Summoner experience question

[Theinyore]

IN a recent game that I've been running I featured a dungeon which split the party into two separate pathways. They are a third level pathfinder party with one cleric of Pelor, one half-elven fighter, a human rogue, human alchemist, gnomish bard and a dhampir summoner. The campaign is set within a vampire controlled city openly owned by the vampiric Count so Dhampir are almost common you could say. Regardless, the dungeon split the party into two halves, the first being the Cleric, the fighter, the rogue and the summoner's eidolon Manticore (who is a half formed dragon). The other group contained the Bard, the Alchemist, the summoner and an NPC ranger who was leading them into the encounter. Everyone survived fine despite us rushing the ending for time sensitive reasons and all that but now I am at a quandary.

I don't know, as a DM if the summoner should gain xp for all encounters her eidolon was in. She gave it a command to defend the party and using shared senses even controlled it for a turn or two but it was the only link between the groups. I gave each group xp separately for the combats they were involved in alone but I didn't think about what would happen if the eidolon was up front. Please provide any feedback or opinions on this matter. The summoner in question is my fiancé irl so I want to be sure that any action I make isn't coated in favoritism and/or overly harsh to avoid the appearance of favoritism and is backed by other experienced players as it will make a substantial difference in the party as she will most likely lvl before anyone else can.

Thank you for any feedback you provide and I look forward to hearing responses.

[Chloe Rabbit]

One of three things can happen here.
1) She gets the xp from both sides of the dungeon.
2) She gets the xp from one side of the dungeon.
3) The party gets an amount of equal experience equal to the two counters put together.

I would personally go with #2. I often play Summoner myself, evident by the fact that one of my summoners has a Mothman eidolon and a refluffed brownie that looks more like a Hopkinsville Goblin. I can tell you that for all the personality and quirks of the eidolon, its still just a battle tool when all the fluff is torn away, no different than a barbarian and his sword or a druid and his animal companion. It wouldn't make much sense if I could do that as the party would always split up to try and rake in more xp in this fashion.

For example, a Wizard, a Paladin, a Summoner, and a Ranger are in one group. The other group is the Familiar, the Mount, the Eidolon, and the Animal Companion. The Familiar and/or Eidolon are fairly smart critters and could be the brains that lead the other two in order to clear a dungeon. If that actually happened, the entire party would basically get double xp and always make a habit of this.

Basically, its a bad loop hole waiting to happen.

[Cory Stafford 29]

Technically, eidolons have a fairly limited range they can be from the summoner. I believe a spell can change this, but other than that I am sure it would have been possible for them to have been separated.

[Cory Stafford 29]

I would either add up all the experience from all the encounters and divide it up evenly or just give the summoner the exp from the encounters she participated in. After all, a PC wouldn't get double experience if that PC and their cohort were in two different encounters at the same time.

[Theinyore]

I can understand the cohort explanation my main concern is that the cohort would not be a class feature and thus not part of her standing CR. If anything her eidolon did more on it's side of the session then she did on her own but I do appreciate the responses. The eidolon loses effectiveness after 100 feet from the summoner which was roughly the length of the whole dungeon (again lvl 3 so small encounters). the total range is something near a mile I believe.

As to the other concern that it presents a loophole I disagree as the whole party wouldn't get double xp, they would get xp at the same rate as though they simply went through the dungeon together, just clear sessions twice as fast and constantly be at half strength. And if a team attempted to abuse it a smart DM would simply attack the controller groups while the pets were away which is far from inconceivable. It's also a pretty different scenario from barbarians and their swords. I guess what the real question here should be is, if for some reason she was nowhere near her pet, 60 feet up a tower say and the creature defeated a few kobolds would she gain the xp for commanding and controlling her tool because if she would much like if a wizard dropped a fireball from the tower gaining the xp (i.e. xp gained has naught to do with risk taken but with damage dealt to opponents).

[Wizarddog]

I would say #2 but I would prefer #3.
In my view the Eidolon is simply a "buff". Would the cleric get XP for the other party for casting bulls strength on the fighter prior to their separation? If you think they should, then add both groups and divide by the entire party.

I don't think PC's should get any XP from their "pets" outside the encounter.

[Mojorat]

She gets no xp for the encounters her eidolon participated in that she was not present. Any more thsn from a summoned creature.

[RunebladeX]

Generally I would say the summoner shouldn't get any experiance for creatures defeated by her eidolon while seperated. This could raise concern for pcs with summoned monster however. Would a master summoner get xp for sending her summons ahead? What's the limit if no, line of sight?

In this case however I would probably take the total xp and just devide it evenly between all players. This is because it was a time issue and they DID overcome the dungeon as a party, regardless if they split up or not. This will also show no favortism and keep everyone at the same pace. Its just the easiest fair to everyone approach.

Also if you really think about this isn't a cheap way for the party to get extra xp- if they had the time they would have propably cleared the cave together in the end= same xp...

[Vincent Takeda]

As someone who has played summoners a great deal I'd hope for 3, and expect either 2 or 3.
As a gm I'd rule 3 since parties with different levels/xp annoy me (in pathfinder at least).
Since the summoner and eidolon are effectively one [character unit] present in both fights with other party members at the same time, it's technically only one fight over a relatively large area where half the enemies had full cover from half the party and the other half the enemies had full cover from the other half the party. Full xp for both fights all around.