¶ Experience & Class Advancement
The methods to gain experience points in Haze are summarized below, along with availability limitations:
- XP from creature kills: Available up to a threshold, based on unique creatures, and broader creature type.
- XP from training dummies / sparring: Available per in-game day (12 real-world hours). (Stops at ECL 6)
- XP from hourly ticks: Unlimited (Stops at ECL 6)
- XP from DMs: Unlimited.
- XP from other player eminence wand (or
!reward) granting ('bonks'): Unlimited. (Stops at ECL 6) - XP from exploration: Unlimited.
Note that the Commoner class has its own system and method for gaining experience. See the Character Classes page for further information.
¶ Adventuring & Optimizing XP Progress
Haze is designed to reward players who contribute to the survival system early.
If you are a player interested in the fastest possible progression, 'farming' of dungeons early will hinder the speed at which a character progresses over the long term. This is only impactful when and if you want to advance as fast as possible. Note that in the long run, it is more detrimental to your overall progress.
¶ Exploration Experience
¶ Area Exploration
As you venture further from the safety of Coffinswode, you gain experience simply by engaging with the world in areas you haven't visited recently. Any meaningful interaction in a zone — including combat — can trigger a small exploration XP reward of 5 XP per area.
This reward is gated by how far the area is from the starting hamlet relative to your Effective Character Level. Your character must be experienced enough for the journey to be meaningful — specifically, the area must be within your ECL + 3 zones of Coffinswode. A fresh ECL 2 character can earn exploration XP from areas up to 5 zones out, while an ECL 5 character can learn from areas up to 8 zones away.
- Each area can only reward exploration XP once per 30-day period per character.
- Exploring 10 unique areas also awards a bonus Eminence Point.
¶ Exploration Nodes
In addition to area exploration, there are hundreds of experience nodes scattered around the island of Narumer. Every reset, a select amount of these nodes become active at random. When your party explores the world, including places you have been before, you may find one of these nodes. As long as your party is not too large, you will gain experience according to the difficulty of the node found.
- Average (25 XP): Typically found in more dangerous or risky areas, and usually involves relatively dangerous combat scenarios.
- Greater (50 XP): Typically found at the end of dungeons, in the camps of enemies, guarded by some of the stronger enemies, lairs of boss creatures, or other similarly dangerous locations.
Exploration nodes give reduced XP if your party size is over 6. A big enough party will eventually gain no experience points at all. Summons / henchmen / familiars do not count towards party size.
Exploration nodes give double XP to any level 5+ that is the only level 5 leading the party.
Any form of exploration done by something that is not a player character directly will not trigger the XP rewards from exploration nodes. This includes stealthed or invisible players. E.g. familiars, companions, or magical sensors.
¶ Area Exploration XP
In addition to exploration nodes, characters can earn experience simply by engaging with areas across Narumer. When you enter an area that you haven't visited recently, you'll receive a small amount of exploration XP. This reward is gated by your Effective Character Level (ECL) — you must be experienced enough relative to the difficulty of reaching that area in order to learn from exploring it.
- Exploration of this type is limited to once per area per 30-day period.
- Monster kills in new areas will also trigger this exploration check, rewarding players who push into unfamiliar territory while adventuring.
¶ Creature XP & Kill Counts
¶ How Creature XP Works
When you defeat a creature, the XP you receive is based on the creature's Challenge Rating (CR) relative to your Effective Character Level (ECL). Defeating creatures well below your level yields significantly less XP, while creatures above your level are worth more. Creatures that far outstrip your level in power will yield the most, but of course surviving such encounters is another matter entirely.
¶ Kill Count Limits
Each creature type has a maximum number of kills from which a character can earn XP. Once you've reached this threshold for a particular creature type, you'll receive the message: "Through persistence in fighting [creature] such as this, you no longer learn anything new from them..."
The kill count limit is based on the creature's CR — tougher creatures can be learned from over a longer period before you've mastered fighting them.
Kill count limits also scale with your character's level. Lower-level characters are still learning the fundamentals of combat and benefit from more repetition, so they can defeat more of the same creature type before hitting the cap. As your character grows in skill, they master creatures of a given type more quickly.
¶ Diminishing Returns
You don't simply earn full XP right up until the cap and then stop. As your kill count for a creature type increases, the XP earned per kill gradually decreases. The first encounters with a new enemy are always the most educational, and returns taper off as you become more familiar with how they fight.
This system rewards players who seek out variety in their adventures rather than repeatedly farming the same creature type.
¶ Creature Groups
Some creatures share a creature group — for example, different variants of goblins may all count toward the same kill tracker. This means defeating Goblin Scouts, Goblin Warriors, and Goblin Shamans all contribute to the same running total.
¶ Party Size & Creature XP
Parties of 4 characters will see best return on XP per kill.
Parties larger than 6 will see increasingly smaller XP gains.
Summons, henchmen, and familiars do not count towards party size.
¶ Party Composition & Carry Protection
When adventuring alongside significantly higher-level companions, the XP system accounts for the average strength of your group when determining how much you learn from a fight. If your party's average ECL is higher than your own ECL, you will be treated as that higher ECL for the purposes of monster kill XP.
This means that creatures which would normally be a serious challenge for your level may yield reduced XP when powerful allies are doing the heavy lifting.
Examples:
- A party of an ECL 2, ECL 5, and ECL 5 has an average ECL of 4. The ECL 2 character would be treated as ECL 4 for monster kill XP calculations, while the two ECL 5 characters are unaffected since their own ECL already exceeds the average.
- A party of an ECL 3, ECL 3, and ECL 4 has an average ECL of roughly 3.3. Nobody in this group is significantly carried — the ECL 3 characters are close to the average and the ECL 4 is above it, so the impact is minimal.
- A solo ECL 2 adventurer has an average party ECL of 2. Since the average doesn't exceed their own ECL, they receive full normal experience — this only matters when grouping with stronger companions.
Solo adventurers and evenly-matched groups are completely unaffected by this system. It only applies when the party's average capability exceeds your own.
¶ Level XP Scaling
Your Effective Character Level determines a scaling modifier applied to all XP gains. At lower levels, XP gains are amplified to help new characters get on their feet. At higher levels, the modifier decreases significantly, reflecting the natural plateau of learning as your character becomes more seasoned.
This means that even identical XP sources will yield different amounts depending on your current level. A CR 3 Orc is worth considerably more to an ECL 2 character than to an ECL 5 character, even before accounting for CR-difference scaling.
Characters who have reached E6 status receive XP at a reduced but steady rate, reflecting continued growth through epic experience.
¶ ECL Races and E6
If you are playing a race with a Level Adjustment (+ECL), you are subject to E6 restrictions once your total Effective Character Level (ECL) reaches 6.
This applies regardless of your class level. For example:
- Level 5 character with +1 ECL
- Level 3 character with +3 ECL
In both cases, once your total ECL equals 6, you are treated as an E6 character for experience purposes. This means you can no longer gain XP from sources such as cookies, timed XP, or any other XP-granting mechanics restricted under E6 rules.
¶ Multiclass XP Penalty
Haze uses a modified version of the standard NWN Multiclass XP Penalties. There is no such thing as a "Favored" Class for Multiclass XP Penalties. This removes the need to choose specific race/class combinations to maximize your XP gain. However, the standard rule still applies: you must keep your classes within 1 level of each other to avoid penalties.
If your classes are not kept within 1 level of each other, or if you have 3 classes regardless of level balance, you will incur a 20% XP penalty per class after your first class.
Commoner is not counted for XP penalties if you have 2 or less classes.
E6 characters do not suffer from multiclass XP penalties.
¶ Example
If you have 3 levels in Fighter and decide to pick up a level of Cleric, you will now receive 20% XP penalties until you get your 2nd level of Cleric, once at Fighter (3)/ Cleric (2) the XP penalties will stop unless you then take another level of fighter, making your levels more than 1 level apart again at Fighter (4) / Cleric (2)
If you pick up a 3rd class, no matter how close in level together they are, you will receive a 40% penalty to all XP gains. This means if you pick up Fighter (1) / Cleric (1) / Druid (1), you will now receive a 40% XP Loss on all experience gained (including from exploration nodes.)
¶ Standard NWN Penalties
In the standard NWN rules, each race has a "favored" class that allows players to avoid experience penalties when multiclassing. As long as one of your classes is the favored class or your levels in each class remain within one level of each other, there is no XP penalty. However, if you have two or more classes that exceed this balance and your favored class is not the highest-level class, you incur a 20% experience penalty on earned XP.
For example, a human character's favored class is the highest-level class, allowing flexibility in multiclassing. Meanwhile, other races have specific favored classes, such as Fighter for Dwarves or Wizard for Elves. In Haze, this restriction is modified so that no race gets a favored class.
¶ Timed XP
Every hour, all active (non-AFK) characters below level 6 receive a small tick of experience. Characters in social areas with other players, or in the Coffinswode region, receive a slight bonus to this tick. Characters in leadership positions also receive a small additional bonus.
Timed XP is not awarded to characters who are AFK or in OOC areas.
¶ Summary of XP Modifiers
| Modifier | Effect |
|---|---|
| Level Scaling | Lower-level characters gain more XP; higher levels gain less |
| CR Difference | Creatures near or above your level are worth more; creatures far below are worth less |
| Multiclassing | Up to 40% penalty for unbalanced or triple-classed builds |
| Party Carry Protection | Party average ECL used if higher than your own |
| Kill Count Diminishing Returns | XP from a creature type decreases the more you've killed |
| Kill Count Limit | Hard cap on XP from each creature type, scaled by ECL |
| Commoner Bonus | Commoner-heavy characters receive bonus XP from non-combat sources |