Create an item that decrease the xp recieved

[AmiableApkallu]

your level is going to be at least ten over the zones your quests send you to, so there is no thrill to first-time exploring new zones when you've only just gotten to them in the story but you already know nothing is going to try to attack you unless you attack first

That's already the case for every zone? If you want to engage a trash mob, you run towards it and attack it. If you want to avoid it, you... simply go around it. There's nothing magical or difficult about aggro mechanics.

On the other hand, side quests... those should sync to your current level, for sure.

[Tahli]

If the purpose is to have people experience the game in the way it was originally and to take things slow then being able to turn it off whenever you want doesn't make sense. It cheapens the entire experience if you go, "Oh I'm soo close to leveling maybe I'll take my ring off for this one quest." which people will definitely do. No, take away the temptation entirely.

Or there's people who do a LOT of Fates, field content, PvP etc who simply don't want those things to cause imbalance in their exp??

[BunnyBrat]

It also makes leveling your chocobo difficult if your level is significantly higher than where you are in msq. Bumping this

[UkcsAlias]

but I just tell them that being overleveled does not matter, because their real level is the level of the MSQ quest.

Yet that is only half of the story.

The reason overleveling is bad, is that other jobs at that point cant easily catch up to enable spreading the xp. And being lvl 100 in shadowbringers means you will lose a lot of xp from that point onward, unless you level another job far enough. This either means losing a lot of xp, or spending a lot of time leveling another job before the msq can take over.

Slowing the leveling and throwing away the xp is a bad idea to me though, as i think that this xp should at least be granted back through another route. Something as simple as just giving a static +20% xp on all other jobs means that eventualy the xp will be given out, while not being overleveled. Sure, it means the value has to be stored somewhere, but there are several other areas where this can help, as this then also means lvl 100 quests can now grant xp that help the lower level jobs. Lvl 90 quests now do give some xp, but at the end of EW you didnt get it. So technicaly everyone that completed the story then has lost quite some xp through it.

And overleveling has a serious negative effect on some fights. Especialy when you have those open world encounters, these dont scale up. So a lvl 83 enemy just gets 1 shotted, its a dull aspect of the msq because of that. Sure, these fights arent the most interesting, but its at least a fight. Even just traversing the zone towards the next area changes a lot when not overleveled, as random mobs can now be a hazard, and again force a few fights out of it.

Sure, its minimal things, but since we want to get a better msq experience, it does add up.

Also, in each expansion i was able to level 3 jobs at once easily, while just balancing the MSQ xp so jobs are at most 1 level overleveled. The msq xp is good for 2 jobs, while roulettes do allow a 3rd one to be leveled alongside it. Just using 1 job for the MSQ will result in a huge loss of xp gained (and if you use that same job for other activities, its even worse).

[Kandraxx]

Does it really matter if you kill the noname enemy that spawns out of the purple circle with 3 or 10 random button presses?

[Jeeqbit]

This either means losing a lot of xp, or spending a lot of time leveling another job before the msq can take over.

Slowing the leveling and throwing away the xp is a bad idea to me though, as i think that this xp should at least be granted back through another route.

This doesn't matter because experience is easy to get in this game. For example, you can go and do beast tribe quests and get a massive chunk of exp each day for 10 minutes of work (or less). Additionally, you are rewarded for this if you didn't fully rank the tribe yet.

And overleveling has a serious negative effect on some fights. Especialy when you have those open world encounters, these dont scale up. So a lvl 83 enemy just gets 1 shotted

Your level increases, but your gear does not. If you level without increasing your gear, you actually become weaker, because level dilutes stats. The only thing that makes up for this at all is new actions, abilities and potency increases, so it evens out enough.

Most fights take place in an instance, and due to this, the level gets synced anywhere. Therefore, it's not a problem in my opinion.

Also, in each expansion i was able to level 3 jobs at once easily

I can't relate to that because, for me personally, the exp is just enough. People who advise sprouts to level multiple jobs this way trap them when they have to find a way to level up the other job to the level of the MSQ and waste their time when they could be enjoying the story.