When looking at Fanra's Fellowship wiki: https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Fellowships the last point under XP sharing says: "Normal level restrictions apply. The receiver must be within the normal group experience sharing level range. (Receiver must be 2/3 level of the donor.)" So, if I have a max level (well, 120) character, I can't share XP to a char lower than level 90? That sounds surprising to me. Is that true, or have things changed in the last 13 years?
This applies for everything (or so it seems): https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Tips_and_Guides#Levels_in_group_experience_and_missions “For reference, the criteria for experience level range is as follows: Characters within 5 levels of the highest level character in the group will always gain experience. Otherwise, characters must be at least 2/3rd of the level of the highest level character in the group to gain experience. The maximum spread is 30. (So, for example, a level 67 would not gain experience with a level 100, even though she is 2/3rds of his level, because the maximum spread is enforced at 30.)”— Prathun, EQ Developer There was also an independent 15 level range cap on most group missions (10 levels on LDoNs). With the release of Hate Rising this was changed so that any group that can share experience should be able to enter the same task in most cases.
Thanks. So, probably not even worth all the remembering when to turn everyone on/off for sharing, then
The fellowship XP sharing, is much less effective now that it just builds up vitality on the alts, however, if one has a ringer (powerful character capable of destroying mobs), it can be used to build up the vitality so that those gaining while offline get a boost when they do get to play. The vitality bonus does not last long, and everyone now has all the veteran rewards so the Lesson of the Devoted, is probably about as useful. It is possible if can't play until weekend to log a in day or two early long enough to click the LOTD, and than use it up and click the second during playtime.
I do think the level limits apply, so yes, at 120 characters below 90 wouldn't build vitality if sharing... as far as I know. I haven't tried it. That said, fellowship xp can still be very useful in the right situation. If you have max lvl/max aa character(s) in a fellowship that share xp with lower level characters that aren't played much, it's a great way to level them up fast when they are played. From what I've seen vitality gives ~5x the regular experience gain so is quite a bit faster than using lesson. A full vitality bar seems to last for 5? maybe a bit more? levels worth of boosted xp gain.
I mainly use it because my main is near cap on XP 50 weeks of the year, so splitting it out makes my playtime feel less wasted.
