Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback I lose all motivation to play after hitting the level cap

I understand why level 12 is the max level. Regardless, I lose all motivation when I know my major growth path no longer exists.

The most popular mod is hokey but the idea to allow multiclassing past level 12 is a solid one. Even leveling with no new skills, spells or abilities would be better than throwing the XP away. Even banking the extra XP to be able to use for anything is better than nothing.

Hitting this glass ceiling kills any urge I have to continue. Am the minority opinion?

I think you are in the minority of opinion, because most people are motivated by the drive to complete the story. But I also dont htink anyone who feels that way would necessarily disagree in any signicant way.

I would love for the ability to multiclass to 20 to be incorporated. Its very unlikely the course of the game would bring the player to that point, but I dont think it matters because its a way to still reward the player for continuing to level up.

My motivation is to finish the story. To each his own.

By that time you’ll be hitting some end game bosses with absurdly powerful loot. So it’s not really the end of progression. Plus the tadpole powers, if you want to go that route (I didn’t).

I love the old school rules and tables and charts. Larian has painfully thought out each class and level advancement and precisely fit it into the story.

For people like me, you lose 25% of the game by stopping at level 12 with no alternative advancement statistical advancement.

Yea, to those who keep bringing on the "story" argument to defend poor EXP scaling. Who cares about EXP, enjoy the game? Are you serious?
This isn't a tale tale game.

For me good game play and a balanced system comes first, then a great story.
This is D&D, like it or not. There is EXP tied to stuff, like it or not. Not having EXP matter, is a big NO NO.

You want to experience your story? FINE. Its very easy to do right now.
For the rest of us who wants an interesting balanced D&D system from start to finish, I agree that there is way too much EXP given up to Act 3.

Sheesh, really shows that 95% of people could not care less this game being D&D or not.

I've just hit level 12 with my party, and I'm guessing I still have a reasonable amount of act 3 to complete. I do agree that it's more fun when we still have character growth ahead of us, though also that new equipment can help keep things interesting up to the end game.

And what I really don't want is any more incentive to XP farm which more levels would introduce. In this first playthrough I've been pretty thorough, but I'd also want to be able to do a less completionist playthrough with a different character who would be more focused on the main quest, and still have them appropriately balanced for the end game and not feel I'm being penalised by lack of progression for roleplaying.

In short, thus far I'm feeling that the XP rewards are balanced pretty well, but let's see if I still feel that way once I've completed the game without any more levelling up!

I get it; some time after I hit the level cap I only did companion quests and main quest. Didn't really bother with the more random side quests anymore. And at the end I was pretty happy to be done and start from scratch to get back to character growth.

I'm the same way. I lose motivation. It feels odd because this isn't really something that would happen at the table, or at least not outside of lvl 20 campaigns. The DM awards xp at their discretion granted, but its unlikely they'd stop awarding it altogether in the middle of a session right hehe. Like they'd come up with something to keep you engaged at that point, and probably it would involve experience points.

In the old games we had the exact same issue with the experience cap going back to BG1. The difference was that there, you had 25 possible companions, so when Charname hit the cap you could still progress by leveling other companions. Here there are only 12 companions, 4 are gated by early plot decisions, and they all join up at the same lvl as Tav or higher. Sticking it out for the story makes less sense on a re-run, even if the endings change. I mean there's a payoff, sure, but not quite the same as XP.

Another option might be something like "Epic Party" where even if the PC is at the XP cap, then the party as a group begins to level somehow along different lines. No idea what that would look like, but keeping the scoreboard up at least, even if its sorta meaningless. The promise of a sequel where that extra XP carries over would be pretty major, cause that's a carrot right?

Ps. If the cap is 12 this should mean 119,999 xp instead of 100,000. Basically stopping 1 experience point before lvl 13 at 120,000 xp, rather than 1 xp after lvl 12 at 100,001, if that makes sense. That 20,000 xp buffer isn't huge, but its probably enough to finish out the campaign in a satisfying way during the anticlimax for a CRPG of this sort. Kinda would need to have done that sooner though. Cause raising the XP cap by 19,999 in order to avoid adding a level, not something you can do after the fact as readily. Though they might try. If they make a sequel or expansion they should maybe consider that. Some room to groove there, ya know!

WEll, all the arguments and back and forth... I think the Mod that allows you to multiclass to level 20 is a great mod, and should be something the base game does.

level 20 to a single class is broken, but a multiclass? not so much.

I sort of feel, average player should be max level at end of game is a good CRPG rule, which means if do all sidequests and clever solutions that give more xp characters will max out earlier but there's no solution to the second problem without breaking the first part?

"Yea, to those who keep bringing up the "exp" argument to defend leveling treadmills. Who cares about being forced to grind, enjoy the treadmill? Are you serious? This isn't an MMORPG."

Logic can always be turned around.

In this game you can get to max level and enjoy your full power for a good while. That's great by itself, but it also provides the player a lot of leeway to make their own choices and not do literally everything to grind out the needed experience points. If you don't enjoy that, there are other games that allow for endless grinding. Off the top of my head, I can suggest Warframe.

I agree with this - and I think the approach I have seen working is that the game tightens the focus towards the end. Even at max level you usually still want to defeat the villain and complete the story - but you are likely to be less interested in various side explorations. At least that's the case for me.

If you have the last 10% to 20% of the game focusing on the main story only, you can make sure the players levels caps in that portion and continue to reward the player with last-chapter gear, and since the story visibly moves towards the end you avoid level cap boredom.

Both BG 1 and BG 2: SoA followed this approach and focus on the main story from Chapter 6 onward.

Unfortunately, I believe that is one the largest issue's with Act 3 in the game. It's the first act taking place in an urban setting, and in an urban setting you want to offer lots of side contents with various NPCs and reward exploration. That clashes with the approach of narrowing the focus to avoid max level burnout. That's why I think the previous games allowing you to explore the respective main cities earlier was the better approach.

Every game that has a level cap gets you to max level before the end of the game so why is it crime of the century because BG3 does it?

Personally I believe that it is better to reach max level earlier so it can be properly enjoyed, than to reach max level just at the end and barely get to enjoy it. With that said, Divinity Original Sin 2 did leveling phenomenally. There is a soft level cap of 20 which can be reached easily before the end of the game, but there is no XP cap whatsoever... so the player can reach even level 21 legitimately if they truly put their mind to it.

For Baldur's Gate 3 I think it would be better if there weren't any XP limit, but any level up obtained after level 12 would just give the player an option to multi-class into a different level 1 class. No stat increase nor level increase whatsoever of the existing classes, just level 1 of another class to enjoy their bonuses. That way it would retain the thrill of gaining XP without breaking the balance.

I don't think that would be a good idea at all. First, I would not want to be forced out of my primary class. Just imagine if your DM did that.

Secondly, this works a lot better for some builds than for other. A fighter could get a lot of extra power from multiclassing into Paladin for Smite. A character with Smite + 3 attacks per turn + Action Surge is definitely as balance breaking as far as things go in BG 3.

A primary caster like a Wizard or Sorcerer doesn't have that many good options. You would almost feel forced to go into Fighter for Action Surge, since it's the best option by far (assuming no more spell progression).

itd be weird immersion breaking for me, I'd rather just hit level cap but get cool stuff or unlock new abilities from quests (like the necromancy book quest gives you a spell)

Would it really be better to hit max level 30 minutes before the game ends? It's fun having at least some play time when you're at peak and has unlocked your end state. For most people you'll take the first feat that "does something" at level 12, because level 4 and 8 is used for stat boosts. I'd hate to get to max level and then just have a couple of hours to play there. What's the point of that?

But I have been thinking they've cut a lot of content and intended to have a different XP progressions. It seems like they cut a lot from act 3 and upped all XP gains by a % to compensate. So you outlevel act 1 and 2, and then act 3 is densely packed with high XP encounters to fit everything and you just plow through the late game XP.

I realize this allows for a much more casual, "don't have to do everything" playthrough, rather than having to grind out every smidge of XP to keep up with the game. It's how it needs to be, but I think more content in Act 3 and by consequence slower XP gain in act 1 and 2 was probably intended. Feels like I hit level 5 in act 1 and level 7-8 in act 2 a bit too soon.

I'm in the same boat, it's not like I didn't want to complete the game but not having a concrete thing to work towards removed one of the levers the game employs to maintain interest. Personally I'd like it if you could unlock mini levels after 12 that just gave you a feat choice. Maybe add a few class specific feats only available at this level too.

I'm somewhat surprised I'm not very concerned about not leveling up anymore. I guess the steady flow of very rare or legendary items helps, a lot. Overall power does increase each new item for underutilized item slots.

And the game does still tracks XP, last I checked I had accumulated 95,000 extra XP, so that's nice.

Mainly it's the story and continued challenge where I'm so close to finishing that's urging me on. Current and previous choices and continuing consequences are very rewarding.