What do I do about underleved companions?

SomeOnesBody

I first took Xan as our party mage in BB:EE, but now I regret it and want Neera to replace him so she can cast spells from all schools of magic (And although I first liked his morose self... it got repetitive.). Thing is, I first recruited Neera at the start of the game and now Xan is halfway through level 2 while Neera is still level 1 with barely any experience. Now even on easy difficulty I can't kill Taurgosz Khosann in the bandit camp... Should I keep going, or do I bite the bullet and take Xan because Neera will never catch up with the rest of the party?

Arvia

That's not much of a level difference, but rather early to take on the bandit camp anyway.
I'd suggest you go do some side quests and explore some of the wilderness maps to gain some experience for your whole party and let Neera catch up.
Considering you posted this in the "new players, no spoilers" section, I'm not telling you where to go for easy XP or what to avoid, but if you want to know, several people will be able to provide help.
Where else have you been already on the world map?

SomeOnesBody

Arvia wrote: »

That's not much of a level difference, but rather early to take on the bandit camp anyway.
I'd suggest you go do some side quests and explore some of the wilderness maps to gain some experience and let Neera catch up.
Considering you posted this in the "new players, no spoilers" section, I'm not telling you where to go for easy XP or what to avoid, but if you want to know, several people will be able to provide help.
Where else have you been already on the world map?

Oh, I thought she would never catch up, eventually leading her to be useless in later levels. Didn't want to go half the game only to realize too late that I need to change my party.
And I pretty much only did the Nashkel mines, Gnoll stronghold and a couple of sidequests in the unnamed areas in-between. My only worry was that Neera would spend the rest of the game always being the worst team member because of the level difference.

Arvia

Well, she won't catch up in the sense that she'll have the same number of XP as older team members, but it won't matter as much later.
For a wild mage, the difference between level 1 and 2 are 2500 XP, while the gap from level 5 to 6, or 6 to 7, are 20000 XP. So at higher levels you need much more experience to reach the next level and the difference won't matter much.

I wouldn't do the bandit camp until your mage, whoever it might be, can at least cast level 2 spells. Spells like Web or Horror help to handle crowds of enemies. Just make sure you either protect your party from its effect or keep them out of the area.

Pokota

There's also the fact that the games have a cap on how much experience a given character can have - in Baldur's Gate EE without Siege of Dragonspear, that cap is 161,000 experience. Regardless of who you take, you will eventually reach the cap with your chosen party (and this more than anything else is why mods that change where late-game recruitable NPCs can be found are highly popular - there is more than enough for your chosen party so that you can have a few buffer characters, but not enough to max out every recruitable character possible, and late-game characters have to compete with characters you've been using for a lot longer than your Xan/Neera have been competing)

jmerry

If you have characters in the level 1-2 range ... go clear out some wilderness areas. Ignore the main plot for a while. You're not ready for the bandit camp.
Targosz Khosann is a level 8 fighter with full plate armor, a +1 weapon and shield, and grandmastery in his weapon. AC -1 crushing, -4 piercing/missile, -5 slashing. 2.5 attacks per round at THAC0 8 for 1d4+9 damage. He's very hard to hit, so disabling spells like Web or Hold Person are highly recommended ... and you don't even have those yet.

As a guide on when you should be taking the camp on - there are some level 3 mage scrolls there. I wouldn't go there until I was coming up on the ability to cast spells of that level. Mage level 5 is 20K XP.

As for parties with differing experience levels ... in my current run, I have one character (Yeslick) nearly 20K XP behind the protagonist. And at the point they're at, that's less than one level. The differences you're dealing with are insignificant - the issue is that you're underleveled in general for the content you're facing.

SomeOnesBody

jmerry wrote: »

If you have characters in the level 1-2 range ... go clear out some wilderness areas. Ignore the main plot for a while. You're not ready for the bandit camp.
Targosz Khosann is a level 8 fighter with full plate armor, a +1 weapon and shield, and grandmastery in his weapon. AC -1 crushing, -4 piercing/missile, -5 slashing. 2.5 attacks per round at THAC0 8 for 1d4+9 damage. He's very hard to hit, so disabling spells like Web or Hold Person are highly recommended ... and you don't even have those yet.

As a guide on when you should be taking the camp on - there are some level 3 mage scrolls there. I wouldn't go there until I was coming up on the ability to cast spells of that level. Mage level 5 is 20K XP.

As for parties with differing experience levels ... in my current run, I have one character (Yeslick) nearly 20K XP behind the protagonist. And at the point they're at, that's less than one level. The differences you're dealing with are insignificant - the issue is that you're underleveled in general for the content you're facing.

Oh ok, thank you so much!