I searched the messagebords to no avail about this so I ask you directly:
How do you handle XP awards for defeating a ghost?
In my campaign the PCs destroyed a ghost by weapon damage and such and I handed out the full XP award for that. After all, the PCs need to *overcome* obstacles to be rewarded not necessarily destroy them permanently. It's very similar to an opponent fleeing the combat alive which also brings the full XP award.
Now a few days later the party managed to put the ghost to rest permanently by finding out what kept him on Golarion and tricking him into believing that he had succeeded. Should they get the full XP award again? Or maybe some other amount? Or nothing at all because they already got full XP for 'beating' the ghost the first time around?
If the ghost had become an obstacle again, I would say yes to full XP. If they went out of their way for roleplay reasons, I would probably give them a different roleplay bonus (most likely a hero point for each character involved).
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I suggest treating the ghost like a haunt. Per this post, James Jacobs says you can't double dip on XP. You get XP initially for surviving the haunt, but do not receive more XP for permanently destroying it.
That being said, I agree with Onishi. I would award some other roleplay bonus or one time boon to reward the characters for taking that extra step.
I disagree with JJ to this extent -
Just like if they encountered a CR 6 ghost (or orc or whatever), and then later had *another* encounter with *another* CR 6 ghost (or orc or whatever), you get XP for both encounters even though they had the same stats. Whether it was same guy as far as the plot goes, so what? If you have two CR 6 encounters, you had two CR6 encounters.
The difference is if the first encounter gave them such information about the encounter that the second run-in was essentially no challenge and superfluous (like if they're just farming an easy fight for XP), then I'd not award XP, same way I wouldn't award XP for just trolling around for a random encounter to farm some XP from.
Likewise, I wouldn't award XP twice if the second encounter wasn't really a distinct encounter, rather was more just a continuation and conclusion of the first one (which I think is what JJ was talking about with the trap example).
Just like if they encountered a CR 6 ghost (or orc or whatever), and then later had *another* encounter with *another* CR 6 ghost (or orc or whatever), you get XP for both encounters even though they had the same stats. Whether it was same guy as far as the plot goes, so what? If you have two CR 6 encounters, you had two CR6 encounters.
I am leaning towards this as well but as you say yourself:
Likewise, I wouldn't award XP twice if the second encounter wasn't really a distinct encounter, rather was more just a continuation and conclusion of the first one (which I think is what JJ was talking about with the trap example).
Dispersing a ghost and coming back later on to destroy it permanently *is* a continuation of the first encounter, isn't it? But not awarding the permanent destruction with any XP seems unfair as well since they invested time and resources into finding out the ghost's backstory.