Encounter XP gain

[zerome1221]

So recently my players took a long ship ride to another city. Along the way I had created a kraken attack encounter with a kraken not exactly like the one in the book. I had them attacking tentacles as it tried to squeeze the ship and break it. A secret counter for how many hits the ship could take, and the crew manning the controls of the ship during the rain, hail and lightning from the storm. All the ships crew was unable to really fight as they kept the ship balanced and if too many of them lost their positions it would be harder for them to remain on the ship without requiring checks to keep balance and not fall off and into the water.

The encounter went better than I expected. The warlock managing to banish it twice and allow time for crew to get healed and recover before continuing the battle again. All in all not a single crew member died though there were a few close calls. I was totalling damage done to tentacles and they did a total of 514 damage before managing to sever a tentacle and drive the creature off.

I however am trying to calculate experience for this 4 person party of level 7 characters. What are some community thoughts on how much experience this may be worth as a total which would then be split 4 ways?

It was a long a grueling fight even though the players did manage pretty well. The ship took 5 of 10 hits that left it taking in water but not unable to continue floating, which was then repaired enough during the last 6 days of the trip to manage.

[Ninja_Prawn]

What are some community thoughts on how much experience this may be worth as a total which would then be split 4 ways?

It was a long a grueling fight even though the players did manage pretty well.

Would you say it was the equivalent of one deadly encounter? Two hard encounters? I'd give 'em 2,000XP each and call it good. No need to overthink these things.

[Renvir]

The Kraken in the MM has a CR of 23 and is worth 50000 xp or 12500 per player. I'm going to guess yours was slightly weaker since 4 level 7 PC's managed to defeat it. You can refer to pages 273-282 to determine the actual CR of your Kraken and divvy up xp that way.

On the other hand:

Would you say it was the equivalent of one deadly encounter? Two hard encounters? I'd give 'em 2,000XP each and call it good. No need to overthink these things.

Can't really go wrong with that.

[Tanarii]

I however am trying to calculate experience for this 4 person party of level 7 characters. What are some community thoughts on how much experience this may be worth as a total which would then be split 4 ways?If you don't want to calculate the XP challenge, just decide the encounter difficulty Easy/Medium/Hard/Deadly, and award the appropriate XP 350/750/1,100/1,700 each.

Definitions are in the DMG / Basic rules
http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMBasicRulesV05.pdf

I'm guessing it's probably hard, not deadly, from the description, but you have more intimate knowledge of how dangerous the tentacles really were so can make a more accurate call:
Hard. A hard encounter could go badly for the adventurers. Weaker characters might get taken out of the fight, and there’s a slim chance that one or more characters might die.
Deadly. A deadly encounter could be lethal for one or more player characters. Survival often requires good tactics and quick thinking, and the party risks defeat.

[zerome1221]

I'll go with a bit extra over the amount in the book. Reward xp for all the crew surviving and them rescuing quite a few during the encounter. As well as helping in repairs and recovery after. 2,000 then sounds good. Thank you for the responses