D&D 5E Leveling Up

[Mercule]

They don't recover any of their expended resources, but they do get all their new stuff- their additional HD, new hps, spells, etc- immediately. Since I run an "everyone starts at 1st level" game, it seems like it would just plain be cruel not to let them have the level as soon as they've earned (and received) the xp (I don't always give xp out immediately when it's earned, sometimes it's after a few encounters, after a hard encounter or at the end of the session).

Along these lines, I don't do the Ding! that some video games do (note: that's not a swipe, just a level-up comparison). The PC doesn't reset to full HP, gain back spell slots, etc. All the maxes go up, but they still need whatever mechanism is available (healing, rest, etc.) to refill them. I believe it was the question, in 3e, of whether the PC wizard got the two new spells immediately that pushed my ruling into "you need to regroup".

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I do it exactly like this:

After leaving the goblin hideout, sometime between setting up camp in the evening and breaking down camp the next morning…


Pouring over her spellbook and design notes, Amiira finally grasps the last elements of the two spells she had been working on, finishing and refining her notations for later reference. As she ponders on the arcane principles involved, a sudden insight causes her transmutation training to click into place, and she confidently begins experimenting with minor transmutations of simple substances.

In the morning, she finds herself able to contain an additional spell preparation in her mind, and knows this indicates she also has an additional expression of the first circle available to her.


As he practices his swordsmanship, Lairos realizes that the flurry of combat from the last day has refined and honed his skills. While his resilience and defensive capabilities have increased, he's now attained something more. Many expert warriors learn to increase the speed of their attack, but only a true fighter learns such a mastery of the field that he can tap into his strength to give that little bit more than others. Whether it's a flurry of fast attacks, an extra defensive edge, or a hasty retreat, he can push himself to give exactly what he needs at the moment—and he's know he will need it.


Rufus has studied most of his life to learn the arts of armed and unarmed combat, but until this evening his sense of ki, the magical force of the multiverse that flows through living beings, was more theoretical than practical. But as he meditates on his experiences, following the breathing exercises he learned in his training, he finally senses an energy, feels it flowing through him, and knows he can direct it. Prepared for this by his training, he knows that he can wield it to perform lightning fast strikes, maintain an equal focus on attack and defense, or deftly escape from his opponents, tumbling and leaping with uncanny agility.


Kamil's battering and bruising received over the course of the day may have wounded his pride as it brought him close to death, but the Lord of the Dead was not displeased. As he sleeps that night, his visions fill him with insights and he awakes infused with power, knowing that he can not only prepare an additional spell and cast an additional expression of the first degree, but that his faith has blossomed into the power to preserve the living the banish the dead.


*Bam* 'What was that?' thought Miri, as a new magical effect sprang out of nowhere. Wait…there it is…aha! She could sense it now. A spell tickled her awareness, and she intuitively plucked mastery of it out of the Weave. She can cast another spell each day, she feels, and something more. Pure magic seems to be flowing through her, and she's pretty sure she can channel it into an extra casting if she wants to.


Now you see him, now you don't. Rhogar's bobbing and weaving through the fray had really honed his skills. He had put in his time and figured out the tricks. If he focuses on it, he realizes he can harness his agility better than most, move swiftly into or out of combat, avoiding attacks or getting himself out of sight before anyone knows he is there in the first place. A step to the right here, a duck to the left. Ha! In like a shadow, out like a shadow.

That was via email between sessions after they had enough XP to hit level 2. For their leveling to 3rd level I described it at the start of the session. Since the fighter and rogue were each picking up the spellcasting subclass, I described what the books were like and how they were finally figuring out insights from them.

I don't like requiring actual training time, because my sense of consistency makes me wonder how you get to the highest levels. Are you eventually trained by gods? I just don't like the overall campaign assumptions, so I assume adventurers are self-taught and that it is ongoing, with big advancements and insights hitting them at certain points (which do require long rests to figure out). On the other hand, I might provide other types of in-character rewards for role-playing training from someone, but I haven't figured out what that might be yet. Starting out a session with inspiration would be an easy one.

 

[Lanefan]

I only give out xp after a long rest (in other words, when they wake up in the morning), and even then only when I need to e.g. somebody is close to bumping. If you bump in the field you get a few benefits right away, but anything significant (new spells, proficiencies, skills etc.) has to wait until you're back in town and can train up.

I don't like requiring actual training time, because my sense of consistency makes me wonder how you get to the highest levels. Are you eventually trained by gods?

Which is why at about name level (9th-ish) they can start training themselves; but again only in town with the proper resources available.

And if you try to plow on too long into a new level without training for it you get a penalty to your xp earned, which gets harsher as you go along. (the flip side is if you're into penalty your training will almost certainly cost less, as you've been slowly picking it up on the fly)

Lan-"but I'm not as harsh as Gygax, where your xp increase stops dead at 1 into the new level until you train"-efan

 

[Gilladian]

We reached lvl 3 at the end of a very dramatic rescue, where the pcs were in great jeopardy. So I let them level up while they hid in a cold camp in the woods. Normally I wait to give Xp when they've reached a safe place and can rest and reflect. I may also require training at "stat gain" points ( especially if they choose a feat).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

For ease of bookkeeping I only do XP at the end of a session so level up occurs between sessions, but I do see why a long rest wouldn't be appropriate.

 

[baradtgnome]

Although there is much difference in 5E from previous editions, it has not really changed my mind about when to hand out XP or level up. I typically do it when the party is relatively safe, and after what is now called a long rest.

There have been adventures, especially beat the clock type OR where I feel the party needs to be at the next level for the adventure/story, where I have broken that policy (as others have noted above). However, I mostly stick to my old habits from previous editions.

Sometimes I provide color/fluff for the players (I like Sword of Spirit's example) but would much rather they provide us all with their example. Tell me your story!

 

[Riley37]

Gaining your new hit die during a Long Rest makes sense to me. Gaining the increased spell slots too.

Learning a new spell... maybe. I like the flavor-heavy example above, in which a wizard has been trying to learn a new spell, and during the rest, they "get it". I'm more inclined to allow it if the player actually mentions, at the lower level, what they're working on for the next level, or at least if it's in a wizard's favored school. Less inclined if they're on a week-long journey into the Underdark, they get XP, they Gate to a surface location, they take a long rest, and suddenly/retroactively the bard's next Magical Secret is Call Lightning, now that it's immediately useful. With clerics: whatever a cleric most needs to serve the deity well, is what the deity will grant. Which could come as a surprise for the cleric... "wait, *why* was I given Commune?" "Cast it and ask!"