XP Based on Level, a Failed Experiment

So one thing that 3rd edition introduced that was completely new was experience point bonuses based on the comparison of your level to the difficultly of foes you defeated. Both 3.75 and 4.0 both did away with it.

The reason it was introduced was because they wanted to give you an extra big reward for defeating things higher than your level and reduce the award for fighting weak things. Well the end effect was the same as having higher level monsters worth more and lower level monsters worth less and having sucessive levels take lots more experience.

One additional effect that some people liked was that a certain level of foe awarded no experience. So characters couldn't slaughter a herd of pigs to gain levels. Of course, this wasn't really a problem (like it would be in a MMORPG). DMs decide when and where to give experience. If a battle is completely one sided it should not be run as an encounter and if it is not run as an encounter you should not get XP. It should be handwaved away. For example, "On the road to Camelot, you encounter a handful of brigands, but hey have neither the skill nor equipment to challenge you and you disperse them with ease." Or perhaps, "Your band finds the orc village and demolishes it. The battle is so easy for you that you gain nothing from it but a handful of coins."

This shows one of the dangers of treating a pen & paper game too much like an MMORPG. You introduce unneeded complexity that is only necessary for an MMORPG that could easily handle the complexity behind the scenes.