I remember back before patch 4 (where they introduced the druids) someone from Larian said that update would be the last one where our old saved games wouldn't be playable after the patch.
Citation needed. I'm positive they never said that. I believe what they DID say was that you could keep playing the old save on the older branch, and that their new patching process should require smaller-sized updates. Of course that there will continue to be updates which break save compatibility - there is so much missing in the game, loads of classes, races, features, and spells.
The full release will also break compatibility with the last Early Access patch.
They said right from the start that no saved games from EA would be carried over to the full release, but I thought I read or heard something about not losing them after patches at some point. But I must be mistaken since I'm the only one who remembers this, and I can't find anything to confirm it at this point. I did find where they said in PFH 2 that patch 4 would be the last really big download we will need, because they will have code in place that will allow them to only download the parts that were changing, and not require us to download the entire game each time. Maybe I had a brain fart that caused me to confuse that with save game wipes?
I'm not sure. But I know I was listening to PFH 2 while I was working, so my attention was divided. So sorry if I made a false claim based on misremembering something!
I can't imagine that they won't include some mechanism to allow characters to be created at higher levels, to facilitate forming parties in multiplayer. It could be a thing where you still create a level 1 character, but as soon as you join a group with a higher level character everyone is brought up to that level. That mechanic is already in the game. It happens whenever you leave a character at camp for a while. Next time they join your party you have to level them till they match you, which could be 1 to 3 levels. The same mechanic could be used for player characters in multiplayer. But they probably have other things that are more pressing to work on right now.
Why can't you imagine that? The early game is balanced for low level characters. It would be quite difficult to try and scale the entire game (encounter size/type, enemy skills/spells, NPC stuff) to match variable levels, given the immense complexity of D&D.
I'm not talking about replaying the early game. I was referring to the issue of being able to have new players join friends who were at a higher level in their questing, and how that will be handled.
There is already a way to handle this in the game now. If I send Shadowheart to my camp after meeting her on the beach, she will stay there as a level 1 character. If as a level 4 I finally decide to invite her to an encounter in the Underdark, I will immediately be able to raise her to level 4 to match the rest of the party. The rest of the party is not required to replay all the content she missed out on to get her to level 4. The same thing could be done in multiplayer if you had a level 7 group and wanted to invite a friend to join who just installed the game. Once they join the party their new character could be bumped up to match the party they are joining. Then they just have to be ported to where the rest of the party is. Or to the camp that the party is using.
Since that is already done for NPC party members, it could be easily done for player characters in multiplayer.
