When i first played bg, i chose dynaheir instead of edwin, later when i was lvl 6 I decided that dynaheir sucks and killed her and took edwin. when i took edwin he was a high lvl actually might have even been same lvl as me. Well anyway my question is that do the NPC's level channge as yours does, i know thats true for edwin, cause if you pick him at the beginnig he is like lvl 1, but do all the other npc's do that. If so, then i would just keep like 3-4 ppl in my party, and lvl them up quickly, because i would share teh experience with less people, and then add the NPc's and they would be the same lvl as me.

All NPCs have 4 or 5 "incarnations" of themselves. The first time you recruit an NPC into your party, the game looks at your (the PC's) EXP, then chooses which incarnation of the NPC most closely matches that EXP, and assigns that incarnation to join your party. So yes, you actually can go through the game with just a skeleton crew, gain some levels, and then recuit the rest of your party, who will be higher-level without your having had to take them with you.

<font color="cyan">For once, a good question Carrotdude!

But please name the titles a bit better next time!

And SOS has answered perfectly, so there is nothing more for me to write.

SOS, do you know exactly how many incarnations there are? I thought there were four.</font>

I imagine the number varies with the particuar NPC. For example, there are only 2 versions of Imoen (I believe), Level 1 and Level 2, because the range in which your own EXP could be when she first joins your group isn't exactly wide. NPCs like Kivan, though, need to have a much broader scope.

Gatekeeper probably lists all the possible incarnations.

I was quite suprised just how many versions of each character there are. Even Imoen can be recruited at a high level if you import a character back into the game. Also the NPC's in BG city are available in low level versions - why?There is a website that lists them all but I can't remember it - I will try and search for it again unless someone else knows. I made a careful study of the possibilities when I had a no-level-up party, to see how to gain maximum advantage from my recruitment policy.

Did you play that?
Not long ago someone on the forums here posted how she finished the game this way. I believe the incarnation chosen is not based on your XP, but on your actual level. If you dont level-up always the lowest level will be chosen.

<font color = lightgreen>There is a .2da file that shows what level the NPC will be based on the PC's current level. Get Near Infinity and you can check it our for yourself...even edit it a little if you want your NPCs to be a little more powerful when you find them despite your own low level.</font>

Midget Gems is right. I remember importing a character and I was shocked to see Imoen, Montaron, and Xzar were all at high levels. It was years ago, but I think each had roughly 36,000 or 50,000 XP. Those 2 numbers are just sticking in my head right now, although I may be completely off.

ZFR – sure I did a no-level-up party for BG1 following the example set by Neomi. http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/cg...c;f=1;t=004152 This was my inspiration for the Suicidal Gnomes project in IWD. I imagined that as I progressed I would be able to upgrade my NPCs for better (higher level) ones, but in practice it was hard to find anyone with a first incarnation above level 2, so I kept my original party throughout.

One of the few NPCs not given a really low-level incarnation is Coran – which is a shame because some people like to get him early to get the best allocation of his thief skills. And I can confirm that it is the Level of the PC (and not his/her XP) that drives the selection process. The highest incarnation for every NPC is equivalent to about level 6.

I just started a game and am using the "All NPC's at the Beginning" mod. In that mod Alora is available on the 3rd floor of the Friendly Arm. If you recruit her, she is L4.

Elfbane, I figured that to be an interesting mod, but have never tried it. And you are right the lowest level for Alora (and Skie) is level 4. I finally tracked down the complete listing on the Dudleyville website, it is very detailed.

The site that lists the info for all NPCs is:
http://www.dudleyville.com/bg1/good.htm

Higher level NPCs (for a level 1 PC) include

Coran 3/3
Skie 4
Alora 4
Yeslick 2/3
Eldoth 3
Faldorn 3
and
Quayle 2/2 (OK not such a high level, but still a decent number of spells)

[ 07-06-2005, 10:37 AM: Message edited by: ister ]