Near Death XP ?

[The_Ditto]

Ok, so I just tripped over a cute question on Stack Exchange:

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questio...m-nearly-dying

But it got me thinking ... assuming this was a "rule" in your game ... what build could/would you use to "abuse" the extra XP earned? :)

[edit] sorry, to clarify in case link broken or inaccesible:
Let's just use this version of the "rule" for clarity:
If you drop down to 0 hp, or near 0 hp (let's say <5 hp), you gain some minor extra XP for that fight
[/edit]


In other words, what builds would be best which would knock yourself out or bring you low, but keep you alive, and exploit such?

My first thoughts were a frenzied berserker .. but that's 3.5, not really much of that in 4e ...

Where's the resident Optimizers? :)

[Tiadoppler]

Monks tend to have high initiative and run straight into melee. In my experience, they take a lot of damage, but also have the movement capability to escape as needed.

Any class that has party-unfriendly bursts can get the whole party 'accidentally' close to death quite quickly, especially if they're used towards the end of combat, when most of the enemies are no longer a big threat.



This XP house-rule is such tremendous cheese that I wouldn't touch it (as a DM) with a 10' pole. I like to have encounters where my party feels threatened. If my party steamrollers my encounter without even getting bloodied, then I failed and my party deserves all the xp it got. Don't punish your players for being awesome.

[The_Ditto]

Monks tend to have high initiative and run straight into melee. In my experience, they take a lot of damage, but also have the movement capability to escape as needed.

Any class that has party-unfriendly bursts can get the whole party 'accidentally' close to death quite quickly, especially if they're used towards the end of combat, when most of the enemies are no longer a big threat.

Hadn't thought of that! :)

This XP house-rule is such tremendous cheese that I wouldn't touch it (as a DM) with a 10' pole. I like to have encounters where my party feels threatened. If my party steamrollers my encounter without even getting bloodied, then I failed and my party deserves all the xp it got. Don't punish your players for being awesome.

Agreed!! This is just a humorous thought exercise - nothing realistic or planning on implementing :)

[Tiadoppler]

Ah, a thought exercise. Good. I was envisioning:

"Cleric, make a heal check on that goblin! We've got to keep the encounter going! I'll magic missile you, then the warlord will make the fighter hit me, taking fire damage from my flame shield. Are we all almost dead yet?"

[The_Ditto]

Ah, a thought exercise. Good. I was envisioning:

"Cleric, make a heal check on that goblin! We've got to keep the encounter going! I'll magic missile you, then the warlord will make the fighter hit me, taking fire damage from my flame shield. Are we all almost dead yet?"

ROFL .. yeah .. it generates some silly things for sure .. but just wondering about a single build .. self contained ... isn't there a feat/ability in 4e that allows doing dmg to yourself to increase dmg output? that's the sorcerer right ?

Wonder if going that route creates something more "efficient" :)

[tcrudisi]

Revenant build. It likes to fight at negative hp, so it would automatically get the bonus xp every fight.

[dadada]

Try a Revenant Cleric focused on healing with endurance (for the die hard power).I'll get a full build out if anyone points out a character builder like the one on D&D Insider

[Tegu8788]

One feat sticks out to me, which normally I'd imagine would be less useful. Stormhawk's Vengeance. When at 0 HP or less, enemy that dropped you takes 10 thunder per tier. No apparent limit to the number of times that it could trigger, so if you can get back up then dropped again, you could get some serious mileage out of this.

If. I'm not gonna touch the if.

[OldSalt]

Warforged get Warforged Resiliance, which is helpful on the not dying stakes.

Also Minotaurs get Ferocity, which means they get an melee basic attack as an immediate interrupt when the drop to 0 or lower, just as they gain this XP ...

[Leewei]

I remember handing out near-death XP back when I used to run Rolemaster.

Deva paladins can have great defenses and recovery capability, plus feat support that makes them deadlier once they've been reduced to 0 health.

[Crivens]

Bravura Warlords and related Warlord powers that grant enemy attacks in exchange for free attacks for a party member or members.