Topic: How about a soft level cap

So the background to this idea is that at level 11 my favorite sellswords stop getting better in any way except by gear or very lucky events.

I understand the level cap – it’s needed to make perks like Gifted, Backstabber and Anticipation matter. Without a cap you could simply outlevel their usefulness.

But the problem here is that a hard cap kills any sense of progress and I doubt that the farmhand I hired 150 days ago, learned everything there is to know about combat in that short span of time.

So to keep the sense of progress going, my suggestion would be the introduction of a soft level cap instead of a hard one at level 11.

How should this look ?

Of course you can’t keep giving your sellswords 3 picks per level anymore, because of the aforementioned reasons. My idea would be that each level after 11 costs the same amount of xp as going from 10-11, and is repeatable from there on. The difference will be in the stat gain from there on:

* You no longer gain another perk after level 11
* You can no longer raise 3 skills but only 1.
* The stat growth could be between 1-4, depending on your talents. Non talents = 1 pt, 1 star = 2 pts, 2 stars = 3 pts, 3 stars 4 pts

This is just a suggestion, giving 3 star skills a 4 pt growth after level 11 might be a bit too overwhelming. Another option would be to allow 1 pt for normal skills and 2 pts for talent skills, but no longer making any different between 1/2/3 stars.

Example:

One of your sellswords hits level 11. Then he survives long enough to get sufficient xp to hit level 12 (which is the same cost as from 10-11). He does not get a new perk at 12, but he can invest another point into one of his skills. His melee skill has 2 stars, so he decides to rise this skill by another 3 points.

Conclusion:

For me, as a player, this would add a sense of progress after hitting level 11 and make it more enjoyable to continue using my level capped sellswords. Hitting the level cap currently feels so final – after that there is nowhere to go for your sellswords and they usually end up being sidelined until getting replaced by a new recruit with better starting talents and skills.

Considering the hordes of opponents you have to face later on, it would not feel wrong to be able to train true legends of battle.