Awarding XP for an encounter not yet completed

[The Rising Phoenix]

I have some encounters where the creature escapes and will be returning again (and again) until they can eventually kill him, capture him, etc.

In these situations, how would you award the XP to the party? Normally you are supposed to award the XP if they complete the encounter, I get that, but if he is worth 800XP and they let him get away, and they meet him again later and they catch him but he escapes, what do I do?

Do I do partial XP for each encounter? How do those of you that do XP handle this?

[blackbloodtroll]

Have you considered event based leveling?

XP is really not used for anything else in Pathfinder, and it removes "grinding" for XP.

[Brian J. Fruzen]

If he fled because he was injured or out of resources, and returns when he has those resources back, then each encounter would be worth the full xp. If he returns with only half hit points, then his CR is effectively lowered, and is worth less xp.

If he is just harassing the party though, and you don't want them to realize he'll be coming back by foregoing xp for the "encounter" then just divide the xp of the creature up by how many times you think he'll be coming back. If he flees the combat without giving much fight, then the players won't be surprised by the small xp value.

[far_wanderer]

In Pathfinder, you award experience for passing an obstacle, regardless of method. This is usually by killing a monster, but sometimes it's by disarming a trap (occasionally by triggering it and surviving) or successfully negotiating with someone.
Keeping that in mind, I would award full XP after each encounter, because the PCs have still succeeded at the encounter. If the monster/villain in question has particularly easy retreat conditions, maybe award XP at one or two CRs lower than the actual challenge, but don't go beyond that because all of the danger is still there.
If that seems weird, then think of it this way: if the party fights a dragon one day, and at -1HP a contingent teleport whisks it away to a secret base where minions can heal it and it can come back fully rested the next day, that is mechanically identical to fighting two different dragons on two consecutive days.
The one exception to this is if you have a monster that the PCs need to hunt down and corner to defeat for good, and in that case the entire chase is the encounter, and said encounter is probably of higher CR than the monster itself (if nothing else, the +1 for advantageous terrain probably applies at some point).

[The Rising Phoenix]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Have you considered event based leveling?

XP is really not used for anything else in Pathfinder, and it removes "grinding" for XP.

I'm running the Rise of the Runelords AP and I'm keeping with the adventure path on recommendations of when the party should level. I've got a group of six instead of the recommended four and I'm running them at the medium pace.

The reason I'm sticking with XP is because I'm doing "more" with it then just using it to advance the character level. I have a customized houserule system we use to allow them to buy hero points, prestige points, add feats, increase ability scores, etc with bonus XP gained through roleplay, MVP awards, journal writeups, etc.

While I could totally run this system outside of the XP gained through combat, I've so far kept track of XP gained through combat. I have not revealed to the players their current XP amounts, those are kept secretly by me and so it would not be hard to switch to XP-less combat and use an advancement track. I've considered it!

Thanks for the recommendations Brian/far wanderer.

[Victor Zajic]

screwing the PCs out of XP because the bad guy fled instead of died is a seriously jerk move. It will really piss off your players. I've quit campaigns over it before.

[KainPen]

Ok you are going to run into problems at the later levels unless you are giving the characters a lot of xp for RP and gold. AP is written for 4 characters at medium growth. Having six pcs level 1-5 they are going to seem over power and not have a lot of issues. But after that since the xp and treasure is being split 6 ways instead of 4 starts to take a hit but is still playable come level 10 the characters are going to be 1 to 2 levels behind where they should be in the ap maybe more because wealth per character also took a hit. TPK odds increased heavily. By level 13+ the characters will be 3 levels behind and significant less wealth and every encounter will almost tpk, you will have higher numbers of characters deaths leading to more wealth loss, ect. It just snowballs from that point. Then to save you AP you are just giving levels and wealth out. I did a complete conversion of 2nd darkness AP. With my group not that long ago 6 person group, I had to edit it heavily. One of the quick fixes you can do, is move pcs to fast progress, this is perfect for AP with 5 players you may have to add extra gold or 1 or 2 extra minions to a fight but not a lot of editing. When you add that 6 player you have to edit heavily, meaning extra in counters about 5 to 10 each chapter in the AP and fast progression.

My guys end 2nd darkness at the correct level, this was including giving xp for encounter they avoided completely, running at fast progression, adding 10 extra encounters from wandering monsters (or in my case I did a sub quest or jobs in which I add 8 to 10 encounters per chapter ) adding 2 to 4 extra minor minion per encounter. This keeps the challenge up but not impossible.

So the best solution for you would be what troll said event based leveling, but you still have to increased treasure found by about 25%-50% and 2 to 4 extra minions per encounter. This will keep a balanced challange. As I said earlier level they will seem over power and breeze through the encounter but later it will take an effect.

[Matthew Downie]

You shouldn't give experience for killing things. You should give experience for surviving dangers, overcoming obstacles and solving problems. Often this is done by killing things.

The only downside to giving full XP for defeating an enemy who survives is if it leads to the players deliberately letting enemies escape in order to milk them for more XP later. This seems unlikely.