I've been searching all the posts and forums I can find regarding class level limits. According to the manuals, all classes should be able to reach level 15 in Wake of the Ravager if you earn enough XP. However, I've seen a few references to racial level limits, such as Half-Giant Rangers capping at Level 8. I've also read that ALL Psionicists and Rangers cap at level 14. Is this accurate? Are there race/class combinations that I cannot take to level 15? This was true in tabletop, but I am only interested in how the rules were applied in this video game. And/or, is there a hard XP cap in the game that absolutely prevents you from hitting level 15 in some classes? I don't want to start a party in Shattered Lands only to find out at the end of the second game I made poor race/class decisions that stop me from hitting level 15.

If you install Wake of the Ravager, in the game's data directory there is a README.TXT file that has the information on level limits. In particular, here are the two relevant tables (formatting will be off in the forum, but is better in the README.TXT):

TABLE 3: RACIAL CLASS AND LEVEL LIMITS

CLASS HUMAN DWARF ELF H-ELF H-GIANT HALFLING MUL THRI-KRN
Cleric U 12 15 16 12 12 10 12
Druid U - - 14 - 12 12 16
Fighter U 16 14 U 16 12 U 16
Gladiator U U 10 U 14 12 U 15
Preserver U - 15 12 - - - -
Psionicist U U U U U U U U
Ranger U - 16 14 8 16 - 12
Thief U 12 12 12 - 16 12 -

TABLE 8: Prime requisite bonuses

Ability Score Additional Levels
14, 15 +1
16, 17 +2
18 +3
19 +4

In any case, if you play with max stats, the level limits aren't an issue for most set-ups; the three main issues that I see are Half-Giant Ranger (capped at level 12, one level before you would get the final half-attack), Elf Gladiator (capped at 14, but this is a bit of an unusual set-up anyway), and Mul Cleric (capped at 14, but why Cleric when Druid is the superior option?).

A couple other things:
1. If you want to check the level limits for yourself, you can start the game with cheats enabled and use the level up cheat until you no longer get any levels.
2. In Wake of the Ravager, it is actually possible to change a character's race by letting the character die and casting Reincarnate on them.

With the v1.1 patch installed you reach level 15. I have tested this.

My half-giant fighter/cleric with 17 wisdom reached level 15/15 with no problems.

I'm using the floppy 1.1 version, not the GOG (CD) version

Rangers and Psionicists are capped at 1,400,000 XP in Wake of the Ravager so avoid Rangers and use Psionicists only for triple classes or as middle class for double dualclassing.

But how much XP do you actually get in a typical playthrough?

Also, there's a nice niche use for the Ranger class. Choose Ranger when dual-classing, then have Cleric be one of your other classes, but with a different sphere. Once you get your abilities back, you'll have a character who has:
* Minor access to Cosmos
* Major access to the elemental sphere chosen as Cleric (as you'd expect)
* Major access to the elemental sphere chosen as Ranger (as you might not expect)

So, for example, choosing Water for Ranger will allow you to use the Water of Life spell, which as implemented in this game works just like Heal, making the lack of Major Cosmos access not hurt as much.

About 4,000,000 XP per character and you can get unlimited XP by grinding.Even if you don't reach the Ranger XP limit Rangers still loose the extra half attack, thac0, HP and saving throw improvements fighters get at level 13. Druids are far superior to clerics so this will yield a weak character. Something like Ranger9/Psionic9/Preserver might work better since you only loose 1 AC compared to the gladiator and gain two extra level 1 spells which makes the character only slightly weaker.

But:
* There's no way for a druid to have more than one elemental sphere. (Can'd dual class Ranger->Druid because of conflicting alignment requirements.)
* Druids, I believe, can't wear armor. This can be an issue if you don't account for this, and might make Cleric a better choice in some multi-class setups. (Keep in mind that Flesh Armor is available as a wild talent in at least Shattered Lands, however.)
* Many races aren't allowed to be druids, but are allowed to be clerics. Half-Giant is a great example of this, seeing as that race gets the powerful advantage of double HP growth. You can therefore get this particular benefit on a cleric, but not on a druid.

According to a text guide elsewhere, the cap applies to psionicists (not rangers), including all classes of a multiclass psionicist. In particular, this means that:
* Psionicist/Ranger is not a good choice; you're stuck at ranger level 12, preventing you from getting that last 1/2 attack.
* Psionicist/Druid and Psionicist/Preserver don't get 7th level spells. Psionicist/Cleric can reach cleric level 14 and get 7th level spells, but note that there are no 7th level Water spells other than the greater elemental.
* If you want both 7th level Perserver/Druid spells and non-wild-talent psionics on the same character, you'll need to dual-class, it looks like.

Note that I haven't verified any of this in-game.

One manual mistake: The Shattered Lands manual list druids as having the same XP table as clerics. This is not the case; druids use the XP table that other AD&D games use (except, from what I've read, level 15 in WotR), which is slower at first, much faster around mid-levels (including levels 9 and 11), but slows down greatly at 14. (Level 9 is interesting because it's the SL cap; level 11 is interesting because of Heal, which is far stronger than any other healing spell, especially if targeting a half-hiant fighter type with 24 Constitution who's almost dead. Catch is that, unlike other healing spells, it can't be used to give more HP to a character who's already above their maximum in WotR, but the fact that other healing spells allow that is likely a bug, anyway (and not possible in SL).)

I've tested the ranger XP Cap myself, it was at 1,400,000.

Druids use cleric XP tables from at level 14 already in WotR, I I had a fighter/psionicist/druid which ended at level 13/14/14, so a Psionicist/Druid can cast level 7 spells.

Was the Ranger single, dual, or multi-classed? (If dual classed, was it the character's primary class?)

There's also a few other things I'm wondering:
* Is level draining a concern in either game?
* Can you learn extra spells (Preserver) or powers (Psionicist) by intentionally getting level drained (for example, with the Energy Dragon spell in WotR) and then leveling back up?
* How does the Reincarnate spell handle level limits?
* What happens if a dual-class human is Reincarnated into a non-human? (My tests with that spell a long time ago reveal that it doesn't seem to be possible to Reincarnate *into* a human.)
* Can a former Preserver (dual-class human) learn spells from scrolls? Can a former Psionicist learn powers from bracelets?

By the way, some multi-class restrictions that don't seem to be mentioned anywhere:
* Mul can't triple class Psionicist.
* Hafling can't triple class Cleric or Druid.

If the Psionicist class is active again (lower level than the current class) you can learn powers from bracelets (doesn't work if inactive) and I assume the same applies for Preserver scrolls.

So, there's now a decent reason to *not* max your level as a Psionicist before changing class. (Other than equipment options, but that only matters if you change into Cleric, Druid, or Preserver, and a Cleric probably doesn't need Psionicist weapons.)

(Although, if what I've learned about that XP cap is correct, in WotR you can't possibly (without the level up cheat) reach a level as a Psionicist that you can't exceed in the third class.)