EXP gain without muling

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Just for the heck of it, I've played through the game all the way to the time-loop (about halfway into Chapter 5), and lo and behold, just as I recovered the Holy Avenger, my first character hit her 21st level! And she's a Deep Gnome with a heavy ECL penalty as well!

No, I'm NOT doing any level-squatting or muling. Instead, I started the game as solo and played solo all the way to the Horde Fortress. I added one more character, and played duo all the way to the monastery. There I added two more characters, so my party became a quartet.

So.. reaching levels in the low 20's surely is possible in Normal mode. Just not for the whole group. But as we know, one high-level character can beat a party of mid-level characters pretty much all by herself so it pays off, IMHO.

 

Your findings are consistent with my experience of playing the game in a similar fashion.

 

Cool!

I started a new game where I intend to do something similar. Except I cant but level-squat. Lets see when my Aasimar Paladin/Sorcerer gets L9 spells.

 

A question regarding lvl-squatting: Is there really a gain in the long run? I mean, let's say I squat 4 levels... That means my group is perhaps one lvl above what they should be (because they gain more xp). Consequently, they will gain even less xp then they normally would after they are done leveling up. Get my point?

 

You have a point, but if you want to hit level 30 before you normally could even in vanilla mode then squatting helps.

 

It depends on how you do your squatting. But generally, squatting nets you extra EXP. How much extra depends on how long you can keep on squatting until you cash in your reward.

Try playing through the Ice Temple with as low-level party as possible, as the various golems give huge EXP. Chapter 3 is pretty dry exp-wise, so it doesn't really matter if you squat it or not. You might as well, as it's not that tough either. And finally, chapter 4 is THE ultimate place to reap some great exp rewards from squatting, since you'll meet plenty of golems there.

Just don't forget that the standard issue Iron Golem is anything but a piece of cake for a low-level party. Anyone with less than 6 levels should stay away from them, as their Cloudkill means instant death without save.

And remember - you don't need to squat with your WHOLE group at once. Squat with half group, advance normally with the other half and you'll get the best of both worlds - good exp and at least a couple of characters that are high enough level to cope with the challenges.

 

Hmm, did you find then, that you were still gaining good exp throughout the ice temple? I did similiar to you with my party- only I squatted. I'm not sure how much more powerful that will make my party in the end, if even at all, but I stand pace to reach 20+ level easily with my main character, and likely with my secondary one as well.

Also, what difficulty did you play on? I'm really tempted to try insane, but it seems the monsters hit friggin hard as well as often and I've found little to no ways to boost my priests armor class other than through buffs, which don't last as long as I'd like and sadly he would still probably get hit hard in combat. Is it really neccessary to have a deep gnome main pc if I wanted such a party? Heh, sorry to fire off question after question as I'm usually pretty knowledgeable about ie games and powergaming but I just haven't gotten through iwd2 in so long that at times I feel my knowledge is sadly lacking.

 

I have to admit that the EXP gains from killing monsters has been rather minimal for my party, but since I made it to level 21 in Kuldahar, I guess it didn't matter that much in the end. My second character (also a deep gnome) is at level 18, and the two last ones (both drows) are at level 11.

Had I been squatting my extra characters (that is, using them as mules) I added along the way, I'd most likely be at or very close to level 30 with my main character by now.

 

Crazy. My human cleric of lathander was level 16 by chapter three using muling/squatting. Although his leveling has seemed to slow down a lot since ice temple.

 

Playing on insane mode won't increase your xp. That was one of the things that changed from IWD to IWD2. XP is the same except for in HOF mode, I think.

 

The idea is that your average party level counts in XP calculations. A second, low level, character lowers the mean and enables you to gain more XP for kills... or any XP at all.

 

Well I know that with insane, I was just considering throwing it up there to have more challenge. Yet when I did, it seemed my guys got torn up real fast by mobs of enemies because my armor class is pretty terrible with my cleric and so he has a bit of trouble against high damage enemies. Insane is obviously much less..erm insane then hof, but I imagine you need a high ac tank/decoy type character to play in it as well. Either that or lots of arcane casters to quickly end fights.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but some quests render the same amount of xp no matter what level of the party members?

 

Its only the quest reward XP that will remain constant regardless of your average party level.
In places like the Shanegarne bridge, it depends on the manner in which you finished the quest.
XP from killing monsters is dependant on your average party level.

 

Level is used for XP from kills. Quest XP is fixed AFAIK.

 

Quest EXP is fixed and the amount is divided amongst your party members, not given to all like in BG2.

If you do all the quests available in the game, always picking the path that gives the most EXP, you'll end up with just over 300,000 quest EXP during the game, and another 300,000 EXP again in HOF mode. (Take a look in JUPP for more detailed breakdown.)

For a solo character, quest EXP is by far the largest source of EXP during the game. Conversely, the more you have characters, especially ones with stiff ECL penalties, the more you'll be receiving EXP from monsters.

 

So a solo can get to ECL24? In Normal? On only Quest XP?
Why are we worrying about XP for kills then

 

Yeah I was thinking about that. Then it does make sense to make a small party after all =) Well, guess I have to do my duty and enter the dreaded Dragon's Eye. My fighter(8)/rogue(8) and the others gain no xp at all these hard times. Is that a decent level at this stage (16 levels up) for him?

 

Because we want to be rewarded for slaying all those creatures.

 

Also, a solo character most likely isn't a diplomat type that can get access to all that quest EXP... A non-diplomat can only get 290,000 or so..