Bonus for staying behind & finishing the fight?

[NewJeffCT]

The party ran into a buzzsaw tonight and 2 PCs of 7 were dropped and 1 NPC was as well. The party also got hit with a blasphemy by a cleric that was 1 level higher than them.

Even though 1 of the main villains was down and 3 of the other main villains had taken major damage, the players decided to teleport out to save their 3 fallen comrades. The sorcerer & cleric then teleported everybody out, but the party psion stayed behind and then proceeded to unleash a 40 foot radius energy effect power that took out 2 of the other 3 main villains (the hellfire warlock was at 5hp out of an original 98, the other cleric was at around 60 out of his original 180 or so) and a bunch of the other minions as well. (The cleric has a special teleport ability and was just outside the blasphemy radius)

Seeing his success, the psion took his damage from the remaining bad guys that could target him (he was flying, so the regular minions couldn't reach him) and then proceeded to kill a bunch more minions and leave the last "main" bad guy with 5 hit points. He then teleported away, since he was sort of the #4 bad guy of the bunch...and wasn't that interested in sticking around without access to easy healing.

My question is - how much of an XP bonus does the psion get for finishing off the combat? This is a level 17 party of PCs and the main bad guys were pretty powerful.

 

[Shin Okada]

First of all, I will make no difference in gaining XPs between the said Psion and the other PCs. All the PCs are part of the same party. And the encounter started when some of the party member started to fight (or when some villain started to attack some PC), and then ended when the last one (the psion) left the battlefield. The Psion PC should not get more XPs just because he was the last one to evacuate, nor because he had directly finished some villains (will you give XPs only to a party wizard if he nukes all the monsters in his initiative?).

Second, the PCs may or may not gain XPs for that encounter.

It depends on what was the goal of the PCs. If PCs are opposing the certain group of villains and dropping some minions and named NPCs contribute to the long fight against that group, I will give XPs for the slain minions and villains.

But if killing those villains are not the party's objective for that encounter, say, they were just meant to go past those villains violently or peacefully, then PCs simply failed to overcome that encounter and thus, no XPs at all.

 

[NewJeffCT]

well, there is a difference between the wizard nuking the bad guys on his initiative and the party fleeing, but one staying behind.

The villains were part of the party's objective for the encounter as well.

 

[Shin Okada]

well, there is a difference between the wizard nuking the bad guys on his initiative and the party fleeing, but one staying behind.

It happens from time to time that some characters continue to fight the opponents a little bit longer than the others. Some characters may fall unconscious (or die, trapped in Maze, etc.) and removed out from battle earlier. Or a party monk stays a round or two longer while taking full-defense to acquire other PCs run away, then evacuate using his fast movement or abundant step.

But those occasions should never change the amount of XPs each PCs will get. What matter is who have attended that encounter and what was the result of that encounter.

The villains were part of the party's objective for the encounter as well.

Then, I usually give XPs for killed minions and named opponents.

 

[NewJeffCT]

good points, as usual. The guy playing the psion volunteered to give up any XP bonus so we could call his two psionic revivifies a wash for him and the two PCs he revivified (the psionic power has an XP cost, unlike the regular Revivify spell... but, he also has more rounds to manifest the power)

 

[Starbuck_II]

That sounds like a good solution.

 

[billd91]

But those occasions should never change the amount of XPs each PCs will get. What matter is who have attended that encounter and what was the result of that encounter.

IF you happen to give out individual XP benefits for good roleplaying or good play, then the heroic stand deserves some bonus XPs. But if you've never really given out bonus XPs before, then I wouldn't give any out now.

I would never say that these occasions should never change the XPs the PCs get. But any benefit should be in line with other benefits you already give or have already established will be part of the game.

 

[irdeggman]

There is no such thing as "bonus" xp in the RAW.

There are roleplaying awards and encounter awards, some use story line completion awards also.

If it is considered a separate "encounter" then you calculate separately if not then it is considered the same "encounter" and everyone (who didn't die) is treated the same when it comes to xp awards (accounting for level differences between characters of course).

 

[Elethiomel]

IF you happen to give out individual XP benefits for good roleplaying or good play, then the heroic stand deserves some bonus XPs. But if you've never really given out bonus XPs before, then I wouldn't give any out now.

Saving party members who've been knocked down is also good play.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It happens from time to time that some characters continue to fight the opponents a little bit longer than the others. Some characters may fall unconscious (or die, trapped in Maze, etc.) and removed out from battle earlier. Or a party monk stays a round or two longer while taking full-defense to acquire other PCs run away, then evacuate using his fast movement or abundant step.

But those occasions should never change the amount of XPs each PCs will get. What matter is who have attended that encounter and what was the result of that encounter.

I agree they should all get the same xp for the encounter, but disagree that serving as the "rearguard" for an escape is undeserving of an additional award. I'd give the monk you used as an example a bonus xp award. I guess it'd technically be a roleplaying award, though.

The thing with the OP's example is that the stand sounded unnecessary. They had teleported far away. Unless the bad guys had some ability to follow a teleport if used within one round of the teleportation -- similar to the time crunch on the Revivify spell and a special ability / spell I think the game should have fairly commonplace to help deter Scry-Buff-Teleport raids -- or similar, staying behind to fight them a while didn't actually help save his allies at all. So to me at least, it's not quite the same thing.

That said, if killing the villains was part of the objective, and they're not just getting raised by the evil cleric tomorrow again anyway...he turned disaster into partial success (retreating with none of them dead to retreating with 3/4 of them dead), and should probably get some extra xp for that.