RigaMortus said:
First off, he wasn't aware of the challenge. If he knew about the traps and just ran through them hoping to live through them, then I would give exp. But he wasn't even aware of the challenge and therefore was never given the chance to "overcome" them.
This is an interesting point -- if the paladin were never aware of the trap, then I'd also not award XP. However, if the paladin only became aware of the trap after it was sprung, then I'd award him full XP for it.
That's how it always works. If a rogue botches search check and sets off a trap, filling the room with a 6d6 fireball (save 1/2 damage), and the rogue uses evasion to totally avoid damage, she gets full XP for overcoming the trap, even though it's her class abilities that enabled her to do it. If a dwarven barbarian doesn't care about stupid traps and knocks down a door, releasing a poison dart into his side, and he handily makes his save vs. poison, he gets full XP, even though it's his racial ability that helps him out. If he's 12th level and the poison dart hits him for 1 point of damage which is totally negated by his damage reduction, and he therefore is unharmed by the trap, he gets full XP for dealing with it.
In all these cases, the character only became aware of the trap after it was sprung; for the dwarven barbarian, he didn't even do anything to avoid taking damage from the dart. What's he going to learn from the experience -- that it rocks to have a dwarven constitution? that damage reduction kicks butt?
You get experience for surviving the challenge. I think you open a whole can of worms when you start determining what it means to interact with a challenge.
Daniel