Originally I thought that cohorts would make you level up to a lower level. But my observation of what happens with animal companion seems quite the opposite. A 4th level Rangers animal companion is level 1. When I have that companion summoned I get MORE xp for my party leaving OM encounters because he drags the average level of the party down.
Well thats kind of cheesy.
But I was thinking if I take Lastri, and leave her in the Inn until I am much higher level than her. Then take her back in the party and equip a missile weapon so she stays out of the way. Wouldn't she drag the average party level down? Just like the animal companion?
Also and related going solo people say you get to high level. I would think lower! Because say you fight a EL 4 skeleton when you are level 4. I would think whether you have a party of 4 average level 4 or a party of 1 average level 4 you would still get 200 xp.
With a bigger party you can level one or two characters up to high enough level to kill everything such as wyverns and earth elementals then leave other characters at lower levels to drag the EL down.
Or does a solo level 4 character in a EL 4 encounter get 800 (200 x 4) xp?
How do cohorts and xp work?
How do cohorts and xp work?
Right Speech has four aspects: 1. Not lying, but speaking the truth, 2. Avoiding rude and coarse words, but using gentle speech beneficial to the listener, 3. Not slandering, but promoting friendliness and unity, 4. Avoiding frivolous speech, but saying only what is appropriate and beneficial.
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XantharTheFlame
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I put a cohort in the party...I am not sure the formula exactly but I was getting two effects. I was getting less xp as if the xp were now 4/5 the former for an encounter. But it wasn't exactly 4/5 it was more probably because the new party member was lower level than my average party level.
The ranger thing is kind of an exploit but it is good for more xp. You could probably take the ranger into your party and overall get extra xp if you summoned her animal companion. Just keep her ranger level low (probably switch to fighter).
The other exploit is to save the difficult encounters on the first map untill you are done farming the spawns. And don't level up too fast (meaning don't actually level the character when you have the option). Get a couple of warrior types of to 6 BAB and get some magic items and at that point if you have enough melee chars you should be able to farm earth elementals and will o wisps for good xp. Batiri are also good to farm because they drop gold and ore. And of course the bounty hunting... Especially if you do the bounty hunting you might as well not level up too fast because some of those monsters are easy to kill at low level. I haven't even cleared the first map and I am already level 13 and have 20,000 gold on top of pretty much buying all the lowbie gear that wasn't a bad value. Will o' the wisps are great for earning gold because they have a 100 drop rate and their monster part is worth a fair price.
The ranger thing is kind of an exploit but it is good for more xp. You could probably take the ranger into your party and overall get extra xp if you summoned her animal companion. Just keep her ranger level low (probably switch to fighter).
The other exploit is to save the difficult encounters on the first map untill you are done farming the spawns. And don't level up too fast (meaning don't actually level the character when you have the option). Get a couple of warrior types of to 6 BAB and get some magic items and at that point if you have enough melee chars you should be able to farm earth elementals and will o wisps for good xp. Batiri are also good to farm because they drop gold and ore. And of course the bounty hunting... Especially if you do the bounty hunting you might as well not level up too fast because some of those monsters are easy to kill at low level. I haven't even cleared the first map and I am already level 13 and have 20,000 gold on top of pretty much buying all the lowbie gear that wasn't a bad value. Will o' the wisps are great for earning gold because they have a 100 drop rate and their monster part is worth a fair price.
Right Speech has four aspects: 1. Not lying, but speaking the truth, 2. Avoiding rude and coarse words, but using gentle speech beneficial to the listener, 3. Not slandering, but promoting friendliness and unity, 4. Avoiding frivolous speech, but saying only what is appropriate and beneficial.
..completely missed this thread. 
I've also noticed the additional xp's with summons and the overland map.
Unfortunately I *think* that the net result is *LESS* experience points for your party (in that the summons seem to sponge off of the total). Seemed to be the same for additional party members as well (..it appeared to take longer to get to the next level).
I've also noticed the additional xp's with summons and the overland map.
Unfortunately I *think* that the net result is *LESS* experience points for your party (in that the summons seem to sponge off of the total). Seemed to be the same for additional party members as well (..it appeared to take longer to get to the next level).
I don't know about summons and I don't know about the xp per kill. But the xp per encounter for the OM is hugely increased by taking four levels of ranger. I'll use my party as an example...I level squatted to these levels at which point I could slaughter anything worth fighting very rapidly. And I summoned a level 1 animal companion which further decreased the average party level. I think the xp per kill is insensitive to level squatting is just my observation...but the encounter xp is not.
Tiefling Swash3Rogue2StoA3 (BAB 6) Character level 8
Human Fighter1FavoredSoul7 (BAB 6) Character level 8
Human Druid6Monk1(BAB 4, but crafts elemental weapons, level 7
Dino companion (druid level 6)
WoodElf Ranger4Bard2Rogue2 (BAB 6) Character level 8
level 1 badger companion (no agro eventually the AI started just having it stand by the ranger who was an archer)..
8 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 8 + 1 = 38/6 = 6 rounded down....
This is confirmed by the fact that I would get 480 xp for encounters with Batiri or Earth Elementals and 585 xp for encounters with Will o Wisps....
With no animal companions I got 540 xp for EL 9 encounters...Once I leveled to 13 (tiefling at 12) I got 325 xp for EL9 encounters and only 120 for EL 6. That means for all those boars I got over double the xp by level squatting and using animal companions. I probably killed tons of boars to get 10 tusks and tons of spiders (EL 5) to get 21 spider glands.
When I was done hunting monsters I was level 13 (I finally leveled up) and had 50 will o wisp glamers indicating I won about (avg 3) 16 encounters with wisps for a bit short of 10,000 xp....also countless wyverns, earth elementals, batiri, boars spiders, anything that moved other than shambling mounds and never tried wights...
Obviously by level squatting I earned way more xp than I would otherwise, but also by lowering the party level with companions I got a lot of bonus xp per encounter. I think monster kills its insensitive to squatting because at
first I got tons of xp for killing EL 9 monsters but later only a few.
On the next map my animal companions are even more important as without companions my parties average level is 12...with companions its 13 x3 + 12 + 1 + 9 = 61/6 = 10. So if I have an EL 15 encounter I am expecting 750 + 75*5 = 1125 xp rather than just 900 xp without the animal companions..
Tiefling Swash3Rogue2StoA3 (BAB 6) Character level 8
Human Fighter1FavoredSoul7 (BAB 6) Character level 8
Human Druid6Monk1(BAB 4, but crafts elemental weapons, level 7
Dino companion (druid level 6)
WoodElf Ranger4Bard2Rogue2 (BAB 6) Character level 8
level 1 badger companion (no agro eventually the AI started just having it stand by the ranger who was an archer)..
8 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 8 + 1 = 38/6 = 6 rounded down....
This is confirmed by the fact that I would get 480 xp for encounters with Batiri or Earth Elementals and 585 xp for encounters with Will o Wisps....
With no animal companions I got 540 xp for EL 9 encounters...Once I leveled to 13 (tiefling at 12) I got 325 xp for EL9 encounters and only 120 for EL 6. That means for all those boars I got over double the xp by level squatting and using animal companions. I probably killed tons of boars to get 10 tusks and tons of spiders (EL 5) to get 21 spider glands.
When I was done hunting monsters I was level 13 (I finally leveled up) and had 50 will o wisp glamers indicating I won about (avg 3) 16 encounters with wisps for a bit short of 10,000 xp....also countless wyverns, earth elementals, batiri, boars spiders, anything that moved other than shambling mounds and never tried wights...
Obviously by level squatting I earned way more xp than I would otherwise, but also by lowering the party level with companions I got a lot of bonus xp per encounter. I think monster kills its insensitive to squatting because at
first I got tons of xp for killing EL 9 monsters but later only a few.
On the next map my animal companions are even more important as without companions my parties average level is 12...with companions its 13 x3 + 12 + 1 + 9 = 61/6 = 10. So if I have an EL 15 encounter I am expecting 750 + 75*5 = 1125 xp rather than just 900 xp without the animal companions..
Right Speech has four aspects: 1. Not lying, but speaking the truth, 2. Avoiding rude and coarse words, but using gentle speech beneficial to the listener, 3. Not slandering, but promoting friendliness and unity, 4. Avoiding frivolous speech, but saying only what is appropriate and beneficial.
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darthelema0101
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summons & XP
AFAIK, the XP granted when leaving a random screen appears to be the INDIVIDUAL award instead of PARTY award which would then be divided down.
I checked using an enchanted wand of MS-I (wonderful way to use one spell slot and 42gp) and when at low level I saw a major difference between identical ELs when I did have the summoned wolf in the party at the end -vs.- when I did not.
With the summons it is easier to force the additional "member" to 1st level and you do not have to make sure that it survives any battles since you only have to have it with you when you leave the encounter area instead of through the battle itself. You can also use it on larger groups and if you create enough wands, can use it multiple times to drop your party average level more.
BTW - Atari did not get the EL formula correct according to D&D v3.5 so this IS DEFINITELY an exploit. IIRC According to D&D v3/v3.5 EL starts with the highest level in the group and only goes UP from there by adding more to the party/mob ([url="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20010320b"]reference from WotC[/url] - click on the link and then launch the calculator).
AFAIK, the XP granted when leaving a random screen appears to be the INDIVIDUAL award instead of PARTY award which would then be divided down.
I checked using an enchanted wand of MS-I (wonderful way to use one spell slot and 42gp) and when at low level I saw a major difference between identical ELs when I did have the summoned wolf in the party at the end -vs.- when I did not.
With the summons it is easier to force the additional "member" to 1st level and you do not have to make sure that it survives any battles since you only have to have it with you when you leave the encounter area instead of through the battle itself. You can also use it on larger groups and if you create enough wands, can use it multiple times to drop your party average level more.
BTW - Atari did not get the EL formula correct according to D&D v3.5 so this IS DEFINITELY an exploit. IIRC According to D&D v3/v3.5 EL starts with the highest level in the group and only goes UP from there by adding more to the party/mob ([url="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20010320b"]reference from WotC[/url] - click on the link and then launch the calculator).
It's better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion (and normally easier as well).