I'm playing Icewind Dale 2 (not Enhanced) and I discovered that my PCs haven't gained any XP since entering Kuldahar. Has anyone else encountered this problem, and do you know a fix for it? Most of them are just short of 13th level, so it surely can't be that I've hit the level cap.

I was aware that you get less XP for a given monster if you're a higher level, but I don't think that explains the problem I'm having. I went from getting 225 XP each for killing wights, to getting nothing for killing yuan-ti, without an increase in level.

Almost level 13 is normal at that point of the game. The Yuan-ti don't have special abilities like wights and are therefore considered less challenging. Just keep on playing and you will meet more powerful monsters and you can also do quests for XP.

Update: I already had some parts of the IWD2-ease mod installed, but not the "Always Get Some XP Per Kill" feature. I reinstalled it and enabled that feature, and now I'm getting XP again, so I guess that was the reason after all. Somebody must have screwed up the coding, though; according to the D&D 3.5 Monster Manual, wights are CR 3 and yuan-ti abominations are CR 7. So I ought to be getting *more* XP for them.

IWD2 does have a few bugs so that wouldn't be surprising. Glad you got the problem sorted though :)

Of note, I believe that if you add a new 1st level character to your party, the rest of your party will start earning more XP, because the game follows the 3rd edition rule of basing XP on average party level. This also means that if you choose not to level someone up when able, you will get more XP than if you did gain the level.

Whether you consider this fair is up to you. Personally, I blame the ruleset; there's no bug in the game to exploit, but the underlying game mechanics are flawed.

3.5e is a bit more sensible in that the game bases XP on each individual character's level. There's also supposed to be a rule that prevents you from being able to gain more XP than you should, but it is not actually implemented in this game or any other Bioware/Black Isle AD&D game. (It is implemented in Temple of Elemental Evil, where the rule helps mitigate this sort of exploit, and in the SSI Gold Box games, where (IMO) it does more harm than good since you can only level up in specific locations.)

I knew it was only a matter of time before you saw this thread and posted the above.

The OP wanted to know why he wasn't getting XP, he wasn't looking for an exploit to get more XP.

inb4levelsquattingisnotanexploit

Be aware that mods which always grant XP for kills are actually cheats which let you level up faster and will make the game less challenging than it's supposed to be.

I find nothing more annoying in a RPG as the lack of reward for my effort as it happens in IWD2. That's one of the reason why I really enjoyed IWD2 much less than IWD1.