XP per player

[Ven]

The DMG says you now add a multiplier to the xp values of an encounter if it has multiple monsters. that seems like a bit of crucial information for the PHB or MM to have had... It also says if you have more or less players there are multipliers (or dividers) for that too. Do these multipliers replace the old "total up the xp and divide by number of players" rule? Or does a party of 4 player's still recieve 1/4 of the experience per player?

[JoeJ]

Those multipliers don't affect xp given out to the PCs. They're only used to balance the encounter.

[Ven]

Oh I see, so it's divided then. But, if its used to adjust the difficulty, but not the XP. Wouldn't that mean you just made as challenging as a CR 6 but only rewarded CR 4? (random numbers).

[JoeJ]

Ven wrote:

Oh I see, so it's divided then. But, if its used to adjust the difficulty, but not the XP. Wouldn't that mean you just made as challenging as a CR 6 but only rewarded CR 4? (random numbers).

Yes. The rationale is that the devs. want to reward playing smart and trying to divide and conquer, rather than bunching all the encounters up and taking them on all at once.

[Ven]

Interesting, thank you.