How does the level cap work without The White March?

[Starlite]

So I've hit level 12, and my XP reads "66000 - Max". But there's still a lot of game left. I don't want to buy The White March before the Steam summer sale. So do I have to stop playing and wait, or will my XP continue to accumulate invisibly, reappearing in full when I do buy The White March?

 

Or, just possibly, would it actually be more interesting to finish the main game at level 12, without The White March, then play the expansion from there? (I'm playing on Hard.) It goes against my instinct to play without actually earning XP, but it's probably inevitable for a completist like myself.

 

For the record, I'm in the middle of the god quests, with none yet turned in.

 

[Kaylon]

The xp will be lost if you don't have WM but the xp in WM is enough to reach max level. My advice is to let your quests unfinished once you reach lv12 - you'll reach max level sooner in WM and you'll benefit from high level abilities/spells a little longer and you can upscale the content if you fear it will be too easy.

[Starlite]

Thanks for confirming that. And for the great advice.

 

Unfortunately, I am going to have to turn in at least the god quests to progress the story. But I can defer a lot of side quests, weird as that feels. Hopefully that sale will start soon!

[Jarmo]

FYI, you are going to hit the new level cap of 16 also, if doing all the side quests. So it'll be doing stuff for no XP gain anyway.

And you can't continue after finishing the main quest, there's a point of no return.

 

I'd rather suggest playing through the game now and then doing a separate playthrough for white march.

[Raven Darkholme]

Have you done the bounties?

It's pretty easy to ignore those instead of the sidequests and they give a ton of XP.

[Starlite]

Done the first tranche of bounties, but haven't handed in the last one.

 

I'm thinking I might lock in a branching save and continue. I can come back to this save once I have The White March, and go from there. Or something.

 

Thanks, guys.

[Raven Darkholme]

Done the first tranche of bounties, but haven't handed in the last one.

 

I'm thinking I might lock in a branching save and continue. I can come back to this save once I have The White March, and go from there. Or something.

 

Thanks, guys.

There are 4 layers of bounties so you can still get a lot of exp there.