Experience

Experience 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
• 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.

There is an exception to the rule: 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 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 example, 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.