Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Erratic Combat XP Gains

I've started a new character that focuses on the Priest tree using S Undead and Charm in most combat situations. I happen to noticed that no XP is awarded from a charmed enemy, if he falls in combat. I get that, because he is then assumed as friend and not foe. This was first observed when I charmed a Black Ring Ranger at the entrance to the Maxos Temple area. This prompted me to start looking closer at my XP gains, and tracking them in the Logbook.

Having cleared the Skel War and Mages to this point, without noticing any thing odd, I made my way into the bottom clearing, just below the Chicken Man. I'm at lvl 7 facing a lvl 8 Skel Sumnr and Skel Mage.

I saved and ran through this over a dozen times and each time I diff XP gains. They should normally give 221 XP, but I'm getting everything from 78 to 221 and the occasional 43. I've tried changing up the attacks...Charm, not Charm, S Undead only, Melee only, Mag only and at times to make sure the character lands the killing blow. I've left the area (to initiate a load scene) and returned. Nothing was consistent.

I went to see what was given from the lvl 11 Troll just before the entrance to Lovis' Tower. Five diff kills resulted in five diff XP gains from 235 to 485. Having tired and moved on, the next few Goblins produced reasonable numbers. Since then they have been all over the place. It happens with almost any enemy encountered. It does seem that when an enemy comes out of Charm, and his health is relatively low, he will often give a 38 or 43 XP gain, and even that is sporadic.

Although I have just reached lvl 10, I'm almost to the point of a restart. Because I cannot be sure of how it will affect the game later on when I'm at like lvl 30 (if I ever get there)

EXP gained from enemies is dependent on the amount of damage you dealt to them. If you deal half of the damage they take (with the other half being dealt by NPCs or charmed monsters), you'd get half the EXP the enemy would give if you dealt all damage. If a monster is charmed at 100% HP, and is killed entirely by the enemies you're fighting, you'll get no EXP because you didn't actually deal any damage.

This is one reason charm isn't usually considered a very useful skill, as it reduces your EXP gain.

Thanks Lancet for your insight. (BTW good job w/guide)

I can understand the way Charm affects XP gain. Although, I don't agree with it being that way. In my eyes, death is death, no matter how you get there. It is still caused from an action that you initiate on the enemy.

However, this doesn't explain the various XP gains from fallen enemies, taken when no Charm has been invoked. The Troll, mentioned earlier, was taken w/melee and Undead. Each time he went down it granted a diff XP gain.

I'm wondering if, by having the Charm ability, it's affecting the other attacks by glitch.

If the troll you're talking about is the Seeker-hating Troll that Merrill and company die at the hands of, it may be due to damage it sustained in the fight with the Seekers. The battle doesn't seem completely scripted, resulting in actual actions being randomized every time the game generates the battle. In my experiences, even seemingly small variations in damage could have larger effects than you'd think, so maybe its an exponential scale of EXP gain vs. damage.

I can't say I've ever seen erratic EXP gains from the same exact enemy, though. Different groups have given different amounts (like the Orobas Fjords goblins in another topic), but not enemies in Broken Valley, unless Charm or NPCs were introduced.

I know the Priest Tree was probably intended to be there more as a supplement to the other classes, rather than a class to itself. Having played using the other classes, it's been a lot of fun trying to make it with just those skills. I welcome the challenge. It just leaves you feeling cheated, with the XP gains all over the place, influenced by Charm or not.

The Sek-hat Troll is the one I was referring to, but it's not just him. This is happening all over the valley.

There's definitely something funny going on, then. That hasn't happened to me, and I replayh the same thing a lot of times, often, especially for enemies that might drop anything of value.

It's evidently a glitch tied to charm somehow. I used a bangle w/+1 Charm that was dropped at lvl 2. At lvl 6 I put a point into Charm, for the use of another bangle, and noticed the crazy XP gains.
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EDIT: I'm going to continue to run with it to see what happens. It may just correct itself. Hopefully it won't make enough diff to matter too much.

Well...I was looking for a challenge. I guess I found one.

I went back a few lvls (to a point where it wasn't happening) and I'm currently at lvl 11 without any further XP issues.

Were back in the saddle again...

Strange ... but I you gain less XP with using Charm, I wonder this:
suppose you Charm a Goblin Chieftain and that Chieftain kills another Goblin ... give this killing blow the Chieftain does XP to YOU or not?

From what I gather from Lancet's walkthrough;

Enemies hit and killed by "allies" (including charmed, but excluding your creature) give less XP. So the Goblin in your example gives less XP.
Enemies XP depends on damage you did to them. So in your example if the Chieftain never gets hit (unlikely) killing him afterwards should give full XP. Otherwise it gives reduced XP due to enemy damage done to the Chieftain.

Hope that made sense...

OK, this is the deal w charm
I've replayed through diff areas, some a dozen or more, and use charm often while checking my logbook.

If you Charm a Gob Chief, and he kills 3 other Gobs, with no assistance from you, your creature or whatever. you WILL GET THE FULL XP from the three Gobs killed by the Gob Chief.

However, any damage the Gobs inflicted on the Gob Chief WILL BE DEDUCTED from the Gob Chief's total XP when you kill him yourself. If they reduced his health to 50% then you will only get half of the XP from the Gob Chief.

EDIT: I have also noticed this,
You do NOT get any XP what so ever from killing a summoned creature that has been summoned by an enemy. This makes them perfect choices for the use of charm with no adverse effects on XP gain.

This does not include enemies that are tagged as summonED and are part of the games normal enemy for a given location. This only applies to summonED creatures that are summonED at the time you approach the summonER enemy.

An example location would be Lovis' Tower

But that's very Good !

So Charm is for sure NOT useless ! You gain the same XP by using Charm or without, but the outcome of the XP sum is more difficult to examinate

Yeah, all summoned enemies a Summoner summoned (when you start to attack the Summoner) give ZERO XP, that's normal. Otherwise you can try to kill not the Summoner but only his summoned creatures to gain more XP ... that will be not good for the balance of the game !

The Best thing is to simply use the Skills you like the most and don't bother about all the XP mathematics ... ... but I fully understand why players are playing with XP ... that's because this game is sooo great many players begin to analyse the game again and again, me too

But please, one thing you may never forget :
Play and have Fun !!

Hmmmm, so either Lancet is wrong, or DKS changed it to make Charm more viable, which would be a welcome improvement then, reading how it worked.