I've got a couple of PCs who have died and lost a level, or gained a neg level from previous encounters, meaning that my party of 5 is made up of 3x level 6 PCs and 2x level 4 PCs. If they all end up getting the same XP award after fighting a Harpy, for example, how do the level 4 PCs have a hope of catching up with the level 6 PCs?
1) Catching up happens partially, since later levels 'cost' more xp. So while they are behind numbers-wise, At some point it won't matter much.
2) In Pathfinder you never loose a level. Negative levels only grant some penalties. Even permanent negative levels can be removed with the right spell.
Assuming medium experience, by the time the 6th level PCs get the 12,000xp necessary to bring them to 7th level, the 4th level PCs should almost be 6th level (9,000->15,000->23,000).
And by the time those 7th level PCs are 10th level-- 70,000 more xp-- the 6th level PCs will be 12,000 short of 10th level themselves.
That said, level drain doesn't exist in Pathfinder, so there shouldn't be any further issues. I'd suggest throwing the drained PCs a bone and letting them level to 7 or 8 with the other PCs at the same time, making this a non-issue.
Each monster, trap, and obstacle awards a set amount of XP, as determined by its CR, regardless of the level of the party in relation to the challenge
But, you could always use the Monsters as PC rules to have the lower level PCs catch up.
It is recommended that for every 3 levels gained by the group, the monster character should gain an extra level, received halfway between the 2nd and 3rd levels.
And HaraldKlak is right about the spell removing negative levels.
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I'll try to play Cheapy.
This may come in handy.
Oy! Who's playing me?! Oh.
Yes, that thread is insanely useful to learn about Pathfinder. I, and I'm sure others, have learned a ton from it. There are some compilations of everything in there, but there hasn't been one in a while and it's a lot of work to compile everything anyways.
The way we ran it (before giving up XP) was an extra 10% XP per level behind you were, so in your example, if each character got 1,000xp, the two 4th level guys would get 1,200xp. They'll catch up quicker.
Award the lower level players additional XP until they are caught up. I can't think of any advantage for the DM to keep them at different levels.
Alternately, hand-waive it and have the lower level PCs level up to the level of the others.
The way we ran it (before giving up XP) was an extra 10% XP per level behind you were, so in your example, if each character got 1,000xp, the two 4th level guys would get 1,200xp. They'll catch up quicker.
That's pretty much exactly the way we do it. + / - 10% per level difference.
Example:
Encounter Level = 5
3rd level char gets +20%
4th level char gets +10%
6th level char gets -10%
7th level char gets -20%
Works nicely
JohnBear