Quote Originally Posted by PhoenixPhyre View Post
This is getting off topic, but I prefer to use XP (and XP analogues) as advancement markers, not as incentives. I tend to do "fiat" leveling--you level up when I say you do. I'm planning to move to a session-based approach--each session that the party does something meaningful (as decided by them), they get a mark. A certain number of marks (starting small and growing to a cap) gets you a level. The only incentive here is not to totally waste your and everyone else's time. I don't care what you do (not marking story beats or kills or anything), just that you're engaging with the world and the characters. I've had meaningful sessions where they spent the time playing with goblin children, helping a goblin tribe gather food, and otherwise "sitting around". We may have made a total of 1 check that whole time. But it was one of the better sessions as far as players' attitudes.
Quite right, the topic is not XP and that line of thinking stems from the idea that competition in character creation is not logical unless done outside the game for flexing purposes. Within the game, players should not be aiming to win at all costs even if it destroys the experience for everyone else such as with scry and die tactics. XP was used as an example of DMs controlling such behavior by discouraging it.

DMs all have methods that are used to prevent problematic gameplay at their table, especially the kind that disrupts the game flow or makes someone else feel punished. Character creation is no different and it's up to each DM to govern what they allow and how they handle builds (or wizards) that bring too much to the table. We don't expect to play games with Pun-Pun in the party.