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NPC Recruitment Level

PingwinPingwin Member Posts: 262
in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
I've never been too concerned about what level NPCs are when I recruit them as usually I get a complete party early on, but I'm going for a play through where I want to recruit Coran to fill in for Imoen when she dual classes.

What are the rules that govern what level an NPC is, in particular Coran? As far as I know, he can be anywhere between 3/3 and 5/5 when you meet him but I'm guessing that it is going to be difficult to reach him early enough for him to be 3/3.

Comments

  • ilduderinoilduderino Member Posts: 773
    A recent version of the game makes it largely irrelevant to get npcs early. In Coran’s case if he is to be 5/5 when you reach him he will be 3/3 but have the xp to instantly level up to 5/5. So you can choose any thieving abilities and proficiencies between the two levels. Weirdly for Coran and Yeslick I recall it used to be better to get them at the higher level as they had more hp than was possible for the level. All this said it is perfectly possible to get Coran at 3/3 by rushing the mines and bandit camp and I have done so before (on a rush for Alora)
  • ilduderinoilduderino Member Posts: 773
    http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/good.htm

    I used to use this guide to work out what level npcs will be when they join depending on the pcs. It looks like only the 3/3 Coran had the illegal hp
  • PingwinPingwin Member Posts: 262
    ilduderino wrote: »
    A recent version of the game makes it largely irrelevant to get npcs early. In Coran’s case if he is to be 5/5 when you reach him he will be 3/3 but have the xp to instantly level up to 5/5. So you can choose any thieving abilities and proficiencies between the two levels. Weirdly for Coran and Yeslick I recall it used to be better to get them at the higher level as they had more hp than was possible for the level. All this said it is perfectly possible to get Coran at 3/3 by rushing the mines and bandit camp and I have done so before (on a rush for Alora)

    True, but it feels somewhat cheesy to get Coran and then reallocate all of his thief skill points to make him the ideal thief from the start. Prefer to make the game harder for myself by giving him the poor skill allocation that he used to start with before the latest version that you that extra control.
  • BalladBallad Member Posts: 205
    Also, keep in mind that the BG1 NPC project mod had a component for opening the Cloakwood (minus the mine) in Chapter 1, meaning you could pick up Coran as early as level 1.
  • leeuxleeux Member Posts: 115
    Ballad wrote: »
    Also, keep in mind that the BG1 NPC project mod had a component for opening the Cloakwood (minus the mine) in Chapter 1, meaning you could pick up Coran as early as level 1.

    I was going to suggest that too, but then I remembered that Coran has a timed quest, so you're kind of forced to do the Wyvern thing too else he will leave, which could be a little difficult for a low level party (at least, I think so... honestly, never tried, though.)
  • SandkatzeSandkatze Member Posts: 34
    I've read somewhere that NPC's to recruit will get their lvl through your average party lvl.
    For example you've got 5 ppl with 10 classes with 5 at 6 and 5 at 5 = 55 /10 = 5.5 ~ 5
    Now you recruit Coran and he will be at lvl 5 based on that average rule...
  • Necromanx2Necromanx2 Member Posts: 1,246
    It seems to me I remember that NPCs get starting XP based on PC XP only. 2k, 4k, 8k, 16k, 32k were the magic numbers I believe. Even one XP below those and you get the lower XP on the NPC (31999 and the NPC starts with 16k for example). The cap is 32k and even if you have 100k XP (like when I get Yeslick (I think that is his name)) he starts with 32k and then I EEKeeper him closer to my group.
  • jmerryjmerry Member Posts: 4,044
    edited August 2019
    The game files contain multiple versions of each character. For example, Garrick has versions at level 1, 2, 4, and 6 (codes GARRIC, GARRIC2, GARRIC4, GARRIC6). In the original version of the games, you recruited a version of the character based on your average party level.

    The EE has mostly done away with this system. Instead, in almost all cases, you recruit the lowest-level version of the character. Then, all characters recruited for the first time gain an experience boost to catch up with the protagonist, raising them to the highest amount reached among several milestones.
    The milestone levels: 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K, 32K in BG1. 125K, 250K, 500K, 750K, 1000K, 1250K in BG2. 2500K in ToB. (I don't have Siege of Dragonspear to know what's going on there)

    The exceptions to recruiting the lowest-level versions of characters? If you avoid Imoen in the Lion's Way and come back to her with some experience under your belt, you'll get the level 2 version of her instead of the level 1 version. In BG2, the companions added by the EE use come in many different-leveled versions. In ToB, there's essentially only one starting version of each character, which is higher-level than any of the SoA versions but not quite at the point of getting high-level abilities yet.
    Post edited by jmerry on
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