It does rather, I got more than 2000xp for picking a single lock earlier today. Its starting to feel like pinball scores, "You delivered that letter for me? 2,000,000 XP!!!!"

Coelocanth,

Thanks for the clarification. It sounds like my concerns about getting too much experience before hitting the BG2 content were mostly unfounded. That makes BGT sounds even more appealing.

Even so, I'm leaning towards trying Flintlock's suggestion of going with Tutu for the first run and BGT for subsequent games. At the very least, having played through the two games separately once will allow me to feel more impressed with the integration in BGT.

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Aliasalpha,

2000 XP for a single lock? That does sound a bit overboard. Unless it was a very, very important lock.

Does that sort of thing happen a lot in regular, unmodded BG2? Or is it a feature of that early section?

It does. Maybe not necessarily for locks, but for quests, it sure does. "Hey, can you find me a certain bottle? Great! 8000 XP!"

It's due to the higher levels you're playing at. It's one of the beefs I have with playing higher (or 'epic') level games. Since it takes so many XP to gain a new level, you get larger awards in order to keep the pace of levelling.