How much EXP do you acually accumulate in a full BG1/SoD run?

Bugrat

Long time BG player here, just bought Siege of Dragonspear and looking to start playing for the first time. I understand that they moved the XP cap from 161k to 500k.

My question is: In a typical completionist game without excessive grinding, how close do you get to the cap with a full party? Please post how much XP you have in your final saves!

Follow-up question: I want to use the answer to the above question to nerf my XP to be more in line with the normal BG2 starting XP. I remember this old mod "ding0 Experience Fixer" (http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=110&Itemid=83). Does anyone know if DEF still works with the EE and if not are there any more modern alternatives?

DEF lets you reduce all incoming XP by 75%, 50%, or 10% I believe. If the mod is still usable, I am trying to decide which setting to use.

Thanks!

bob_veng

your party will reach the cap without any grinding, at the very end of SoD.

mf2112

My party of 6 all just hit 500K with the last couple fights before the final SOD battle. You will still be limited to 161K before the final BG1 battle.

bob_veng

Bugrat said:

DEF lets you reduce all incoming XP by 75%, 50%, or 10% I believe. If the mod is still usable, I am trying to decide which setting to use.

Thanks!

Well, certainly not 75%. SoD is kinda hard to begin with, so it would be best not to drastically reduce incoming XP. From the beginning of SoD you are precipitously heading into a procession of battles with some top-tier d&d monsters so it would actually feel more lame (and IMO simply less immersive) to have to face them as a wimpish low/mid-level guy, than to face a difficulty dip later on.

so maybe 25%

ZaramMaldovar

Yes it's very easy to hit the EXP cap and not be able to level further.
The highest EXP I've gotten though is about 300,000 just hitting the last level before the end of SOD

Bugrat

bob_veng said:

Bugrat said:

DEF lets you reduce all incoming XP by 75%, 50%, or 10% I believe. If the mod is still usable, I am trying to decide which setting to use.

Thanks!

Well, certainly not 75%. SoD is kinda hard to begin with, so it would be best not to drastically reduce incoming XP. From the beginning of SoD you are precipitously heading into a procession of battles with some top-tier d&d monsters so it would actually feel more lame (and IMO simply less immersive) to have to face them as a wimpish low/mid-level guy, than to face a difficulty dip later on.

so maybe 25%

Oops, I miswrote that. Meant to say it the other way around that you get 75% of normal, not -75%.

Thanks for the data points. I think I'm going to push it a little bit and go for 50% and see how it goes. I am loading SCS too, so I really need to pick an OP main character and party

TheGraveDigger

Full saga run with XP cap removed.

BG = 210,852. Average party size was 4.

SoD = 563,715. Average party size was 4.

BG2 = 4,204,435. Average party size was 5.

ToB = 7,560,046. Full party.

Bugrat

Follow-up in case anyone is interested:

I finished SoD using 50% reduced XP. It was a lot of fun and didn't feel too unfair (Core Rules). Some of the endgame battles were a little dicy however!

Ended at just around 250k, so at the very end of the game was rewarded with some levelups to 9 for my fighter and cleric.

bob_veng

sounds great!

broshimo

TheGraveDigger said:

Full saga run with XP cap removed.

BG = 210,852. Average party size was 4.

Did you complete all content, i.e. Durlag's Tower + Isle of Balduran? I looked an old save and for a six man party, my pc was sitting at 218k XP right before the final fight. I only swapped out some party members early game, so I think my XP accumulation was close to optimal.

Aerakar

I play completionist and do every quest for the most part. I also tend to stick to 4 person teams. I usually end up about 300,000 with the XP cap removed. SoD can add about another 500,000 or so. With both xp caps removed I ended up starting in Amn recently with about 800,000 xp.

With the xp caps removed the difference is about 1 level versus keeping the xp caps.

gattberserk

225K per character for a party of 6 for BGEE

600K per character for a party of 6 at end of SOD (with some insane setting battle)


total max XP available in BGEE+SOD = 3.6M at max.

The_Cheeseman

I agree with the above poster. When soloing, after completing everything in BG1/TotSC I end up with around 1.2 million exp (around 1.5 million if I solo with a fully-leveled, dead party to trigger larger spawns).

In my runs of SoD, with the Insane spawn sizes, I usually end up hitting 3 million and my first HLA near the end.

So there’s a little over 3 million exp, total, available between the two games. Probably a bit more, since I am obviously soloing and don’t do the NPC quests.

dunbar

I've just (as in about 2 hours ago) finished a solo BG1 run with a berserker, taking in Durlag's and Ulgoth's, and finished with 1.1 million XP (core rules).

Davidws10

I see some posts above about removing XP caps. How is that possible? Is there something in the baldur.lua file that you can change?

ZaramMaldovar

@Davidws10
Mods mostly. The Tweaks Anthology Mod specifically has an option to remove the XP Caps.