Pathfinder 2E A quick note on calculating XP

[!DWolf]

I was reading a thread on rpg.net where they are reading through the pf2e core rule book a chapter at a time and a question was asked about how to calculate XP awards for different sized parties. The only answer given was to try and reverse engineer it from encounter difficulty tables which is annoying to do. So I figured I would post a better way to do it in case anyone here was also wondering how to do this:

First sum up the XP from defeated creatures/hazards using table 10-8. Then divide that by the number of players and multiply by 4. This is the amount of XP each player receives (you can round to the nearest 10 if desired).

In other words: the party divides the xp into individual contributions and each pc then receives an amount of XP equal to four of their individual contributions (a party of four).

Example: say a party of six defeats four level-1 monsters. That’s 120 XP total, 20 per player, and 80 for four players. So each player gets 80 XP.

 

[Philip Benz]

That works fine.
Assuming you're still using XP to lead to characters advancing in level.
Or you could just use Milestone or pseudo-Milestone leveling.
Milestone leveling is when you advance characters' levels to correspond to a given chapter of a published adventure.
Pseudo-Milestone leveling is for homebrewed campaigns, where you shoot for a given number of sessions, and advance character level after a significant event or fight once past that marker. This is what I do. I finally got tired to keeping track of XP, and having my players claim they got to level up... at inconvenient times.

 

[Redneckomancer]

I was reading a thread on rpg.net where they are reading through the pf2e core rule book a chapter at a time and a question was asked about how to calculate XP awards for different sized parties. The only answer given was to try and reverse engineer it from encounter difficulty tables which is annoying to do. So I figured I would post a better way to do it in case anyone here was also wondering how to do this:

First sum up the XP from defeated creatures/hazards using table 10-8. Then divide that by the number of players and multiply by 4. This is the amount of XP each player receives (you can round to the nearest 10 if desired).

In other words: the party divides the xp into individual contributions and each pc then receives an amount of XP equal to four of their individual contributions (a party of four).

Example: say a party of six defeats four level-1 monsters. That’s 120 XP total, 20 per player, and 80 for four players. So each player gets 80 XP.

Wait, what? Are you normally supposed to divide the Xp between the party? I figured if it was a 100xp encounter, everyone just gets 100 XP?

 

[Staffan]

Wait, what? Are you normally supposed to divide the Xp between the party? I figured if it was a 100xp encounter, everyone just gets 100 XP?

Right, that's how it works with the assumed 4 players. If you have, say, 6 players instead you multiply the XP by 4 and divide by 6.

Or, you can do it the other way and say "So this is supposed to be a 100 XP encounter for 4 players, but I have 6. So 100/4 is 25, multiplied by 6 is 150, so I'll add 50 XP worth of threats to the encounter to make it appropriately tough.

Of course, that creates its own issues. When I was running Extinction Curse that's mostly what I did, and I realized that some of the maps got real crowded. Let's say you would normally have 2 large enemies (4 squares each) versus 4 PCs (1 square each), a total of 12 squares. Maybe you have them in a 30' by 20' room, or a total of 24 squares, filling half the room. Well, now you probably have three enemies and 6 PCs for a total of 18 squares, filling the room to 3/4. That doesn't leave much room for maneuvering stuff.

 

[GreyLord]

I was reading a thread on rpg.net where they are reading through the pf2e core rule book a chapter at a time and a question was asked about how to calculate XP awards for different sized parties. The only answer given was to try and reverse engineer it from encounter difficulty tables which is annoying to do. So I figured I would post a better way to do it in case anyone here was also wondering how to do this:

First sum up the XP from defeated creatures/hazards using table 10-8. Then divide that by the number of players and multiply by 4. This is the amount of XP each player receives (you can round to the nearest 10 if desired).

In other words: the party divides the xp into individual contributions and each pc then receives an amount of XP equal to four of their individual contributions (a party of four).

Example: say a party of six defeats four level-1 monsters. That’s 120 XP total, 20 per player, and 80 for four players. So each player gets 80 XP.

At this point I've given up on the Math of PF2e XP. If I do PF2e I just do leveling at set points. So, at the end of an adventure or a certain point in an adventure they level up. The XP system is too confusing for me to really figure it out consistently.