Character Advancement A crucial part of any game is character advancement When you gain levels, your decisions on how to build your character shape your actions both in and out of combat The following is a brief summary of character advancement, followed by a series of character kits with suggestions on specific feats, magic items, and other options to pick when leveling up that aren’t covered by race or class Gaining a Level When you reach a milestone such as completing a story arch or earning experience beyond threshold of your current level, you advance your level Often, this is done behind the scenes Sometimes, you will have the opportunity to apply your character’s new level while in a safe location that also allows you to adjust other aspects of the party, such as selling looted items, buying something specific or more useful, or training and researching Milestone Leveling With milestone leveling, characters don’t gain experience in the same way as a video game character, so they are always able to make it back to town before being showered with rewards Benefits: Milestone leveling is an easy way to set expectations in players They know that once they have surpassed the requirements of the arc, they’re going to gain a level They’ll come back to town with a laundry list of things to accomplish, including optimizing equipment for the next outing, tracking down the new spells they must learn, or determining their feats and ability adjustments If somebody is going to miss a session, they can plan around that and level their character up on their own when they have the time without missing any of the ongoing story Character Advancement 124 Character Level 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Feats – – – – – – – – – 10 – Ability Increase – – – 1st – – – 2nd – – – 3rd – – – 4th – – – 5th Gold (gp) by class 1,000 gp 3,000 gp 6,000 gp 10,500 gp 16,000 gp 23,500 gp 33,000 gp 46,000 gp 62,000 gp 82,000 gp 108,000 gp 140,000 gp 185,000 gp 240,000 gp 315,000 gp 410,000 gp 530,000 gp 685,000 gp 880,000 gp For Gamemasters, milestone leveling allows for a flat playing field, where the party can potentially reach the final encounter of an adventure at any time during play because it will be as comparatively difficult as the rest There are fewer pieces of the puzzle to consider, and planning takes less time because of the narrower list of options Drawbacks: Sometimes the definition of what makes something an arc is unclear, and it can go on for some time In play terms, weeks of game sessions may pass while players struggle with a puzzle, difficult and time-consuming combats, or missed opportunities to play due to life Stories pervade social media of players who have languished at levels as low as or for a year or more because the party is still in the same dungeon Per Encounter Experience Per encounter experience can still achieve most of the goals of leveling up without breaking the story During an hour period of rest, characters can still basic training and research, or practice new techniques that can prove useful before they leave the area Benefits: Once they have the experience required to gain their new level, characters may have a breakthrough, or their practice pays off This is especially useful when a new spell, such as restoration, breath of life, or resurrection is needed and there is no time to walk back into town for a scroll that may not even be there It also helps characters whose tactics until now may not have been the most effective By picking up a different feat or character option, that player now has a better chance of dealing with what’s to come Gamemasters can also benefit from per encounter experience Since they can plan ahead for the experience gain, the GM can plot out stronger, more complex encounters as the current adventure continues, giving things a more natural growth pattern, and providing more options when looking for potential adversaries, traps, and other challenges for the party Drawbacks: Tracking party experience in the middle of a densely populated dungeon or other in game event can seemingly break immersion when not handled carefully The hydra dies and suddenly the wizard knows how to fly? There’s also the question of when to actually apply the encounter experience and what it means to gain a level midday Does the party get a full refresh as if having rested hours? Does the wizard now have extra spell slots when before he was firing his crossbow because he was out? Should they instead wait until there’s an opportunity to rest that may not come for 3-5 more encounters? Incremental Experience One potential solution to the drawbacks of both milestone leveling and per encounter experience is a hybrid of the two, adjustable by GM on the fly and on a case-by-case basis Benefits: Options exist that divide a character’s level into its component parts: Hit dice, attack bonus, saves, skills, and features (which may or may not include spells) Experience per level is then divided by a value (usually 4) and at each smaller threshold players choose which combination of those options they want Once all options have been chosen, the player has gained their full level and may begin progressing on the next This helps characters to feel like there’s a flow to their growth and more frequent rewards gained during play Drawbacks: There are times when a piece of the current level doesn’t garner a true reward for the player If I don’t gain an increase in my attack bonus for the level, nine times out of ten I will push that off to the end of my batch, then feel like I’ve effectively gained nothing for the last quarter of my current level