Soloing NWN 2

[Solusek]

I'm planning on soloing NWN 2. Now the question is, do I get more monster experience if I do everything alone? If so, I'd play a drow or svirneblin, since the level adjustment doesn't matter then. Otherwise I'll stick to something without level adjustment. Thx in advance.

So long,
Sol

[Xandax]

Because your challenge rating is lower then if you were a party you should get more XP overall.
I'd think the XP gain would outweigh the XP loss from the quests which require additional people you'll miss if not carrying them along.

[Solusek]

Well, I do plan to do those of the party members' quests that do not require influence, since I probably won't have the chance to gather points when I'm solo most of the time. So the XP loss from that shouldn't be too great. Do you think the additional XP I gain will eventually outweigh the Drow level adjustment so that I'm able to reach an effective level of 22 in the end?

So long,
Sol

[Neverborn]

You will NOT get more xp if you fight alone...

Easy way to check if you share xp with your party members, kill one monster, look at the amount of xp gained, and you will see EVERY party member gains that much xp, you do not share the xp amongst party members...

[Solusek]

You will NOT get more xp if you fight alone...

Easy way to check if you share xp with your party members, kill one monster, look at the amount of xp gained, and you will see EVERY party member gains that much xp, you do not share the xp amongst party members...

That doesn't necessarily mean that you don't get more XP when you play solo. As Xandax already explained the difficulty level of the monster you fight is raised resulting in more XP. In other words, when you kill a zombie which would normally be worth 50xp, you will gain 200xp instead.(just an example with random xp numbers)

So long,
Sol

[swcarter]

As Xandax already explained the difficulty level of the monster you fight is raised resulting in more XP. In other words, when you kill a zombie which would normally be worth 50xp, you will gain 200xp instead.(just an example with random xp numbers)

But as you gain more experience, you gain more levels, which means you get less experience. I'm curious how soloing turns out, if the experience always balances out around level 20 or not.

SWC

[Acleacius]

My oppinion on this is it will not matter, reason being the Devs are systematicly reducing exp in the game with each patch at least so far.

Slight spoilers? Mabye, maybe not could be a trick or could be not.

Using the same playing style and doing everything possible as I come to it getting to Logram I had just hit level 11 on a standard Human with version 1.01 and now with 1.03 at the same locale 6000 exp less a huge difference.
I noticed a difference in 1.02 but had caught on about the reduction.

So basicly the Devs are going out of their way to make sure you can't get stunted toons (i.e Drow) to 20 at least this is what I notice.

[Solusek]

But as you gain more experience, you gain more levels, which means you get less experience. I'm curious how soloing turns out, if the experience always balances out around level 20 or not.

SWC

Hmm... I guess I'll just have to try, then. The question that still remains unanswered though, is whether I should go for a Drow or Moon Elf. If I do not gain significantly more experience, the consequences of choosing a Drow could prove fatal. Especially because the class I'll play will be Wizard or Sorc.

Using the same playing style and doing everything possible as I come to it getting to Logram I had just hit level 11 on a standard Human with version 1.01 and now with 1.03 at the same locale 6000 exp less a huge difference.
I noticed a difference in 1.02 but had caught on about the reduction.

Hmm... That's pretty strange. As I reached Logram in my last run(1.03), I was level 10 with a Drow Fighter/Weapon Master. So my effective "human" level was 12. I even reached lvl 19(effective 21) at the very end of the game.


So long,
Sol

[Acleacius]

Well if I am the only one I must be doing something different, ok thanks.

[Xandax]

But as you gain more experience, you gain more levels, which means you get less experience. I'm curious how soloing turns out, if the experience always balances out around level 20 or not.

SWC

It all comes down to how the developers are calculating the Challenge Rating.
In NwN1 each additional party member (or summon/familiar et al.) increased your effective level with 1, meaning if you were level 5 and had 1 henchmen, you'd be awarded kill-XP as if you were level 6. And if you also had a summon it would be as a level 7 and so on.....
If this is carried over into NwN2 (which is likely as it is an easy way to do it), you should gain more XP per kill then you'd loose to being a higher level, as a party of 5 would mean a significant higher challenge rating compared to perhaps being a couple of levels higher then you would ordinarily be.

I've not done any maths or investigating regarding the XP awarding so I do not know if the challenge rating is calculated as such, but it would be very easy to find out.

[Acleacius]

Ahh, that's the problem I am using every NPC in the party at all times just to explore all the dialogues.

[Snipercon]

This tread brings up an interesting point.

For races with level adjustments, does character level or adjusted character level count when determining experience from encounters?

I can see reasons for either answer.

Character level: It already takes these races longer to reach each level, so we shouldn't handicap them further. After all a drow 1st level warrior is still a 1st level warrior.

Adjusted character level: Encounters are easier for these races so they should recieve less experience.

I tend to agree with the first option. As a counter argurment for the sencond answer: When you consider experience as a percentage of what is required to reach the next level, these races do recieve less credit for advancement with the same amount of experience.

If what I would argure is correct, special races would ordinarly have gained more experience than normal races because throughout the game they are lower level. This difference is probably not enought to make up a single level, even for deep gnomes.

[Magrus]

To answer the question, the characters with a level adjustment, like the Drow and Deep Gnomes have their level count as the effective character level including that level adjustment. So, if you are a drow with three levels of Wizard, the game calculates your level as 5th when doing everything, including XP gained. That is part of the penalty dealt to your character to balance out the benefits of having special racial abilities. Not only do you start off with less class abilities, but you advance slower as well.

[zamiel]

I pretty much soloed the game (and also made the npcs special missions, just me and the required char). It was just enough to make an aasimar lvl 20, so I think a drow will not make it.

[Solusek]

I pretty much soloed the game (and also made the npcs special missions, just me and the required char). It was just enough to make an aasimar lvl 20, so I think a drow will not make it.

Could you specify "just enough to make an aasimar lvl 20"? When exactly did you reach level 20?

So long,
Sol

[Acleacius]

Any luck with this or useful info?

[Snipercon]

What is the problem with developers, not wanting people to reach level 20 until the last battle? I KNOW I want at least few hours to go around bashing heads showing off awsome Lvl 20 abilities! And Drows, Duregar, Sniferblin, you earned the right to eventually get Lvl 20 because you suffered through some very hard times with one or two hit dice. It's not like your spell resistance was doing anything when dire wolves had more hit points than you. I think that the bare bones story line with a full party should provide enough XP to get Lvl 20 2 or 3 fights before the end. Soloing or extra quests should reward players with some extra UberBashing time.

OOH OOH OOOOOH. :speech: Developers please patch in one of those *slidebars* you are so fond of giving us. One that you can adjust game XP say between say 90 and 110%.

[Magrus]

What is the problem with developers, not wanting people to reach level 20 until the last battle? I KNOW I want at least few hours to go around bashing heads showing off awsome Lvl 20 abilities! And Drows, Duregar, Sniferblin, you earned the right to eventually get Lvl 20 because you suffered through some very hard times with one or two hit dice.

That's not how the game system works. If they did that for those races, then people would whine about their human characters not getting to 22 or 23 level. In which case, they would need to incorporate Epic Level rules into the game system. Which are different rules than for levels 1-20. Part of the tradeoff for those races is the fact you don't reach as high of a level as fast as the others. A 18th level Drow is supposed to be the same power level as a 20th level human. Reaching 20 with the race would mean they'd need to bump the humans up to 22 instead.

[Acleacius]

I haven't checked but if you wanted to play a Drow that would reach 20th as a regular Human you could remove the Feat that reduces the cost or adds the penalty.
You could also remove the Resistances if you wanted to just experience the story as a Drow, since the dialogues and reactions would be certianly different.

I am really wondering how this turned out, the only real problems are the forced areas, where you character is made to be setup in ambushes without any real choices.