How much experience should a PC be worth?

Question

Long story short, I'm about to betray my party (by trying to kill them). I'm playing this betrayer on behalf of the GM. Assuming they defeat me, how much experience should they get? I am a level 14 Drow Psion.

Edit: Not sure if this will change the answers I've gotten so far, but I will have allies at my back when the betrayal fight goes down. 1 Drow leader-ish type, 3 Driders, and 5 Drow minions.

Edit 2: I didn't want to write the full context of the situation at first, as I didn't think it would make a difference to this particular question, but you can take a look at my answer to the linked question for full details.

Answer 1

If you will have other monsters in the encounter with you then talk to your DM. Have him set the XP budget for the encounter and then price yourself accordingly based on the other creatures in the encounter.

PCs are probably worth a variable amount depending on how much stuff they have, the quality of feats they have taken and the optimization of their character. Most likely a L14 character is probably worth significantly less than a L14 Solo. However, they are probably worth more than the average L14 monster of their same role.

Therefore, it makes more sense to me to figure out the XP needs of the encounter and just set the PC XP to fall within the budget, rather than trying to figure out exactly how much the PC is worth.

Answer 2

Thinking about the models of 4e, I would assert something a little odd. By choosing to become an NPC, you quite literally become a "monster" for purposes of combat. Arrange with your GM an opportunity for you to become, thematically, an elite or solo (depending on what level of assistance you want) and to translate your character into a monster.

The reason why I recommend this is that any given party will absolutely gank any one of its members that turns on them in an even fight.

Consider the following:

A striker at level 14 is expected to do (8*14+24)/4 34 damage with their at wills after accuracy is accounted for. As you are the controller of your party, there are inevitably one or two other strikers who will, as they say, "faceroll" you on their first action. And it would be absurdly difficult to conceive of two strikers (not to mention the rest of them) dropping action points and two dailies not being able to drop a controller with no defender support.

This, honestly, isn't a very interesting outcome.

The other case is that you engage them outside of a traditional encounter, using surprise and poison to play "Ten Little Indians." (Interesting book by Agatha Christie). This, while interesting in a role-playing setup, features no combat per se. Quest XP would be an appropriate reward if they managed to drop you.

The middle case is that you, through powers of system-magic, turn into a mob. In the most interesting case, you're an elite with a chamber of specially prepared traps and hazards. (And minions. Can't forget a layer of tasty tasty ablative minions.) This is a nice, if counterintuitive, case because it provides for a satisfying combat for both sides. As such, your XP should be commensurate with the monster that you become.

One happy upshot of this is that whatever evil deal you struck can actually be shown to the players as you undergoing a magical-girl (tm) transformation sequence, explaining why your loot evaporates. It also gives you a final moment of glory before the rest of the party cuts you down like the monster you now are. :)

Answer 3

Level 14 Solo Creature is worth 5,000 XP Which is effectively what you are. However, I can hear arguments for saying that you are just elite, so that would only be 2,000 XP

While Solo Creatures have more HP than a normal PC, and a PC has more abilities than an Elite, the most fair option is to go down the middle, and a level 14 char would be worth 3,500 XP

Answer 4

I had an idea, but not sure if it's a good one. Let the votes decide.

A level 14 party should be able to defeat, but spend all of it's resources on, a level 18 solo. If we use that to assume that the party is "worth" the same EXP as a level 18 solo (10,000), one PC would be worth 1/5th of the total EXP, or 2000.

Answer 5

Based on Brian's excellent suggestion, and thinking about other cases, besides your specific case, of when PC XP might come up, I would suggest that the XP value of killing a PC is 0.

If you want to skill challenge the betrayal, the XP would be rewarded for the Skill Challenge. If the party is ment to be in an encounter with the PC, then I would do what Brian suggested, and create a Monster version of the PC for the encounter, or create Monster versions for the rest of the group (which ever direction the campaign is intended to go into.)

In the cases where there is no combat encounter or a Skill Challenge, and the PC gets killed by other PCs, there is no XP value given, other than by GM discretion for roll play bonus points.