Heroes of Battle XP

[User3]

Ok, I was in a game where the DM was running the EL 4 preset battle "Cutting Supply Lines" from Heroes of Battle. We won the battle handily, with no losses:

We had:
five 3rd level characters(PCs)
one 2nd level human Fighter(sniper)
20 1st level human Warriors(mixed archers and regulars)

They had:
10 worgs
10 1st level goblin warriors(worg-riders)
20 goblin spearmen(2nd level Rogues)
20 goblin archers(2nd level Rogues)

The goblin archers had cover from being in supply wagons, and the worgs were on the two flanks of the wagons. Our archers had some concealment from being in the bushes. They surrendered when we had killed or chased off the riders, the worgs, 8 spearmen, 2 archers, and had thrown up an illusion cutting their archers off from the battle. We stripped them of armor and weapons (mmm, masterwork) and sent them on their way.

Now, the DM said that he'd tell us about our XP gain from this battle next session.

Frankly, I'm having trouble calculating our XP gain for this battle. Based on advice from Heroes of Battle, you subtract your forces from their forces as a starting point. That means we defeated roughly 36 CR 2 enemies at an average party level of 3.

Per the DMG, I tried to calculate the total XP for that. I used this formula:
10 CR 2 guys = CR 9
4 CR 9 guys = CR 13.

Reduce the encounter down to CR 10 due to the fact that it was an ambush(and the highest CR with an XP total), and that gives each PC just over 2k in XP, which seems fair.

However, 36 CR 2 encounters gives 600 each, so for the party thats about 4,440 XP each, which is enough to level-up automatically. (Incidently, we got the treasure for 50 CR 2 encounters and an EL 4 battle).

How would you rate this encounter?

[Neeek]

Honestly, a no-loss victory over a superior foe(even if you ambushed them) is pretty incredible. I'd probably just grant xp to the point where you are about 1000 under the next level, after passing a level. Which is still less xp than you probably would get with a calculation, but I don't like bypassing entire levels.

[RandomCasualty]

I'm curious as to how you won that battle wtihout any losses.

26 guys against 60? and you didn't lose a single 1st level warrior?

What the...?

[Username17]

Not losing a 1st level warrior is not the same as not having any first level warriors drop. It just means that none of them were too far below zero to have the party Bard come and heal them back up to consciousness.

It's all about tactics. Maybe I should capitalize that: Tactics.

Heh.

-Username17

[RandomCasualty]

1138754637[/unixtime]]
It's all about tactics. Maybe I should capitalize that: Tactics.

I'm more inclined to believe lack of tactics on the enemy's part in this case.

With 20 2nd level rogue meleers and the worg riders, it should have been a simple matter to flank the enemy to death. Though I suppose in tight terrain, forcing single or double file enemy lines, with a lot of healing it may have been possible to hold it off.

[Desdan_Mervolam]

Not nessissarily. If you know where the battle will be ahead of time, it's not too hard to figure out what the enemy's tactics are likely to be, and then simply plan around it. With the most skilled character being a 2nd level goblin, I doubt they're too experienced, certainly not enough to make complicated plans.

-Desdan

[Josh_Kablack]

CR is a logarithmic scale with each doubling of numbers adding 2 to the EL. A fight against 60 CR 2 Opponents calculates out to be roughly an EL 14 Encounter. Unfortunately, the CR scale is not meant to work for CRs of +/- more than 8 levels nor groups bigger than 10-16 members. So you are left with the question of whether and how to subdivide into smaller encounter groups for XP purposes.


This stumped me until I reread your question and smacked myself in the forehead.

..the DM was running the EL 4 preset battle..

So now class, what EL was the encounter?

[Username17]

So now class, what EL was the encounter?

That's where it gets tricky. Ideally, the EL 4 preset battle is intended to be fought by an EL 4 army as per Heroes of Battle. The thing is that when you don't have an EL 4 army at your back, it puts more of the opponents onto the PCs. And that means that the encounter they are shouldering is more like a crap tonne of encounters, and less like an EL 4 "battle."

-Username17