How should I award XP in this situation ??

[Zarnam]

This is what happened yesterday, in my Underdark campaign:

- The party (all drow) were asked by their "friend", owner of a drinking pit/tavern popular among mercenaries, young nobles of lesser houses and such folk, to help him with a rival tavern owner. A few days before, three of his scullery knaves were found dead in an alley not far from his tavern, and he is certain, that his rival is behind this. He asked the party to go and "do some damage" in the rival drinking pit.

- as planned the party arrives there some twenty minutes later, during a refurnishing of the place and proceedes to wreck the tavern. No more than ten seconds pass when the tavern guards appear - two fighters, a rogue and a minor wizard. A fight ensues.

- after another minute (10 rounds, no deaths on either side) the owner arrives with two more bodyguards (one of them a tough fighter/sorcerer) and orders them to stop fighting and leave while they still live (the party managed to destroy some old futniture and not much else). After a brief conversation the party leaves.


Ok, now getting to the point - the tavern guards were a challenging encounter to the party but they didn't defeat them...how should I treat this situation XP wise ?? Can someone help me with that ??

Thanks

 

[Krelios]

I'd say they did defeat them. They set out to accomplish their objective and they did. Give them XP based on the CRs of the creatures involved and a bonus for accomplishing their story objective. If you want to knock of 10% from the combat since they were interrupted, I guess that's okay, but you want to encourage them to use their brains not keep killing needlessly (even though they are Drow).

 

[wmasters]

No idea for RAW, but personally, I'd wing this and give XP based on how fast you want the party to progress. Giving half or quarter XP is entirely reasonable. There's an argument for no XP, since they failed to beat the encounter, but presumably you wouldn't be asking the question if you wanted to give them none, or full XP.

 

[andargor]

I've become fond of "Encounter Levels" (EL), as they are described in modules, most notably in Dungeon.

It's more than just the CRs of the creatures, it's the situation as well. If the creatures are weakened, if there's an objective to be accomplished, if there are any circumstances that make the encounter more difficult or easier, etc.

So set an EL for encounters like this, and set the conditions for them to succeed beforehand. It can be as simple as "getting out with their skins, sending the message, and not screwing up the situation more".

If they've "succeeded" according to your plot, award the XPs according to what you estimate the EL to be.

 

[mvincent]

If the party did enough damage that defeating the guards would have been superfluous to the overall goal of the adventure, then they have effectively overcome the encounter, and would get XP for the guards as if they were defeated.

However, it sounds like they didn't, but they still accomplished what their tavern owner friend asked them to do. In such cases I usually award XP for overcoming social situations. The XP award is often the same as if they had 'overcome' their friend via combat (strange, but it has precedence). His CR may be adjusted for his importance and such.

Besides, if they are drow they should endeaver to only help out high level people anyway.