Experience question:

[krunchyfrogg]

I know the cap is set at 8 million, and I'm also told that a 6 person party probably won't come near that number on normal difficulty.

My question is this: about how much XP will you have with a 6 man party on normal difficulty? Enough for a multiclassed mage to get 9th level spells? What about a multiclassed cleric and 7th level spells?

Somebody here much have a savegame near the end completed on normal difficulty...

[Soothsayer]

The only thing I can remember right now that might help....although youll have to do some maths to apply it to your situation:

I completed IWD (no addons) on normal difficulty with a FOUR man party, one of whom was a multiclassed mage, and she definately did get 9th level spells, she had them for most of lower dorns i think, perhaps even earlier.

I know this isnt exactly what your asking for, but it might give you some idea.

[NobleNick]

krunchyfrogg,

Your Mage gets SLVL 9 spells at CLVL 18. (HoW must be installed.)
Your Cleric gets SLVL 7 spells at CLVL 14 (HoW NOT required.)

My favorite XP chart only goes up to CLVL 16 = 2250K for the Mage; but it looks like the last few levels are 275K each. Assuming that trend continues, your Mage would hit CLVL 18 at 2800K. So, a multiclassed character (e.g. C/M or F/M) would hit Mage(18) at 5600K. A triple class character would hit Mage(18) at 8400K.

For the Cleric, you hit CLVL 14 at 1350K; so a multi-classed character (e.g., C/M or F/C) would hit Cleric(14) at 2700K.

So, will you have enough XP? I'll research this; but I am estimating from my own travels (all on Normal dificulty) that basic IWD generates about 6,000K XP TOTAL (about 1,000K per character for a party of 6), including quests, but not including camping. I estimate that HoW adds another 4,000K. Finally, I'd estimate TotLM adds another 3,000K. That is ABOUT 13,000,000 XP TOTAL. So, a 6 person party doing IWD/HoW/TotLM should show up at the final IWD battle sporting about 2,200K per character.

These numbers are rough; but it is easy to see that, though your MC Cleric stands a chance of gaining SLVL 7 by the end of the game, the Mage isn't even close to getting SLVL 9.

(EDIT: I did look this up, and found an estimate of CLVL 13/14 for IWD and 15/16 for IWD/HoW/TotLM. The IWD numbers seem O.K., but the second estimate surprises me: I have a DC F(9)/D(17) and a Bard(21) (IIRC), near the end of TotLM; and I expect the party to gather AT LEAST another 1,000K before the final IWD battle.)

Remember, the above numbers do not include camping. Camping for a while in DE3 of IWD may add, say, 50,000 XP to your team's total. That's usually quite beneficial at the time, but adds less than one-half of 1% to the final XP total. However, there are places in the expansions where XP can be racked up much more quickly. There is a place I am thinking of in TotLM where you can get 600K to 1,000K per hour (forget the exact math). So, in a few hours, you can pump your party's XP by over 10%. Still, that is roughly 24 hours of camping to show up at the final battle and use your LVL9 spell once. If you really want Mage(18) in an MC character, it looks like it's Heart of Fury mode for you...

Hope this helps.

--------------------
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!


[ 10-09-2005, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

If you have HoW installed, it is a Level Cap of 30, not an XP Cap. This applies to both classes for multiclasses as well, so you can actually have a level 30/30 Cleric/Mage for example.

Good luck getting the XP though.

[krunchyfrogg]

I've read that a triple classed character cannot ever cast 9th level spells. It's just like BGII with ToB installed: an 8 million XP cap.

[Aerich]

I've never gotten a triple class character that high, so I can't speak from experience. However, given the number of people who have completed the game with solo triple-classed characters, I'm sure we would have heard if there was any problem casting the highest level spells.

Incidentally, I would concur with Nick's estimate of 2.2 million XP for IWD/HoW/TotL. I had a bard with about 4.5 million after finishing on Insane (dbl XP compared to normal). EDIT: actually I think it was higher - you might get as high as 2.4 mil.

A multiclassed cleric will definitely get lvl 7 spells, but I'm not so sure about the mage. However, the lvl 9 mage spells actually are not as good as the lvl 8 spells, IMO.

[ 10-01-2005, 03:22 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Originally posted by krunchyfrogg: I've read that a triple classed character cannot ever cast 9th level spells. It's just like BGII with ToB installed: an 8 million XP cap.

Only if you did not install HoW.

Where is this article.

[krunchyfrogg]

GameFAQ

------------------------------- Character Class Pro's and Con's ------------------------------- The Triple Class Character -------------------------- Now that the experience cap in Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter has been raised to 8,000,000 points, there is a type of character which can really come into power: The Triple Class Character. There are two different types of Triple Class combinations in Icewind Dale: The Fighter/Mage/Cleric combo, and the Fighter/Mage/Thief combo. To earn the maximum 8,000,000 experience points that a character can gain could take a LONG time. But also added with the expansion pack is the "Heart of Fury" option, which can greatly increase the speed at which you earn experience. (Note: Don't even think of turning it on until you have beaten, or nearly beaten the game) A Triple Class character will never reach Level 30 in any one class. However, take a look at what they can accomplish: Fighter/Mage/Cleric Fighter/Mage/Thief ------------------- ------------------ Levels: 18 17 19 18 17 22 This may not mean much on the surface, but let's take a more in-depth look at what these character levels mean: NOTE: The Spell Progression table for Mages has been fixed in Patch 1.41. See the Things You Should Know section at the beginning of this document to learn what has been changed. This will affect all mages Level 21 and higher. Level 18 Fighter: A Fighter starts with 4 proficiency slots, and gains ----------------- an additional one every 3 levels. This means that at Level 18, the fighter will have a total of 9 Proficiency points. This is enough to reach Grand Mastery in one weapon, and almost reach it in another. His THAC0 also goes down by 1 per level, which not only makes it easier to hit with weapons, but also aids TREMENDOUSLY when it comes to spells which require touch. Level 17 Mage: Unfortunately, a Level 17 Mage is unable to use the -------------- Level 9 Spells. However, there are only a couple of them, so you are not going to miss much. You come with a large array of possible spells. Assuming (once again) that the spell chart in the manual is correct, you will have the following number of spells at Level 17: ----------------------------------------------------------------- | Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | 16 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | | 17 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | | 18 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Having said that, there two spells in particular that make any combination of a Fighter/Mage very potent: Iron Body and Tenser's Transformation. Below are the benefits and drawbacks to each of the two spells. Iron Body --------- 100% resistance to electricity. 50% resistance to fire. 25% resistance to crushing damage. Strength raised to 25. Can attack 2/round with iron fists (2d4) And the spell lasts for 2 full turns! Now for the downsides: Movement rate reduced to 25% of normal. Can't cast other spells during Iron Skin. Tenser's Transformation ----------------------- Double's the hit points of the caster. Gives the THAC0 of a Fighter of the same level. +4 bonus to AC. +2 bonus to all saving throws. So as you can see, those are tremendous benefits for two little spells. An even more potent combination is all of the above, plus equipping your character with a set of Elven Chainmail (found in Severed Hand Area). In case you don't know, Elven Chainmail, while not possessing the best AC of an armor in the game, DOES allow a Mage to still cast spells and ALSO allows a Thief to use their thieving skills. As you can see, this armor is VITAL to the Fighter/Mage/Thief combination if you want to fully employ all three classes.

[Grog]

Its onlt 8M for single class characters. Here's the standard numbers:

MAGE 8000000
FIGHTER 8000000
CLERIC 8000000
THIEF 8000000
BARD 8000000
PALADIN 8000000
DRUID 8000000
RANGER 8000000
FIGHTER_MAGE 15000000
FIGHTER_CLERIC 11000000
FIGHTER_THIEF 11000000
FIGHTER_MAGE_THIEF 22500000
MAGE_THIEF 15000000
CLERIC_MAGE 15000000
CLERIC_THIEF 9900000
FIGHTER_DRUID 11000000
FIGHTER_MAGE_CLERIC 22500000
CLERIC_RANGER 13200000

NB: Auril's Bane increases the standard cap by adding a 0 to each of these numbers

[krunchyfrogg]

What is Auril's Bane?