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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mvincent" data-source="post: 3508554" data-attributes="member: 27034">For those that desire the information, the 3.5 FAQ says:"Do characters receive experience for killing asummoned monster? What about undead created withanimate dead or an outsider called with planar ally?As a general rule, any creature whose presence on thebattlefield is a direct result of another creature using one of itsspecial abilities (such as summoning) during the battle doesn’tgrant XP to characters defeating it. This is because the monsteris counted as part of the challenge provided by the summoningmonster. A pit fiend’s Challenge Rating (and thus the XPreward granted for defeating him) already takes into accountthe fact that he can summon allies; without that ability, he’d beworth less XP.However, there are plenty of situations where a DM shouldmake exceptions to this general rule. Any time that a creaturecan bring an ally into play without reducing the resources itotherwise brings to the fight (or well outside of combat) youshould strongly consider awarding XP for defeating that ally.Let’s look at a few examples to see how this might work inplay.Example 1: Over the course of many days, a powerfulnecromancer stocks his lair with undead created via spells.When the PCs fight the necromancer and these undeadminions, the necromancer has his full array of spells, so the actof creating these undead hasn’t reduced the challenge heprovides. Thus, the Sage recommends awarding full XP fordefeating the undead.Example 2: The same necromancer is on the run, knowingthe PCs aren’t far behind. He spends some of his precious dailyallotment of spells to animate a few zombies, only minutesbefore the PCs bust down his door and attack. That’s a lot morelike summoning, since the creation of the undead represents adirect drain on the necromancer’s immediately availableresources. Still, he doesn’t have to spend any rounds of combatcasting the spells, so it’s not quite the same. The Sagerecommends awarding one-half XP for defeating the undead.Example 3: An evil cleric uses lesser planar ally to call asuccubus to serve him as a spy for 7 days, and sends her upagainst the PCs (without being present himself). The Sagerecommends awarding full XP for defeating the succubus. Ifthe PCs then track down and defeat the evil cleric before he’sable to prepare spells again, it’s tempting to reduce the XPaward for the cleric by a little bit (since he’s down one 4thlevelspell), but it’s probably not worth the effort.When in doubt, err on the side of awarding XP. The DMshouldn’t be looking for opportunities to deny the PCs fairlyearned XP—if they bested the challenge, they should reap thereward."Anecdote: a PC that was away from the party pulled a bear out of his bag of tricks, but discovered he didn't need it so he sent it off to aid the rest of his party (without notifying them, either in-character or out-of-character).The party meanwhile had recently defended themselves from an encounter with bears, so when they saw this new one they attacked it immediately and slew it. The DM awarded XP for it.</blockquote>

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