Arelith

Pale Master summons are having a crazy affect on XP.

My point of comparison time wise is the last few days (post summon change) and months ago so I can't pin point exactly when it changed.

Character is a Drow Pale Master. Level 5 with +2 ECL from gifts (Int and Crafting).

What is the bug
Any amount of summons absolutely tanks the XP gain to unplayable levels.

What have I tested
On the level 5 palemaster

Boneyards
With 1 or 2 undead summons out.
Everything is 1XP apart from - Fallen Champions which give 5 and the collosus bosses which give 54. Yellow monsters give 7.

I bumped into a level 6 spellsword who was kind enough to help me test this some more.

When any amount of undead summons are out the XP is unchanged from above.

When no summons are out while grouped we returned to normal values (Fallen Champion 17, Fallen Warrior 12, Bone Scavenger 10)

Driders
Most of them give around 5XP when summons are out

Stingers
Slaves give 7 up to 11 for champions.

Sewers
Everything gives 1XP

I also tested this on a different palemaster I had my vault, this one is level 7, having 2 or 3 undead summons out made no difference but experience for stingers was in the roughly 15 range - higher than the level 5.

I did chat briefly with Xerah about this, who didn't think the summon changes made any difference given how the ECL and XP scripts interact.

Additional Information

All tests were with the Tyrant Fog Zombie that is now the second tier of undead summons.

I did also level from 4 to 5 in the Boneyards with a single basic zombie from a scroll, this was getting lower than normal but doable amounts of XP from the spawns there, about 10 for the standard monsters and 110 for the collossus.

My point of comparison timewise for change was the previously mentioned level 7 Pale Master which I distinctly remember I leveled fine with the undead summons in the boneyards to level 7 (this was several months ago) and was only just starting to see XP drop off. Something has changed since then and its made leveling this kind of character very unpaletable since its either go somewhere waaaay above your level range where a single hit can kill you if the AI targets you over your summon or level up 1XP kill at a time.

Edit for reference in case people are unfamiliar with rough level ranges of content.
Boneyards - 3-8 (should be giving the level 5 somewhere in the 10-20XP range based on my previous experience)
Driders - Probably 7-12 (should be giving 20ish XP)
Stingers - Again probably 7 or 8 to 12-13 (should be giving 25-30XP)
Sewers - 3-6 (Probably 5ish xp, on the lower end and starting to drop off)

It may possibly not be a bug.

If you have two undead out, you receive 80% XP gain. Then you also have to account for your +4 ECL (2 from being a Drow and 2 from your gifts).

If my math is right, you would usually receive (assuming 0 ECL and no summons):
11 XP for Fallen
117 XP for Colossus
15 XP for Stinger Slaves
24 XP for Stinger Champions

Seems somewhat right for level 5?

Good Character wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 9:42 am It may possibly not be a bug.

If you have two undead out, you receive 80% XP gain. Then you also have to account for your +4 ECL (2 from being a Drow and 2 from your gifts).

If my math is right, you would usually receive (assuming 0 ECL and no summons):
11 XP for Fallen
117 XP for Colossus
15 XP for Stinger Slaves
24 XP for Stinger Champions

Seems somewhat right for level 5?

For clarity this was tested with a single undead out (Summon 2 and then unsummon one)

Also, without summons, so just at a +4 ECL I have tested with monsters that give around 10 XP, as soon as 1 summon comes out its 1XP, thats a drop of at least 90% (since I think there is a minimum of 1XP per monster killed no matter what). I would expect, with two summons something that gives 10 XP would give 8XP with them out if its supposed to drop it to 80%.

What are you getting with no summons or PC party members?

Good Character wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:03 am What are you getting with no summons or PC party members?

I have no idea I'm afriad because its a level 5 wizard.