My name's Thrud; I'm here to rescue you.

[svwilson]

Let’s say that the heroes (four 6th-level PCs) find a friendly 10th-level sorcerer tied up and gagged by the bad guys. Just as they’re ready to free him, the bad guys (a gang that constitutes a EL 6) rush in and start the battle. While most of the heroes fight, one unties the sorcerer so he can help.

How do you determine the XP award of this situation? If the sorcerer is freed before the fight ends, do they have to split the XP with him? Or, since freeing the sorcerer is one of the goals of the adventure, do they still get the regular reward?


Shawn

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

If the sorcerer gets to participate in some way, he should get a part of the XP, IMO. Of course, the DM is free to adjucate some bonus reward XP for freeing said sorcerer.

AR

 

[Liolel]

Depends. How much did the sorcerer contribute to the fight. If he came in quarter way then maybe I might give him a full share of the experience, if he came in half way then I might give him a half share. If he came in near the end then no experience, or maybe a quarter share if he came in at the end because he finished the battle of

 

[Telperion]

Or, if the Sorcerer just blasted the offending attackers to bits with a spell or two, then she might bank most of the XP. It depends...

 

[Trainz]

I'm with Altamont with this one. The reward you could give the PC's for the Sorc rescue could be about the same as the XP's the Sorc sucks from the party's fight. Don't split it with the Sorc.

IOW, don't worry too much about it .

 

[Plane Sailing]

How do you determine the XP award of this situation? If the sorcerer is freed before the fight ends, do they have to split the XP with him? Or, since freeing the sorcerer is one of the goals of the adventure, do they still get the regular reward?

If the goal is freeing the captives then I'd give xps to the party for doing that. If the objective was to blast the bad guys to bits, then I'd share the xps with the sorcerer if he was involved.

The DMG gives paltry help in assessing xps for achieving goals, and compared to the amount of space it gives for killing stuff it is easy to focus on "xps for killing stuff", but if you assess the challenge of freeing the captives based on the difficulty of killing the bad guys, but give the xps proportionally based upon the number of captives successfully rescued, I think you will have the fairest way of handling this situation.

Cheers

 

[Darklone]

In that case, I wouldn't give the sorcerer XPs at all. He/she already has enough