Generally, XP is divided equally when an enemy is killed. So let's say a low level party of four all fought and killed an orc worth 100xp; they all get 25xp.
But what happens if the orc kills (meaning they failed all their death saving throws, properly dead) one of the party before the rest kill him? Let's also assume that this dead PC isn't being resurrected; they are dead for good. What happens to XP division now?
Do the remaining PCs get 25xp each because they still contributed 25% of the effort, or do they get 33xp each because there's only 3 of them left at the end? I realise that this may vary from DM to DM, but I'm looking for something more general; is there anything in any 5e book, or a tweet or something, that may provide some guidance on this matter?
Best Answer
Yes.
Why? Because experience represents, well, experience. Characters in a party get less experience because the encounter was made easier by the help of the other members. Just because some of them died in the fight, doesn't make their contribution any less.
It would really be up to the DM, but I would say that unless they died in the surprise round, their experience should be reduced based on the number of people helping them, not the number of people standing at the end.
Otherwise, what about unconscious characters? Do they get experience? I know I would be pretty upset if a monsters final blow knocked out my character and the DM said, since I wasn't awake at the end I don't get any experience. That doesn't seem right at all. What if they are incapacitated? Should they get less experience for being paralyzed or poisoned? How do you decide?
Remember, experience isn't like gold. It's not a fixed pot that you can divide out how you want, and you're not actually splitting the experience between people. That's just a simplification to help figure out how much each character should get, based on the difficulty of the encounter and the number of people involved.