Level squatting

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Could you explain this method of gaining experience more?

 

Sir Rechet developed an entire squatting strategy, which included avoiding as many side quests as possible, in order to return and gather the XP at high level. Quest XP is not level dependent, so it is advantageous to collect it after gaining a higher level (when kill XP rewards are low).

My own strategy is limited and simple: Never sell yourself short. If you have XP to gain levels, only level up when all enemies on the map are defeated, and before advancing to a new map. Then level-appropriate enemies spawn. If you level up mid-map, you are fighting lower level enemies than your level warrants, and you lose XP.

If you have a wizard advancing INT, it can be beneficial to squat until you can jump enough levels to get +2INT, which awards you more skill points. Keep in mind that your caster will be forced to stay lower level for a long time, to achieve this. So, judge for yourself whether it is worthwhile.

 

I tried level squat, but I'm now level 8 at the very beginning of chapter 2.

It's not very fun, I have very unbalanced party and I think I didn't accomplished much.

 

Agreed. Squatting that early accomplishes nothing. Better would be if you started squatting around level 8, when your characters are tough enough to face higher level opponents. And your primary casters should still take levels, because access to spells is very important. If you have a wizard and sorcerer, the wizard should squat, because his spell scroll access is limited until later anyway.

A small tip for leveling: Thanks to Sir Rechet's work, we now know that average party level (to determine enemy spawns and XP rewards) is rounded up. A party with 5x level 1 and 1x level 2, will be considered level 2. So if you don't want to sell yourself short, make sure all your characters level up in synch:
[total sum of levels of all party members] / [number of characters] = [whole number, otherwise it's rounded UP]
Also, *many* ECL characters is beneficial, and few ECL (<1 avg. party level) is worse than none at all.

 

Thats a bummer.

 

Am I understanding that despite 10 years of conventional wisdom, we now know that having say a Svirfneblin Monk and a Drow Paladin would actually be counter-productive if the rest of the party are a human Cleric, Bard, Druid, and Wizard?

 

Maybe not. I think I may have interpreted Sir Rechet's post #6 (link here) wrong. I couldn't quite understand his 'rule #2'.

 

Coin, it's the other way around. The average party level is calculated by dropping off any remainders, NOT by rounding up. That's why a party with 5 characters at level 8 and one with level 7 gets exp just like a party with average level 7 does.

Having a Svirf monk and Drow Paladin in a group of zero ECL main casters IS a good idea, not a bad one.

 

I stand corrected. I should have adapted my leveling differently, then.

By the way, does average party level include ECL levels and actual levels in the same respect?
So, if my party of 2 humans, 3 drow and 1 svirfneblin level up, I should try to find the highest decimal:
2 humans @ lvl 6 = 12
3 drow @ lvl 5 (+2ECL) = 21
1 svirf @ lvl 5 (+3ECL) = 8
Total effective levels = 41
41 / 6 = 6.83; (rounded down) party is considered average level 6.
Correct?

TL;DR in my 6-party team's case, I should have 2 characters a level above the average, to get the optimal rewards for my party level.

 

IIRC the average party level does _not_ include ECL levels.
So in your example the party is considered round_down((2x6+4x5)/6) = round_down(5.33...) =5
So a party were 1 character is lagging one level behind the others (due to ECL levels e.g.) is considered weaker and gains more xp. On the other hand a party of all ECL characters will partly catch up due to gaining more xp most of the game.

To not rob myself of the fun of levelling or the fun of getting xp or the 'need' to kill every living being to grow my characters more, I use a changed xp table and 'force' myself to level as soon as possible.

 

Damn, so there are 2 separate level entities, both rounded down.
A 6-man party can have 5 ECL levels with no effect to XP gains,
*and*
it can have 5 actual levels above the average, again with no effect to XP yet.