Max Possible Levels and other Exp Notes

Hi Folks
I just finished yet another campaign to rid the world of Zuggtmoy, and have a few comments to make.
1.) I was 80% through a campaign (only had to clear out the Water and Fire Nodes before going to take out Z) when Kyler made a comment on Maximizing your experience points. She suggested that instead of leveling up as soon as you could, you waited until you had almost enough Experience Points to go up 2 levels. For example, instead of leveling up your 1st Level characters as soon as they got 1,000 Experience Points, Kyler suggests waiting until your characters have about 2,999 Experience Points. Upon reading this, I immediately started a new campaign (which I just finished) to test this. I am going to test this further, but at the moment I am of the opinion that trying to maximize your experience points in this fashion doesn't really change things that much. The party I just finished with consisted of a Fighter, a Ranger, a Cleric, a Wizard and a Rogue/Wizard, plus Meleny. At the end the Fighter and the Ranger were 14th Level, and every one else was 13th Level. By the way, this group managed to "Kill" Iuz ( CG Fighter + Scather + 8 Stoneskins ). The group that I was playing before (the one I "left" in the Earth Node) was 12th and 13th Level. I think it is quite likely that the group left behind would be able to go up one more level before fighting Zuggtmoy. Like I said, I am going to have to test this further to account for things like random encounters and such, but for now, I have to say that "maximizing" your doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
2.) Based on the Experience Points that the fighter had at the end (and a little math), it seems that unless you do a lot of resting in dangerous places or spend months on the road the Maximum Level your party can get is as follows ( assuming you add 1 NPC to the group )

5 PCs ............ 14th Level (13th Level for crafting spellcasters)
4 PCs ............ 16th Level (15th Level for crafting spellcasters)
3 PCs ............ 18th Level (17th Level for crafting spellcasters)

1 or 2 PCs should have no trouble making 20th Level even if they do a lot of crafting.

TRC

 

I haven't noticed a big difference either. I've gone to a set-piece fight without leveling up. Reloaded. Tried it again with levelling up, and was under-impressed. It WAS harder the first time, though.

It probably works better at low level. And I did it with vanilla, which may be important.

 

Im running an 8-PC party, doing about an avg amount of leveling, i just entered the temple after clearing everything else out, and im level 6. So I should cap out at like 9 or 10 if im lucky?