D&D General Players Decide when to Level Up

[Charlaquin]

I think as non-XP methods of character advancement go, this seems like one of the better ones. I’m sure it could work with my usual play group, but I would much rather stick with XP. Deciding when to level up is a lot better than just hoping the DM decides to let you level up, but it’s still significantly less satisfying than having a numerical representation of your progress that you can see increasing in direct response to my actions.

 

[LordEntrails]

I love this idea. Wish I would have known about it for my last campaign

 

[plisnithus8]

I love this idea. Wish I would have known about it for my last campaign

Once my group decides to level up, I’ll take a level of chronomancer and let you know back then.

 

[Lanefan]

Not every table has a PC present and active if the player isn't able to attend that session; in fact, this hasn't been a thing in any game I've played except for very early-days, in 2e. I leave that option up to the player- and if they want to, they can ask another player to control said character. It probably happens 10% of the time.

Characters staying in play when their player misses a session is SOP here and has been forever, mostly to keep the fiction consistent and not have characters vanishing and returning for no good reason when they'd otherwise be in mid-adventure in the field.

This is also why character sheets stay here between sessions; so if you're not here next week we know what makes your character tick.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Thoughts? Would this work for your groups?

Yes. I think the actual problem with my main group is that they wouldn't level themselves up fast enough, rather than vice-versa!

 

[roger semerad]

This is a really cool way to handle it, and I respect it.

I prefer milestone leveling myself, but I'd still want the decision to be the DM's. The DM knows where the overall story and world is heading much more than the players. I'd want the level of the group to work with the scenario the DM is cooking in the background. I definitely think having a group discussion every once and a while about what the group as a whole is looking forward to and weather we want to level more or less is a very good thing, I just don't think I'd want as a player to be in full control of the leveling.

 

[Clint_L]

Characters staying in play when their player misses a session is SOP here and has been forever, mostly to keep the fiction consistent and not have characters vanishing and returning for no good reason when they'd otherwise be in mid-adventure in the field.

This is also why character sheets stay here between sessions; so if you're not here next week we know what makes your character tick.

We also leave characters in play when necessary for the story - for us, it doesn’t matter for levelling, but it sure does for story cohesion. As DM, I just play the characters myself and try to keep them out of the spotlight. Their turns go much faster!

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

I have fairly experienced players that I’ve played with for a while. When we had session zero for a sandbox homebrew campaign with a clear goal for the party, we discussed how we wanted to advance levels, especially how quickly. I finally just asked if they wanted to just decide as a group when to level up.

snip

I don’t think it would necessarily work for inexperienced, immature, or groups with varied goals, but I just wanted to toss this one out since I hadn’t seen it as an option before.

Thoughts? Would this work for your groups?

It might work for my group, but I've got an "not broke; don't fix it" situation. I'd add that the idea might not work out for DMs who have a strong "challenge the PCs; make them feel like underdogs" aspect to their style.

My own, it-works-for-me style is to hand out flat XP awards at the end of each session, with some variance based on how long the session was and how good I judged the play to be. I don't increase the awards with rising character level, which results in naturally slower advancement as characters rise in level and need more XP to gain a level.

 

[AlViking]

New PCs start at level one. As it was meant to be.

Bah, ya big softy! Start them out as apprentice adventurers, level 0. No classes, all stats at 10 or below, 1 HP. Make 'em earn 1st level.

 

[cbwjm]

I could happily sit at level 5-6 for ages.