10% experience bonus for good stats

nptitim

I was reading through some of the AD&D player's manuals and I saw the rule that if a character has a 16 or better in their primary attribute for that class (str for a warrior, dex for a thief, etc) they get an extra 10% experience bonus. I was wondering if Baldur's gate followed that rule?

Second question was I saw that once Wisdom gets above 18 the player becomes immune to certain effects (fear, etc), I was also wondering if BG incorporated that rule as well?

Thanks for any info in regards to this post.

Dee

The answer is no to both. Sometimes I wish it weren't the case, although a 10% boost to XP is kind of a lot, especially when the subpar NPCs are already at a disadvantage.

Mungri

Pretty bad idea to reward characters with stronger stats and punish ones with weaker stats, it should be the other way around like in Spiderweb's RPGs.

sandmanCCL

@Mungri: I don't follow that logic. People with better stats should be better. Giving bonuses to people with sub-par stats seems counter-intuitive.

I will say I'm all for when we're talking NPCs, giving ones with bad stats some sort of exceptional ability just for them. Tiax's Summon Ghast, for example.

HaHaCharade

sandmanCCL said:

@Mungri: I don't follow that logic. People with better stats should be better. Giving bonuses to people with sub-par stats seems counter-intuitive.

I will say I'm all for when we're talking NPCs, giving ones with bad stats some sort of exceptional ability just for them. Tiax's Summon Ghast, for example.

Well adventurers really shouldn't even have bad stats if you want to get down to it. Adventurers are supposed to be exceptional folks. Not dirt farmers. In the end, it's probably best to just leave any of the EXP bonus out of it completely.

Mungri

HaHaCharade said:

sandmanCCL said:

@Mungri: I don't follow that logic. People with better stats should be better. Giving bonuses to people with sub-par stats seems counter-intuitive.

I will say I'm all for when we're talking NPCs, giving ones with bad stats some sort of exceptional ability just for them. Tiax's Summon Ghast, for example.

Well adventurers really shouldn't even have bad stats if you want to get down to it. Adventurers are supposed to be exceptional folks. Not dirt farmers. In the end, it's probably best to just leave any of the EXP bonus out of it completely.

It doesnt have to be logical, its simply a game mechanic found in another line of iso 2D RPGs. In spiderweb software's game, you could purposefully gimp your characters by picking negative traits like sluggish - slower movement, weak - reduced strength, sickly (or something) - more susceptible to disease, and for each negative trait you picked, the amount of experience you required per level up decreased. You could also pick positive traits that made you stronger, but increased the level of experience needed to level up. Think of it as a risk / reward strategy. Make a weaker character, get levels faster, play as a stronger character, it takes you longer to train / level up.

On the other hand, what exactly is logical about further rewarding someone for being lucky enough to gain a high roll on their stats? Your higher stats should be rewarding enough, theres no need to increase EXP gain on an already godly stat character.

And as for dirt farmers becomming adventurers, Hublepot surely doesnt mind adventuring along with you in BG2 if you feel like adding him to your game:

http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/hubelpot

Based on their stats, most NPCs in BG1 dont even pass for adventurers that I would want to group with in such a game, but then again lower stats simply increases difficulty and challenge which is how this game is meant to be at first.

elminster

Mungri said:

Based on their stats, most NPCs in BG1 dont even pass for adventurers that I would want to group with in such a game, but then again lower stats simply increases difficulty and challenge which is how this game is meant to be at first.

Well I'm sure if you were to compare their stats with that of a villager even the worst NPC's would look extraordinary

demacy

just have fun and don't worry bout all the stats. BG is all about the story and adventure imho, I know I've played through it almost as many times as I've watched the original Dune.

The_Guilty_Party

That really was an utterly baffling design decision, especially in a pen and paper system. Because if there's one thing that's bound to cause friction in a social group, it's singling out the dude who rolled really well and who is thus better than everyone else so that he also levels faster than everyone else, all because of sheer luck.

colonel_burger

No and no. I don't like the idea of an XP bonus for good rolls, you are OP enough as is with rolls like that. However, the idea of becoming immune to fear with ultra-high intelligence and wisdom (think Iron Will) is pretty cool. Same with having a Con of 20, you'd practically be able to quaff Poison potions and gain HP from it!

Jaxsbudgie

Perhaps the bar could be raised to the exceptional dizzying heights of 18? But then how would dual and multi class characters work, 18 in the two (or three for Druids) prime stats? Less NPCs would qualify on an 18 or above (Alora, Edwin, Imoen, Kivan, Minsc, Shar-Teel and Skie) ... but then again, I'm none too keen on even more XP, especially since I hit the cap long before I ought to ... guess this could be balanced out if less XP was rewarded throughout the game.

As for the wisdom bonuses, I would murder for these to be implemented, same for intelligence. As both wisdom and intelligence are already somewhat moot stats and offer little bonuses (higher percentage to learn spells with slight spell book capacity increase and a few low level bonus divine spells). It would really add to NPCs that have high or low in both stats when their class needn't require them. Notable NPCs - Xzar's high wisdom, Viconia, Safana, Imoen, Khalid, Kagain and Skie's high intelligence.

Shin

Might be useful to know that there is an inherent hard-coded bonus/bug that gives you 10% extra exp from monster kills - need to use ToBEx to disable it.

DJKajuru

That was a stupid rule.

mlnevese

The 10% bug was fixed in the EE. It´s in the fixed forum.

bigdogchris

10% bonus XP was part of the 2nd Edition rules, so I don't have a problem with it. It would help set separate pacing for NPC's, which is a good thing.

One of my older discussions talked about this with Monk rebalancing, except Monks require 2 stats to be at 16, rather than having just 1.

Mechalibur

I think the benefit to having better stats is, well, having better stats. You don't need an exp boost on top of it.

And something being in AD&D isn't enough of a reason to include it. Racial class level limits were in AD&D, and I sure am glad those aren't in BG.

CaptRory

The thing about rewarding those who do well over those who do poorly is that it creates an ever widening gulf. Here we go: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnstableEquilibrium

AHF

It makes sense from a real life perspective. Something that requires intelligence like math comes easier to smarter kids and they advance faster in those skills; really coordinated kids learn skills in sports faster; etc.

It just doesn't work as well as a game mechanic, IMO.

Shin

Agree with @AHF that it seems realistic. A counter argument would be that it takes away from the fun to level up quicker than you're supposed to, as slowly developing your character is part of the excitement. On the other hand, 10% extra is little enough that I doubt it would have much of an impact. By the end of BG you might have 280k instead of 250k, assuming you've removed the exp cap to begin with.

nexdainn

wana play nu