Need Help with Experience Awards

Aluvial, you have numbers all over the place. This is a mess. Let's start at ground zero. You ran a big battle. The good guys are:

9 PCs of an unknown level
12 "allies" of level 3

The enemies are:

10 CR 3
27 CR 5
9 CR 9
1 CR 11

That should be overwhelming odds for low-level PCs, so I'm going to assume they're level 12. Now let's put all that into the online calculator. We get:

5829 xp for each level 3 character
1014 xp for each level 12 PC

However, you said you didn't want the dozen level-3 characters to dilute the XP pool. You want them to be "rolled into 2 characters." OK, according to page 49 of the DMG, a dozen level 3s equal 2 level 8s. So let's remove those level 3 characters from the calculator and plug in 2 level 8s. Here is what it thinks now:

5927 xp for each of the 2 level 8 characters
1936 xp for each level 12 PC

Now, that basically means that 5927x2 is what the dozen level 3s get to split up. However, you said you wanted them to have a half share. Therefore, they split 5927:

5927 ÷ 12 = 493 xp for each level 3 character

Next, you said you wanted to award only 60% of the normal amount. So that will be:

493 x .6 = 295 xp for each level 3 ally
1936 x .6 = 1161 xp for each level 12 PC

Aluvial said:

Each surviving character gets an award based on their level (FR style).

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As someone else said, that's the default way for all of 3.5 edition core. It's not a niche style calculation. It's the norm. Thus, you can use any 3.5 edition online xp calculator.

aboyd said:

You want them to be "rolled into 2 characters." OK, according to page 49 of the DMG, a dozen level 3s equal 2 level 8s. So let's remove those level 3 characters from the calculator and plug in 2 level 8s. Here is what it thinks now:

Click to expand...

I have already modified a 3.5 excel sheet to accept my standards for the game. The issue was the number of characters the program handles. Right now that number is 12. I have 9 PC's, 6 are 8th level, 1 7th level, and 2 5th level. I also had 12 surviving 3rd level characters. For my game, these characters are considered cohorts, and receive only a half share of XP.

The issue that I was having was "folding" the 12 3rd level guys into two of the remaining character slots the excel sheet would recognize (for those of you counting, I would have an extra slot, but it is filled for another purpose, therefore I can't really use it.) So, entering the number of creatures, and their CR's, and by selecting who participated, the excel sheet now references the XP chart, (which I've expanded to include encounters over and under 8 levels) and pulls the number. Each "PC" or character slot gets a share of XP based on their level.

I remember that being the FR system back in 3.0... truthfully, I've used this modified excel sheet for so long, I've never even looked at the 3.5 xp system...

Anyhow, I realize for the program to work correctly, I don't need 2, 8th level characters, I would need to go the other way with it, having a character who was LOWER level, therefore receiving a greater amount of XP. Since the characters were already level 3, they were already receiving the smallest amount of XP available.

So, I scratched the program, rewrote what I needed and did the math by hand. I appreciate all the other help and advice that I asked for. I really wasn't clear, about what I wanted to begin with, which for the purposes of my excel sheet, would have needed a fractional character level xp matrix to work. No biggie.

As for those who are curious, my players have campaigned with me for 16 or 17 years... and occasionally still manage to tick off the local powers to be, which in this case was a small army of frost giants, and a slew of stuff from the Frostburn book. There would have been 12 PC's to account for, but a killed a few last night. They don't receive XP in our game...

What is the 3.5 rule for XP for dying characters?

Anyhow, thanks for the help again.

Aluvial

Aluvial said:

What is the 3.5 rule for XP for dying characters?

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Depends if you really mean "dying" or if you mean "dead."

Dying characters who do not bleed out and eventually are back to healthy get full xp.

Dead characters get no xp, and do not even dilute the xp pool. They simply do not factor in at all.

See attached image for a visual summary.

aboyd said:

Depends if you really mean "dying" or if you mean "dead."

Dying characters who do not bleed out and eventually are back to healthy get full xp.

Dead characters get no xp, and do not even dilute the xp pool. They simply do not factor in at all.

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Which is the same exact rule that has always been in D&D (as far back as I can remember that is - through 1st ed).

The dead don't count, survivors do.