• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

The Idea of training to level

Calim

First Post
I was wondering who uses this and if it works for you and how people have instituted it because it has been proposed in the group i play in and we have been lead to believe it will lead to more role play options and the ability to play our favorite characters longer
 

log in or register to remove this ad

It really depends on the type of campaign you are playing in... My one currently has the characters constantly on the move. There isn't any spare time to sit down and train... we level as we go... and it is assumed you are training all the time.

[edit]So.. training is basically free... and takes no time at all. I have also made the guys forcast all 20 levels ahead of time so there isn't any suprizes.

They are getting a bonus of no training needed, but they don't also have any time to make magic items etc. either.
 
Last edited:

Personally I like month long treks into the wilderness without returning. I like to focus on slaying my enemies and sometimes it seems a bit OOC to say "we need to leave the hive of pure evil so I can learn whirlwind before coming back"

If you play the campaign as a series of smaller adventures with smaller scope it would work fine. Not my cup of tea though.
 

I think it would work fine in most campaigns.

We use the rules: 1 week per level and 100 GP per level.

Our campaign style is very player driven. Plotlines tend to come out of the actions of the players, and out of their reactions to larger events in the world around them.

The different character personalities are always pushing the party in different directions. When it makes sense for the group to spend some time in a city or region, we do so, and those who can level up do so then.

For us, any larger overarcing storyline is composed of many smaller expeditions. So far we've never ended up with a group that solely wants to track through the wilderness with no responsiblities or reasons to return to civilization fairly often. If we did, I'm not sure how it would work out. We'd probably actively search for mentors in the regions we travelled to.

Anyway, one nice thing about spending time with trainers for any style of game group is it DOES provide more opportunity for the different players to pursue other interests for the characters. Helps avoid ending up a ultra high level party of 18 year olds that know almost noone outside of the party or the immediate DM created storyline.

-Skaros
 
Last edited:

Calim said:
I was wondering who uses this and if it works for you and how people have instituted it because it has been proposed in the group i play in and we have been lead to believe it will lead to more role play options and the ability to play our favorite characters longer

First of all, I just have to say...Wow! That was one hellofa run-on!! ;)

Anyways, I've played in games that use training, and it can be kinda cool. The biggest problem with it though, is when you gain enough XP to level but you're in the middle of a dungeon. What good is gaining the XP if you can't level?

I don't use the training variant in any of the games I run though.
 

A little back story just for those who look into this question
We are a group that games every Saturday from 2pm until almost 2am we are currently switching campaigns and run one on every other saturday and the other on the opposite schedule we have been in both campaigns no for almost a year and we started out in both as first level characters and now we are just getting to 8th and ninth level

ok so you are saying that in a party of a seer(psionist) a sorcerer conjuror, a cleric of justice, and a fighter when we level there would be plenty of time to rp as a group or as an individual with the dm. I ask because there are certain members of the party we play in that feel there no need to do this that it will end up basically being nothing but rping with the dm on a one on one basis and not involving the group dynamic
 

Please be consistent. The DM in my campaign (who is running it extremely fast-paced - down time is nonexistant) has wizards train to gain new spell levels, but noone else.
 

I like training for PCs and I use it to add depth to their chjaracters. THey can get creative and describe the type of training they feel their character would be getting. It's a great way to introduce higher level NPcs the PCs can use as contacts, and in the end I bribe the Pcs with it. I reward them a few extra skill points or some other bonus (I keep it equal for all PCs). I feel if they are giving up time and money to train they should get something a little extra. Sometimes, they can decide what it is, like I had a sorcereer who wanted to learn the short sword, so he trained on it and got it as a bonus feat.
 

For my players, I only let them level up if they can get a solid night's sleep, i.e., during which they aren't taking watch shifts and sleeping with one eye open. Defended territory, hotel, rope trick (usually), etc.

When they do level up, they can only improve skills they've actively used, trained, or told me they were working on in their free time (minimal though it may be) during the previous level. It doesn't make any sense to me that a rogue who has never tried to open a lock keeps getting better at it.
 

MY games run in two parts the first 'Faction Turn' allows for all the downtime events of training, tending to business, raising families, negotiating with the authorities, gaining knighthoods etc and is considered to take a month to complete (each faction also has its own ability scores - Authority, Culture, Economics, Enforcement)

Once this is resolved the actual adventuring occurs and as such the PCs have a month to do what they want before they come back home to do whatever is required.

SInce factions can be anything from a Circus Troupe to a country it works for travelling PCs just as it does for sedentary ones (eg perhaps the PCs are merchants and te faction is the merchant caravan - they tend to business in the faction turn and then adventure for the rest of the month)

PS I've not actually tested a country as a faction but have gone from Circus Troupe to Church to Village of 1000 people
 

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top