The party recently acquired, and Identified, a staff of curing. Near fully charged.
The party has two clerics of 2nd level. The 6000 XP award to the possessor will level either one, but, they are considering retaining it as party treasure. Neither one taking ownership and usable by either.
How would you handle XP in this situation?
1. First person to use it gets all 6000xp.
2. Party treasure, party XP. Divide equally.
3. Party treasure, no XP awarded.
4. Other...
I would always divide experience points from treasure, especially magical, evenly amongst the party. No one in the party will have exactly the same xp worth of magic as the others, so it just causes problems when you go awarding xp individually, but don't offer equal magic to every member of the party.
I think the strictly BTB reading would be that no one earns XP unless someone claims the item. That said, I'd probably split the XP award (240 XP per charge remaining) between the two clerics. PCs who can't actually use the item don't earn XP from it.
Using this only as a guide, you understand, but in most computer games when an item offers XP, the XP is awarded only to the person actually holding the item. This constitutes "possessing" the item.
Whenever the character exchanges the item for another, he loses the XP.
I think your situation is similar: Whoever is using the item gets the XP, though I think you might want to skip the "temporary" aspect. Given the item's nature, this can only be awarded to one of the two Clerics in the party.
A thing to consider is this: Deities specialize. Though they all "do" healing, some include it in their portfolio, such as Pelor. Other Deities are simply more prone to it, such as Ehlonna and Atroa.
The Cleric of such a deity would derive the most use out of the item and therefore prove more beneficial to the group overall.
The DMG "EXPERIENCE VALUE OF TREASURE TAKEN" section says:
Treasure must be physically taken out of the dungeon or lair and turned
into a transportable medium or stored in the player's stronghold to be
counted for experience points.
All items (including magic) or creatures sold for gold pieces prior to the
awarding of experience points for an adventure must be considered as
treasure taken, and the gold pieces received for the sale add to the total
treasure taken. (Those magic items not sold gain only a relatively small
amount of experience points, for their value is in their usage.)
The only part that says XP is for a single character is in the "Division of Experience Points" section:
Exception: Monsters slain single-handedly - and a magic-user protected
by fighters keeping off the enemy so he or she can cast spells
which slay monsters is NOT fighting single-handed - accrue x.p. only
to the slayer and are not included in steps 1. through 3. above.
I think the implication here is that XP from magic should be applied to the party's total unless a single character obtained it without help. What I never noticed before was the sentence "Those magic items not sold gain only a relatively small amount of experience points, for their value is in their usage."
I think the implication here is that XP from magic should be applied to the party's total unless a single character obtained it without help. What I never noticed before was the sentence "Those magic items not sold gain only a relatively small amount of experience points, for their value is in their usage."
I agree as regards magic items sold for gold: Their value is added to the party’s total, to be divided amongst the characters. I believe the XP award for a retained magic item goes to the character who retains it. Consider DMG, p. 121:
Quote:
The suggested experience point (x.p.) values are for characters who keep the items. Gold piece sale values are the usual sums which characters will be paid for magic items, and if so sold, the x.p. award should be based on the selling price of the items, not the x.p. value. Also remember that a character is assumed to retain an item, thus getting the low x.p. value for it, if he or she sells it to another player character.
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