D&D 5E Training and Downtime

[77IM]

I allow training all kinds of stuff (feats, spells, weapon/armor proficiencies, skills), and in much shorter time-frames, but at much higher cost.

 

[devincutler]

I find the advancement rate in D&D is downright silly and inexplicable. You can pretty easily, if playing a scenario path like Tyranny of Dragons, go from 1st level to 15th level in about 6 months of campaign time. From barely swinging a sword and casting cantrips to causing earthquakes and slaying massive demons and dragons inside of 6 months. And that's only because there is some forced travel time in that campaign! I have seen 3.5 adventure paths that take PCs from 1st to 16th level in about 3 months of campaign time.

That's pretty much preposterous and while fine for AL type play, is unworkable in any actual campaign world.

So things that force the pace to slow down, like the language requirement, are great IMO.

 

[dmnqwk]

An alternate to downtime training is to consider pairing it with character level advancement.

1) Offer each character 1 training point per level gained (so 2nd level is the first point)
2) Set a cost for every language, tool, weapon (specific), armour (specific, not category) or skill proficiency you feel they can learn
3) When they wish to train in one they must find a trainer, pay the gold then spend a week. At the end of the week they must pass an Intelligence check 10 check (since I'm told intelligence is very much a dump stat for people nowadays similar to how charisma used to be) or lose the training points.

Almost no rolls, adds randomness and if you feel the intelligence check at the end is harsh remember these are bonuses above and beyond natural character development. If you'd prefer you could force the player to give up something as they let that skill/language rust away (similar to how people can forget languages because they never speak it)

 

[garnuk]

Can somebody remind me how long the Wheel of time serieis was? I think somebody pointed out that it goes from farm boy to messiah in less than a year or two.

 

[Hussar]

To inject a bit of real world stuff here. It takes about 400 hours of instruction to become proficient in English. Note, that's not study. That's class time.

And that's also nowhere near native level.

Granted, English is a very difficult language to learn. There are far easier. But 250 days does sound very, very believable to me.

You might cut that down significantly for immersion. If you're living with an Orc tribe you're going to pick up orcish faster than otherwise. But learning from a tutor in a non-immersion environment? Yeah that's totally believable.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

You might cut that down significantly for immersion. If you're living with an Orc tribe you're going to pick up orcish faster than otherwise. But learning from a tutor in a non-immersion environment? Yeah that's totally believable.

You really need immersion plus devoted study, though. Most people, when dropped in a foreign country for a while, are going to pick up some phrases, but they're never going to approach proficiency unless they work at it.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Although...the requirement that your instruction lasts 8 hours a day is a bit excessive. I'd probably say that, as long as you are getting some instruction, just living there interacting with people counts for the rest of those 8 hours.

 

[aramis erak]

So training new languages or tools takes 250 days of downtime.

I'm not arguing the validity of that, but I am saying that it's likely in a majority of games, that's next to useless. What campaign even lasts longer than 250 days, let alone has time for the adventurers to sit around for that long. Let alone, do this more than once.
Or maybe it's just the campaigns that I play in that happen to be short-lived in-game.

Either way, 250 days is way too long for my table. I was thinking about knocking that down, but I'm at a loss as to what to do instead. I understand the rules exist as they stand to keep people from just training all the time and gaining proficiency in every tool or language. I want to add some other requirement but don't know what.

My suggestion would be to allow formal language tutoring to allow it reduced time, and to allow basic use (semi-proficient) at the halfway point.

If you want a more amusing way, every tenday completed reduces the int DC from 25 to understand the speaker. +5 DC for specific field jargon, +5 DC for archaic forms. -1 per tenday.

And my campaign is closing upon 9 months of character time. (We started in october of 2014, but took 2 months off.) We use the training for level rules, too.

 

[ccs]

Downtime is what happens when your PCs aren't saving the world or killing monsters for their treasure.

So whichever days we're not gaming on....
Also includes that 30 minute window where we're waiting for everyone to arrive & the pause when the pizzas are delivered.

 

[the Jester]

So training new languages or tools takes 250 days of downtime.

I'm not arguing the validity of that, but I am saying that it's likely in a majority of games, that's next to useless. What campaign even lasts longer than 250 days, let alone has time for the adventurers to sit around for that long. Let alone, do this more than once.

Mine does! In fact, since 5e launched, it has turned from autumn to winter to spring in game, and many pcs have accumulated about 60ish days of training time on various things. Others have spent their downtime working to build a road from the city they're in to a nearby threatened town. Others have spent that downtime gaining renown in their faction. If they wanted to, they could fill in the other ~190 days of training in between major adventures pretty easily (they largely choose their adventures and when to go on them).

Or maybe it's just the campaigns that I play in that happen to be short-lived in-game.

Either way, 250 days is way too long for my table. I was thinking about knocking that down, but I'm at a loss as to what to do instead. I understand the rules exist as they stand to keep people from just training all the time and gaining proficiency in every tool or language. I want to add some other requirement but don't know what.

And I don't want to just add gold. With the way 5e economy works, there's no opportunity costs in that because the DM controls the cash flow completely. So then it just becomes "the DM allows you X number of additional proficiencies," since, honestly, what else do you have to spend gold on?

So what other requirements could I add?

Change the requirement from "having a trainer" to "having a trainer with special teaching ability/super skillz/whatever" so that it's not easy to just say, "I want to learn History!", but rather they have to find the right guy who can impart the knowledge.