How much XP are half-HP monsters worth?

[P1NBACK]

Yup. As the title says, how much XP would you assign (as far as encounter budget) to monsters who had the same stats all-around except they began the encounter with half their normal hit points?

I'm leaning toward half-XP (so, two of these guys equal roughly one normal), but seems like it might be more considering it's basically the same amount of HP, but two different targets, two attacks, etc...

Thoughts?

 

[S'mon]

I give "demis" 2/3 XP. They start out doing x2 damage of 1 "standard" monster, but typically half-way through the fight one drops and that goes to x1, so total damage output is typically 1.5. Thus 3 of them are worth 2 standard monsters.

 

[P1NBACK]

Right on. That sounds just about right.

 

[MrMyth]

Yeah, go with something like S'mon. I've seen people who try to just treat them as worth half the XP, and it ain't pretty. I still remember an early adventure in Living Greyhawk where our party of level 1 and 2 characters walked into a campsite and found a troll. "It's cool," says the mod author. "He's been burned by the campfire and so doesn't regen, and has half hp."

Which was of little reassurance to the characters who got Claw-Claw-Bite-Rended to pieces.

Half HP doesn't mean half as dangerous. I'd recommend avoiding it entirely and sticking to other approaches (delevelling, etc), but finding a midpoint like 2/3XP is probably the best way to go if the situation really calls for it.