The BG1 XP limit was stupid then, and it's stupid now, which was why one of the very first patches I did back in the day was to remove it. It left certain characters just short of their next level - Jaheira, for instance, was SOOO close to leveling when she hit the cap that it was infuriating.
However, I'm not sure I would have hit BG2's cap without doing a completionist run and every stronghold quest. It felt high enough that it didn't have a serious impact like BG1. Well, at least not until ToB added WK to SoA - then that cap started to chafe.
Still, I removed it anyway, because I think caps are dumb. If the game starts to get too easy, just ratchet up the difficulty. (Or do what I did, and install SCS...) Cap or no cap, eventually the game will be "over" if for any other reason than your party has cleared the land of anything remotely hostile. What are you going to do then? Summon stuff to kill? (Actually wait, some people might...)
Personally with a full party I reliably hit the (original) XP cap at the latest in the penultimate chapter in both BG 1 and SoA. In ToB you would need to go out of your way to hit it.
I like the XP caps - each spell level drastically expands your tool set and I like the final battles to be balanced to take place at the XP cap. The XP cap allows me to skip Werewolf Isle without regrets if I do not feel like doing it.
The SoA final battles used to be much more challenging before you
had HLAs.
Anyway, with 2nd edition XP tables and multi class you can't find a cap where someone is not just short a bit to level.
EDIT: and it was certainly not stupid in the original, as it allowed the devs to skip implementing higher spell levels which costs time and money.
in the original pre tob the hla did not exist, but some lev 9 scrolls was already there, if i am not wrong, no need to implement them.
as the lev 9 spells was out of reach for a mage due to the xp cap you had to cast them from the quick slots, with the real mage, and as there was often only one scroll you could cast them only once in the game, or using clones to use the scroll without wasting it.
in the original pre tob the hla did not exist, but some lev 9 scrolls was already there, if i am not wrong, no need to implement them.
as the lev 9 spells was out of reach for a mage due to the xp cap you had to cast them from the quick slots, with the real mage, and as there was often only one scroll you could cast them only once in the game, or using clones to use the scroll without wasting it.
I was replying to a comment starting with saying that the original BG1 cap was stupid though
While it is true that there aren't too many obvious choices of cap that prevent ANY NPC from being insanely close, but never reaching, the next level, I think the original choice was particularly bad as it left a canon party member a few HUNDRED XP away. Even boosting it to 163k would have resolved a lot.
Also, IIRC, the tables were present for the higher levels, which is why the XP cap remover worked at all. The higher level spells may have been missing, but the number of allowed spells at each level would have been correct. Regardless, this would generally only affect solo players and players who just like to grind. Most people eventually want to finish the game at some point. Even with the cap lifted, my mage only gained one additional level by the end-game.
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However, I'm not sure I would have hit BG2's cap without doing a completionist run and every stronghold quest. It felt high enough that it didn't have a serious impact like BG1. Well, at least not until ToB added WK to SoA - then that cap started to chafe.
Still, I removed it anyway, because I think caps are dumb. If the game starts to get too easy, just ratchet up the difficulty. (Or do what I did, and install SCS...) Cap or no cap, eventually the game will be "over" if for any other reason than your party has cleared the land of anything remotely hostile. What are you going to do then? Summon stuff to kill? (Actually wait, some people might...)
I like the XP caps - each spell level drastically expands your tool set and I like the final battles to be balanced to take place at the XP cap. The XP cap allows me to skip Werewolf Isle without regrets if I do not feel like doing it.
The SoA final battles used to be much more challenging before you
had HLAs.
Anyway, with 2nd edition XP tables and multi class you can't find a cap where someone is not just short a bit to level.
EDIT: and it was certainly not stupid in the original, as it allowed the devs to skip implementing higher spell levels which costs time and money.
as the lev 9 spells was out of reach for a mage due to the xp cap you had to cast them from the quick slots, with the real mage, and as there was often only one scroll you could cast them only once in the game, or using clones to use the scroll without wasting it.
I was replying to a comment starting with saying that the original BG1 cap was stupid though
sorry
Also, IIRC, the tables were present for the higher levels, which is why the XP cap remover worked at all. The higher level spells may have been missing, but the number of allowed spells at each level would have been correct. Regardless, this would generally only affect solo players and players who just like to grind. Most people eventually want to finish the game at some point. Even with the cap lifted, my mage only gained one additional level by the end-game.