Looking at the Experience Point Awards table in the Gamemastering chapter of the Core book seems to indicate that you are supposed to give your players fractional XP for encounters, even if they are completely alone, such as in a solo game (since the first column of the table under Individual XP says "1-3").
Am I misreading it, or is it really the intent in Pathfinder that a solo character not get the full XP of the encounter?
well for argument sake lets say solo gets full XP from all encounters, they're going to level pretty damn quickly as a result.
well for argument sake lets say solo gets full XP from all encounters, they're going to level pretty damn quickly as a result.
Was that not the way it was done in all previous versions of D&D?
It makes sense to me as fighting an encounter by yourself is exactly 4 times harder when you aren't part of a 4-man party.
There's two methods of handing out XP. I believe under the simple method, you are correct (just look at the chart, hand out XP.) Under the complex method, you wouldn't, because you're supposed to divide the total XP by the number of PCs.
(Although to be fair, I could be making this up; I haven't read a "how to hand out XP" chapter since, probably AD&D 2E.)
For my part, if I ever do a solo game (I typically include NPCs in solo games), I would hand out full XP.
You're just reading the table wrong. The table shows the numbers for 2 different ways to award experience.
Look at page 399, under Awarding Experience. If you are awarding Exact XP, add up the numbers under the Total XP column on the table on page 398, then divide by the number of characters in the battle. If there is only one character in the battle, then only one character gets the XP, as XP is only awarded to participating characters.
IF using Abstract XP, then you don't use the Total XP column, you use the Individual XP columns, and just simply add up the numbers. That is how much every character in the party gets.
D&D / Pathfinder is a group based game. So I try not cause it easier to set up if all are the same level. I also try to run solelow encoutner cause I have just one PC doing some thing then I have 3 that are doing nothing. I have done it but, I try real hard not to.
There's two methods of handing out XP. I believe under the simple method, you are correct (just look at the chart, hand out XP.) Under the complex method, you wouldn't, because you're supposed to divide the total XP by the number of PCs.
(Although to be fair, I could be making this up; I haven't read a "how to hand out XP" chapter since, probably AD&D 2E.)
For my part, if I ever do a solo game (I typically include NPCs in solo games), I would hand out full XP.
In my solo games I hand out full XP, but use the slow progression to compensate for the superfast progression that results from the high XP arwards.
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If you're running a solo game for a PC, give them the full XP award. They'll level up faster, but they'll need to level up faster.
If you're running a solo game for a PC as a side mission in a full campaign with other players, I STRONGLY suggest that you split the XP up among all the players... even ones who didn't take part in the solo mission. It's not the way the rules would imply it's done, I know... but it DOES help to keep the idea that it's a group activity going. That way, other players should be happy and delighted that one of their own accomplished something, since it helped everyone. It's no fun to have the one player who likes going on extra-credit missions suddenly be super high level compared to the rest of the party.
If you're running a solo game for a PC, give them the full XP award. They'll level up faster, but they'll need to level up faster.
If you're running a solo game for a PC as a side mission in a full campaign with other players, I STRONGLY suggest that you split the XP up among all the players... even ones who didn't take part in the solo mission. It's not the way the rules would imply it's done, I know... but it DOES help to keep the idea that it's a group activity going. That way, other players should be happy and delighted that one of their own accomplished something, since it helped everyone. It's no fun to have the one player who likes going on extra-credit missions suddenly be super high level compared to the rest of the party.
Thanks!