Certified
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A common rule of thumb across all TTRPGs is that a combat encounter that doesn't provide any challenge similarly doesn't provide any EXP/XP. Do you regularly follow this guideline? An example I have in mind involves an archer standing atop a ruined building and loosing arrows at a monster in the street below...a monster that is neither intelligent enough to find their way to the roof of said building (it is also physically unable to scale narrow stairs, thanks to its anatomy) nor in possession of a ranged attack; ultimately, this archer does not have to worry about reprisals. Would the player of the archer be awarded XP if their character manages to slay the monster by steadily whittling its HP down from afar?
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This premise goes with the assumption that Combat = Experience. A lot of modern games have moved away from this idea, including my own work. However, if we are going on D&D, or D&D like games, there is an alternative here which is Milestone leveling. Here, characters level based on narrative beats, which removes the need to determine the significance of an encounter. That said, my response might feel like a dodge to the question.
Let's look at the scenario provided:
An unintelligent monster is attacking in an urban environment. An archer is poised in a secure position, mitigating the threat to them due to the creatures inability to reach them.It's not that this encounter doesn't pose a challenge to the character, it is that they have offset the risk. If the player realized that moving to a rooftop negated the monster completely, I wouldn't want to penalize the PC for creative thinking and / or planning.
As the GM, not knowing the creatures stat block, I might have it attack the building the archer is on top of, like a bear trying to knock something out of a tree, but with the possibility of bringing the structure down. Suffer ye the damage of falling and the joys of being covered in rubble before becoming a snack. Granted, the archer might move to another location, but you can repeat this and it makes the encounter a bit ore engaging. This also brings me to the second tactic.
Unless compelled, if it didn't look like it could get to the archer, I'd have the monster leave. Go look for easier meals, no the archer can stay safe opting not to engage, or give chase. In either scenario I would probably have the monster cause collateral damage, catch someone outside, or other harm. If the player choses not to engage then I might deny them Experience for the encounter, and make it clear that they could have prevented others from being harmed. If they are a paladin, this gets really ugly as they may have broken an oath.
Does that help?
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. I suppose there are morale rules at play here (I'm using AD&D 2e), but...there may be times when a character is shooting the proverbial "fish in a barrel" and I was simply curious as to how you'd handle XP awards in those scenarios.
