Ok, I was in a game where the DM was running the EL 4 preset battle "Cutting Supply Lines" from Heroes of Battle. We won the battle handily, with no losses:
We had:
five 3rd level characters(PCs)
one 2nd level human Fighter(sniper)
20 1st level human Warriors(mixed archers and regulars)
They had:
10 worgs
10 1st level goblin warriors(worg-riders)
20 goblin spearmen(2nd level Rogues)
20 goblin archers(2nd level Rogues)
The goblin archers had cover from being in supply wagons, and the worgs were on the two flanks of the wagons. Our archers had some concealment from being in the bushes. They surrendered when we had killed or chased off the riders, the worgs, 8 spearmen, 2 archers, and had thrown up an illusion cutting their archers off from the battle. We stripped them of armor and weapons (mmm, masterwork) and sent them on their way.
Now, the DM said that he'd tell us about our XP gain from this battle next session.
Frankly, I'm having trouble calculating our XP gain for this battle. Based on advice from Heroes of Battle, you subtract your forces from their forces as a starting point. That means we defeated roughly 36 CR 2 enemies at an average party level of 3.
Per the DMG, I tried to calculate the total XP for that. I used this formula:
10 CR 2 guys = CR 9
4 CR 9 guys = CR 13.
Reduce the encounter down to CR 10 due to the fact that it was an ambush(and the highest CR with an XP total), and that gives each PC just over 2k in XP, which seems fair.
However, 36 CR 2 encounters gives 600 each, so for the party thats about 4,440 XP each, which is enough to level-up automatically. (Incidently, we got the treasure for 50 CR 2 encounters and an EL 4 battle).
How would you rate this encounter?
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Frankly, I'm having trouble calculating our XP gain for this battle. Based on advice from Heroes of Battle, you subtract your forces from their forces as a starting point. That means we defeated roughly 36 CR 2 enemies at an average party level of 3.
Per the DMG, I tried to calculate the total XP for that. I used this formula:
10 CR 2 guys = CR 9
4 CR 9 guys = CR 13.
Per the DMG, your are making an error here. 10 CR 2 guys is <i>EL</i> 9, not <i>CR</i> 9. Experience is for CR, not EL.
Reduce the encounter down to CR 10 due to the fact that it was an ambush(and the highest CR with an XP total), and that gives each PC just over 2k in XP, which seems fair.
However, 36 CR 2 encounters gives 600 each, so for the party thats about 4,440 XP each, which is enough to level-up automatically. (Incidently, we got the treasure for 50 CR 2 encounters and an EL 4 battle).
How would you rate this encounter?
By the RAW, this should be 10 x CR 1/3, + 50 x CR 2, then subtract CR equal to the 20 x CR 1/2 + 1 x CR 2 allies. Since all PCs were ECL 3 or less, this would work out to 5480 EP/PC. I would certainly consider the goblins that ran away to have been defeated, and the characters should get experience for them.
(Note that experience is supposed to be figured by individual ECL, rather than average party ECL; lower level characters get more experience than higher level characters. This only kicks in above 3rd level, and is only an issue with party members of different levels.)
All that said, if I wanted to do a similar encounter, I'd probably reduce the experience because 40 rogues don't synergize well. Frankly, if I were building the encounter, I'd have used 40 x 2nd level Warriors instead of the 40 x 2nd level Rogues, which would be tougher to beat, provide lower experience, and provide less treasure. But then I'm nasty that way. FWIW, this encounter would have been 3100 EP per character.
And if I wanted to do a more reasonable encounter, I'd have used 70 1st level goblin warriors for a total EP of 1880 per character. (And a lot less treasure.)