XP in BG:EE
Resurrection
Member Posts: 18
Many years ago I have done a solo run of BG (no mods save for XP cap removal) including TotSC to see how many experience points are there in the game. The result of that run was about 1 million XP which pretty much fits the 6 members party in which each member gets 161 000 XP (the XP cap).
I have done it again this time in BG:EE 1.2 (no mods save for XP cap removal) using Berserker specializing in Staves. The result was slightly over 1,1 million XP (without grinding and killing all 4 final bosses). That does not fit the preserved cap of 161 000 XP as well and I can confirm from another full party run that I have reached the cap with all party members quite some time before Sarevok (which became the reason to install XP cap removal in the first place).
Interestingly, the XP from quest rewards amounted only to roughly 145 000 while the rest came from kills of which I had over 1 200. I had next to zero XP from scrolls and traps/locks but since they are negligible in BG:EE it did not affect the result. However I did not kill the Rieltar's party in Candlekeep nor Tamoko which could raise the final score by few thousands.
Another interesting observation was that the party-joinable NPCs were capped at 20 000 XP when joining. Also no thief by default was skilled in Find Traps enough to disarm traps in Durlag's Tower. Closest came Safana with Find Traps at 65 % (still not enough). On the other hand Strength of 24 (using potions) giving 75 in Open Doors was enough to force open any lock in the game.
Regarding fights. Since I played on Insane difficulty (doubled damage) the entire game I was expecting some serious problems. In the end they were but few though tough ones:
- By far the hardest opponent were the traps in the second underground level of Durlag's Tower (the one with dopplegangers all over, torture room and crapload of traps). The reason was that some traps though magical in nature were bypassing the Protection from Magic scroll so I had to soak the doubled damage which required many reloads and a lot of luck. Not sure if Potions of Magic Protection (which stacks so two gives you theoretical immunity to magic) would work (didn't have them on me then).
- Actual hardest fight was unsurprisingly Greater Werewolf (Karoug). I was using the anti-werewolf Werebane dagger and amulet against werewolves with bunch of potions (strength, heroism, speed, power) and rage I was able to tear him to shreds relatively quickly (remember I played on Insane difficulty). Admittedly though the removed cap helped (I was level 10 then). If he was damagable by normal +3 weapons I imagine Staff of Striking would make a short process of him but the dagger worked fine too.
- As expected Greater Wywerns in Durlag's Tower were pretty hairy fight and had to be taken down one by one.
- Unexpectedly Semaj who has two or three contingencies with Stoneskin and Mirror Image. If I could use dispel it would not be so tough but as a pure fighter on my own it was quite a challenge. The only consession was that he was further from the others and only Tazok joined the fun.
Other than these three encounters it was pretty much walk in the park. Tanar'ri was relatively easy in comparison using almost the same set of potions and rage (and fireballs to dispatch of the cultist guards so he did not reincarnate). Mendas/Selaad was somewhat memorable fight (it was longer than most other fights). Demon Knight although marked as hardest defeated opponent (still even after defeating Sarevok) was pretty easy.
In the Final Battle I was level 12 (4 above level cap, which is 8), using potions and rage rendering me immune to pretty much everything save for physical damage, boosted stats (STR 25, DEX 25), AC -12, THAC0 -10, 3 attacks per round, regeneration, with Staff of Striing damage dealt almost 40 per hit (without critical). Except for Semaj the battle was pretty easy, Sarevok went down in 4 hits all 33+ damage so approximately in 2 rounds.
Some closing remarks. I believe that BG2 engine has made BG:EE easier despite preventing several exploits. I have not completed *every* side quest in the game but I did all I could. The ones I could not do were the evil ones (Nemphre asking for Arkion's ring, Cordyr and Sirines, Eldoth and Skie and perhaps few others due to too high reputation). Overall however it was pretty fun run and good challenge playing on Insane difficulty. When I learnt I could not use any thief (remove traps, kick from party, find traps, hire the thief again... rinse and repeat; that was the original plan) to bypass the traps in Drulag's Tower I almost gave up but eventually I managed.
One question bothers me though: Why there is so much more XP in BG:EE than in original BG? I am sure I was as thorough in both runs... different XP for killing some of the more "expensive" creatures perhaps? No matter though, I hope you enjoyed my little AAR and thanks thee fro thy comments. :-)
I have done it again this time in BG:EE 1.2 (no mods save for XP cap removal) using Berserker specializing in Staves. The result was slightly over 1,1 million XP (without grinding and killing all 4 final bosses). That does not fit the preserved cap of 161 000 XP as well and I can confirm from another full party run that I have reached the cap with all party members quite some time before Sarevok (which became the reason to install XP cap removal in the first place).
Interestingly, the XP from quest rewards amounted only to roughly 145 000 while the rest came from kills of which I had over 1 200. I had next to zero XP from scrolls and traps/locks but since they are negligible in BG:EE it did not affect the result. However I did not kill the Rieltar's party in Candlekeep nor Tamoko which could raise the final score by few thousands.
Another interesting observation was that the party-joinable NPCs were capped at 20 000 XP when joining. Also no thief by default was skilled in Find Traps enough to disarm traps in Durlag's Tower. Closest came Safana with Find Traps at 65 % (still not enough). On the other hand Strength of 24 (using potions) giving 75 in Open Doors was enough to force open any lock in the game.
Regarding fights. Since I played on Insane difficulty (doubled damage) the entire game I was expecting some serious problems. In the end they were but few though tough ones:
- By far the hardest opponent were the traps in the second underground level of Durlag's Tower (the one with dopplegangers all over, torture room and crapload of traps). The reason was that some traps though magical in nature were bypassing the Protection from Magic scroll so I had to soak the doubled damage which required many reloads and a lot of luck. Not sure if Potions of Magic Protection (which stacks so two gives you theoretical immunity to magic) would work (didn't have them on me then).
- Actual hardest fight was unsurprisingly Greater Werewolf (Karoug). I was using the anti-werewolf Werebane dagger and amulet against werewolves with bunch of potions (strength, heroism, speed, power) and rage I was able to tear him to shreds relatively quickly (remember I played on Insane difficulty). Admittedly though the removed cap helped (I was level 10 then). If he was damagable by normal +3 weapons I imagine Staff of Striking would make a short process of him but the dagger worked fine too.
- As expected Greater Wywerns in Durlag's Tower were pretty hairy fight and had to be taken down one by one.
- Unexpectedly Semaj who has two or three contingencies with Stoneskin and Mirror Image. If I could use dispel it would not be so tough but as a pure fighter on my own it was quite a challenge. The only consession was that he was further from the others and only Tazok joined the fun.
Other than these three encounters it was pretty much walk in the park. Tanar'ri was relatively easy in comparison using almost the same set of potions and rage (and fireballs to dispatch of the cultist guards so he did not reincarnate). Mendas/Selaad was somewhat memorable fight (it was longer than most other fights). Demon Knight although marked as hardest defeated opponent (still even after defeating Sarevok) was pretty easy.
In the Final Battle I was level 12 (4 above level cap, which is 8), using potions and rage rendering me immune to pretty much everything save for physical damage, boosted stats (STR 25, DEX 25), AC -12, THAC0 -10, 3 attacks per round, regeneration, with Staff of Striing damage dealt almost 40 per hit (without critical). Except for Semaj the battle was pretty easy, Sarevok went down in 4 hits all 33+ damage so approximately in 2 rounds.
Some closing remarks. I believe that BG2 engine has made BG:EE easier despite preventing several exploits. I have not completed *every* side quest in the game but I did all I could. The ones I could not do were the evil ones (Nemphre asking for Arkion's ring, Cordyr and Sirines, Eldoth and Skie and perhaps few others due to too high reputation). Overall however it was pretty fun run and good challenge playing on Insane difficulty. When I learnt I could not use any thief (remove traps, kick from party, find traps, hire the thief again... rinse and repeat; that was the original plan) to bypass the traps in Drulag's Tower I almost gave up but eventually I managed.
One question bothers me though: Why there is so much more XP in BG:EE than in original BG? I am sure I was as thorough in both runs... different XP for killing some of the more "expensive" creatures perhaps? No matter though, I hope you enjoyed my little AAR and thanks thee fro thy comments. :-)
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I've finished two runs- the first was a full-party affair with an Elven Fighter/Mage, Dorn, Kagain, Viconia, Imoen, and Edwin. This party did the ToSC content during Chapter 5 (before Candlekeep). I seem to recall that most of my party hit the level cap sometime during this chapter or the next, so it was a bit early.
The other run was a trio with three custom-made characters who actually hit level cap later, sometime in Chapter 7. It wasn't nearly as thorough with sidequests (particularly as I got lazy when I got to Baldur's Gate). I didn't do the ToSC content either (did grab the Wisdom tome from Durlag's upper floors though), because I wanted to get this party to BG2 and there wasn't anything there to import over. This makes me think that the ToSC content is actually worth a really big chunk of XP, which I hadn't noticed before.