This must have been discussed before, though I didn't find a thread that specifically addressed this issue.
As a DM I would never have told the players what level an NPC is / how much HP they have. That would ruin them wanting to effectively roleplay their characters.
I think the same goes for BG3.
This would avoid the game having lvl4 archdruids, or lvl5 200 years old elves that battled and beat dark justiciars while we level up to lvl4 in 5 days or so. Which simply doesn't make any sense...
Also, the whole Ethel quest is spoilt by letting us know she is lvl 5 when we first meet her in the refugees' camp while all the others are just lvl1 (even the smith who has people from Neverwinter travel to buy his stuff...).
What are your thoughts on this?

I agree, level should be hidden.

Also not a fan of meeting "old and powerful" NPCs that are level 4 just because our PCs need to have a shot at fighting them...

Pretty sure there was skill checks on nfo related to monsters the higher the roll the more info. But that's previous editions, donno 6e.

About Aunty Ethel...

I confirmed once more, just 20 minutes ago or so, that even when we meet her first in the camp, her odd nature is not properly hidden from us through game mechanics.

Which Humanoid has over 100 HP's?
And when we look at her stats, we can see her race is "Fae" (*in english client?).
Even though she looks like a Human.

But there is similar stuff in the crypt in which we fight the looters.
They've got a Woman spellcaster down there which has very long and wide ears, indicating an Elf.
But her race is HUMAN of all things.
Really now? ^^


LarianStudio needs to smooth these things out. Absolutely.

Totally agree. The game needs setup for things like this. In addition, it would be nice to be able to hide prompts in dialogs, not show conditions for checking skills and classes. A good option would be a separate minimalistic game mode in the difficulty settings.

Not to mention there eventually are some class feats that allow a player to study an NPC for a minute to get an idea of such information... but not until they progress in level some... thats valuble info andshould be treated as such I'd agree!

Agreed. But the elf-human case must be just a bit of mess in data-base. I'm perfectly sure that's elf with elven perks like dark vision, had problems stealthing around her.

Yeah, I am not sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand I think they are detrimental in social interactions, as Auntie Ethel highlights.

On the other hand in combat level/hp indicators do telegraph which enemies the party should avoid.

That said, do Auntie Ethel's stats actually spoil her quest?

If you are new to DnD then you would have little knowledge of what a hag is, so could just assume she is a powerful human.

And if you are into DnD you would definitely get hag vibes Auntie Ethel even if you didn't see her stats.

essentially, they were going with not having lvl indication
but because of some playtesters and their feedback(like 1-2 weeks before EA I think), they decided to add it

I agree with this, remove visible "levels" from all NPCs.