The proper amount of experience for a kill

enqenq

I find that trolls give too little experience for the trouble. I would probably find them too unrewarding even if they just died normally. But it can be bothersome to ensure you always have a means of dealing acid/fire damage at your disposal, and if it's from arrows you might have to go into your inventory and switch them. Furthermore if you're pummeling a troll really hard it won't actually ever die, because if they take damage constantly they forget they're supposed to pass out so you can deliver the fiery/acidic killing blow, so you have to make your crew stop hitting it. If a troll is held or stunned you can't actually kill it because it needs to be conscious to drop unconscious.

Now you could certainly argue that nothing of this amounts to actual difficulty. Sure, but you can't contend one can get more experience by playing far more blithely just slaying other monsters.

Anyway I'm not out to start a discussion about trolls alone, just about mobs in general that give the wrong amount of experience. On the other end of the scale I might put the derro berserkers in Sendai's Enclave; I find that tunnel a cakewalk of level ups. Mutated spiderlings die if you stare at them, for 9k exp.

kaffekoppen

Those are the best examples by far, I think. Trolls also have a sort of bug where they keep standing and attacking you when they should be falling down so you can finish them with fire or acid. It's really annoying. And yes, those spiders...

I'd also like to mention the guards I Saradush I just killed with no effort at all for 12k xp each. They might as well have been gibberlings. I think they just give lots of xp now because it's ToB.

The most extreme example of the all of course is...

Demogorgon. 0 xp because you technically don't get the killing blow and he's banished to the Abyss instead. Of course, *then* you get 100k each for finishing WK in the hardest way

Skaffen

That's one of the main reasons why I just love the Death spell. It Just takes out those trolls in one shot. Have someone run around the keep to round them up abd then wipe the lot of them in one clean go when they chase yor bait back to the waiting mage

vangoat

Hive mothers give 50k xp and Elder Orbs only 14k (Same as a regular beholder), even though IMO elder orbs are way tougher with all their PFMW and imprisonment and such.

atcDave

The way experience was originally figured is certainly not perfect. There was formula in the DMG (might be 1E, I don't remember exactly for 2E, except that experience point totals for published monsters are similar between the two editions). But it starts with an XP total based on hit dice. Then there is an additional amount listed for "special" or "extraordinary" powers. Something like immunity to fire might be a special, while each 10% magic resistance might be an extraordinary (I'm guessing here, its been a while since I looked at it).
So the way experience was figured for a particular beastie might be 120 XP for having 3 hit dice; +40 XP for having two specials; +30 for having an extraordinary; totaling 190 XP. This system normally works well for a broad variety of monsters. But because the starting point is hit dice; an 8 HD monster with no specials, would be worth more than a 4 HD critter with seven specials. Sometimes that seems a little wonkie. A "weak" monster that's immune to almost everything, or has an instant death ability can be worth a lot less than a big, strong beast that is merely hard to bring down.

Of course a human DM can always over rule the formula, or even say "gee, that battle was a lot tougher than I expected, so everyone gets an extra 500 XP..." But the computer will mostly just follow the rules.

That is part of why both games award quest or story driven experience. It tends to even things out, and awards more XP for tougher missions. At least in theory...

kryptix

Once you get crom Freyr trolls are a joke though and if you play with SCS most trolls in Nalias keep and the Druid grove become spirit trolls which give plenty of exp.