Doling out XP (general PF)

[MindFlayerSlayer]

So I'm running a pre-made first level adventure (Master of the Fallen Fortress from the paizo site) for my Pathfinder group and one of the rooms had a lone shocker lizard in it.
The shocker lizard was domesticated and so when the party's druid wanted to use wild empathy to calm it down I allowed it.
After a bit of debating the group decided to leave the lizard in its room and lock it inside.

Now I want to (and probably will) give them experience for defeating the lizard, but what I'm really wondering is 'what would you do in this situation?'

[Drothmal]

In my opinion, they deserve full xp. Being smart and using class features to side step encounters should be encouraged, and it makes players feel that they can choose what to do (if you only give full xp for killing things, you'll end up with characters murdering helpless enemies not to pass on the xp)

[CTrees]

In my opinion, they deserve full xp. Being smart and using class features to side step encounters should be encouraged, and it makes players feel that they can choose what to do (if you only give full xp for killing things, you'll end up with characters murdering helpless enemies not to pass on the xp)

This is exactly my opinion.

I've seen half or three-quarters given before, and it's alright. Regardless, solutions which solve encounters other than combat should be encouraged, imo.

EDIT: Also, if you don't feel comfortable giving the full reward for enemies avoided, rather than killed, remember that the PCs are deprived of looting the bodies. Not a big deal with a shocker lizard, but if they were to, say... put a group of bandits to sleep, tie them up, and turn them into the local guards? No looting may be seen as a fairly major penalty. FWIW

[BlueInc]

Most Paizo offerings specifically state "If your players get around this obstacle in another way, award them experience as usual" and I tend to lean on that as a gold standard; RPing and thinking about the problems they're confronted with should be given at least as much XP as smacking things in the face.

[MindFlayerSlayer]

EDIT: Also, if you don't feel comfortable giving the full reward for enemies avoided, rather than killed, remember that the PCs are deprived of looting the bodies.

There's my dilemma right there. I can't fault the players since they essentially got around the problem. And if they had done anything with the lizard it could come back to bite them later.

It just kind of irks me and I was wondering if anyone else had experienced something like this.

[BlueInc]

EDIT: Also, if you don't feel comfortable giving the full reward for enemies avoided, rather than killed, remember that the PCs are deprived of looting the bodies. Not a big deal with a shocker lizard, but if they were to, say... put a group of bandits to sleep, tie them up, and turn them into the local guards? No looting may be seen as a fairly major penalty. FWIW

Guardsman: "You captured the bandits? Excellent! Here's a large reward for your services to the city."

OR

Guardsman: "You captured the bandits? Excellent! We'll return these goods to their owners, but you can have your pick of their equipment as a reward. Anything you don't need we'll use to equip our guardsmen better to stop further attacks."

[Drothmal]

The way I see it, it's all about balance. If your players usually hit things and from time to time they decide to go around the encounter in a smart way (sneak past the sleeping dragon, animal empathy to calm the raging bear, etc), I'd say to reward them fully

on the other hand, if they are trying to get to lvl 20 by just sneaking around encounters of using ridiculous diplomacy modifiers to avoid any time of confrontation, I would first start by a dent on the loot they get and only after that, start lowering the xp

[CTrees]

Guardsman: "You captured the bandits? Excellent! Here's a large reward for your services to the city."

OR

Guardsman: "You captured the bandits? Excellent! We'll return these goods to their owners, but you can have your pick of their equipment as a reward. Anything you don't need we'll use to equip our guardsmen better to stop further attacks."

It was the first example that came to mind. Take using alter self and suggestion to get an orc patrol away from where you're going to be operating, instead. Same thing - potential loot removed, but an intelligent method of solving an encounter w/o combat, which should be rewarded with plenty of xp.