3 Paladins and a Rogue

[Marty4]

Originally posted by Aerich: As you are using less than 6 characters, a way to pick up more experience other than the EoU mod is to add in a new 1st level character and don't level it up. It should bring your average party level down enough to get some XP.

This is a very effective strategy. If you do this, I would recomend a bard, since even the first song will help you a bit. Be sure to protect them, however!

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

So, you're saying add a character now? I'm not even sure how to do that? And how long to I leave him like that? Do I get rid of him or lvl up eventually?

[Aerich]

In the lower right hand corner of the interface are buttons that will show character record, spellbook, map, etc - there's also one for "character arbitration" - it opens a screen where you can add or remove characters.

As for leaving it or levelling up, that choice is up to you. I'd be inclined to level it after a while, but that's me. You could then add another lvl 1 character if you wish, to bring your average character level down again. I've also heard of people discarding that character, but it seems like a waste of good XP to me.

Note that your average character level is calculated based on the characters alive when the XP is awarded - so you have to keep that weakling character alive somehow.

[Bozos of Bones]

I hate importing a level 1 character. Level squatting works just fine for me.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Ok, it's an interesting idea.

What's lvl squatting?

[Bozos of Bones]

The art of not leveling when you have the chance to. You can bring a level 4 6-man party all the way to the Z'hinda Citadel, and there level up all the way to level 16.
Or, if you're in a crunch, you can use it to cheat. If one of your partymembers fall down to some 10hp, level him up and all will be well. Mostly. But that's cheating.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Ok, I tried it with a Bard and I do see the difference.

Uhh, the Ice Castle really sucks. Is there a quick way through it?

[ 07-23-2005, 10:23 AM: Message edited by: Variol (Farseer) Elmwood ]

[Vassago]

Not really, unless of course you are talking about the Battle Squares. I believe you can skip most of the Battle Squares fights for later, but there does come a time when you can't return, don't recall at what point though. I'm sure there is a post about on the board somewhere, just search for Battle Squares.

Experience: Just wanted to try and clarify a bit more how this works. First off, the amount of experience you receive doesn't change until your average party level (APL) reaches 7. So to get the most experience from each battle, your APL would need to be no higher than 6, which IMO, is impossible to maintain throughout the game.

APL is cacluated by adding up your party's level divided by the number of characters in your party and then rounded down to the nearest whole number. For example:

Char 1: Paladin 7
Char 2: Monk 5
Char 3: Bard 6
Char 4: Cleric 7

Your APL would be (7+5+6+7)/4 = 6.25, rounded down to 6. This also ignores your ECL (effective character level).

So another example might be:

Char 1: Paladin 10
Char 2: Monk 9
Char 3: Bard 9
Char 4: Cleric 11

This would make your APL 9 ((10+9+9+11)/4 = 9.75), so if you added this to your party:

Char 5: Theif 1

Your APL would change to 8 ((10+9+9+11+1)/5 = 8). Not much of a difference here, but let's add another character:

Char 6: Barbarian 1

Now we are going to see a difference. (10+9+9+11+1+1)/6 = 6.83 rounded down to 6. So if you had three characters with an APL of 9 and add two first level characters, you can bring your APL down to 6, which would give you a huge boost in xp from monster kills. The flip side of this is that now you have more characters to split the xp between, but if your party of 4 w/ an APL of 9 gains 500xp/4 characters from a Golem and you add two first level characters and fight another Golem, you'll gain more xp from the fight, but will have to distribute it more. But some instances, you can lower your APL down enough to really make a difference.

The extra characters you can do with as you want. I played one game where I started off with a solo mage who reached level 7 by the end of the fight to save Targos, so I then added a first level cleric before heading off to the bridge. I added a Monk the screen before the final fight bridge and then added a Thief before entering the Fortress.

Another option that I have used and was already mentioned is level squatting. I know that the amount of xp gained from a fight changes at level 7, so I bump my character every chance until I reach level 6. I then don't level him up until I get to a point where I can not go any further without more levels/hp/spells/whatever. I then go into the level screen and level him up. Now, there's downsides to this too. First, all levels have to be of the same class (ie. if you have 10 levels stored up, you have to take all 10 levels in one class). Secondly, your APL is going to jump. My last game I was soloing a Deep Gnome Monk. I don't recall where I was at, but I capped him at level 12 and didn't level him up until I was almost through the Underdark. He leveled up 12 levels taking him to level 24. I don't think I got any more xp from any of the rest of the battles. But at level 24, he was pretty much invincible.

So the best thing I can tell you is to just be cautious with these tactics. One other thing I forgot to mention about the squatting is that it comes in handy if you are trying to avoid an xp penalty. Say for instance you want a Drow character to be Barbarian 2/Rouge 3/Mage 25. You start him out as a Rogue 1, then take two Mage levels and the other two Rogue levels (making him Rogue 3/Mage 2). Now, when you add that first level of Barbarian, you are going to receive an xp penalty (Rogue 3/Barbarian 1 * Mage is favored so not counted). The way to avoid this is instead of taking Barbarian 1 when you are ready to level up, you squat until you have enough xp for two levels. Then you can take them both at once and not incur any kind of xp penalty.

Sorry for the length, just hope this clears things up a bit.

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

Thanks Vassago that's great input! It really a shame though, that there is no exp at times. I'm sure I lost a lot when I killed that room full of Snow Trolls (or whatever) in the Ice Castle. The thing is, if they're going to put them there, make them worth something.
I'm not sure if I said, but I did add a Bard. I didn't ckeck my APL, but they definatly did get more exp. I'm still not sure what to do with the Bard though?

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

I did a little experiment just now:

I took on a Crystal Golem with 3 different parties.

Party lvl 12/12/12/1 - exp=2500 - 625 average

Party lvl 12/12/12/1/1 - exp= 4200 - 840 average

Party lvl 12/12/12/1/1/1 - exp=5400 - 900 average

Now I really don't know what to do.