Re: The Reputation Hilarity/Insanity thread New version
Getting the monster to flee or otherwise finding a way to avoid it is a very good way of solving an encounter unless killing said monster is the goal of the adventure. Well, unless the monster reappears to cause more problems somewhere along the way.
In the specific instance either violence or cunning would be required. Not 'hurr arrow of forced teleport without saving throw' . Which actually happens to be the main complaint I'd have with it, I'd bitch if a monster got to pull shit on PC's without any saves and I know many other players would as well.
I feel at this point I should mention that I would talk with my players and explain my stance on it's use (though I'd not reveal my master plan), and that at the end of the day I'm the one putting most of the work in here trying to create a challenging and fun adventure for them. Granted there is a spirit of adversarial-ness to the relationship between a GM and their players, and knee-jerk reaction is typically going to be 'no fuk u!' We are all still trying to have fun right?
Just saying "You get no XP because you didn't solve the encounter the RIGHT way" is not a very good solution.
I've never had a DM that felt they needed to justify to the players why they got the XP they did. Granted that may change after several sessions without any being awarded.
There are plenty of other ways to make it come bite them back in the ass(gloves of arrow snaring, anyone?) and spending hundreds of thousands of gold pieces should be enough of a punishment without XP penalties.
I assume that players who've come up with such an exploit know to aim at the square instead of the creature as it has a rather low AC. And again I don't view the lack of XP as a punishment or penalty really, the situation is the same as if they'd seen a group of mobs from a distance and steered clear of them. The didn't do anything to gain XP, I'd just be humoring them the first couple of times they did it.
All of which is beside the point because in a typical campaign you won't be getting strong enough to fight any of the deities that might be miffed the PC's have been punching holes through dimensional walls all willy-nilly. Let them get to level 15 if you want, I do think that's a little more cruel though.
