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Character Progression

Predictable hit points and an extended level ceiling past the normal cap of 40.

Maximum Hit Points on Level-Up

Every character gains maximum hit points on every level-up, server-wide — no hit-die roll, no bad rolls. Your HP per level is always the top of your class hit die plus Constitution. (Set at module load via the administration max hit points play option.)

Maximum Ability Score Bonus from Items

The stock NWN cap on ability score bonuses from items and effects is +12. This server raises it to +24, allowing high-end gear and buffs to reach higher stat totals without hitting an invisible wall. (Set via ruleset.combat.max-ability-bonus in settings.tml.)

Maximum Attack Bonus: +40

Stock NWN caps the attack bonus you can get from gear, spells and effects combined at +20. Anything past that is silently thrown away. This server raises the cap to +40, so a heavily enchanted weapon no longer cancels out your buffs and stacking spell bonuses. Your base attack bonus from levels isn't part of this cap.

Up to Four Classes

Stock NWN allows a character at most three classes. Here you can take four, and there is no multiclass XP penalty for doing so (below).

No Multiclass XP Penalty

Stock NWN quietly taxes multiclass characters: if your highest and lowest class levels ever differ by more than one, XP you earn is reduced until you level the lagging class back up. This server disables that penalty entirely — every class combination earns full XP, no matter how unevenly your levels are split. With up to 4 classes stackable per character, build experimentation is the point, so there is no XP cost for going wide instead of staying balanced.

Kill XP — How Much a Creature Is Worth

Experience from a kill depends on two things: the creature's Challenge Rating (CR) and your own level. Every character level raises the CR you need to fight for a full payout, so content you farmed happily at one level quietly stops being worth your time a few levels later — the game is pushing you onward to harder ground.

The cap is 6,000 XP per kill. Nothing pays more, at any level, from any creature. With a 2× premium boost active that becomes 12,000. A kill that falls far below your level pays a token 60 — but "far below" is measured against your level, so a brand-new character is paid properly for the rats, skeletons and goblins it is actually meant to be fighting: roughly 300 XP for the weakest creature in the game at level 1, and around 650 for a CR 1.

You are never penalised for punching above your weight. A low-level character who takes down something far above them is paid at least as much as a higher-level character would be for the identical kill — the award for a given CR never rises as you level.

The Full XP at CR column is the point where a kill pays the whole 6,000; anything at or above that CR pays the same. Levels between those shown follow the same curve.

Your levelFull XP at CRCR 1CR 2CR 5CR 10CR 20CR 30CR 45CR 60CR 80CR 200CR 300
1306491,0962,0003,0754,6936,0006,0006,0006,0006,0006,000
5393758631,7082,6664,0755,1986,0006,0006,0006,0006,000
949605791,4282,3013,5434,5185,7406,0006,0006,0006,000
136260601,1381,9633,0793,9354,9965,9036,0006,0006,000
177960607991,6372,6633,4274,3605,1486,0006,0006,000
2110060601001,2962,2802,9763,8074,5015,3006,0006,000
251096060601,1892,1542,8273,6274,2955,0626,0006,000
291186060601,0822,0312,6833,4554,0964,8346,0006,000
331286060609731,9112,5433,2883,9064,6156,0006,000
371396060608621,7952,4083,1283,7224,4046,0006,000
41150606060792525009641,5132,3506,0006,000
45174606060661963927631,2051,8826,0006,000
49201606060601523066029571,5035,9636,000
53233606060601182384737581,1974,8086,000
5726960606060931853715989513,8726,000
6030160606060791533084997983,2895,999

Levels 41–60 are deliberately steeper: the legendary band expects you to be in Mordor- and Gondor-tier content, and low-CR creatures there pay the 60 floor. See Legendary Levels. Once you reach level 60 your XP simply keeps climbing on your character — kills still pay, the total carries on past the level 60 threshold, and nothing is lost for being at the cap.

Legendary Levels: 41–60

In development for Season 2. Levels 41–60 are being rebuilt as real character levels. The experience table below is final and already in the build; the level-cap lift and the per-class feat allotments are still being worked on, so the climb past 40 is not open yet. Progress is tracked on the Roadmap.

Casters: two things past level 40 look broken and are not — an empty spell-selection screen (see Spellbook Study) and feats listed twice on your sheet (see Why a feat can show twice).

Standard NWN stops at level 40. On this server, levels 41 to 60 are an extension of the game's own level progression rather than a bolt-on side system: you level up the ordinary way, at the ordinary spot on the character sheet, by earning the XP the table below asks for. There is no separate leveling NPC, no separate area to visit, and no second XP tally to keep track of — your XP bar simply keeps going past level 40.

Because they are real levels, each one is a level in a class you choose, and the usual rules for what a level gives you apply. Exactly which feats become selectable at these levels is still being finalised — see the Roadmap for the current state of that work.

At level 60 you also choose Legendary Feats, on top of the normal level-60 feat. See Legendary Feats for every feat, what it does, what it requires, and how many picks you get.

Prestige class cap: 40, not 50. Any single prestige class can only be leveled up to 40 — still a big improvement over the stock limit of 30, but don't expect to push a prestige class all the way to the level 50 mark some players assume from the level 60 total. To reach the full legendary cap you'll need to spread your last levels across more than one class (prestige and/or base).

LevelXP Required
41828,800
441,006,600
481,338,700
521,825,100
562,537,700
603,581,000

These totals are the server's published experience table — the same table the game itself uses for levels 1–40, simply extended to 60. That means your XP bar and character sheet agree past level 40: the numbers above are cumulative totals you can watch yourself climb toward, not a separate tally kept by any leveling system. Level 41 costs 48,800 XP over level 40, and each level after that costs 10% more than the one before it, ending at 3,581,000 total XP for level 60. See the Leveling Guide for where to earn that XP.

Spell slots at legendary levels

Stock NWN stops handing casters new spell slots at level 20 — a level 40 wizard has exactly as many slots per spell level as a level 20 one. That flat stretch does not continue through the legendary levels. Every fourth legendary level — 44, 48, 52, 56 and 60 — grants one extra slot at every spell level you can cast, on top of the caster level, save DC, duration and damage-cap scaling you were already getting.

Paladins and rangers advance on a gentler schedule — one extra slot at level 50 and another at 60 — because for them the legendary levels are mostly a martial payoff already. Bonus slots from a high spellcasting ability score stack on top of all of this exactly as they always have, and levels 1–40 are completely unchanged.

Already past level 40? You do not need to relevel. Slots are recalculated from your level whenever you rest, so log in, rest, and the new slots are simply there.

Spellbook Study — choosing spells past level 40

Casting more spells per day is what the table above changes. Choosing new spells is a separate matter, and past level 40 it runs into a hard limit in the game client itself — not in this server's rules. The level-up screen still asks a wizard to choose two spells, but only the cantrip tab has anything in it; every other spell-level tab greys out. There is nothing to pick, and the picks were spent anyway when you continued past the screen. Every avenue for repairing that screen was tried and none of it works — it is the client's own window, so no rules table, content pack or server script can reach it.

So the server hands the spells out itself. When a wizard with 41 or more wizard levels gains a level, a Spellbook Study window opens a few seconds after the level-up finishes, listing every arcane spell you do not yet know. Pick a spell level along the top, click Learn, and the spell goes straight into your spellbook.

  • Two spells per wizard level, exactly the entitlement the level-up screen was eating. Nothing more, nothing less.
  • Nothing you have already earned is lost. The first time you log in after this goes live, you are paid for every wizard level you gained past 40 while the screen was broken — a wizard 53 is owed 26 spells. It is paid once, and re-levelling cannot earn it twice.
  • You do not have to choose on the spot. Close the window and your picks are still banked. Finish a rest and it opens again; a login message tells you how many you still have waiting.
  • The usual rules still apply: you are only offered spells you can actually cast, never one you already know, and a specialist wizard is not offered its opposition school.
  • Scrolls still work too. Scribing from a scroll is unaffected and costs you none of these picks.

Still to come: sorcerers and bards. For now, treat your repertoire as locked in at level 40. You keep every spell you know and gain more casts per day of all of them, but you cannot yet swap a known spell for a better one on level-up. That swap is the next piece of this work — watch the Roadmap. Nothing is being lost in the meantime: sorcerers and bards gain no new spells known past 40 under the stock rules either, so there are no picks quietly going missing.

Clerics, druids, paladins and rangers are unaffected — they know their entire class list automatically, so there was never anything to choose. Multiclass casters are unaffected below 40: the limit only ever applied to a class you have 40 or more levels in, and taking a caster class up from a low level at character level 41+ has always worked normally.

— Caster feats at legendary levels

The same level-40 blind spot that ate the spell picker also ate most of a caster's feat list. Once you had 41 or more levels in a casting class, every feat that requires you to be able to cast spells of a certain level quietly disappeared from both your class bonus feat list and your general feat pick. A pure wizard at 47 was offered exactly three feats: Brew Potion, Craft Wand and Epic Spell. Everything else — Spell Focus, Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Automatic Quicken Spell, Epic Spell Focus — was simply not on the list.

Those feats are back. They are published a second time as class-specific entries that the level-up screen can see past level 40, and picking one gives you the real feat. Every requirement is unchanged: Automatic Still Spell still wants Still Spell and 27 ranks of Spellcraft, Epic Spell Focus still wants Greater Spell Focus in that school. Nothing became easier to get — it became possible to get.

Why a feat can show twice

A caster at class level 40 or above will see some feats listed twice on the character sheet, under the same name. A level 48 wizard, for instance, shows Extend Spell, Still Spell and Combat Casting twice each. This is expected and there is nothing to fix.

One of the pair is the real feat. The other is an inert stand-in — the replacement entry described above, which carries the real feat's own name and description rather than a made-up one. Holding both is the point:

  • It is not a double benefit. The effect applies once. Nothing stacks, and nothing is being counted twice.
  • It did not cost you a second pick. You spent one feat slot, exactly as you meant to.
  • It is what stops you wasting a pick. The level-up screen never offers a feat you already hold — so by giving you both halves, the server makes sure neither half is ever dangled in front of you again.
  • There is nothing to do about it. No action, no cleanup, and it cannot be turned off.

It can appear on its own, without you picking anything. If you already had one of these feats from below level 40, the matching stand-in is added the moment that class reaches 40 — so a duplicate can turn up at a level-up or a login where you chose nothing at all. That is the pairing being applied in the other direction, and it is the whole reason the level-up screen stops offering you feats you own.

Below class level 40 none of this exists. A level 1 wizard or sorcerer sees each feat exactly once, and levels 1–40 pick from exactly the list they always did.

How far each class reaches

A feat that demands you cast spells of a given level is still barred if your class never gets there — that is the original rule, not a new restriction. It is why a bard sees fewer replacement entries than a wizard, and no Epic Spell Focus at all.

ClassHighest spell levelWhat that means
Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid9thThe full set, including Epic Spell Focus and the Automatic Still / Silent / Quicken Spell chains.
Bard6thSpell Focus and the metamagic feats. No Epic Spell Focus, no Automatic metamagic — both need 9th-level spells.
Paladin, Ranger4thThe feats that ask for 4th-level spells or less.

This keys on your class level, not your caster level. The replacement entries unlock when your wizard (or cleric, or druid…) level itself reaches 41. Caster levels granted by a prestige class do not count toward that number, and no amount of prestige levelling brings the entries forward.

Pale Master is the only class in the game that advances spellcasting at all — one arcane caster level for every two Pale Master levels. It will happily let you cast higher-level spells sooner than your wizard level alone would, and the ordinary feats below 41 respect that exactly as they always have. What it will not do is unlock the replacement entries early. Dragon Disciple grants no spellcasting advancement whatsoever in NWN, so it has no bearing here in either direction.

In practice this costs nobody a feat. The client fault these entries work around also only begins once a casting class passes 40 — below that the ordinary feats are offered normally. The rule is worth knowing so you build with it in mind, not because there is a trap in it.

Monk Weapons

Three weapons have been reclassified for monks relative to stock NWN:

  • Shuriken — counts as a monk weapon; also benefits from Weapon Finesse.
  • Quarterstaff — counts as a monk weapon; also benefits from Weapon Finesse.
  • Katana — counts as a monk weapon, but still requires Exotic Weapon Proficiency; does not benefit from Weapon Finesse.

Critical Hits & Devastating Critical

A devastating critical no longer kills outright. The stock save-or-die is gone — for melee weapons, ranged weapons, and unarmed and creature attacks alike. In its place, a devastating critical lands as a very large hit: three extra dice of damage, of the same damage type your weapon already deals, scaled to the weapon you are swinging.

Weapon sizeExtra dieDevastating CriticalWith Legendary Butcher
Small (dagger, shuriken, unarmed…)d6+3d6+8d6
Medium (longsword, mace…)d8+3d8+8d8
Large (greatsword, halberd…)d10+3d10+8d10

This cuts both ways. The rule is symmetric — it applies to every creature in the module exactly as it applies to you. No more losing a level 60 character to one lucky swing from a random mob, and no more deleting a boss with one. Nothing else about the feat changed: same threat range, same prerequisites.

Legendary Butcher — a level 60 Legendary Feat for those who want to lean into critting. It adds five extra dice on any critical hit, not just a devastating one, using the same size scale, and it stacks with the devastating-critical dice. A large weapon in the hands of someone with both lands +8d10. It requires Devastating Critical with some weapon.

Two things worth knowing:

  • The extra damage is typed physical (piercing/slashing/bludgeoning, matching your weapon), on purpose — so heavy damage reduction and physical immunity eat part of it, just like the rest of your weapon damage.
  • The combat log no longer announces "devastating critical" by name. Taking the instant kill out at the root also took the message with it. The hit shows as an ordinary critical, with the extra dice rolled into its damage.

Immunity to critical hits is no longer the default on tough enemies. It went out with the same change — once a devastating critical stopped being an instant kill, there was no reason to keep blanket immunity on everything dangerous. It now survives only where it makes thematic sense: undead, and the Nazgûl, plus a small hand-picked set of bosses. A critical build is a viable build against most of the module.