Handing out Experience

[kaomera]

Take the squid example. The party arrive at their destination and get ExP for the squid. Then, they turn around and cross the same sea again...and meet the same squid again, with much the same result: a good hammering but the damaged squid manages to flee. Do they get full (or any) ExP again? What if the same thing happens a third time? (actually, a squid is a bad example here as the party have no real way of knowing if they're meeting the same one or not...a more distinctive foe, such as a particular Dragon missing a claw on one foot, works better for my question here)

I don't know, they chopped several tentacles off of the squid, I'd think that would be pretty recognizable. Personally I prefer not award XP for the same monster encountered multiple times more than once unless something really significant has changed. In the above example the PCs know the squid is there, they can find some other route or else they can take steps to deal with the creature once and for all. Just traveling the same way, expecting the squid not to attack (or perhaps they're hoping it will so they can get more XPs...) isn't good play, IMHO. However, if they kill the squid and some nasty-nasty reanimates it as an Architeuthidaeliche, then yes they should get full XP for defeating it "again", as it's basically a new monster. Likewise if the squid is awakened, then every time it gains a few more levels of Barbarian and comes back it's worth more XP, IMC.

 

[shilsen]

In short-do you as DM only give experience for the monsters the party members actually kill, or also the ones that run away or escape, when it's clear they can't win the battle?

I don't give XP for the monsters the PCs kill, or the ones that run away, or for anything at all. I simply award a flat amount of XP per session, irrespective of what the PCs do, to keep them advancing at a rate I'm happy with. Besides all the other advantages, it also has the added benefit of saving me the effort of making decisions like the one this thread is about.