I’m looking for some advice on awarding experience points for an encounter during my last session of Pathfinder…
Firstly, some background. The group I G.M for is on a quest to recover a powerful magical weapon they need to slay an incorporeal undead sorceress. They track the weapon down to the lair of a powerful Mindflayer. They opt for diplomacy over muscle, having heard of the creature’s power. After meeting with said Mindflayer they secure a deal – if the adventurers recover a powerful magical artefact for him, the Mindflayer will trade the weapon they need for the artefact.
The adventurers eventually recover the artefact but instead of going through with the trade, they decide to try and use the powers of the artefact to kill the Mindflayer.
Long story short, the group bites off much more than it can chew… blood and brain-splattered death ensues!
During the battle, five members of the party (comprised of ten P.Cs in total) are swiftly killed, the other five flee. However, the barbarian in the party manages to strike the Mindflayer down (using bonuses from a modified ‘Hero Pint’ house rule I use), knocking the Mindflayer unconscious before what’s left of the group flees.
A few rounds later, the Mindflayer is back up, thanks to his Ring of Regeneration and his minions feeding him healing potions. He’s alive, minus some damaged pride.
Questions: Was the Mindflayer ‘defeated’? Do I award the characters experience points for ‘defeating’ the Mindflayer? If so, how much? Full? half?
I see this issue as really coming back to what constitutes a 'defeated' monster. It’s not uncommon for P.Cs or monsters to be KOed during a fight, only to be healed, get back up and back into the fight. Also, I agree with the idea that monsters don’t necessarily have to be overcome with force or killed to be ‘defeated’. But I don't agree with the idea of getting experience for each time you knock a guy out, that could get absurd.
The key word for me here is ‘fairness’. I don’t want to dud the players, after all, half the party was killed in the fight. On the other hand, am I being too generous by awarding 76,000 experience points (total) for knocking out a Mindflayer before the party fled from its five Flesh Golems and twenty-odd goblin minions?
I’d like to hear from any G.Ms who have had similar situations with what they did. Or just any G.Ms willing to share what they’d award for the out come of an encounter like this.
Thanks.
My opinion is this: The opponent isn't defeated until he's no longer an immediate/short term threat to the party.
Example 1: Capture the Evil Priestess of the Goddess of Ultimate Evil(tm) and pack her off to Jail in an Antimagic Zone: Defeated. Yes, she may escape and come back to haunt the PCs later, but not really an immediate concern.
Example 2: Evil Negotiating Mind Flayer looking to use the PCs to do his dangerous Work: Knocked out and left for dead by PCs: Not Defeated.
That said, I think the Characters should earn XP for the second situation, but I look at it as a combination of 'Story' XP for advancing the Plot and a 'Thank You' gift for handing me another Villain/Plot Line I can drop in the player's laps at a later date (Angry, Purple-Skinned Cthonic Psions make great recurring villains...)
I'd call it, in total, about 1/3rd to 1/2 the XP of a Challenge equivalent to the Party's Average Level.
Questions: Was the Mindflayer ‘defeated’? Do I award the characters experience points for ‘defeating’ the Mindflayer? If so, how much? Full? half?
If the barbarian grabbed the device that was the goal of the adventure while the mind flayer was down, the mission was accomplished regardless of the subsequent survival of the mind flayer. That would be a full experience point award.
The only thing i might take xp off for is having an artifact on their side.
I have to agree with The Fenrir.
If the object was to secure the weapon, and they got the weapon? Full on XP award. If the object was to make friends with the horrible brainsucking squidmonster, they obviously failed, and get no reward. Most objectives are things like 'Survive' or 'Get Past This', and killing critters isn't at all necessary. Our enchantment specced Sorcerer got us full xp for some 20+ encounters without anyone ever lifting a weapon, with such reasonable suggestions as "C'mon boy! C'mon! Who's a good hydra, you are, YES YOU ARE! C'mon, climb up the avalanche prone hillside you moronic lizard, c'mon, you can do it boy!"
Avalanche occurs. Lizard is defeated. Even if he just decides to scarper back to the river after regenerating from near-death.
If it was my game, they would get full XP, since they were able to live to see another day.
However, if they then return to the Mindflayer to try getting rid of it for good before it is at full capacity, they will get lower XP for the second time (since it isn't at 100%). If it is in fact still the same day, I would treat it as essentially the same encounter, so they would get no extra XP for finishing the job.
If it has already healed up and regained all its powers, they would get full XP again.
What about if the bad guy runs away? What type of XP reward should the PCs receive for that encounter? Particularly since the PCs likely will encounter the bad guy again at a later date.
They get no XP for that mindflayer. After all, it was them who ran away. The mindflayer gets XP for all 10 of them.
If it had been the one who run away, they'd get XP for him just as if they had killed it. But they failed to defeat the mindflayer.
Neither will they get XP for the minions.
However, if they got what they needed (that weapon you mention), I'd award them XP for achieving their goal. I might award them the same amount of XP they'd have earned if they had defeated the mindflayer plus his minions.
The bottom line is the same, of course (they got X amount of XP in both cases), but sometimes, the way is as important as the goal.
And if they fled without getting what they needed, they get squat. It was basically a complete failure.