Playing with no henchmen - XP question
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2002 10:38 am
I finally decided that I was sick of the henchmen. I have nothing against summoned creatures or familiars, but that is because they are way less irritating and are easier to replace. The henchmen drove me nuts with their poor pathfinding, zero battle AI and annoying, repetitive dialogue ("Hokey-dokey" anyone?). The best henchmen are the ones with the simplest tactics - the monk and the big half-orc. Unfortunately they are the two I need the least; I was stuck with Tomi "Let me disarm this chest in the middle of the beholder pit" and Linu "I have no turn undead for the wraith because I used them all on weak zombies".
So I started a monk/rogue character. I only want the rogue levels to increase my disable trap, open lock and search skills, so I'll probably end up something like monk (16) / rogue (4). I'd prefer to go ALL monk, but blundering into every trap and bashing open every lock quickly gets annoying.
Starting out was tough. I went to the Beggar's Nest first because the zombies are the easiest foes - especially since you can often shoot them all before they get to you. After clearing the streets I went to the Peninsula and did the same. That was a lot harder, mainly because there are a few tough 'special' prisoners dotted around the streets (e.g. the Gang Leader). I actually think the monk is one of the hardest characters to start with solo because she is weak at the start and does not have any summons/familiars to take the heat. The whole thing would have been a breeze with a fighter/rogue.
My progress was slow. With a henchman I could have done all four city quarters in the time it took my lone monk to do the Peninsula and Prison. However, what I noticed was that seemed to get to level 4 pretty quickly, and level 5 not too long after that. By the time I got to level 6 I had bought quite a few monk-related items and I was a lot tougher. In fact, I got through the remainder of the Beggar's Nest and Blacklake with no problems, except for a very tough 'bloated dire spider' that had a challenge rating way lower than what it deserved (I examined it as "Challenging" even though it was WAY tougher than any "Overpowering" foe I had fought.)
Getting to the point: what I noticed as I levelled was that the experience I was getting per kill was going UP as I levelled, not DOWN as you would expect. So, for example, at level 3 I was getting 17 experience per kill for a weak zombie or an escaped prisoner. At level 4 this went up to 23, and then 28 at level 5. This makes no sense to me. I thought that experience was alloted by comparing 'challenge ratings' like in D&D. What that means is that you get more XP the tougher the foe gets compared to you. Well, what I was seeing was my XP going UP as the foes got relatively EASIER!
This trend was true across the board. When I was level 4, a tougher zombie or prisoner would be worth 33XP and 50XP respectively. At level 5 they were worth 40XP and 66XP.
I did notice that the XP per kill goes way down if I use a wand of monster summoning. Once I summoned a Dire Boar my XP plummetted to about 12 per kill. Which also led me to another realization: I can use scrolls and wands even though I have ZERO Use Magic Item skill (and -1 charisma modifier). I thought the only people that could use these things were wizards, sorcerors and bards/rogues with the Use skill. Apparently not.
I've seen many posts on how the XP system works. I thought what people had worked out made sense, but now I am confused as to whether the system is bugged or not.
So I started a monk/rogue character. I only want the rogue levels to increase my disable trap, open lock and search skills, so I'll probably end up something like monk (16) / rogue (4). I'd prefer to go ALL monk, but blundering into every trap and bashing open every lock quickly gets annoying.
Starting out was tough. I went to the Beggar's Nest first because the zombies are the easiest foes - especially since you can often shoot them all before they get to you. After clearing the streets I went to the Peninsula and did the same. That was a lot harder, mainly because there are a few tough 'special' prisoners dotted around the streets (e.g. the Gang Leader). I actually think the monk is one of the hardest characters to start with solo because she is weak at the start and does not have any summons/familiars to take the heat. The whole thing would have been a breeze with a fighter/rogue.
My progress was slow. With a henchman I could have done all four city quarters in the time it took my lone monk to do the Peninsula and Prison. However, what I noticed was that seemed to get to level 4 pretty quickly, and level 5 not too long after that. By the time I got to level 6 I had bought quite a few monk-related items and I was a lot tougher. In fact, I got through the remainder of the Beggar's Nest and Blacklake with no problems, except for a very tough 'bloated dire spider' that had a challenge rating way lower than what it deserved (I examined it as "Challenging" even though it was WAY tougher than any "Overpowering" foe I had fought.)
Getting to the point: what I noticed as I levelled was that the experience I was getting per kill was going UP as I levelled, not DOWN as you would expect. So, for example, at level 3 I was getting 17 experience per kill for a weak zombie or an escaped prisoner. At level 4 this went up to 23, and then 28 at level 5. This makes no sense to me. I thought that experience was alloted by comparing 'challenge ratings' like in D&D. What that means is that you get more XP the tougher the foe gets compared to you. Well, what I was seeing was my XP going UP as the foes got relatively EASIER!
This trend was true across the board. When I was level 4, a tougher zombie or prisoner would be worth 33XP and 50XP respectively. At level 5 they were worth 40XP and 66XP.
I did notice that the XP per kill goes way down if I use a wand of monster summoning. Once I summoned a Dire Boar my XP plummetted to about 12 per kill. Which also led me to another realization: I can use scrolls and wands even though I have ZERO Use Magic Item skill (and -1 charisma modifier). I thought the only people that could use these things were wizards, sorcerors and bards/rogues with the Use skill. Apparently not.
I've seen many posts on how the XP system works. I thought what people had worked out made sense, but now I am confused as to whether the system is bugged or not.
