Going the Distance

[Legolas]

(s)He'll probably fit in. Even if you are, say, two levels higher than normal, that only gives you an easier start.
Just look at BG. I don't have the charts at hand right now, so no details unfortunately.

Say you start out as a level 1 character. The experience you need to advance roughly doubles with each level you gain.
First you need, say, 1000, then 2000, then 4000, 8000 etc.
If you started as a level 3 character, with 4000 experience points already, you'd need 4000 to get to level 4, by which time a level 1 character would already be at level 3. That same character would reach level 4 while the character with the 'big advantage' was still stuck halfway between 4 and 5.

In the above example, a two-level head start would be largely made up for by the time that character advanced another two or three levels.

So don't worry too much about your character not fitting in, that only really happens when you take items you shouldn't get until later in the game, or pick a character which has already gone through most of the game you intend to restart before.

[andrewas]

Originally posted by Grungi: oh thats sneaky as hell dundee, you play through bg1 for the SOLE purpose of pushing your main chars stats high using those tomes, so that when he hits bg2 hes got stats he shouldnt, bah so sneaky i shoulda thought of it. i removed the exp cap cos everyone was sitting on 160,000 odd and as i still had loads of quests to do at the time it only seemed right to reward them, so my level 10 thief wouldnt fit too well into bg2?

160'000 XP is nothing in BG2 terms. Half a level. In solo play you can earn that in about 15 minutes. having a few tens of thousands extra to start with might make the first dungeon a bit easiers, but by the time youve finished the Circus Quest the difference will be insignificant.

And even if you did somehow manage to get enough XP to make a significant difference, BG2 scales some of its encounters to suit. Liches are enough bother without encountering them at every street corner.

[Grungi]

spose i gotta get bg2 to have a clue as to what your talking about [img]tongue.gif[/img]

btw is icewind dale along the same lines or not again i havent even looked at that yet, can i export bg char to that?

[SixOfSpades]

If/when you transfer your character to BG2, the game will automatically remove all experience beyond the EXP cap. So installing a cap remover on BG1 or ToSC is merely an excercise in futility if you're trying to make your character be better in BG2.

You want more details? Link in my sig, Chapter 12.

[andrewas]

Originally posted by Grungi: spose i gotta get bg2 to have a clue as to what your talking about [img]tongue.gif[/img] btw is icewind dale along the same lines or not again i havent even looked at that yet, can i export bg char to that?

Getting Bg2 is worth it anyway. Point I was making is that the BG2 cap is so high (2.95 Million, 8 million with the expansion) that any extra XP you gain in BG1 is irrelevant in BG2. Especialy since BG2 is far more generous with the XP.

IWD is similar to BG, but with less plot. I dont like it as much, but it is still an excellent game.

For the very best BG style play, youll have to go for Planescape:Torment, although that isnt in quite the same style it has far more depth and plot than any other game.

[Keraptisdm]

Grungi:
Check out the Icewind Dale forum, there are several threads about "Should I get this game?". I love Icewind Dale, but it's different than BG. Read those threads, it will really help. You cannot export a character from BG into Icewind Dale. And even if you could, there is no reason to.

[Kormar the Wanderer]

First time I went through the same deal with the intent to play through the entire series I played as a thief and then dualled over to mage at the point where I could still max my mages level. Let me tell you one thing... He kicked arse. Had also given her all the tomes, so aside from the incredible roll I happened to get when creating her I had almost all my stats at 19, except for con (17, which went down to 15 when I got the Claw of Kaz back in BGII) and Wis (8 or 9 after using the 3 tomes...)

[Bardan the Slayer]

Unless you get so annoyed at your precious XP being stolen (with a removed ToTSC cap) that you keep a record of exactly how much XP everyone had at the end of ToTSC, and CLUA it to them as soon as the Johnny's dungeon cutscene finishes

[Grungi]

i assume you lose the exp (no problem) but do you lose the hps you gained from the exp or any powers/abilities you got at the higher levels when you switch?

and 8million jeez whats the highest exp you get from killing a monster then>?