Experience

Experience (commonly abbreviated exp. or xp) is a central game mechanic in Baldur's Gate 3.

Characters

All characters start at level 1, and level up when they receive enough experience. Leveling up allows a character to take another level in a class. After reaching level 12, no further levels are gained.

The experience cumulated at each level and the experience required to reach the next level is described in the following table:

Level	Cumulative exp.	Exp. for next level
1	0	300
2	300	600
3	900	1,800
4	2,700	3,800
5	6,500	6,500
6	13,000	8,000
7	21,000	9,000
8	30,000	12,000
9	42,000	14,000
10	56,000	20,000
11	76,000	24,000
12	100,000	N/A

If the player's main character has more experience than one or more party members, the player can remove them from the party and add them back, their experience will now be equal to the main character.

Sources of experience

There are 4 sources of experience in the game:

• defeating enemies
• discovering new locations
• completing quests and steps of quests
• succeeding background goals (which also grants inspirations)

When a character gains inspiration, they earn a small amount of experience. Experience from all other sources is earned by all characters that have joined the player, whether they are in the active party or at camp.

In many occurrences during the game, the player has the possibility to side with a NPC for the purpose of succeeding a quest, then kill them afterwards. In doing so they effectively gain the experience from succeeding the quest and the experience from defeating the NPC. For example, the player can side with Nere for the purpose of succeeding Free True Soul Nere, then kill him and his minions afterwards to obtain the maximum of experience as possible (in addition of obtaining both the quest rewards and his items).

The amount of experience rewarded by defeating an enemy, discovering a location or completing a quest is not visible in the user interface until the task is done.

Defeating enemies

The amount of experience obtained by defeating an enemy is determined by the enemy level (see below for an exception) and its category of reward.

There are 7 categories of reward, which are assigned internally by the game and are not visible anywhere in the user interface. From less to most rewarding:

• Zero
• Civilian
• Pack
• Combatant
• Elite
• Miniboss
• Boss

Defeating "Zero" and "Civilian" enemies grants respectively 0 and 1 experience at any level. "Pack" enemies are the next weakest category and will provide much less experience than "Boss" enemies. For example, Nere is a level 5 "Elite" enemy, so defeating him rewards 90 experience. His minions are level 5 "Combatant" enemies, so defeating them rewards 75 experience each. Enemies of level 13 and above will provide as much experience as a level 12 enemy.

If the level of the enemy is lower than the level of the area, then the game uses the level of the area instead of the level of the enemy to choose the reward. For example, when defeating a level 1 Goblin in the level 3 Blighted Village, the game will grant the experience for a level 3 "Combatant", i.e. 20 experience instead of 10.

Examining an enemy doesn't provide its category of reward, preventing the player to determine the precise amount of experience it will reward. However, the player can approximate it using the enemy level, visible in the Examine window or while hovering the enemy. The level of the areas is not provided in the user interface.

The experience granted by each level and each categories of reward is described in the following table:

	Categories of reward
Level	Zero	Civilian	Pack	Combatant	Elite	Miniboss	Boss
1	0	1	3	10	15	20	30
2	0	1	5	15	25	40	75
3	0	1	10	20	40	50	100
4	0	1	20	40	75	100	150
5	0	1	40	75	90	150	250
6	0	1	50	90	150	230	320
7	0	1	60	110	180	280	400
8	0	1	75	140	220	350	500
9	0	1	110	200	315	500	700
10	0	1	135	250	400	640	875
11	0	1	170	320	510	800	1120
12+	0	1	210	400	640	1000	1400

Defeating an enemy can reward no experience if the player already resolved the encounter without fighting. For instance, if the player peacefully talks their way out of an encounter, they will gain the same experience as if they had killed the enemies. Killing them afterwards will not earn the player any more experience. This is to prevent the player to double up on experience. When resolving the encounter peacefully, the player gets the experience for the NPC they interacted with, as well as the experience for all the nearby NPCs who would normally join the fight if the player decided to attack. For example, when entering the Crèche Y'llek and attacking Far'aag, the 3 other NPCs in the room join the fight. Killing them grants 75 each, since they are level 5 "Combatant" enemies, for a total of 300 experience. Instead of attacking, the player can talk with Far'aag to avoid a fight, in which case they are granted 300 experience too. Killing the 4 NPCs afterwards grants 0 experience.

Discovering new locations

The amount of experience obtained by discovering new locations (internally referenced as "Exploration Reward") is determined by the area level (see below for an exception) and its category of reward.

There are 4 categories of reward, which are assigned internally by the game and are not visible anywhere in the user interface. From less to most rewarding:

• Small
• Medium
• Big
• LevelBoost (which is not actually assigned to any area)

Similarly, the level of the areas is assigned internally and is not visible anywhere in the user interface.

If the level of the area is lower than the level of the player's main character, then the game uses the level of the main character instead of the level of the area to choose the reward. For example, when discovering Crèche Y'llek, which is a level 5 "Big" area, if the main character is level 5, it will grant 240 experience; if the main character is level 6, it will grant 280 experience; and if the main character is level 7, it will grant 300 experience.

The experience granted by each level and each categories of reward is described in the following table:

	Categories of reward
Level	Small	Medium	Big	LevelBoost
1	5	10	15	100
2	10	20	30	200
3	30	60	90	300
4	40	75	130	500
5	80	150	240	1000
6	95	180	280	1100
7	115	210	300	1200
8	150	275	370	1500
9	210	400	530	2000
10	260	500	660	2400
11	330	630	850	3400
12	420	780	1000	5000

Completing quests and steps of quests

The amount of experience obtained by completing quests and their steps is determined by the level of the area that triggers the completion and the category of reward assigned to the step.

There are 11 categories of reward, which are assigned internally by the game and are not visible anywhere in the user interface. From less to most rewarding:

• CombatCloseBooster
• CombatCloseMajor
• ProgressBooster
• ProgressMajor
• CloseBoosterEasy
• CombatCloseMain
• CloseBoosterHard
• ProgressMain
• CloseMajor
• BypassedCombatMedium
• CloseMain

There is actually a 12th category "BackgroundGoal", but as its name suggests, it is not assigned to quests but to succeeding background goals.