How to farm XP?

[RoboEmperor]

I love crafting but crafting requires a LOT of XP so what are some ways to farm XP? I really, really don't want to resort to abusing wish via efreetis and solars, because if I could, then there's no point in crafting. Any wizard/sorcerer that can cast planar ally can get the most powerful epic gear. Also... I want to use golems instead of summons and craft a ton of staves to give my sorcerer access to all of the spells (so instead of wizards and their spellbooks it is sorcerers and their staves).

Some ways I thought of is:
1. Gate in uncontrolled creatures and kill them.
2. Gate yourself to another plane and kill as many as you can before you gate yourself back.

Are there any other methods? And would a DM allow these sort of things (like a character staying in an inn for a year, just gating himself to and back from other planes).

[ryu]

I love crafting but crafting requires a LOT of XP so what are some ways to farm XP? I really, really don't want to resort to abusing wish via efreetis and solars, because if I could, then there's no point in crafting. Any wizard/sorcerer that can cast planar ally can get the most powerful epic gear. Also... I want to use golems instead of summons and craft a ton of staves to give my sorcerer access to all of the spells (so instead of wizards and their spellbooks it is sorcerers and their staves).

Some ways I thought of is:
1. Gate in uncontrolled creatures and kill them.
2. Gate yourself to another plane and kill as many as you can before you gate yourself back.

Have you consider ambrosia/distilled pain farming depending on your alignment. Perhaps a nice thought bottle? Oh make it a business on the side and earn money in the process?

[Jack_Simth]

Automatic reset magic device traps. Encountering them and passing them is a victory. If you know what the trap will be in advance, why, you can prepare for it quite easily. A Wail of the Banshee trap is CR 10, suitable for giving you XP up until you're 18th level ... and as a Sonic Death effect, it's stopped by Silence (2nd level Bard/Cleric spell) or Death Ward.

[RoboEmperor]

Have you consider ambrosia/distilled pain farming depending on your alignment. Perhaps a nice thought bottle? Oh make it a business on the side and earn money in the process?

I have never heard of ambrosia/distilled pain farming, so I will look into it.
And yes, I do want my character to make a crafting business. I want him to be the ultimate crafter (maybe even sell golems and colossi).

[NoACWarrior]

If you have the money a thought bottle is nice in that you can restore your entire XP lost in one go. Store your XP in the thought bottle with a fair chunk of XP in your current level, craft down your XP to the bone, use the thought bottle to restore and repeat.

Alternatively the trap is a pretty good idea.

[Ssalarn]

There was a formula once that involved leveling up by drowning kittens, let me see if I can find it...

Okay, never using Google to search "Leveling up by drowning kittens" again...

Ah, here we go.

[Jack_Simth]

There was a formula once that involved leveling up by drowning kittens, let me see if I can find it...

Okay, never using Google to search "Leveling up by drowning kittens" again...

Ah, here we go.

Catch: That's Pathfinder. They handle XP differently and (among other things) don't use it for crafting. The 3.5 XP tables say you wouldn't get any XP for those kittens past a few levels.

[Ssalarn]

Catch: That's Pathfinder. They handle XP differently and (among other things) don't use it for crafting. The 3.5 XP tables say you wouldn't get any XP for those kittens past a few levels.

Whoops! Well darn, and I thought it was such a great idea too.... (I really didn't. Cost effective maybe....).

You could always do the Elminster thing and train a bunch of chaotic evil apprentices who will inevitably turn on you every week or so. Just make sure you train them up to a level where they're still worth some xp.

[RoboEmperor]

Thought bottle is amazing! And it's craftable too! And costs only 800 xp! Thanks this is exactly what I needed. I might even use wish by myself and pay the ridiculous XP fee thanks to this bottle!

A question about the bottle... once you store the experience in the bottle, is it there forever or is it gone after one use? And for the 2nd case, after one use, does it become an empty thought bottle to be used again or becomes completely useless?

And a quick question on the side... would a DM usually allow this kind of XP grinding? The trap thingy and the gate thingy.

[TrueJordan]

You could always ask your DM for some kind of 'arena mode', that's what my group does. If he doesn't let, he probably won't let the thought bottle or other shenanigans either.

[unseenmage]

Build yourself a Spellsong Nightingale and put the spells Create Water, Water to Acid (Stormwrack), Elation (Book of Exalted Deeds), and Distilled Joy (Book of Exalted Deeds) in it.

Using Create Water twice then Water to Acid creates more than enough acid to refill the Spellsong Nightingale (with the caveat that you also need to supply containers, but vials are cheap and the surplus covers them too). From there you can get as much Distilled Joy via using Elation on willing sentient living participants as the local wealth limits of the city you're in allow for.

There's also the Runic Guardian from the Monster Manual 2 if the Spellsong Nightingale isn't allowed.