XP, BBG, and created/summoned/pet minions

[Warrnan]

So I have a question for a campaign I'm in. My DM and I are trying to find how XP works for minions and pets. If our party defeats an evil cleric that has Undead minions:

1)Do we get xp for the minions as well or are they included in the xp for defeating the Evil cleric?
2)What if he Commanded those Undead?
3)What if he used animate dead to create them?
4)What if He was a Wizard instead and had a Familiar?
5)What if he used Summon Undead?
6)What about Druid animal companions? or Wild Cohort?

He is trying not to TPK while also giving us a fun challenge and appropriate XP.

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

[MisterKaws]

If the creatures are created by him, or explicitly obtained by the character's abilities(Familiar, Wild Cohort), the CR is accounted for by the owner. If the creatures are simply dominated or charmed, the CR is separate from the caster.

Also, typically, because those minions are so much lower in CR than the caster, when calculating CR, even adding them together won't change the Encounter Level(which determines XP).

[Zaq]

RAW, per DMG pg. 37, you don't add XP for monsters that enemies "summon or otherwise add to their forces with magic powers." The logic given is that a summon spell or similar ability is already accounted for in the relevant CR, and the PCs wouldn't get more XP if the monster cast a spell other than a summon spell.

While this logic is appealing in a vacuum, I find that it's honestly pretty stupid in play much of the time. The action economy factor associated with minionmancy is often considerable, and the given explanation really just plain doesn't feel intuitively right when you're actually at the table. (I guess we can maybe draw a distinction between short-term minions like the astral construct the enemy psion conjures midbattle and long-term minions like animated zombies, planar ally, etc.?) I recommend eyeballing when it's appropriate to bump up the CR/XP as a result of minions and when it's not, but "did the minions exist before combat started?" is a good starting point.

[Jack_Simth]

So I have a question for a campaign I'm in. My DM and I are trying to find how XP works for minions and pets. If our party defeats an evil cleric that has Undead minions:

1)Do we get xp for the minions as well or are they included in the xp for defeating the Evil cleric?
2)What if he Commanded those Undead?
3)What if he used animate dead to create them?
4)What if He was a Wizard instead and had a Familiar?
5)What if he used Summon Undead?
6)What about Druid animal companions? or Wild Cohort?

He is trying not to TPK while also giving us a fun challenge and appropriate XP.

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

Personally?

RAW or not, it depends on: Did they cost him anything relevant to the fight?
If he used Command Undead on some skeletons before you ever reached him, then those skeletons effectively didn't cost him anything - they count for XP. If he does so during the fight, they don't (assuming they weren't a threat before the commanding).
If he used Animate Dead to create some skeletons before you ever reached him, then those skeletons effectively didn't cost him anything - they count for XP. If he does so during the fight, they don't.

Summon Undead, being a rounds/level spell, is going to eat into his resources - short duration buff rounds because he knew you were coming.

A Familiar or Animal Companion is just a class feature. It's theoretically already built into the CR of the class (a vanilla Wolf is CR 1, and a Druid-1 with a Wolf Animal companion is also CR 1... that's a little on the bogus side). No XP.

Wild Cohort: Borderline. On the one hand, it costs a feat. On the other, it's a high end feat. So it depends on the optimization level of the game. I'd be inclined to generally give XP for it. BBEG's don't get cohorts, they get stronger minions.

[Crake]

Personally?

RAW or not, it depends on: Did they cost him anything relevant to the fight?
If he used Command Undead on some skeletons before you ever reached him, then those skeletons effectively didn't cost him anything - they count for XP. If he does so during the fight, they don't (assuming they weren't a threat before the commanding).
If he used Animate Dead to create some skeletons before you ever reached him, then those skeletons effectively didn't cost him anything - they count for XP. If he does so during the fight, they don't.

Summon Undead, being a rounds/level spell, is going to eat into his resources - short duration buff rounds because he knew you were coming.

A Familiar or Animal Companion is just a class feature. It's theoretically already built into the CR of the class (a vanilla Wolf is CR 1, and a Druid-1 with a Wolf Animal companion is also CR 1... that's a little on the bogus side). No XP.

Wild Cohort: Borderline. On the one hand, it costs a feat. On the other, it's a high end feat. So it depends on the optimization level of the game. I'd be inclined to generally give XP for it. BBEG's don't get cohorts, they get stronger minions.

I pretty much agree with this post in all counts. As a general rule, if a creature is a magical effect, like a summoned creature, or a class feature, like a companion of some kind, no xp. If the creature is made though, such as through animate dead/craft construct, or controlled through magic, such as a command undead'd skeleton, or a dominate person'd fighter, then they still give full xp.