Experience

In Baldur's Gate, all members of your party gain experience for completing quests and killing monsters, which is sometimes referred to as experience points or XP. In most cases, experience is awarded to the party as a whole and divided equally. For example, if the party earns 100 XP and has five members, each member will receive 20 XP. Sometimes the resolution of character-specific quests will result in experience for that character only. Due to characters joining and leaving the party at different times and at different levels, it is highly unlikely that everyone in the party will have the same experience. Likewise, because different classes gain levels at different values of experience, it is possible to have a spread of levels in the party.

Unlike Dungeons and Dragons, once experience has been gained it cannot be lost or used (e.g. in spells), except in one or two rare circumstances.

In BG1, experience is always handed out to the party as a whole. In BG2, experience is awarded to the party as a whole in most cases, but completing some quests results in each character gaining experience individually, though usually all by the same amount.

Starting experience

A new character in BG1 starts with zero experience.

A new character in SoD starts with 64,000 XP. If you import a character from BG1, they will start with the same XP as they ended the previous game, with a minimum of 64,000 XP.

A new character in BG2 starts with 89,000 XP. If you import a character from BG1 or SoD, they will start with the same XP as they ended the previous game, with a minimum of 89,000 XP.

Experience points cap

All games have caps on how much experience you can earn, although you are unlikely to hit these limits in either game unless you make a point of completing most of the optional quests.

• BG1: 161,000
• SoD: 500,000
• BG2: 8,000,000

It is possible to exceed the cap in BG1, but it will not have any effect in that game (e.g. if you earn 200,000 XP, you will be treated as having 161,000 in terms of levels etc.). However, the extra XP is still saved and will appear if you import a character into SoD or BG2.

Generally, both games offer a reasonable challenge if you play at the standard levels. You can import a character with lots of experience into either game at the beginning, or use a software modification to remove the cap, but these may affect the balance of gameplay and even break certain parts of the game. Bear in mind that if you reach the cap in either game you will have a seriously powerful party which will have no trouble dispatching the majority of foes. For example, hitting the cap with a fighter in BG2 means you will be at level 40, potentially with the ability to raise your number of attacks per round to 10 up to 13 times a day. As a sorcerer, you will be able to cast 4-5 level 9 spells each day, which effectively allows you to stop time and cast two level 8 spells 4-5 times without your opponents being able to respond.

Summoned creatures

You do not receive experience for killing summoned creatures, as this would allow you to rack up XP by constantly summoning and killing creatures. Frustratingly, this also applies to creatures summoned by enemies in some cases, so you may receive less experience than you would expect for finishing off a mage and their band of summoned monsters.