D&D 5E Level Up! DING, fries are done!

[Saeviomagy]

Retries at knowledge checks require new information from an outside source (including the player figuring something out) in my game - you can't just retry them whenever your bonus changes.

Typically I give out XP/levels when there is a lull, so dinging mid-combat doesn't happen, and given that levelling up is a fairly disruptive process, I can't see any scenario where I might change that. If I was willing to level people mid-combat, then most of the rest of what you say would be true.

As for druids and metal armor? Who knows. As far as I can tell, there's nothing beyond "druids will not wear metal armor" written in the rules. No mechanical penalties and no flavour text. Just that one sentence. Given that, and also given that they use metal weapons just fine, I'd be inclined to say that the druid class doesn't give proficiency with any metal armor or shield, and leave it at that. A multiclass druid will have no mechanical problems, and flavour is flavour is flavour.

 

[TarionzCousin]

In the past (the dark ages of gaming known as 'the 80s')....

I thought we few survivors had agreed to not talk about those dark, dark days.

 

[Shiroiken]

I usually give out XP between sessions (we have a lot of online communication), but restrict level ups to after a Long Rest.

 

[Evenglare]

I really like how 13th age does level ups with the incremental advances. Instead of "Level up and step up in power", each advancement (milestone) you get to pick between increasing HP, Attack, getting new spells, getting a new ability from the next level etc. I might write up some sort of rules for this in 5e, I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult. One thing I will say for 5e, I like that they introduced the training aspect with paying gold to someone who has to teach you all the stuff before you officially level. Reminded me of Everquest's early skill leveling system.

 

[redrick]

I usually tally xp between sessions and e-mail it to players. That's easier to keep track of and also keeps a paper trail in case somebody confuses the math.

If players hit get enough xp at the end of a session, but haven't stopped for a long rest, I'll ask them to prepare and announce their leveling choices for the beginning of the session, but to hold off on any changes til they take a long rest. Personally, I would rather use more rigorous training requirements, but we didn't start the game under those pretenses and I don't think the players would go for it.

There was one time, I think level 2 or 3, where players crossed a level threshold early in the session and then went back to town. I think I went ahead and had them level on the spot because the choices at their point were fairly minor. There was also a session which ended shortly after a long rest — players had breakfast and then started off down the road. When I tallied the xp the next day, I realized that they had reached level 6, so we retconned them leveling up the night before.

As an aside, training time and requirements also seem to break down with some adventure formats. For instance, our last adventure, Castle Amber, basically involved the characters being stuck in a haunted castle for something like 7 days of game time. During that time, they accrued enough xp to pick up 2 levels. If I had made them wait until they could get back to town to spend a week studying with a master, I think I'd probably be looking for a new group of players.

 

[Tormyr]

Because we are running a 3.5 AP, and most chapters span 2 levels, I have the PCs level for the start of a new chapter and halfway through the chapter, wherever that may be. Each chapter takes about 2 months. If I waited until a long rest or something else, the players might only get 1 or 2 weeks at a level.

 

[Riley37]

Would this be a good time to bring up the training rules from page 131 of the Dungeon Master's Guide?

This would be an *excellent* time to bring up those rules. It might even be the best time to bring up those rules, in the entire history of the Enworld 5E forum!

It's imperfect, that those rules are the only alternative given in the books, to the RAW-but-crazy scenario I described in the first post. They strike me as rough guidelines, and I would never apply them as actual rules. For example, if a druid trains from level 19 to 20, where does that 80 GP go? Does the druid pay GP directly to the oak tree and the holly tree? Does the druid throw it down a well? If they're the world's only Level 20 druid, are they still paying 80 GP to a trainer?

Can a bard skip the training time by arranging a montage?

Fortunately, some DMs have found alternative methods, and shared them in this thread, such as requiring a Long Rest or a meal.

Is there a shorthand term for "RAW-but-crazy"? Rules As Written and Played Dysfunctionally?

I usually give out XP between sessions (we have a lot of online communication), but restrict level ups to after a Long Rest.

That raises questions about the relationship between "D&D as TRPG" and "D&D as PBM" (play-by-mail). I also do a mix of those two; when I say "question", that's not a euphemism for "attack".

Are you - or is anyone else - assuming that certain things always happen at session transitions? Are they always like the end of an episode of Happy Days, with every aspect of the story reverting to its baseline? I treat session breaks as "freeze frames", or "commercial breaks", whether the session break interrupts a detailed combat scene or downtime. At my table, *any* advancement of the story, in any way, happens during a session. But what happens at the table, might well follow a path which the player and I had pre-established, by trading ideas over email. Thus, all the other players may have input or questions, as needed, on every advancement of the story; but their session time is not spent on the negotiations which are specific to one particular player and the DM.

Well, anyways, that's a topic for another thread.

I was also thinking of Long Rest as a reasonable requirement, and I allow PCs to also do related Long Rest tasks such as swapping prepared spells.

This druid wears metal armor, it seems.

Yes, but it's not his fault! At the time he put the armor on, he was not a druid. At the moment he became a druid, he was *already* wearing metal armor. He did not *put on* metal armor while he was a druid. Does he have to remove the studded leather armor, or can he just yank the metal studs out of the armor? Can he replace them with bone studs, or tortoise shell studs? The druids-and-armor rule has its own issues, aside from level gain; but it has an especially problematic intersection with the DING! approach to levelling.

For what it's worth, there are even stronger versions of the DING! approach. There is at least one fantasy tactical simulation, Westnoth, in which levelling up *mid-combat* allows a full-HP-heal, which can of course be very advantageous as a mid-combat event.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Would this be a good time to bring up the training rules from page 131 of the Dungeon Master's Guide?

Now you've got me - not owning any 5e stuff save Starter Set and Basic Rules - curious. How do the rules look like? Looking for a trainer, skimming gold, and spending time like in the days of old?

 

[LostSoul]

This would be an *excellent* time to bring up those rules. It might even be the best time to bring up those rules, in the entire history of the Enworld 5E forum!

It's imperfect, that those rules are the only alternative given in the books, to the RAW-but-crazy scenario I described in the first post. They strike me as rough guidelines, and I would never apply them as actual rules. For example, if a druid trains from level 19 to 20, where does that 80 GP go?

Drugs.

 

[S'mon]

Last session I let a PC level up 1st to 2nd mid-session with a short rest. Most levelling up is likely to be at the end of the session as part of an overnight rest.
I'm not using multiclassing; if the PCs were gaining weird new powers (eg Fighter becoming Eldritch Knight) I'd require at least an overnight rest, possibly a week of downtime. If I did allow multiclassing then at least a week of study under an appropriate N/PC mentor would be in order.