Dividing XP among characters

[Chupacabra]

Award equally in both cases.

Example one could have gone any which way depending on initiative order, attack rolls, saves, etc. Your critters could have easily gone first and threatened the entire roster of the party. Everyone was potentially at risk, so everyone shares in the reward. It'll all even out over time.

Example two kind goes the same way but I would give a tiny xp bonus to those actually stepping forward and taking on more risk. I mean like 10 xp per level, which is my go-to "bonus xp award" for each particular instance of
1) excellent roleplaying
2) very clever combat tactics
3) very clever use of spells or skills
4) extremely gutsy or brave (or entertaining) behavior

Not enough bonus xp to make anyone particularly race ahead of their peers in the party level-wise, but enought to encourage risky, clever or entertaining play.

 

[schporto]

There's two other cases that can come up and warrant attention.
1. The rogue who disables the trap. Nobody else helped. Does the rogue get the whole xp?
2. The party that splits - (you take the front door, we'll get the back). So if there are separate encounters do you just split all XP amongst everyone?
What I ended up doing was proposing those two situations to the group and asked them how they wanted to handle it. The results were 1 -> split evenly among everyone. (Same can go for other 1 PC dominating effects). Two though the discussion at the end said if folks are in the same room and 'trying' to participate in the fight - they get exp. If your dragon shaman sits out willingly cuz you're fighting a dragon - no exp.
As a rule of thump it has worked well.
-cpd

 

[Nail]

.... should the whole party receive shares of XP for this encounter?

Yes.

ALWAYS.

 

[Nail]

I do honestly feel that 3E and 3.5 PCs advance WAY too quickly. Two sessions, and the party is already level 2, halfway to level 3!

Because of the way the XP/CR chart was constructed, PC advance quickly through levels 1 - 3, then slow down. Eventually they advance once every 13.33 enounters, assuming CR = APL.

Comparing your 2e experience to your new 3.xe experience is......not very helpful. They are differenent games. In 3.xe, you're actually supposed to get to 20th level.

 

[Celebrim]

When a character goes off solo, he earns individual XP. This sometimes happens, particularly with rogues that going recon individually. I also give out individual XP for good role playing.

In general, you should always divide XP evenly so long as the group is acting like a group. All combats, even if you swing and miss, even if you didn't get a chance to act, so long as you participated (even unwillingly) you get XP.

The surgery is a borderline case. I would in general treat non-combat awards basically like combat awards. As long as you are willing to participate, everyone shares in the award. Basically, this means that the combat characters get to share in non-combat rewards in the same way that the less combat heavy characters mooched off them during the fights. It basically evens out, and it avoid RL party disputes and keeps one player from dominating play. There are times though when I can see a cases when you can make an argument for an individual award as a bonus when the task performed is only valuable to (and possibly only performable) by a certain class. By this I don't mean the rogue disarming the trap, because the trap threatened the party. I mean more along the lines of the wizard reading the book on ancient runes found in the library, which doesn't directly aid in advancing the story, or the rogue successfully picking the merchant's pocket in the market place while the team is looking for information.

The chief times I don't divide XP evenly among a party is when I have story awards which are alignment dependent. For example, destroying an unholy item of some sort (or an altar dedicated to an evil diety) might have a story reward divided among good aligned characters only. Even if the non-good characters participate, they don't get the bonus. This is essentially a RP award. I'm giving out bonuses to characters for accepting the burden of taking thier alignment seriously.

 

[Patlin]

When a character goes off solo, he earns individual XP. This sometimes happens, particularly with rogues that going recon individually.

Not in my campaign. It's still split. In your game, what if the cleric casts silence on the rogue before he scouts? Does he get a share? Share and share alike... solves all sorts of problems.

 

[werk]

I divvy XP equally. If there was some good playing by a particular player, bonuses are given out.

Exactly what I do. Equal splits with small bonuses for exceptional play.

Never penalize, only reward.

 

[starwed]

As others have stated, the only reason to not give someone XP for an encounter is if they actively decided not to take part in it.

If you're going to hand out challenges where only some of the PC's can take part, then either
1. Split XP evenly
2. Make sure that you distribute such challenges in a way that ends up giving everyone the same XP.

But it was so easy for Thieves to level in 2nd ed. Every piece of gold they found was worth an experience point!

I'm pretty sure that was only in 1st edition, not 2nd. Of course, a lot of groups mixed rules from the two editions freely.

 

[pallandrome]

I do not split the XP for a scouting character. After all, the Full Plate, Tower Shield wearing fighter helped by not being stupid enough to go scouting with the rogue.

 

[shilsen]

I do not split the XP for a scouting character. After all, the Full Plate, Tower Shield wearing fighter helped by not being stupid enough to go scouting with the rogue.

Agreed. And the cleric will presumably heal the scout if he gets hurt. And the scout knows that the other PCs are waiting to back him up if he gets in trouble, which gives him substantially more options.