When an enemy is defeated, who in the party gains experience?

Question

When a character kills an enemy, do only they get the experience, or does everyone in the whole group get the experience?

That is, does it matter who made the last hit that took the enemy down?

Answer 1

The whole group divides the experience between them

Each monster has an XP value based on its challenge rating. When adventurers defeat one or more monsters-typically by killing, routing, or capturing them-they divide the total XP value of the monsters evenly among themselves. If the party received substantial assistance from one or more NPCs, count those NPCs as party members when dividing up the XP. (DMG p.260)

Answer 2

Typically, you do the following:

• Add up the experience that every monster gives in an encounter into one giant pool of experience.
• Divide that experience pool evenly by the number of people in the party.

You do this for encounters where players kill off the monsters as well as encounters where they manage to defeat the monsters via other means (traps, skill checks, etc.)

Answer 3

I can't find anything in the DM's Basic Guide about awarding XP, apart from the following sentence.

Typically, XP is awarded for defeating the monster, although the DM may also award XP for neutralizing the threat posed by the monster in some other manner.

My ruling is to award the XP to the whole party, working on the idea that they all contributed to the fight. Grog the Barbarian might have made the killing blow, but Wrog the Warlock contributed by hitting the monster lots with spells and Trog the Cleric helped by healing and blessing Grog. Giving XP only to Grog wouldn't be fair.

Five monsters, 450 XP per montser, against 3 characters: each character gets 450 * 5 / 3 = 750 XP.