Leveling Recos

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Could use some recommendations on leveling this being my first playthrough. Right now I am about petrifried to hit the Level Up button because I dont want to miss out on any xp. Got 5 players, average level about 6.5, sitting on 3-5 levels, and I am round 2 of Battle Squares. Would it be safe to level my Fgtr/Barb from 6 to 11 in order to complete Battle Squares? Do effective levels of ECLs effect party xp level? Is there a Squatter Handbook which outlines what your party level needs to be in each chapter to get full xp?

What a backwards ass rpg where leveling up hurts your production. (But really fun and I wouldnt want to mod it)

 

Check this thread .
I don't like squatting myself, but as far as I know you'd be better off levelling one character at a time.
Level up when the game becomes too difficult.

 

Your first playthrough? Wouldn´t it be best then to play it as it should be played and wait with the powergaming until next time? That's at least my little opininon. Powergaming takes a lot of the fun out of exploring a game. But that's just my little opinion. Maybe I'm just stupid.

 

Disregard ECL when considering levels for XP calculation.
Your CR is calculated based on average party level.

If the total of levels of all your party members is 33, then 33/5 = 6.6 ~ 6 CR. Thus the average is rounded down.
If at that point one of your charecters took one more level then, 34/5 = 6.8 ~6CR and your continue to get the same amount of XP.
But take another level and 35/5 = 7 ~ 7CR and you get a little less XP.

Leveling up as few charecters at a time is the best way to go. In your case, since you are only going to level up your barb, even though he gains 5 levels the CR will be raised by 1 only. Thus the XP from normal battles will be only slightly less than usual.

 

Thank you Shrikant. I thought maybe there was a point at which the CR got so high that the game starting reducing xp, from reading your post it seems the lower the CR the more xp is gained.

Leveling really didn't work out so well for me, my CR went up and Battle Squares got too hard at difficulty setting 5 anyway. Too hard or too tedious. Definately going back to level hoarding.

 

Well you can always return to complete the Battle Squares. You can go as far as the Monastry before the BS are barred for you.

A slightly cheesy way of getting through BS is the have the gnome Zack cast Stoneskin and Improved Invisibility on you every so often so you don't get really hurt.

 

It's possible to go back to the Battle Squares until you fly away with Oswald again. So you can clear the underdark and all that before you go back.

And there are other cheesy ways to beat the BS. I made half the 8th lvl at my first try and went back not so long after that and cleared it easily. The BS is quite badly designed...

 

I am not really sure about how far you can go before the BS are permanently closed. The way I play, I finish it with my first charecter before freeing Nathiel.

Another chessy way of beating BS is using summons. So long as you and the target are between the Champion Ice Golem and your summons, they will not be teleported off.
I guess you already know of using the north door to safely hit targets too large to pass through.