I am not sure if i properly awarded the XP to my group this weekend, so i am hoping that all of you out there can help me with this.
the party APL is 3. all are 2nd level, with a total party size of 6= 3.
Now, here is the part where i get a little confused with this stuff.
I had 3 large sarcophagus', each contained some sort of devil; the CRs individually were 1 (a lemure),2 (an imp), and 5 (a bearded devil). Now, each devil appeared individually, and the group was able to take out the first two with ease. the last, the bearded devil, took some more effort, especially when it summoned 6 lemurs.
Now, do i include the 6 summoned lemurs to the total CR for the encounter, or are they an added bonus for the group? because i awarded xp based off of the first lemure (1), the imp (2), the bearded devil (5) and the 6 summoned lemur (total 6), for a total of CR 14.
Do not include the summoned lemures. Summoning is a spell (or spell-like ability). You don't give extra XP for killing a wizard who casts fireball, so you don't give extra XP for killing a wizard who summons a monster - either way, the wizard is just using his spells. Likewise, you don't give extra XP for a demon who claws and bites, so you don't give extra XP for a demon who summons help - either way, the demon is just using its abilities.
Also, you do NOT add CRs together. For example, two CR 10 monsters are only just a CR 12 if you fight them both at the same time. Four CR 10 monsters are CR 14 if you fight all of them at the same time. So you can see that four CR 10 monsters are NOT CR 40, they are only CR 14, so CRs do not simply add together.
There is a bit of explanation around about page 400 in the Core book (don't have my book here, but you can find it yourself). It can be a bit complex.
Even easier, just give separate XP for each monster: Find the XP for the CR 1, the XP for the CR 2, and the XP for the CR 5, and add those three separate XP amounts together to make just one total amount of XP (I am pretty sure that would be only just barely more XP than a single CR 6 monster would give), then divide by 6 since there are 6 players. That's a tiny bit more math, but it's way easier than trying to figure out the actual CR of an encounter with multiple creatures of different CRs.
Lemure: 400
Imp: 600
Beard: 1,600
Total: 2,600 / 6 = 433 XP each, just a bit more than 1/5 of what they need to reach 2nd level)
(that is way way way less than the 38,400 XP you gave them (6,800 XP each which puts them well into 3rd level after one fight).
The CR of the bearded devil took into account the summoned creatures.
The correct xp award should have been CR1 for the individual lemur, CR2 for the imp, and a CR5 for the bearded devil.
Or, what DM Blake said.
ok. ill chalk this up to a learning thing, and not remove the xp i have awarded them. They need all the help they can get since the party is clearing out a massive hive of kobolds.
thanks for the help