighting summoned creatures before they ever actually meet and fight the summoner. In that case I could see awarding XP for summoned creatures in encounters where they are the only adversary and the party will not actually come to grips with the summoner.
Not sure if that is RAW but I would certainly do that as a GM in a home game.
Ooo... thinking about it, a summoner (the class) can be rather troublesome since they have summon monster spells as SLA's (so they are basically silenced and stilled). So, combined with the fact that they have invisibility on their list, a summoner could easily use guerrilla tactics by summoning from stealth and just leaving (or I am off base with that detail).
But, when it comes to xp, you do not necessarily need to actually take down the opponent, do you? As it has been said, summoning is considered part of the caster's CR, and forcing an enemy to retreat is still a victory.
So while you should definitely reduce the experience gained from the skirmishes, experience should still be rewarded since you fought against the summoner's forces. It could be an interesting way to stretch out a small enemy group across several challenging encounters in a day. Just a handful of summoners could make an entire dungeon with their resources.
Ooo... thinking about it, a summoner (the class) can be rather troublesome since they have summon monster spells as SLA's (so they are basically silenced and stilled). So, combined with the fact that they have invisibility on their list, a summoner could easily use guerrilla tactics by summoning from stealth and just leaving (or I am off base with that detail).But, when it comes to xp, you do not necessarily need to actually take down the opponent, do you? As it has been said, summoning is considered part of the caster's CR, and forcing an enemy to retreat is still a victory.
So while you should definitely reduce the experience gained from the skirmishes, experience should still be rewarded since you fought against the summoner's forces. It could be an interesting way to stretch out a small enemy group across several challenging encounters in a day. Just a handful of summoners could make an entire dungeon with their resources.
I agree, summoners could be in interesting challenge and I like the way you put this, to paraphrase, that defeating a summoned creature and forcing the wiz/summoner, etc. to retreat is defeating the spellcaster. That actually seems to be RAW to me. I would of course reward reduced XP, likely equal to the amount of the summoned creature.
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Summon (Sp) Universal Monster Rule
This was the only reference that I found after a quick search, though it relates specifically to a creature's natural ability to summon.
Summoned or called creatures are not counted towards the challenge rating of an encounter. Monsters and/or enemy NPCs with the capability to summon creatures have that ability already factored into their CR.Is that in the rules or is that just an extrapolation based upon the rules?
it is a rule.
It's a rule for summoned monsters, but I've always awarded full XP for called monsters (as have those adventures I've seen that utilize them).
Summon (Sp) Universal Monster Rule
This was the only reference that I found after a quick search, though it relates specifically to a creature's natural ability to summon.
Well, the ability to cast spells like you are using a class has its own weight (whether there are actual class levels, or they just "cast spells like an xth level y"). Summoning just happens to be a rather efficient use of that resource.
137ben has the rule of it.
Still I think there are situations where you could award xp for summoned monsters. Imagine an adventure designed around a summoner. A party could go many encounters fighting summoned creatures before they ever actually meet and fight the summoner. In that case I could see awarding XP for summoned creatures in encounters where they are the only adversary and the party will not actually come to grips with the summoner.
Not sure if that is RAW but I would certainly do that as a GM in a home game.
In that case, if the party defeated the summoned creatures and the summoner at that point chose to flee (and thus regain resources), I'd grant XP for defeating the summoner, not the summoned creatures.
I might modify the award if the summoner didn't really put his all into it, such as a CR 10 summoner who just tosses a few dire rats at the party and then leaves the party alone for the rest of the day, almost all resources intact. At that point, the party didn't really overcome a CR 10 challenge, so I'd award them XP commensurate with the challenge they did overcome. So if a summoner is using "guerilla" tactics and just tossing summons at the party without ever exposing himself, there's an argument for awarding XP for the summons rather than the party. I would cap such XP if they would exceed the XP awarded for the summoner itself, though, and under no circumstances would I award XP for both summoner and summons in the same day.
Called monsters are similar; if the caller regained resources since calling the creature, then I'd award XP for both, provided that it didn't reduce the wizard's expected wealth enough to impact his CR. If the enemy wizard gates in a pit fiend during or just before combat and the party slays both during that combat, I only award XP for the wizard.