Party Average Level and XP in Encounters

Someone please tell me if I'm doing something wrong. I'm having a problem with the calculation of Party Average Level when creating encounters. No matter what i try, the PAL is always 3, regardless of the NPC level or complexity. I have tried a single goblin with level 2, and I have tried a mature oriental dragon with level 30, and the PAL is still 3. The XP changes, but I can't help but wonder if it's an appropriate value if the PAL is wrong.

The attached image is for a tribe of 20 goblins. PAL is 3 and XP is 3500. I'm not familiar with using these metrics for Rolemaster, so I don't really know if the XP is appropriate, but I doubt the PAL is appropriate.

Bale Nomad

Ok, so I determined the PAL issue. I am working on a campaign to turn it into a module, and I forgot I had a PC on the party sheet. After removing the PC, the PAL becomes 0, and the XP drops to 1600 for the sample tribe of goblins.

I am basing my analysis on this page for Pathfinder Gamemastering, particularly Encounter Design: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/

According to that page, an NPC at level 2 has a Challenge Rating (CR) of 1, representing 400 XP. A tribe of 20 such NPCs would have an XP total of 8000, representing a CR between 9 and 10.

I know Rolemaster Classic XP calculation, at least on paper, is much more complicated than that, so how is the middle ground determined between the RMC rules and this more simplified method? And how is PAL being figured into the XP total calculation instead of it being based on opponent CRs or per unit XP?

Ok, after more reading of Character Law, each goblin at level 2 with 40HP is worth HP+(20xLVL), or 40+(20x2)=80 XP each. This brings the basic XP total for 20 of them to 1600. So how does having a PAL of 3 raise the XP total to 3500?

Ok, I get it now. Each goblin has Bonus XP of 95 for characters of level 3. A PAL of 3 results in 1900 bonus experience for 20 of them. Adding that to the base of 1600 results in 3500.

Not enough coffee this morning. Hopefully someone gets some benefit of me walking through the process, beyond a chuckle at my slow mind this morning.