Kender XP

[Kiara]

Something I have wondered for a while is... why do the tiny kenders in Kendermore give so much XP when killed? Sure maybe I am biased being a kender and is fed up with seeing them dead every time I visit my hometown, but even for someone who isn't a kender it makes absolutely no sense does it?

What's the reason? I mean logically should not stuff thats hard to kill give the most XP? For the most part this is true, but the kenders have for some strange reason become a great XP ground even for myths, who basically kill a kender with a few hits... I mean the kenders are tiny in size, have no real weapons, some are even sleeping... yet they give excellent XP when killed.

Would love to hear some wizard explaining the thought behind this? Has it always been like this since Kendermore was created, or has their XP been boosted for some reason, and if so why??

Or is it some type of mistake? Someone added a zero too much somewhere?

Want much XP? You need to kill big dangerous foes. Isn't that how it should be? Not mass-kill small, but still strangely greatly rewarding, NPCs like kenders...

[Jhael]

Actually, I've found that the best way to grind xp is actually to kill large amounts of smaller enemies, rather than small amounts of large enemies. I can't speak to any xp modifiers that exist in the world, but efficiency-wise smashing a ton of little things is more effective for a number of reasons.

I assume it's true that the larger something is the more xp it provides when defeated, but you have to consider how much time and effort goes into killing it. I'm sure the Balrog, for example, actually provides a large "number" of xp but the amount of effort, or in the case people, required just isn't worth it. So, I'm going to make up some numbers just for the sake of explaining my thought process.

Let's assume the Balrog is worth 100 xp. Let's assume that a Kender is worth 2 xp. How many Kender could I kill in the time it would take me to kill a Balrog, and how many ways will that Balrog xp be split? (I'm assuming Genesis splits xp between party members like many games)

So, obviously my numbers are way off, but I hope you see what I'm driving at. You can apply that to even less fearsome foes than the Balrog, it's just such an obvious example. I could kill Dragon Army NPCs in Sanction but they hit hard and are buggy as hell. In the time I could do that, I could also just go wipe out all of Gont, Kendermore, and dwarves for the far more xp (and probably imbuements).

[Kiara]

Jhael: Well yes... sometimes killing lots of small things is better, but for the most part I dont think it is. And I dont think we can compare single "boss" NPCs with grinding areas. If we compare grinding areas we have the top ones like Qualinost and Mithas, who are serious challenges, but it also provides nice rewards. On the other side of the scale, we have say kobolds. I mean you can kill as many kobolds as you want, but you're unlikely to get much XP from it... since those kobolds are probably 0.0001 XP compared to Mithas trolls, so you simply have to kill too many to get some real progress. So it just isnt worth it, you have to move up some more more challenging foes when you become bigger. Which is like it should be.

I also think Gont, Dwarf camp, Centaurs, and other "medium size" grinding area do provide _some_ challenge. Maybe some parts of Gont are too easy compared to the XP it gives, but It's not almost free XP like the kenders are. Kenders are pretty well-known to provide extremely good XP for the tiny challenge. Other comparable NPCs like hobbits or gnomes doesn't give anywhere near the same amount of XP. It just seems like Kendermore is a place where XP is given away almost freely?

[Jhael]

Just as a point of clarification, I understand that comparing grinding areas to a single 'boss' isn't exactly a great comparison. I was merely using that as an example to illustrate my point. Much like your comparison between Qualinost and Kobolds.

I, personally, cannot speak to why Kendermore appears to give xp away. I just offer one explanation as to why some might kill there. Qualinost may give great xp, but if you can't sustain and continuously be killing something, it's actually not worth it. When maximizing grinding for xp, you always want to have some amount of xp coming in; downtime is bad and that's why you'll see myths killing Kretans and Kenders. (and perhaps there is some secret xp boost out there, too).

[Manglor]

They aren't that small, there are tons of them and their armours are extremely weak. That's it. No one goes there just for the Kenders. It's part of a centaurs/knights circle/kendermore loop. Very effective, very little downtime and decent rewards.