XP for Magic Items

[rastusburne]

In Men & Magic there is a sentence about rewarding xp for gold and items, but I cannot locate the rules for this in Monsters & Treasure. Obviously this was changed and expanded in AD&D, but do the OD&D rules have any guidelines for this? I am currently rewarding xp based on the guidelines in Men & Magic (as opposed to Greyhawk), and I have no issue with eyeballing the xp to roughly account for item treasures. How do other people approach this issue, or is there simply a passage I have entirely overlooked?

[mindcontrolsquid]

Gygax did comment on the matter of awarding experience points for magic items in The Strategic Review #2, where he states that "Low value should be placed upon magical items as far
as experience is concerned." He goes on to give some examples, such as awarding 100 xp for a magic arrow +1 or 1,000 xp for a sword +1. However, I personally do not follow the line of reasoning which awards experience points for magical items; my logic is that the usefulness of the item itself is its own reward for obtaining it.

[Finarvyn]

1) I no longer like to give XP for treasure or for magic items. As mindcontrolsquid noted, the thing (gold or item) has value and I hate to give XP for the thing as well as its intrensic value.

2) Having said that, I like the AD&D tables in the DMG and think that this may solve your problem. You don't have to use all of the items on the list, but I think everything in OD&D is also in AD&D so you should have a decent value guilde there.

[tetramorph]

1. I do reward gp w XP but I do not reward magic items until liquidation. Their use is their own reward.

2. If you want to reward XP for magic items, I agree with Fin. Or, say 1K for each bonus/special ability. A +1 magic sword with three abilities would get 4K XP.

[dizzysaxophone]

I do reward XP for GP spent. Magic Items are already useful without needing to double-dip into XP.

[scottenkainen]

Claiming loot is a major component of D&D, so players are bound to eventually accumulate more magic items than they really need, possibly more than they can even carry. At that point, the argument that "having the magic item is its own reward" begins to break down.

Plus, it's fun to reward XP for magic items. Even when running older editions I still do it.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

[howandwhy99]

For all XP, I think the main question is, "What do the players have to accomplish in the game to demonstrate their successful understanding of it?"

Beating monsters in combat proves the players are capable at fighting in that system in those particular situations. XP is weighted by monster there. For acquiring treasure, in general I don't reward XP for this. Theft, yes. I think thieves should be rewarded for their thieving. But treasure is treasurable for what it can be used to gain instead of the increase in game comprehension by players, which XP stands for.

I think AD&D rewards XP for discovering what a magic item does, which is the item part of learning the magic use system. If you discover how to use a magic carpet or crystal ball, you get XP for your accomplishment and you now understand how it's more useful, a true treasure. This may sound like a doubling of rewards, which in a way it is. But the same goes for any items in the game. "What if we used these cumbersome pikes as a pike wall against the ogre?"

[tetramorph]

Oct 12, 2015 18:39:02 GMT -6 scottenkainen said:

Claiming loot is a major component of D&D, so players are bound to eventually accumulate more magic items than they really need, possibly more than they can even carry. At that point, the argument that "having the magic item is its own reward" begins to break down.

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

Having too many magic items to use is a luxurious problem.

If they want XP for an unused item they can sell it.

Or, they could give it to a buddy or henchman who needs the benefit of use.

Either way, no XP till the cash is in hand. At least by this ref!

[rastusburne]

Okay, thanks for the responses. I'm kind of on the fence about whether to give xp for items. From last night's session (which was super tough, but very profitable for the characters) I rewarded 500xp for 5 items. I thought that was fair, because like you guys have mentioned, there is usefulness in the item itself. By the same token, handing out a bit of xp, but not a lot means they get a bit of an xp boost, but not so much as to make levelling ridiculous.

[aldarron]

Oct 12, 2015 19:13:01 GMT -6 howandwhy99 said:

For all XP, I think the main question is, "What do the players have to accomplish in the game to demonstrate their successful understanding of it?" ....

That's the idea.

The way it all started back in '72, characters were rewarded experience for recovering "prizes", just as we see in the Dungeon boardgame. Prizes consisted of magic items, especially magic swords. To a lesser extent, xp also came to be given out for killing monsters, one point of XP per one HP, and some system was used to give XP for casting spells. I don't know when XP for gold started, except to say that the '73 draft Beyond This Point be Dragons/Dalluhn Mss., awards 10% XP for gold for fighters.

Personally I find XP for prizes, HP's of damage and 10% works really well and is simple to track.

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2015 20:54:50 GMT -6 rastusburne said:

By the same token, handing out a bit of xp, but not a lot means they get a bit of an xp boost, but not so much as to make levelling ridiculous.

I've recently changed my mind on this and now give out XP for magic items at the full rate. The main benefit is that it allows me to greatly reduced the amount of cash I give the party while keeping the same advancement rate. Plus, it avoids the issue with buying magic items you'd otherwise have. (I use the level based treasure tables rather than the Type-based monster treasures)

Besides, cash also has it's own intrinsic value, so I don't see the logic of magic items (of all items found) being their own reward.