Assuming I'm a human (or another race with no ECL adjustment), I've done all the side quests, and cleared out all the areas.

And yes, I realize I'll know the answer for myself eventually, but I've only just started a new game and it could be weeks before I get near the end, so I just want to know what to expect.

From experience I can confirm that there's enough experience for a Drow to reach level 20. I wouldn't be surprised if a Svirfneblin (with its odious +3 offset) could do so as well, I've never taken it to completion. So yes, a human can definitely hit level 20.

level 20 is the maximum for the OC.

When I exported my char and continued with MotB he started with level 21 and the exp bar to lv 22 was half full. So chars without ELC (e.g. human) will reach level 20 for sure.

In MotB I reached lv 30 before the end of the campaign with this char.

Edit: The exp you get from killing enemies are dependent on your average party level. So low level parties get more exp than high level parties when killing the same enemy. I am not sure how much of the exp penalty is compensated by this (never played a ELC race in the OC).

Thanks for the replies. Mainly I wanted to know because I'm planning a somewhat complex build for my character with multiple classes, so I wanted to make sure I had enough room to get to the levels I needed (else I'd have to use the console to reset, which is a pain).

The ECL races require more XP to level up, rather than earning less XP. Because of this, they actually lower your average party level and cause you to earn more XP overall. As a result, you won't be quite as far behind as the ECL would indicate.

Darvin is correct.

- ECL (enhanced character level ?) means you need more exp to get a level. ECL+1 means to get level X, you need as much exp as a human needs for level X+1.

- exp penalty means you get less exp because you have 2 classes that are not your favoured class and that are more than 1 level apart.

- ECL and exp penalty together = really bad

NOTE: it took me a long time to understand this. When I played for the very first time I chose an aasimar paladin because the stats were so good. When all other chars leveled up in the tutorial and I did not, I thought this game is totally bugged and I quit and it took some time till I tried again.

Hilarious! Especially considering it's explained in-game, and in the manual.