During the last session, my players sneaked into a camp at night. A lot of enemies (several tens) were resting in their tents. My players managed to set fire to the tents without being caught and so many enemies died in the fire. By considering the regular exp for each dead creature, this means a big step forward (about 4000 exp at level 7). My question is: is it correct to assign regular exp after these "indirect" kills, or is it better to assign only a certain amount for the clever strategy?
[RPG] How to assign exp for indirect kills
dnd-5eexperience-points
Best Answer
You should give the players full experience for the creatures they kill. If using clever tactics results in a decreased reward, you are effectively disincentivising playing tactically and encouraging your players to turn every encounter into a straight-up fight.
However, if you're going to be fair about the rewards of clever strategies, you should be fair about the results, too. Assuming being in a burning tent is roughly equivalent to standing in a patch of burning oil, the creatures in the tents should only have taken 5 damage per round. If it's equivalent to being covered in alchemist's fire, that's a mere 1d4 damage per round. Letting this tactic insta-kill anything stronger than a kobold is being extremely generous to your players. The idea here is not to cheapen your encounters in terms of either the challenge or the reward.