D&D General New Critical Role Method for Leveling

[Clint_L]

So, I haven’t been watching the new season of Critical Role; it lost me during the endless slog of the first few episodes (how it felt to me). Maybe I’ll try again in a few months.

But I’m still a fan, still use Exandria for most of my games, and keep up with news about the campaign (there’s news about a D&D campaign. Remarkable!). And the article below caught my attention because it is such a simple but amazing adjustment to how characters level up. In a nutshell, the DM lets the players know when they have earned the right to level up, and then each player decides when and how it will happen in game.

I love this. At my table, we decide when it’s time to level up by consensus, and I am adding this approach.

Critical Role just made D&D level-up rules a lot better

Level-ups just got cooler

www.polygon.com

 

[Charlaquin]

Yeah, it’s pretty cool! They had a “leveling up” bonus episode where they rolled the HP they would gain when they level up and chose a few options for spells, feats, etc. that they were considering. But they didn’t level up immediately and didn’t have to make the final decision on spell/feat selection yet. From that point on, at a time of their choosing that they consider narratively appropriate, they can level up mid-session, even mid-combat (and indeed two of them did so mid-combat in the next episode), gaining the rolled amount of HP to both their current and maximum, and making their final decision regarding feats and spells from among those they indicated they were considering.

One thing that became immediately obvious in the next episode and the players commented on at the time is that leveling up mid-combat does strongly bias you towards options that will increase survivability. Of the two who leveled up during the combat, both ended up choosing feats that gave them more HP (Tough and Durable specifically).

 

[Piperken]

I've been following discussions about leveling systems in concert with or in contrast to horizontal ones and this made me realize I haven't bothered to tie leveling to any fiction.

Which sticks out for me because of how much the rest of the game I am running leans that way!

The level process is, "Ok, level your character. You may want to take an ASI or a feat here. (Spout off list of sources). Note it down and let me know what it is and I will record it on my copies of your character."

It's tied to a downtime action usually, but game sessions don't always align perfectly with that.

Ppls probably have been doing it that way for a long time, but it is very much like how a single player video game handles these things.

Just sparkles, whoosh sounds and victorious background music?

 

[Charlaquin]

I've been following discussions about leveling systems in concert with or in contrast to horizontal ones and this made me realize I haven't bothered to tie leveling to any fiction.

Which sticks out for me because of how much the rest of the game I am running leans that way!

The level process is, "Ok, level your character. You may want to take an ASI or a feat here. (Spout off list of sources). Note it down and let me know what it is and I will record it on my copies of your character."

It's tied to a downtime action usually, but game sessions don't always align perfectly with that.

Ppls probably have been doing it that way for a long time, but it is very much like how a single player video game handles these things.

Just sparkles, whoosh sounds and victorious background music?

For the two who have leveled up this way in Critical Role, it was kind of like a Second Wind situation (spoilers ahead for episode 10):
Thimble was squaring off against the “boss” enemy, the knight of Seremai, who was mostly unharmed while Laura was on very low HP. Sam leveled up on his turn, mainly to gain the extra sorcery point he needed to use Hightened Spell and give the knight disadvantage on his save, which Sam framed as Wick trying to prove himself to Thimble. Of course, the knight succeeded his save even with the disadvantage, so it ended up a little anticlimactic. Then on Laura’s turn, she decided to take her level up as well. Even after gaining that extra HP she was still bloodied, but she attacked, presumably to activate her Swashbuckler ability to retreat without taking an opportunity attack, and rolled a critical hit. So, she also used Brennan's homebrew Desperate Measures mechanic, giving herself two pre-failed death saves in order to add extra dice of damage to the hit, which were then doubled by the crit, and ended up bloodying the knight in a single attack, and then Dashing away.

So, I kind of saw those level ups as adrenaline rush moments. Much as people occasionally perform incredible feats of strength and endurance in desperate moments, the PCs were backed into a corner by a superior foe, and that survival instinct kicked in, allowing them to push past their limits. And then, I don’t know, I guess via anime logic, after pushing past those limits, it’s no longer a limit for them, they’ve just unlocked a new extent of their capabilities they hadn’t realized before?

 

[Leatherhead]

I've been looking for a system that recreated the climatic battle of The Last Dragon for quite some time now, this just might do it.

 

[Xenolith234]

That is pretty cool. I think Brennan may have used something similar in their Worlds Beyond Number podcast. I’ve been entertaining the idea of training during downtime - I wonder how I could blend the two ideas.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That is pretty cool. I think Brennan may have used something similar in their Worlds Beyond Number podcast. I’ve been entertaining the idea of training during downtime - I wonder how I could blend the two ideas.

Yeah, it's striking how much of this is just how Brennan does things generally, and how putting it on the much, much bigger platform of a main Critical Role campaign has led to articles, blogs and YouTube videos about it.

I certainly hope campaign 4 is leading people to discover Worlds Beyond Number and to subscribe to Dropout, which is an exceptional value (and a guaranteed way of feeling better in these not-great-feeling times).

 

[Xenolith234]

Yeah, it's striking how much of this is just how Brennan does things generally, and how putting it on the much, much bigger platform of a main Critical Role campaign has led to articles, blogs and YouTube videos about it.

I certainly hope campaign 4 is leading people to discover Worlds Beyond Number and to subscribe to Dropout, which is an exceptional value (and a guaranteed way of feeling better in these not-great-feeling times).

I hope so too. Seeing Sam Reich get punked by Brennan was just

I’m glad that it’s making the D&D culture more aware of different playstyles as well and bringing West Marches style into the zeitgeist.

 

[Seramus]

I've never used this method in D&D, but I've used it in games like Chronicles of Darkness, Exalted, and Scion where you have some amount of XP set aside and the players can spend them mid-session. I think it's a really fun idea that had mostly positive results in the games where I allowed it! There were a few considerations though:

1. There was some joking about Shonen Protagonists when used to "power-up" in the middle of combat.
2. Increasing in power during critical situations does tend to bias choices slightly towards ones that help you survive.
3. There is a possibility a player might feel "pushed" to level up in a critical situation when they hoped to save it.

Most of those considerations are addressed by just being chill adults, but it was worth telling the players to not feel pressured, and that they were free to level up however they wanted. Definitely more fun than cons in my book either way.