NPCs joining at different XP levels

Klorox

Does anybody know the different XP levels NPCs will join at, and what it’s linked to (I assume it’s linked to the protagonists XP, but I’m not sure)?

I’m looking for some sweet spots to have NPCs join me.

A little background: I’ve been playing BG since I had to switch multiple discs and I’ve been playing a lot of solo the past few years.

I miss playing with banter a lot, so I want to add characters to my party but I don’t mind soloing a while just to bump my level up a bit.

TIA

ThacoBell

There's thresholds where an npc will be given exp up to that threshold, once. So levelling, recruiting them, dropping them, and levelling to the next threshold will only get them the first boost. I do not recall what these exp thresholds are.

Some npcs will also have a minimum level they join at. I think Coran will always be at least level 3.

Very_BigSword

As I recall for standard BGEE it is:
2000XP
4000XP
8000XP
16000XP
32000XP

The protagonist needs to have at least those amounts and if so, the NPC will have the threshold limit below that. So a protagonist with 3000XP will get recruits with 2000XP. A protagonist with 3999XP will get recruits with 2000XP.

Baeloth always has 40000XP and level 6 but will not spawn unless the protagonist already exceeds 10000XP. Aunty Jaheira always has just under 4000XP if the protagonist has less than that i.e. she is "veteran" and just on the cusp of leveling up to 2/2.

As mentioned a few NPCs have already leveled up somewhat where you meet them in later chapters. Coran for example to semi-legalise his *** bow mastery which you could not allocate his level 3 proficiency to on level up.

jsaving

Yeah, there's a lot of misinformation online about how this works. IIRC correctly the thresholds are 2/4/8/16/32K XP and they are based on the protagonist's experience rather than being a groupwide average.