Spread-Out Levelling: Giving the characters more, for less

[Breakstone]

So the other day I was pondering levelling. I like levelling, and I think it's fun for the characters, but I feel fast levelling changes the game too rapidly. Then again, slow levelling can become boring for the players.

So here's what I was thinking:

I figure each level "upgrade" is divided into a number of categories: BAB, Saves, Skill Points, and Class Abilities (including feats, spells, and ability upgrades).

What if, instead of getting all the above upgrades in one heap, you instead divided them up, and allowed the characters to attain one at certain levels of experience?

For example, while under the normal rules 3000 experience a Druid gets a +1 to BAB, +1 Ref Save, 4 + Int Mod skill points, Trackless Step, a Bonus Feat, and a 2nd level Spell per Day.

Under the new rules, say, at 1500 xp the Druid would gain the +1 BAB, at 2000 xp she would gain the +1 Ref Save, at 2500 xp she would get the 4 + Int Mod skill points, and at 3000 xp she would gain the above-listed Class Abilities.

The end product wouldn't change, but the in-game play would. What do you think?

 

[Ferret]

I'm not sure if that would add to or lessen the effort for book keeping. I don't have any worries on leveling but won't it seem faster with these changes? YOu might gain less sooner, but it's still sooner.

I might make sense though.

 

[The Goblin King]

You can do this pretty easy with BESM D20.

There was another PDF I once saw like this. The name escapes me at the moment....

 

[Hammerhead]

By the Numbers.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I don't have any worries on leveling but won't it seem faster with these changes? YOu might gain less sooner, but it's still sooner.

Exactly what I was thinking. This won't solve the perceived problem as stated.

It is an interesting idea on its own, though. As a DM, I've found myself feeling the same way ... levelling happens way too fast, but when I take it significantly slower, my players start to feel like their PCs aren't growing into their destinies fast enough. And as a player, I know that I love settling down in front of my computer to level my theurge up, but at the same time I feel it's a little cheesy to gain 10 levels in one game-year (and RL-year) (and that's only if the DM grants plenty of down-time).

So maybe you could significantly slow level progression -- by, say, doubling each line on the XP chart -- but still give the players the feeling of (mechanical) character advancement by dividing up the benefits.

Seriously, very interesting idea. I might try it in my next campaign.

My concern is getting the balance right ... you don't want to give the wizard more "between levels" than you give the rogue.

I wonder if you could just halve any benefits. Have the player roll HP, but he gets half now, and half later. Class abilities could be diluted (or deferred if too powerful, or granted if not-so-powerful) pending the next half-level. BAB doesn't go up, but saves do (to enhance defense). Halve skill points. Feats would have to be deferred. Hmmm.

I definitely like the idea. I really think it might be what I need to slow down advancement to what I'd like, without my players squawking.

Of course, it's a slippery slope. In D&D 7E, we might very well be buying BAB with XP ...

 

[the Jester]

I think advancement is too fast as it is, and I think a system like this would make it feel pretty much constant. However, in the right game it would be very interesting and cool.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Do you use training time or trainers ?
with a more gradual system you should prolly do away with both.
I flattened advancement to 1 per 3 sessions, cause finding trainers or accounting for down time was taking up to much of the game.
but training time is one of the great time fillers -
IMC 8 levels in 2 years game time, with 1-2 weeks to level (3 months of downtime)

 

[brehobit]

For my low-level game I've done the following (see the low magic question on the board)

Obviously the feat progression is faster, but as I don't forsee the PCs ever getting past level 5 it isn't such a big deal.

Notes: Racial feats are mostly a restricted list of general feats. Reroll is pretty much the standard "luck cleric" reroll but only for combat.

EXP bonus
===== =====
1000 level 2
2000 general feat
3000 level 3
4000 stat +1
5000 racial feat
6000 level 4
7500 reroll +1
9000 general feat
10000 level 5
12000 stat +1
14000 racial feat
15000 level 6
17000 reroll +1
19000 general feat
21000 level 7
23500 stat +1
26000 racial feat
28000 level 8

 

[Nareau]

I thought about doing this once before, although I was more interested in it for character development reasons. Basically, I wanted to have players figure out where they wanted their character to be by next level. I had them stat out that character, then figure out all the changes (hp, BAB, skills, etc). Then they would divide those changes as evenly as possible into 4 mini-levels, and we'd just level every 4 sessions. It never got off the ground though. I think it would increase the amount of bookkeeping with only a very minor return.

Spider

 

[Breakstone]

Thanks for all the input, folks!

Yeah, I think the only way this would work would be to slow down the xp intake, which I was thinking about while I typed but didn't mention. Whoops!