Ghostwise Halflings ECL penalty

Remove all ads!

In the file RACEXPMD.2DA, Ghostwise Halflings are listed as having a one level ECL penalty just like Aasimar and Tiefling PCs. This can be verified in Near Infinity.
RACEXPMD.2DA
2DA V1.0
MOD_XP
HUMAN 10
HUMAN_AASIMAR -35
HUMAN_TIEFLING -35
ELF 0
ELF_DROW -50
ELF_WOOD 0
HALF_ELF 0
DWARF 0
DWARF_GOLD 0
DWARF_GRAY -50
HALFLING 0
HALFLING_LIGHTFOOT 0
HALFLING_GHOSTWISE -35
GNOME 0
GNOME_DEEP -60
HALF_ORC 0

Yet there is no mention of this in the game manual or in the following 2DA file:
STRTXP.2DA
2DA V1.0
0
VALUE
HUMAN_TIEFLING 2000
HUMAN_AASIMAR 2000
DWARF_GRAY 5000
ELF_DROW 5000
GNOME_DEEP 5000

 

All of the other demihuman races that have subraces in IWD2 have one subrace with an ECL penalty. 3rd Edition D&D does not call for an ECL penalty for Ghostwise Halflings. They just get a different Racial abilities set compared to Stronghearts and Lightfoots, of which nothing is overpowered. My guess would be that the devs were playing with an idea of changing the race by adding abilities and gving it an ECL penalty, but never went forward with it.

 

I will have to check whether the penalty was ever implemented in practice...

 

May I post Exhibit A:

 

That image is generated from various files, it should indicate no penalty exists. But the 0 XP comes from another file, STRTXP.2DA, as I showed above.
A lot of the 2DA files are clearly inherited from BG2 and won't be used in IWD2.
The only way to really know what the game is doing is to monitor the effect of XP awards on each PC's total XP.

 

If a character has an ECL, it would have shown up on the image. It also would show that the "next level" is at 3000, 6000, or 10,000 instead of 1,000, depending on what the ECL penalty is.

I'm not sure what you meant by "that image is generated by various files" however. I simply started a new game, created a Ghostwise Haflling Barbarian, and gave him "strong back" as the feat. I probably should have gone with "iron will". but I had no intention of playing with it.

I then sped through the intro and getting Hedron to shut up ASAP, opened the character screen, and hit "print screen".
Then I quit and went into MSPAINT.EXE, pasted the screen shot into it, saved it as a .JPG, and uploaded it to my SP account. Then I made the post.

 

Is the 2DA file being ignored? I will have to check this at some point.

It might be connected to Heart of Fury, I don't know.
If not, then it is something that never made it into the final game, just as well. Penalties like -50% and -60% are simply prohibitive.

 

I think you're confusing the "non-favored multiclass" penalty with the ECL penalty. The ECL penalty means that your level 1 character is treated as if he were at a higher level for the purpose of the amount of XP needed for advancement. Thus a Drow with an ECL of 2 needs 6000 XP to advance to level 2, 10,000 xp to advance to level 3, and so on. An Asimar needs 3000xp for level 2, 6000 for level 3, etc.
They are treated as if they were ECL levels higher than their actual level when determining XP requirements.

The non-favored multi-class penalty assess a penalty in the amount of XP earned if you multiclass to a class other than your race's favored class and have more than one level's difference from your other classes. Prestige classes are exempt from this rule.

RTFM on the two types of penalties. Look for the multiclassing rules and the ECL rules.
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/dl.php?s=IWD2&f=IWD2/IWD2_english.zip

 

Your non-favored class penalty, unequal level penalty, applies irrespective of race.
Looking at the two files in the first post, I come to the conclusion that they are all about race not class. Check the files in Near Infinity, you will see what I mean.
In BG2 there was a lot of stuff that did not make it into the final game, hence the Unfinished Business mod, this may be an IWD2 equivalent of that.

 

actually the multiclass penalty depends somewhat on race, at least for determining when it's applied. Your race determines your favored class, with humans and half-elves getting a wildcard for favored class.

 

Anyway, the moral of the story is that IWD2 was not plagued with Deep Gnomes getting -60% XP awards. That means they are only getting 40% of baseline XP! At 2/5 the level of most races the Deep Gnomes would be tough to play, not worth having in the party. Other penalized races ditto.

 

My current party has a deep gnome monk (it was recommended a while ago when I asked about high AC in the first half o the game). He starts in the hole, but otherwise gets awarded the normal amount of XP.

You don't get a penalty to the amount awarded, you just need to make enough XP to meet your ECL level before you can start gaining levels.

The game cheats a bit on this as you start 1000XP away from level 2, but given that the amount of XP needed for each additional level increases exponentially (or was it geometrically, I'll have to double-check the table and it's been a decade since I had calculus II and stat 301, my last math classes) you still pay the penalty with everyone without an ECL penalty being level 3 at the palisade battle while the ECL characters are only level 2. They remain roughly ECL-Penalty levels behind the party afterwards.

 

Oh yes, these days the Ecl penalty is tolerable enough, none of this -60% stuff!

XP formula is a simple quadratic, you won't need calculus here:
XP = 500L(L-1) =1000(L(L-1)/2)
where L is the level whose threshold you seek.
XP for level 19 = 1,000(19(18)/2) = 1,000(19*9) = 171,000