thelee

One thing to keep in mind, and sorry if this point has already been made, but the BG/BG2 games already solved the XP problem. Combat, on a per-encounter basis, provided niggling XP in either game (less so in BG2 where they started tossing Dragons and Liches at you left and right). There was no incentive to grind (except for very specific cases like Basilisks in BG) because each fight rewarded you with like 35 XP/character when all is said and done (even less with the early kobold fights). Instead, all those many sidequests that dropped you off with thousands of XP was a major driver in getting your characters up. I've played BG/BGEE enough times where I can get my characters leveled up a couple times with only minimal fighting. The beauty of this system is that grinding was not encouraged - the marginal gain from any one fight was neglible. Yet at the same time, it rewarded general gameplay because overtime, that combat experience would add up. And on a per-incident basis, questing was still heavily favored because of the simple gigantic rewards numbers you'd see for accomplishing X quest versus just going out and killing some random enemies.

Having an absolute number of an XP reward with increasingly higher requirements for each successive level already solves this problem without the need for a complicated % scaling-based-on-number-of-enemies-killed system. To put another way, if you need 1000 xp to level up to level 2 and a kobold gives you 10, a kobold gives you 1% of the XP you need to level. If you need an additional 2000 xp to level up to level 3, a kobold gives you only .5% of the XP you need to level. If you need an additional 4000 xp to level up to level 4, a kobold gives you only .25% of the XP you need to level. So on, and so forth, until at high levels the kobold effectively gives you 0% of the XP you need. (Note: the "increasing requirements" part is necessary, because if you always only need an additional 1000 xp, then of course the kobold will always give you the same benefit.) This is what I never, ever, understood about the challenge rating system of 3e D&D. AD&D had already solved the problem of easy encounters providing trivial rewards to powerful characters, you didn't need to go out and add a whole complicated layer of abstraction on top of it.

Has this been pointed out yet or am I missing something? What's the point of expanding the AoE of spells if the range never increases? I have terrible luck getting CHARNAME to use that level 1 daze spell and that level 2 confuse spell, since their ranges are so low and the AoE grows so wide. Half the time (maybe more?) my CHARNAME will just run so close to the enemy that they hit themself with the spell(s). Or is the range actually increasing and the range for these spells is just that terrible?

So... since I'm new, is there something special I need to do to get these attacks of opportunity? It always seems like only the enemies get these attacks of opportunity against my squishy wizards when they try to flee, yet in this case when the beetles disengage from my tank, they seem to be able to quickly hop over to my CHARNAME without any consequences.

So I just started messing around with the backer beta, and one thing is a head-scratcher for my wizard. Never mind hte fact that it seems like area of effect and range don't seem to scale well with each other with Intelligence (so I keep hitting myself because my wizard runs too close and casts a spell that affects him), or also the fact that the game is really inconsistent about what spells are party-friendly or not... but man, what's the point of confusion status effect? When I enter the Beetle-filled area to the east, what invariably happens is: BB Fighter engages 2-3 beetles. CHARNAME runs close and casts confusion (that 2nd level spell that has sparkles for its icon). Combat log shows confusion is successful. Beetles proceed, in their confusion, to walk over to CHARNAME and engage him in melee. Within seconds CHARNAME is knocked out. Never mind the fact that the close range means that I have very little time to run away or that the Beetles have some magical teleporting power to engage CHARNAME from a character circle away, but what's the point of confusion if all it does is cause enemies to disengage from my tank and attack my fragile character(s)?