The "Growing Up" rule

[STARP_JVP]

This is a rule I use in my campaigns. I like it and I think it not only works, but is logical.

The way I see it, you don't start life as a Fighter or a Wizard. Everybody has a class, but when you're old enough to count as a classed individual, you don't just walk into one. There has to be a reason you become a 1st level...whatever. If there wasn't, every single warrior would be a fighter, every single adept would be a cleric, and so on.
The "Growing Up" rule allows people to change from an NPC class to another without multiclassing. It works like this:
The character is a 1st level Commoner. He comes from a standard, working-class family and has not had any special training while growing up. However, he falls in with a bad crowd, and becomes a street urchin.
Once he has amassed enough experience to advance to 2nd level (1000 XP), he can choose to become a 2nd level Commoner, OR he can eschew the Commoner class, become a 1st level Rogue, and 'reset' his experience back to 0XP. He then begins again, and once he advances to 2nd level again, he can add whatever class he likes - become a 2nd level Rogue or a 1st/1st level Rogue/Sorcerer or whatever he chooses.
I use this rule to let ordinary people become extra-ordinary. They 'grow up' from mundane to marvellous. It also explains why every character doesn't have a level of Commoner or Aristocrat, and why you get aristocratic or common characters without a level in those classes.

What do people think? I've been using this system for a while now, and it works. I don't make PCs start as an NPC class and then progress - I assume they already have when the campaign begins. I have used it for NPCs, however - under the tutelage of a PC, a number of NPCs have become more than their original class.

 

[Cabral]

So what happens if someone wants to become a Rogue after 2nd or later levels? Why not modify a mechanicl from the blackguard class (and a few others) and allow the character to trade in levels when they "grow-up"? So a 1st level commoner hits 2nd level and takes a level of rogue (1 Rog/1 Com) and decides to "grow-up" by trading in one level of commoner for one level of rogue (2 Rog).

 

[Spatzimaus]

IMC we actually did something like this, but instead of "resetting" the XP meter, it was more of a graduated system. NPC class levels cost less XP, and you could trade them in for "real" class levels later on, but this was only intended for the first few levels. The idea was that there shouldn't be such a huge jump from level 1 to level 2,

So, everyone started as a level 1 Commoner as a child. The goal was that after gaining two levels (3000 XP) you'd be an adult, with the normal assortment of PC class levels, but before then you'd be a mix of half-trained classes. Effectively, each die went through three stages: Commoner, NPC (the other four, or any of the one-level half-strength "apprentice" rules for PC classes), PC. You couldn't have more than three total dice until you re-entered the normal progression at 3000 XP, so no stacking up tons of Commoner levels, and no way to accidentally create a multiclass penalty.

At 0 XP you're a Commoner 1. For each quarter of a level (250, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 XP, 8 steps) you have the option of adding a new Commoner die or upgrading one of your existing classes by one "step".

Let's say you wanted to be a pure Bard, by way of the Noble NPC class. So, at 750 XP (3 "upgrades") you might be a Bard 1/Commoner 1, Noble 1/Commoner 2, Noble 2, Noble 1/Apprentice Bard, or Apprentice Bard/Commoner 2. Plenty of variation. Now, we had to fudge a few of the relationships involved (what happens to a Noble's weapon and armor proficiency when he completely "upgrades" to Bard?), but in the end it worked well. And, it made NPCs more interesting, which was always a plus; we worked up rules for someone who wanted to stay an NPC class beyond the first few levels, but it was more trouble than it was worth.