I'm really torn about this perk. It is a 5% XP buff that only applies to kills, and the majority of XP in the game is earned through quests not combat. I'm getting very little XP for fighting, maybe 20 per enemy. At most I've had like 100 maybe but other people might have more. So that's 5xp on the occasional 100xp enemy. Does this seem like a really bad deal? It does to me.

It's all academic to me anyway, as next playthrough I'm going to give myself all the perks from the beginning using cheat engine.

There are much more interesting perks to get. I never was lacking in exp. I have a good chunk of quests left untouched and Im at level 20. The perks for schematics are way more useful, especially if you get them early in the game.

@apothaeos: @bargainben: I know there are really worthwhile perks, and that is valid discussion, but I'm specifically wondering how much this perk accelerates your levelling.

I noticed no significant change. Cus um. Its 5%.

I found myself getting pretty much every wortwhile perk by the end of the game, and that is one of the ones I picked up. It's not the best perk in the game, but you need a certain number of other Forces perks to access some of the best ones, and that one is better than most of the other low level perks like Rider's Posture or the ones that give you extra codex exp.

In other words, as long as you don't have anything immediately more useful to pick then you might as well get it. If you get it early it does add up.

I've not played this one yet, but in the other DA (Origins) XP from quests is more signifcant and RPGs in general an XP perk is generally something they give you for early game that quickly becomes usless.

If the game's moment to moment is interesting enough and has good mechanics for combat I usually skip these kinds of perks. They're pointless in these kinds of RPGs (it's much more significant in an MMO, though). The reason being that they designed the game around how much XP you can get and progression and what not. An XP bonus wouldn't even factor into it. They only add it, usually, because they can't think of anything else and it's such a small amount that it won't unbalance anything on it's own.

Edit: that is of course unless it's a tree and you need to get it to get more significant perks after it. If that is the case, then ignore everything I said.

@cornbredx: Well this game definitely isn't balanced around any kind of exp progression. If you ignore the quest level suggestions and try to explore everything as soon as the game lets you then you'll be way overleveled for content. It's certainly not a necessary perk by any means, but it's also not the worst perk they offer you.

It's not really a tree per se. Some of the perks require a certain number of other perks (or agents) to unlock them, but in most of those cases any perk in that category counts.

Probably would recommend not to take the 5% perk.

I like the two(?) conversation ones the most. They've been useful a greeeaaat deal, they're usable in surprisingly many conversations.

Don't take the warrior/mage/rogue schematic ones. You get maybe one schematic for an ok weapon but it's not gonna last you long.

Short list seems like the schematics related one to get.

Deft hands, fine tools - gets you some ok things once in a while. A must for some of the collectibles if you want to get those. Also as far as I can tell it's required in order to complete the the collection side-quest you get from one of the early party characters.

If it's extra XP you're after, take the conversation perks instead. They get you bonus XP to every codex entry you unlock, and the bonus stacks for each one of those perks you have. I've got three of the four and I'm getting 125XP per codex unlock. Seeing as how there's about a thousand codex entries, that particular bonus adds up fast, especially if you take them early. As an added bonus, the extra conversation options come in surprisingly handy. I've been able to recruit a few agents I don't think I would have been able to otherwise and gotten additional options in some of the judgments by using them.

@lawgamer: I was under the impression each one only gave you a bonus when it's a subject relevant to the perk. In other words, at most you would get +50% on every codex entry if you took all of them.

Even if that perk was free I wouldn't get it because it's super easy to outlevel the content and exp boosts would just make things worse.

It depends on how you play the game. If you're going for a completionist playthrough don't get it, you're gonna be overleveled anyway. And the exp you gain from killing enemies it's already diminished if your level is higher than theirs (by the way big enemies in the late game are worth a lot more than 20-100 exp). If you're not interested in exploring every cranny and doing every stupid quest i'd say go for it.

@zeik: Seems to apply to everything for me.

This.

If there was a perk to reduce xp gained by 5% that would be worth taking.

Also perks like this are nevery worth it in any game. If you do the math 5% extra xp only makes you level up a couple of fights earlier for every level.

If you get it early enough Yes. If you're getting it anytime after your first perk then don't bother a 5% xp perk is only going to benefit you in the long game so if you get it as soon as you get your first perk then sure its worth it because you're most likely still only what? Level 7-8 at that point?

I think it's completely useless, since reaching max. level isn't that hard and you can seriously overlevel yourself for some parts of the game anyway.

In general 5% XP (or 5% anything) is quite good, but in a game with a fairly low level cap (relative to the amount of content in the game) it's basically useless. If the game had no level cap and the XP was applied universally it would obviously lead to you being 2-4 levels higher at the end of the game, and that's good.

@fredchuckdave: It doesn't have a level cap in single player, but even then it's a negligible bonus.

@alkusanagi: Wait what? This actually doesn't cap at 20? I feel like I've been lied to if that's the case.

I was under that impression too, but then I hit level 21 and realized I was wrong

No it would not.

I dont know the exact numbers in Dragon Age Inqusition but lets take Dragon Age origins as an example as im fairly sure its about the same.

Level 24 is 172000xp

Level 25 is 186000xp

In other words there is 14000xp to gain a new level. 5% extra xp at level 24 is 8600xp wich mean you wouldnt even be one level higher at the end of the game no matter if you hit the level cap or not.

Its just a smokescreen, extra xp talents are always not worth it.

There is no level cap.

@ll_exile_ll: Technically there is. After you reach a certain level above an enemy, you no longer get xp from it. So once you hit I would say 27 (just a guess I have no idea what the actual level is) you would stop getting xp from enemies. And there is a set number of quests. So you would eventually hit a hard cap as there would be nothing left that would grant you xp. Meaning there is only so much xp in the game, which means you could never go above an exact level (I would probably put money on 30, as was origins). I'm 23 now and I don't get xp from anything in the Hinterlands. Probably a couple other areas also. But I only recently noticed this in the Hinterlands.

All true, but that's not really a level cap. As long as there is still content you haven't done you can still earn XP and level up and you're never going to be gaining XP that doesn't bring you closer to the next level as you would by hitting a level cap. There is only so much potential XP in the game, but any XP you get counts towards a level up no matter what your level is.

On that note, I have to commend them to for maintaining pretty much the same level progression in every game in the series. I did every quest in all three games in my first playthrough and ended the game at level 24 in each game. What's interesting is that Origins took me 60 hours, DA II 40 hours, and Inquisition 100+, yet I was level 24 when the credits rolled in each game. Clearly they know exactly how to tune the pace of leveling to be consistent for each game despite the differences in the amount of content.

@ll_exile_ll: you run into the level cap sterling was talking about. At s certain level you just get less and less xp so it doesnt mayter if you kill 1000 or 10000 enemies you still end up at 24 but you hit 24 after 500 enemies

Yes, I understand how the game's XP system works. Doesn't make it a level cap.

@ll_exile_ll: Thats not what i ment. My point is they dont have to tune the pace of the leveling any different with this soft level cap. No matter if its an 40 hour or an 100+hour game you will end up at the same levels.

@sterling: @ll_exile_ll: @rethla: I see what you're all saying, and you're all correct, but Exile has a point. If you are 3 levels above the enemy you stop receiving XP from the fight and that puts a limit. By the open nature of the game, that is not a hard cap, if your levelling is front loaded with combat XP and back loaded with quest XP your 'cap' will be a lot higher than if you get a lot of quest XP early and combat XP later.

You're running up against definition of 'cap', and soft vs hard caps. There's a big difference between a natural cap (because there's limited content to gain XP) and a designed cap (designated levelling progression). The end result is still that a player can fall anywhere between lvl 20 and 30 with the content in the game depending on the distribution of combat and quest XP.

@alistercat: Same difference. Its a cap none the less. This soft or hard cap is just semantics. You can only get to a certain level. I got to level 22 before doing any story missions after skyhold. And from there it just pretty much stopped. Took me 20 hours to get to level 23 after that. And I've been playing another 20ish hours and I still haven't hit level 24. I've done everything there is to do at the point I am in the game currently. I litterly have no side missions left to do. And only two story missions. I get no combat from xp from anything. I've killed all dragons also. I only get xp now from the story missions. I will finish the game level 24. I am now very sure you can not go over level 24. So there for that is the cap. No matter how you look at it. Its a cap. Unless once I do second to last story mission and all the sudden 100 new side quests pop up, I will not be able to get to level 25.