Confusion Calculating EXP

[Kelseus]

Just as the title says, I'm a bit confused on how you calculate EXP for an encounter. Every time I try to read it, it just gives me a headache.

I literally pulled up the rules for experience, so I could refer to them while writing this post and it just got more confused.

So, if I have an encounter with 5 level 2 PCs and they are fighting 2 wolves (level 1 monster each). How much Exp do I give for that encounter?

Also, is the exp totaled and then divided? or Am I awarding the exp amount to everyone?

[Apophenia]

I am using the tables on page 489 to get all my numbers.

You have a party of level of 2 so level 1 wolves are worth 30 experience. (Since they are one level lower than the party) If you had 4 characters in the party this would be worth 60 experience and all characters would get 60 experience. This is a low threat encounter.

However you have a party of 5 PC so the numbers are slightly different. This is instead equivalent to around a 48 experience encounter (Between Trivial and Low). The character adjustment column is how much XP in monsters you would add to an encounter per character above 4 to get the same amount of challenge (and not give any extra xp).

The quick answer is if you have a party of 5 PCs multiple the XP sum of the encounter by 0.8 before giving that amount of experience to all the members of the party.

[Edge93]

EDIT: I misread and thought the party was level 5 for some reason, so the math here is under that assumption.

The wolves are party level -4. As per the EXP table that means they are 10 EXP each, 20 total. Each party member gets 20 EXP.

Thats said, that particular example is a below-trivial encounter. Essentially the minimum encounter is assumed to be one level -4 creature per player, or an equivalent.

Also, that said it's a little different with parties of over 4. It's easier if I give an actual explanation:

Exp value per monster is pretty self-explanatory. They are worth EXP according to their level compared to the party.

Level +4 160
Level +3 120
Level +2 80
Level +1 60
Level +0 40
Level -1 30
Level -2 20
Level -3 15
Level -4 10

(Note, EXP worth doubles every 2 levels. Rembering this makes it a LOT easier to figure out CR equivalents.)

With this in mind, you construct an encounter with the difficulty brackets in mind.

Trivial encounter, 40 EXP or less

Low encounter, 60

High (despite the name this is kinda "standard"), 80

Severe, 120

Extreme, 160 (this is an even-footing battle statistically)

You put in monsters to meet or approximate the value of the level of encounter you want. For beatung the encounter, EACH player gets the full EXP value.

Now, if you do have more than 4 players, you once the EXP budget accordingly. So for 5 players you add 25%, 6 players you add 50%. BUT the encounter awards each player the EXP value for a 4-player version of the encounter. This is the only really tricky part, but it's not too hard to understand. An example:

Say you wamt a "High" encounter for a level 5 party. For a 4 player party this is 80 EXP, for 5 player it's 100. Referencing the EXP per monster table, possible configurations are two level 5 creatures and a level 3, one level 5 creature and three level 3, five level 3 creatures, a level 6 creature and a level 3 creature, or various other permutations.

The encounter gives each player 80 EXP, as that was the budget for a 4-player encounter of that difficulty.

If you prefer to build an encounter without referencing the brackets, pick the monsters, use the table to find the EXP value, if you have 5 players multiply by 4/5 and if you have 6 multiply by 2/3, and then give each player thatuch EXP.

This might sound overly complicated, but once you get used to it (which doesn't take too long) it is SO easy and convenient, it's not even funny.

[Kelseus]

SO I plan on running Fall of Plaguestone, now If I have a table of 5 and just run the encounters as written, should I just assign the exp as written or give each player 4/5ths?

Example: In part 2 there is an encounter (G1: rotten corpse) that is listed as severe 2 (expectation is level 2 party by part 2). It has 3 level 2 monsters. So for a party of 4 you get 120 exp. Does the part of 5 get 120 or 85?

[Malk_Content]

So it is super simple. You look at the difficulty of the encounter (trivial to Extreme.) On page 489 table 10-1 tells you the budget. The PCs ALWAYS get the xp for the middle column (XP Budget) of that table. E.G If you have a Moderate encounter, the PCs get 80 xp each, whether or not there are 1 or 500 characters.

Then you look at the rightmost column. You have 5 characters? That is one above the assumed 4 so the table tells you how much extra xp worth of monsters to add to keep the encounter challenging. In the case of your 2 wolves moderate encounter, that is 20. So you need to add 20xps worth of enemies to keep this a moderate encounter.

I would take a level -1 animal and add it to the encounter, flavoring it as a younger wolf. The Guard Dog would be a good choice. Note as per paragraph 1, the PCs still only get the 80xp Moderate encounter reward, even though you've added 20xp.

You can always also just use a handy encounter builder to adjust the numbers, like this one HERE