OK fellow Talisman players, I have a question that I have never gotten a straight answer on. 

With the board having specific locations with monsters on it (Sentinel, Forest, Crags, Tavern) I have had several players argue that killing one of these provides experience.  I have a house rule that says you cannot earn experience off of these encounters, as it will break the game and since you cannot collect any of them as trophies they don't count.  So, I'm trying to put this to bed once an for all and would love to hear from the community…or a moderator.  What say you fellow gamers?!

Sounds like you once played the 3rd edition, none of the other editions have used experience (IIRC), it's always been trophies that you collect. In R4th, you can only get trophies from Adventure cards with the Enemy keyword, nothing else.

Though the official answer is as above, the way we play with my buddies is that if you roll for it (thus making the odds of actually fighting that battle really quite low) then it grants experience. Examples are in the tavern, forest, and also, say, the cave. And we do not allow experience to be gained from something that is always in that place and so easily repeatable, ex the sentinel, pit fiends, werewolf.

Wooster Shooster said:

But this doubles the odds of getting a stat gain (or close to it via XP) from Forest and Crags (1 and 6 now give you stats), which turns them from semi-annoying to very good in terms of potential gain, not something I see the point of.

Wooster Shooster said:

We do exactly the same! However the experience has to be used that turn (as there are no experience counters). If a player does not have enough experience + trophies to gain a stat, then the experience disappears at the end of the turn.

Dam that should make you feel a little better about it lol

Ell.

We play as El advises above. If you can't use up those S/C none card trophy points by the end of your current turn… POOF! They are gone. But I hadn't thought about the issue of "rolled" creatures vs. ones that are always present because our group does not exploit the latter.  Might be a good rules modification just the same.

Yes much better using randomly appearing creatures for experience rather than including the Sentinel, Werewolf, and Pit Fiends!

Ell.

I'd also imagine that the end-boss monsters on expansion boards should be excluded as well.

Well yes of course, they are fixed board creatures after all. Definitely no experience!

Ell.