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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7237361" data-attributes="member: 2629">Once again, if you like the idea of ASIs coming at character levels, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 19 rather than at certain class levels, it is pretty easy to fix.Each class gains a mix of abilities as they progress.  They can general be broken down into two categories: 1.) Abilities that are gained once at a particular level (One Time Abilities), and 2,) Abilities that advance every level as the character advances in the class (Advancing Abilities).One Time Abilities are gained when a PC advances to a certain level, but generally remain static after gained.  Let's look at a fighter for examples.  At first level they gain a fighting style which is a perfect example of a One Time Ability.  At second level they gain the ability to use Action Surges once per short rest.  This is another One Time Ability gain.  We'd classify the 'bonus' ASIs that rogues and fighters get as One Time Abilities.Advancing Abilities may begin at a certain level, but once gained they advance every level.  The prototypical example is spellcasting abilities.  A wizard learns spells for their spellbook every level, gains more spell slots every level, and can prepare more spells every level.  Going back to the fighter, Second Wind is an example of an ability gained at level one that advances every level (in terms of the hps healed advancing by one each level) and is thus an advancing ability.If you want to have a character gain ASIs at character level 4, 8, 12, 16 and 19 - rather than at those class levels - you do the following:1.) When a character advances through character levels 1 to 3, 5 to 7, etc... (non-ASI levels), they gain one time and advancing class abilities as normal, except they skip over the levels where ASI are presented in the class progression for the class they are taking.  2.) When they gain an ASI level (4,8,12,16 and 19), they select the class in which they are advancing and only gain the Advancing Ability benefits (and the ASI).  You cannot start a new class at an ASI level.Example: Bob is a fighter 2, wizard 1 (3rd character level).  Under both the normal approach to character advancement or my modified one, the character will be the same at this point.  Let's say that he is going to advance to level 4 under my system.  As this is an ASI level, he can't choose a class in which he has no levels, so he must advance either fighter or wizard.  He would advance to either fighter 3 or wizard 2.  Under the normal rules, if he advanced to fighter 3, he would gain his martial archetype and his second wind would increase to d10+3.  Under my system, he instead gets an ASI and only gets the benefit of the increase to second wind.  When he next advanced a fighter level after this point, he would gain that martial archetype and the second wind would advance to d10+4.  Under the normal rules if he instead advanced to wizard 2, he would have added an arcane tradition at this level, would have added 2 spells to their spellbook, would have been able to prepare an extra spell, and would have been able to cast one additional first level spell.  Under my system, he gains an ASI and gains all of those benefits EXCEPT the arcane tradition.  When he next advanced a wizard level, he would gain that arcane tradition and see all of those other benefits advance a level (gaining 2 second level slots as well as once more first level slot).  Note that if Bob advances to fighter 4 / wizard 1, he'll be back in the same position he'd have been in had he not used my system.  He'd have one level of ASI abilities, 3 levels of one-time abilities from fighter, 4 level of advancing fighter abilities (second wind), and one level of wizard abilities across the board.  For the next two levels he'd stay in 'synch' with the normal rules, btu might fall out of them again at level 8 if he doesn't balance his fighter and wizard levels at 4/4 at that point.This works.  I've used it once and it didn't break anything.  It wasn't necessary, but it made the player feel better about his Fighter 3/Barbarian 3/Ranger 3/Paladin 3.</blockquote>

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