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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 5757642" data-attributes="member: 53980">Well, obviously, you're welcome to play however works for your group.  You asked, so I was explaining why I wouldn't (and don't) do it that way.The way I see it is that the party overcame a CR X challenge.  They should get their fair share of that xp, even if it is posthumous.  Perhaps especially if it is posthumous, as that suggests that the CR may not have accurately reflected the difficulty of the encounter.I find it strange that, in the above example, you would probably be rewarding total xp equivalent to a CR encounter significantly lower than the one the PCs faced, when considering that 3/4 of the party perished, the CR was probably higher than what you initially thought it to be.  If the battle lasts 4 rounds, we can assume that one PC drops each round (let's say the creature has a death gaze attack and the PCs just can't seem to make their saves).  The fighter gets 25% of his share (he had the misfortune of being targeted first), the cleric 50%, the wizard 75%, and the rogue 100%.  You're only giving out 62.5% of the encounter's total worth.  Let's say that the PCs are level 10 and the encounter was a CR 10.  The xp you are giving them is a little over what they would get for a CR 8 encounter, but it's likely that the true difficulty of the encounter was at least a CR 12 (considering you managed to kill 3/4 of the party).I feel like you assume a merit-based approach, but death is often not the fault of the player.  If my fighter decides to leap down the gullet of a purple worm in order to kill it from the inside, it's my fault if he perishes in the attempt.  If a fire giant wielding a greataxe crits on my fighter while he's fighting it, I don't see that as inept play.  It's simply bad luck.  IME, the latter is far more common than the former (at least in 3rd edition based systems).  Even if you get stabbed from behind, when you come back you learn to be more wary.  IMO, this translates to increased survivability, which comes from increased hp, which comes from level.  (Although it'd be kind of awesome if that backstab encounter just happened to level the PC such that he suddenly gained access to imp. uncanny dodge.)Death is punishment enough; I don't see a need to add insult to that injury by denying the player experience that he (IMO) earned.I'm not saying you have to change your methods, I'm just elaborating on why I don't agree with them myself.  It isn't as though I'm one of your players, and even if I were, this is something I'd consider more an annoyance than a deal-breaker.</blockquote>

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