Experience Points Problem

Somewhere during my time in the city Baldur's Gate, my xp counter
stopped. It's stuck on 89 000 xp on all of my six characters !
Is this a common bug or are all The sixhundred and fourtyfour Evil Gods of Game Bugs angry at me ?
I have no patch, just the original Baldur's Gate.
I am just about to investigate the Iron Throne building, and it's now I'm going to
earn the big amunts of xp. But NO, this ***** bug does have to end my sought for venegance.
Will I be able to cure my poor game with the patch, ao I don't need to start all over again ?
Please answer !

[Ryan]

Sorry to disappoint, but this is NO BUG! The makers of the game put in an XP cap of 89000 in BG, so you won't be earning any more. I think it was mainly due to the need to 'tweak' the final battle to remain hard (ie very high level characters might have found it easy), and also to limit the number of spells they had to put in. A clue can be found in the manual where they mention that 5th level spells are in the game for NPCs and scroll-use only. If you buy the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion the XP limit is raised to 164000 (I think, check my XP question further down this forum, and the answers people gave). Because of this, the authors of the game 're-tweaked' the final battle in TOTSC. If you really want to get rid of the XP cap, and have TOTSC, one of the 'gurus' (Moggl, probably) on this board will probably reply to you. I'm not sure how unlimited XP would work with gaining access to higher level spells not in the game, but why not ask if you're interested?

So the highest level for a character is 7 or 8...
But, my wizard, level 7 I think, is only able to memorize spells up to level four.
So I will never be able to use the level five spells ?
I think it's strange...

I was banging my head against the wall with this one for a while too--until I found out it wasn't a glitch in the game but rather, something the programmers felt was necessary to keep the game relatively difficult. Yes, your characters can only aspire to levels 7 or 8 (and for a multiclass, maybe 5 or 6 because your exp points are divided equally between the classes--so if you had a cleric-fighter, he/she could only rack up 44,500 exp points in either class). The expansion pack helps and you will find level 5 mage spells (note that in a prev message, I posted a question to the forum that was similar to yours). I know, it's frustrating . . . but then again, it's not that different from playing AD&D with a DM that only wants you to be so experienced with each quest (after all, a quest where no one can beat you isn't really a quest, is it?). Tales of the Sword Coast will allow you to get to a level that I think you'll be happy with--if not, well, you'll have to wait for BG2 like the rest of us (I think that game will allow you to rack up something like 2 million exp points--now considering the logic of limiting your exp points to keep the game edgy, I can only imagine the difficulty of the opponents in BG2 if you're allowed to go up to levels 14, 15, etc.).

[Ryan]

'Fraid so! 5th level spells are available on scrolls and for NPCs only - I have been hoarding a 'cloudkill' scroll for ages, waiting for an emergency when I really need it. If you really want to use 5th level spells check the thread below about them, and consider getting TOTSC. If you think about it, they had to stop somewhere. If you have access to 5th level spells, then you would want 6th level and so on. At the moment they just add a bit of interest to the game, and make enemies more challenging. If you come across a couple of enemy NPCs, for example, it is better for the balance of the game that they have access to higher-level spells if you out-number them. It is also more realistic in the greater scheme of things, as you wouldn't find a world where everyone was < level 7/8, and think about Elminster and Khelben Blackstaff being restricted to using the same level of spells as you!

Another reason for getting the TOTSC Expansion... Not only do you get the extra EXP limit, but there are some really good things to find and battles to fight in Durlag's Tower and the other new areas. PLUS, when BG2 comes out, you will be able to import your characters from TOTSC. I personally am wetting my pants waiting for it!!!

Looks like I have to buy TOTSC then...
Just when I thought I would be able to keep some money this month!
Thanx a lot !

Not exactly. The only way to release your version of BG from that annoying XP cap is to find an Experience Cap Remover. You can find one at www.teambg.com .................plus, you can even kill Drizzt using this. It's not exactly the honest way to do things, but hey, you get used to it.