What's the difference between XP and adjusted XP in D&D 5th edition?
[RPG] What’s the difference between XP and adjusted XP
dnd-5eencounter-designexperience-points
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Best Answer
"Adjusted XP" is for determining encounter difficulty; actual XP is what you give to the party for beating the encounter
The difference between XP and adjusted XP in determining the difficulty of a combat encounter is explained in the guidelines on building combat encounters on Basic Rules p. 165 or in the corresponding section on DMG p. 82.
Step 1 and 2 of evaluating encounter difficulty is to determine individual XP thresholds and then add them to get the party's XP thresholds. Step 3 is to simply add up the monsters' XP, giving you the regular experience totals for the encounter. Then comes Step 4:
\$\begin{array}{|c|l|} \hline \textbf{Number of Monsters} & \textbf{Multiplier} \\ \hline 1 & × 1 \\ 2 & × 1.5 \\ 3–6 & × 2 \\ 7–10 & × 2.5 \\ 11–14 & × 3 \\ 15 \text{ or more} & × 4 \\ \hline \end{array} \$
In short: adjusted XP determines the true difficulty of the encounter, considering action economy. Regular XP is the actual amount given to the party for beating the encounter.
5e co-creator Mike Mearls explains the reasoning here:
2 years earlier, he also responded to a question asking about house-ruling that the amount of XP given out was equal to adjusted XP: