D&D 5E RAW: XP until death

[Lanefan]

I've had DMs who refused to reward XP to dead characters.

I don't award xp to characters who stay home in town while some others go adventuring. Dead characters don't get any either, for things they miss while dead.

The question is only what to do with the xp for the specific encounter or combat in which the character died, and good arguments can be made (and were made, 35+ years ago) for full xp or no xp...which is why we split the difference and went with half.

But here's my take, many DMs, like myself don't even award XP, we just tell the PCs when to level. So, RAW, it's an invalid question.

Er...no. It's very much a valid question, and one which - as I kind of suspected - the RAW don't seem to answer very well. If you replace "RAW" with "in my game" in your quote above then what you say makes perfect sense.

I always awarded for participation in the encounter even if they died. There are also characters who sneak away from the party to steal the treasure while the rest are battling monsters, or one that spends the whole encounter running away from monsters or just healing the fighter. They all were there and get XP.

If all you do is run away, or sit and watch but don't help, you don't get xp. Same as if you're not there at all, or off exploring on your own somewhere else (which may or may not produce its own xp reward which only you would get).

Why do I do it this way? Because if a character's going to get the same reward for doing nothing than for getting involved, what's the incentive to take any risks? Particularly in larger parties, I've seen this happen - the risk-takers get on with it and (sooner or later) die while the passengers sit back and do just enough to ensure their own survival. When the battle's over, the passengers then get to loot both the monsters and their dead comrades, and come home rich. It's just piling on to give them xp as well.

The next encounter after someone dies gets harder for the remaining PCs so they get more XP be only splitting it with 3 instead of 4 characters. I also seen where NPC get more action as the player hanging out is playing one like a PC. I awarded his character 1/2xp for doing a good job with the NPC.

Er.....OK. The NPC should be getting the xp for what it does, right?

I see xp as a character reward rather than a player reward, thus your idea of giving one character xp for what another character - in this case the NPC - does is an absolute non-starter for me.

Lanefan

 

[Fanaelialae]

I don't award xp to characters who stay home in town while some others go adventuring. Dead characters don't get any either, for things they miss while dead.

Way to use selective quoting to completely mischaracterize my statement. I think it was quite clear that I was not saying that characters should earn XP for encounters in which they did not participate at all. That's it's own thing (group XP) with it's own pros and cons and ultimately not pertinent to this discussion.

The question is only what to do with the xp for the specific encounter or combat in which the character died, and good arguments can be made (and were made, 35+ years ago) for full xp or no xp...which is why we split the difference and went with half.

Sure, how each group handles it is ultimately up to the DM.

Er...no. It's very much a valid question, and one which - as I kind of suspected - the RAW don't seem to answer very well.

Actually, given that the RAW does not indicate any exceptions regarding how much XP characters who die in an encounter earn, the RAW answer would seem to be the same as any surviving character. If a more specific rule does not exist, you use the general rule (or the DM makes a ruling, but that is outside the scope of RAW).

 

[Hriston]

I agree there's no RAW for this. DMs will differ on when to award experience. I will generally award XP upon completion of an adventure and require a period of downtime/training to level up, so unless the dead PC was later brought back to life, s/he would miss out on the experience from the encounter in which s/he died, or from any earlier encounters for which I hadn't yet awarded experience.

Because the PC had been a participant in the encounter up to the point of death, however, I would count his or her share against the total XP for the encounter. It just wouldn't go to anyone unless the PC was later revived.

 

[Satyrn]

For a reason I'd rather keep separate from this thread, I need to have as much XP as possible for a dead PC that cannot be brought back to life. I'd like to know the following for Rules As Written:

1. For the encounter in which the PC died, does he get
   • a) XP up to the point he died (XP being split each time a foe die),
   • b) all the XP of the encounter,
   • c) none of the XP of the encounter?
2. For the encounter before the PC died, does he get XP for them?

Thank you kindly

As others are saying, the rules don't answer your question.

So I'll, just recomend that you go with either 1b or 1c, whichever the DM and players prefer.

1a, with its "XP being split each time a foe die" just seems too fiddly to bother with.