Here's something that's been bothering me a little lately: How should I assign xp for challenges that were primarily dealt with by individual characters, or smaller groups of characters, rather than the whole party.
Examples:
1. A couple of party members going to scout far enough away that they can't be readily helped by the rest of the party and taking out a couple of guards.
2. A dwarven paladin in heavy armor volunteering to go across a dangerous-looking stone bridge, due to his improved chance of spotting a trap in the stonework. (He was secured with a rope, but anything unpleasant would have likely involved water, so definitely going beyond the call of duty here.)
3. A rogue doing almost all the work dealing with a particularly nasty set of traps that had a very good chance of hurting him badly.
Now, my interpratations on this:
1. Seems fairly clear-cut. The two character were the only ones involved, they couldn't get help from others if they got into trouble, they get to split the encounter xp.
2. Should things have gone awry, other party members would have ended up taking risks to save the dwarf, and a couple were helping in one way or another, so they all certainly should get a share of xp - the question is, does the dwarf get a bonus of some sort, for volunteering for a dangerous task, or do I just chalk it up to vagaries of fate that in this situation the circumstances were such he ended up on point?
3. On one hand, the rogue's just doing his job by disarming traps, and there isn't much anyone else could do in terms of searching for and disarming a trap. On the other hand, I've been in his shoes, and risking pain, dismemberment, and ability damage while everyone else sits and watches is a much tougher job than mixing it up in combat is for a fighter, or putting people together is for a cleric (after all, a rogue generally does his fair share of risky combat as well). On the third hand, if the rogue consistently got bonus XP as a sort of "hazard pay", he'd slowly pull ahead of everyone else... I'm really undecided on how to deal with this.
Examples:
1. A couple of party members going to scout far enough away that they can't be readily helped by the rest of the party and taking out a couple of guards.
2. A dwarven paladin in heavy armor volunteering to go across a dangerous-looking stone bridge, due to his improved chance of spotting a trap in the stonework. (He was secured with a rope, but anything unpleasant would have likely involved water, so definitely going beyond the call of duty here.)
3. A rogue doing almost all the work dealing with a particularly nasty set of traps that had a very good chance of hurting him badly.
Now, my interpratations on this:
1. Seems fairly clear-cut. The two character were the only ones involved, they couldn't get help from others if they got into trouble, they get to split the encounter xp.
2. Should things have gone awry, other party members would have ended up taking risks to save the dwarf, and a couple were helping in one way or another, so they all certainly should get a share of xp - the question is, does the dwarf get a bonus of some sort, for volunteering for a dangerous task, or do I just chalk it up to vagaries of fate that in this situation the circumstances were such he ended up on point?
3. On one hand, the rogue's just doing his job by disarming traps, and there isn't much anyone else could do in terms of searching for and disarming a trap. On the other hand, I've been in his shoes, and risking pain, dismemberment, and ability damage while everyone else sits and watches is a much tougher job than mixing it up in combat is for a fighter, or putting people together is for a cleric (after all, a rogue generally does his fair share of risky combat as well). On the third hand, if the rogue consistently got bonus XP as a sort of "hazard pay", he'd slowly pull ahead of everyone else... I'm really undecided on how to deal with this.
