Experience

Author	Topic: Experience
Erik Westra Apprentice Member # 385	written Wednesday, April 14 2004 11:01 Profile #0 At the risk of asking a dumb question, I've been wondering how BoA gives experience to your party for killing a monster. I can't find an exact description of this anywhere in the BoA manuals, so I thought I'd ask this here. When a party of, say, four players kills a monster, do all four party members get the same experience points (adjusted upwards or downwards according to their experience point penalties, if any), or do only those players who actually took part in the attack get experience? I'm asking because I get the impression that for a magic user to get XP, they need to actually cause damage to the monsters. If they just sit back and hide, or maybe cast a few haste and bless spells, do they actually receive anything from the encounter? My fighters seem to increase in XP faster than my magic users, so I'm curious if I need to use more offensive spells when playing... Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Wednesday, April 14 2004 12:28 Profile Homepage #1 Experience is split equally, but it is then modified by the bonus or penalty your characters have for races and traits. If your casters are not gaining experience, it is probably because they have higher experience penalties than your fighters. —Alorael, who can't think of any other reason for uneven experience distribution. Well, unless your casters spend most of their time dead, but that always prevents experience gain. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Drakefyre Triad Mage Member # 7	written Wednesday, April 14 2004 12:56 Profile Homepage #2 If one party member is level 15, and one is 25, and the monster killed is 20, then the level 15 PC will get much more XP than the level 25 one. -------------------- "At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander ==== Drakefyre's Demesne - Happy Happy Joy Joy Encyclopedia Ermariana - Trapped in the Closet ==== You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers off the mouse! Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Vent Warrior Member # 4186	written Wednesday, April 14 2004 15:13 Profile #3 Alorael, are you sure it works like that in BoA? I quote a part of the doc : "The base amount of experience to gain a level is 1000 (adjusted up or down by your advantages and disadvantages)." So if undertsand it well, if you choose a trait with 20% xp penalty you'll need 1200 xp to gain a level instead of 1000 xp. The xp will then be shared equaliy among party members as there's already the number of xp required that has the penalty. And that's roughly what I quote for my chars. But for the fights I suspect there's a little difference, because all my chars haven't exactely the same number of xp. This could come from another rule as mentionned by Drakefyre, still in the doc : "The amount you gain from killing a creature depends on how strong it is compared to you." For a fight not all my char have the same level and the char with one or two more level will get in fact a bit less xp because of this rule. But I'm not sure at all, at least I know there are few differences between my chars, not coming from traits xp bonus and penalty. Posts: 175 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Wednesday, April 14 2004 17:25 Profile Homepage #4 Races and traits don't modify the amount of experience gained; they only modify the experience required to gain a level. Experience is, however, modified by your current experience level (the higher your level, the less you get). By the way, this means that, say, a 20% experience requirement penalty is effectively slightly less than that, because since you're gaining levels more slowly you'll get slightly more experience. [ Wednesday, April 14, 2004 17:28: Message edited by: Thuryl ] -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Rufo Apprentice Member # 4185	written Thursday, April 15 2004 04:09 Profile Homepage #5 Alorael (among others) mentioned that the XP is split equally among the characters. That means if you play a party with two characters, each of them get the double XP compared to a party with four characters - which will make a two character party almost as good as one with four characters! Simply replacing quantity with quality, as the two characters will level up at double speed. Or did I get something wrong? -------------------- Rufo, Vahnatai Ka, Te Pinoat Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, April 2 2004 08:00
Erik Westra Apprentice Member # 385	written Thursday, April 15 2004 10:48 Profile #6 Thanks for the replies, guys. So, to clarify: Races and traits don't modify the amount of experience gained; they only modify the experience required to gain a level. Experience is, however, modified by your current experience level (the higher your level, the less you get). Ah -- so this is why you can start out with a brand new party, have them all fight in the same encounters together, and all end up with different XP totals after they've gone up a few levels. They all start out with zero experience points, and start gaining it at the same rate -- but because they need different amounts of experience to go up a level, they'll reach level 2 at different times. From then on, the amount of experience they gain from an encounter will differ, because they're at different levels. And so, after a few more levels, they can have quite different XP amounts, even though they've all been through the same encounters together. Mystery solved! Alorael (among others) mentioned that the XP is split equally among the characters. That means if you play a party with two characters, each of them get the double XP compared to a party with four characters - which will make a two character party almost as good as one with four characters! Simply replacing quantity with quality, as the two characters will level up at double speed. Wow -- that makes playing with two-character parties really tempting. I must try it... Posts: 33 | Registered: Thursday, December 13 2001 08:00
Thuryl ...b10010b... Member # 869	written Thursday, April 15 2004 13:11 Profile Homepage #7 Well, it won't actually be double speed for very long, since once they're at higher levels they level more slowly. If the XP falloff works as I think it does, I'd guess a 2-PC party would only level about 40-50% faster in the long run, but I haven't tested this. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Thursday, April 15 2004 13:43 Profile Homepage #8 In terms of actual strength in a fight, the advantage depends on the specific circumstances. Generally speaking, the more characters you have, the easier fighting will be, so those who play smaller parties are looked on with awe and wonder. Well, maybe not, but at least they can boast. —Alorael, who still can't manage any party smaller than three, and even that causes problems unless he liberally abuses the fight/bless/wait trick to get a starting advantage. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Majordomo Shock Trooper Member # 18	written Thursday, April 15 2004 17:50 Profile Homepage #9 Yeah, I even had trouble with 4 at first. I liked being able to have a Sword dude, a Pole lady, a backup Archer chick, an UBER Mage, an all-purpose Caster and a Priest of the cloth. Made those fricken huge battles heaps of fun, cause you could split your party in half and hold off two sides at once - not that we don't do that with four, it just doesn't look as gnarley. Md. Posts: 304 | Registered: Monday, October 1 2001 07:00
Garrison Agent Member # 2820	written Thursday, April 15 2004 19:51 Profile #10 I think the odd experience distribution is due to remainders left over from experience divisions. But, at least in Avernum 3, I am sure that the experience generally balances itself out unless you come across a special encounter that gives experience in a strange way, or if one of your characters kills an unusually powerful creature. -------------------- Thuryl: I mean, most of us don't go around consuming our own bodily fluids, no matter how delicious they are. ==== Alorael: War and violence would end if we all had each other's babies! ==== Drakefyre: Those are hideous mangos. Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00
Or else o'erleap. Law Bringer Member # 335	written Friday, April 16 2004 11:21 Profile Homepage #11 Unusually powerful creatures won't do it, because kill experience is split. Most experience rewards that aren't from creatures are from quests or from unlocking doors, both of which are also split rewards. I can't think of any 'normal' way to gain experience that isn't evenly divided. —Alorael, who supposes designers could put one-character experience bonuses into their scenarios of they really wanted to. It's probably never going to be a common practice, though. Love your experience-balanced party! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00