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I wasn't sure where to put this, but figured it is closer to a rules question then it is to advice.
In any case, here is my question.
When do you award experience for bloody skeletons?
Gaining experience is usually awarded for overcoming a challenge, defeating a monster etc...
Now bloody skeletons, if killed normally will come back in about an hour.
Deathless (Su)
A bloody skeleton is destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, but it returns to unlife 1 hour later at 1 hit point, allowing its fast healing thereafter to resume healing it. A bloody skeleton can be permanently destroyed if it is destroyed by positive energy, if it is reduced to 0 hit points in the area of a bless or hallow spell, or if its remains are sprinkled with a vial of holy water.
So my question is... would you award experience for killing them without truly destroying them?
Example: A party destroys a large group of them, but doesn't truly destroy them with holy water or positive energy etc... then continues through a dungeon and later camp, now after camping the skeletons are able to return to unlife start regaining hp and then seek out the pcs and try and kill them again (technically)... I feel like some pcs might abuse this and just rinse and repeat an encounter to gain experience...
Am I wrong to only award experience after they are truly dead or should you award experience for "killing" them?
You award exp twice. Defeating a monster doesn't necessarily mean kill. You could end up fighting vampires or a lich several times over your adventuring career. Each time you beat them back you get exp.
I like experience....
That said: Generally, you decided when something is "defeated". In some cases, you can defeat a creature more than once--e.g., you knock out the bandit leader, cart him off to the dungeons, he breaks out a week later and rounds up some followers and a magic item or two to get his revenge on you and you beat him again. That warrants XP again, even for the creature you "defeated" twice.
If you fight a group of gnolls until they run away, that's XP. If you chase them down and kill them, you don't get XP again.
My personal rule of thumb: If, in the second encounter with the same creature, the enemy fully benefited from the time elapsed between the two encounters, it's a separate encounter with its own XP value. That means the enemy had a chance to rest back to full health, regain any spells or other daily resources, and especially if he had a chance to set up a new strategy. If the enemy is still badly beaten from your prior encounter, no more XP. If it's somewhere in between, I adjust it by situation.
Bloody skeletons are special, of course. I would award XP for regular skeletons the first time, then give them the rest of the XP (bloody XP - regular XP) when they permanently destroy the bloody skeletons.
(Edited for clarity.)
If your party is trying to get somewhere and the skeletons are an obstacle to that goal, and they defeat them for the time being, they've overcome the obstacle regardless of the fact that the skeletons will reform. If they never have to go through that location again and never encounter the skeletons again, they're as thoroughly defeated, insofar as they were an obstacle to the goal, as they would be if they had been utterly destroyed. If they realize the skeletons would reform and undertake additional actions or use additional resources to make sure they are completely destroyed, then perhaps they deserve an additional reward (XP, reputation, blessings of the gods, whatever). If they encounter the skeletons again as a new obstacle, then they should be rewarded with XP or other such things when they overcome that obstacle, just as you would reward them for any other obstacle.
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Chances are either the party will kill them and cleanse them in one session or kill them and never come back.
In the case they kill and cleanse them in one session I'd award them full exp, or even bonus exp. I would never however, allow them to "farm" exp.
Stop awarding experience. It's a waste of time and only causes needless book keeping.*
This. SO MUCH THIS.
Experience points, by themselves, do absolutely nothing. They're just a pacing mechanism; you should have X fights before going up a level. Instead of fussing with the math, just level up after X fights ... where X is whatever number you feel appropriate for your game. Or just 'level up when you hit a major story point' or 'when you defeat a major enemy' or even 'whenever the group votes and agrees on it'.
If your party is trying to get somewhere and the skeletons are an obstacle to that goal, and they defeat them for the time being, they've overcome the obstacle regardless of the fact that the skeletons will reform. If they never have to go through that location again and never encounter the skeletons again, they're as thoroughly defeated, insofar as they were an obstacle to the goal, as they would be if they had been utterly destroyed. If they realize the skeletons would reform and undertake additional actions or use additional resources to make sure they are completely destroyed, then perhaps they deserve an additional reward (XP, reputation, blessings of the gods, whatever). If they encounter the skeletons again as a new obstacle, then they should be rewarded with XP or other such things when they overcome that obstacle, just as you would reward them for any other obstacle.
Yep. You award XP for overcoming encounters in your way even if you don't kill or otherwise destroy them. If you managed to get the skeletons trapped in a deep pit or behind an engineered cave-in so they are a neutralized obstacle to the adventure at hand, that's worth full XP even though you didn't eradicate the skeletons. And if they aren't really a threat or obstacle (or in some cases even a danger), you shouldn't award XP for them.
OK, great advice to stop using XP. But obviously the OP likes XP, so it's not helping him.
As for the monsters, you normally only get XP for the same monster one time. I can't seem to find this in the Pathfinder books so maybe I'm just remembering old advice from the Dungeon Master's Guide. In any case, imagine if the PCs captured a few of these skeletons and took them back home. Every hour, they could fight the skeletons, as many times per day as they want, in the safety of their own home. When they're tired, or out of spells, they can rest in the safety of their home. They could kill these skeletons a thousand times if they want, in perfect safety, getting XP from every kill, until they're 10 levels higher than the skeletons' CR.
You wouldn't want that.
So the general advice is to only give XP one time for any monster, no matter how many times the group fights it.
Further advice that clarified the general advice said that sometimes the same monster is a real challenge, a real obstacle to the progress of the PCs. An example given is a recurring villain who shows up once or twice in each story arc - every time he shows up he is a new challenge that must be overcome. In that case, it makes sense to award the XP for each separate encounter with him.
Extrapolating from that, I would say that if they just stand around and keep fighting the bloody skeletons, only give XP one time. But if they have to fight them once to get into the dugneon (give XP) and then have to fight them again on the way out when they're tired, beat up, short on spells, etc., then I would award the XP again - even though they're the same skeletons and the same challenge, the obstacle has changed and it really is a true encounter and a true obstacle, so it should be worth XP this second time.
OK, great advice to stop using XP. But obviously the OP likes XP, so it's not helping him.
Your definition of 'obvious' is questionable.
There's no reason to say in the rules that a party should only get XP for one monster once. As DM_Blake and I have agreed upon, if a recurring monster or monsters represent two separate challenges, then XP should be awarded twice.
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I LOVE XP. And so do my players, no matter how many people on forums hem-haw about it. Telling Caws Rorec to dump it entirely is not only unhelpful but also irritating. Either respond to his question or don't respond at all.
Caws Rorec, if you think the PCs are abusing the reanimation of bloody skeletons, don't award XP. If they're defeating them and then moving on, award the XP.
You're the GM -- award as much XP as you like, when you like. Or take the (out-of-context) advice of some people and ditch it entirely. That's the beauty of being GM.
Reward the players when they defeat challenges that impede their goals.
Defeat is entirely dependent on the context of the story.
If the skeletons are a speedbump on the way somewhere and their continued existence doesn't matter, then award them as soon as they get past the skeletons. If the players go to extra lengths for permanent destruction of the skeletons because it is the right thing to do and it is in character, bonus XP may be merited.
If the plot is about the skeletons, and they have arrived to finally end the skeleton menace, don't award xp till they are finally destroyed.
The message here is that XP is goal-oriented. Award full XP in any situation where the monster is a direct impediment to the PCs' goals, and the PCs neutralize that impediment. (So yes for sneaking past guard monsters!)
If the monster doesn't impede their goals somehow, but they hunt and kill it anyway, NO XP. Unless, of course, they are role-playing the reasons for doing this ("We must kill the monster so the local town is safe") in which case, this has really become a secondary goal of the PCs.
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If the goal was 'kill the vampire' and you just drive him away, then yeah XP is lower or none. If the goal is 'get out of the castle alive' then driving the vampire away is entirely a 'win'.
The XP vs. No XP conversation belongs in its own thread.
If leaving the skeletons alive can reasonably be called a mistake, then they shouldn't get XP. I've been known to give half XP for "mere survival" in some instances where the goal was not achieved but the fight was way hard. After all, in real life, we improve through failure!
Again, you need to look at the context to set XP awards. Absent the context, the rule gets very silly very fast.
Let's go kill some boars!
Are the skeletons the problem, or is their menace the problem. Same with the reoccurring villain. You are not getting XP for defeating the villain, but rather his plan. If you get the villain as well, get bonus XP.
As others have said, bypassing the skeletons by will gain XP the first time just as bypassing guards several times nets one XP set, not many.
As for camping on the spawning point goes, only get XP once. By waiting for the respawn, they are allowing the skeletons to regain viability and thus no longer defeated.
/cevah
The XP vs. No XP conversation belongs in its own thread.
If the problem is 'I'm not sure how to award XP', how is 'you don't need to, here's another system' not germaine to the conversation?