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Experience is a measure of how seasoned a character is. Players have a general experience category that defines their overall level and individual experience for each their skills which defines how proficient they are.

Accumulation of experience will result in increasing the level of the player's character. A player will gain a new level when their experience total reaches the next breakpoint in the hierarchy shown in the following table:

Relationship between experience and level for the first 10 levels.

In the skills-based game, several kinds of experience exist. The score represents the “overall” proficiency of the player and is the sum of all the differing kinds of experience possessed.

The player accumulates experience into various “experience categories” according to their actions. Another way of putting this is that you become better at what you do most often and most successfully. For example, a player who kills monsters with incantations gains experience in casting incantations. A player who steals from creatures often will get better at stealing, and so on.

Each experience category will have a level assigned to it based on the amount of experience accumulated in it (using the same schedule shown in the table above.) Use the skills command to investigate which skills your character has and to see the level of ability you have in each experience category. See chapter 5 (Skills) for more information about skills and skill-based experience.

As an aside tip, monsters also are assigned a level of proficiency and may gain experience. The main way which monsters gain experience is by killing players! Beware going after a monster that has killed several players, it will be much more difficult to challenge!

Experience can be gained by defeating monsters through combat or by practicing artisanal skills

Experience is only award on the successful completion of a skill. For example, in combat, an opponent must be overcome in order to gain experience with a combat skill. Other examples include successfully finding/disarming a trap, stealing from some being, identifying an object, etc.

Gained experience is based on the difference in levels between the opponents and the amount of experience that they will reward.

Experience gained =

 - Opponent's experience value + a constant award based on the skill being used 
 - all multipled by:
   - A fixed amount based on the experience table, and
   - Either:
    - level of opponent - level of attacker (where the opponent has a higher level), or
    - 1 (if the opponent has the same level), or,
    - level of opponent / level of attacked (where the opponent has a lower level)

There are three different cases for how EXP (op) can be computed:

1. op is a living creature: EXP(op) is just the base experience award given in the spoiler.
2. op is a trap: EXP(op) = 1/(fraction of the time which the trap is visible). Thus, traps which are highly visible get lower values.
3. op is not a trap but is non-living: EXP(op) = internal experience award of the item. Also, the lvl_mult is multiplied by any magic enchantment on the item.

This means that it is combination of the difference in levels between “opponents,” experience point value of a “vanquished foe,” the type of “vanquished foe”, and the values of the associated stats of the skill being used and two factors that are set internally. (Note: If you want to know more about this, check out the skills_developers.doc.)

For example if a player with level 5 one-handed skill attacks and kills a Wyvern using this skill then:

Experience gained =

1. 4000 experience + a constant award based on the skill being used
2. all multipled by 3 (because wyvern's level is 8 - and player's skill level is 5)
3. and multipled by x.xx (because of stat modifier for one-handed skill)

Experience gained = (4000 + ) * 3 = 12000

- What is the constant award for one-handed weapons in this example?

1. Experience is split across party members on the same map as each other. Higher level characters get a larger portion of this split than lower level characters.
2. Shared experience goes to whichever skill was used to kill the monster. If a player doesn't have that skill, they will gain general experience as normal but no skill experience.
3. Only experience gained from killing monsters is shared. Experience from other sources, such as using the jeweler skill to identify jewelery, is not shared.

Each party member is given a number of “shares” equal to their character level + 4. If the total number of shares in the party is higher than the experience the monster gives, the experience is not split. If the monster does give enough experience to be split, then that experience is given to the party members based on how many shares they have. For example: Sam and Frodo are in a party together. Sam is level 1, and Frodo is level 6. Sam has 5 shares (level 1 + 4 = 5), and Frodo has 10 (level 6 + 4 = 10). Because Sam has a third of the party's shares (5 of 15), he will get a third of any shared experience. If they kill a monster worth 150 experience, then Sam will get 50 experience, and Frodo will get 100.