I'm using a kind of training in my
Curse of Strahd campaign now.
A rogue (thief) to me; seems like there is no need to for training in the academic sense. School of hard knocks works just fine. A paladin, cleric, fighter, needs training,
I think that if you are using training, even a rogue needs training, in the same way that a fighter or a sorcerer does. Rogues can train with master thieves and guildmasters and learn the ins and outs of the criminal underbelly.
but what if the party is in a deep mega dungeon where there is no training center? Certainly, you do not tell your PCs that they cannot level up, do you? The party just finished a dungeon, they have loot, they have blood on their hands and they are ready to power up and then get to town (population 56) to find that the highest level fighter there is 3rd. Seems to me that the trainer must be higher level than the trainee. All problems.
In my current campaign, I take a much broader view of training than "pay someone to teach you." - it's a form of reward (like XP or treasure) and of pacing.
So, like, the first "training session" happened in mid-dungeon, and it happened in a library. I said that the books contained enough new information on various class matters that this essentially counted as training. Our party bard discovered some Vistani love songs. The wizard found some old star charts. Etc.
I might say "hold off on gaining a level," but I basically work the training into the next long rest that the party takes once they have the XP necessary to level, wherever that long rest might be.
Then you must ask, how much? How much does it cost to train from one level to another? Is "level" just a game term? Is that used "in-game?" I like to take gold from my players on a regular basis. Wear and tear on items causes them to need repair or replacement. I require new swords to come with a 50gp training on use, or a set of thieves tools come with a 100gp extra pick or something like that.
The DMG has some guidelines, but I'm not personally sweating the details IMC. It's more about adding a bit of context to what their class looks like in this world - to make the setting live and breathe alongside the characters. At higher levels, I might consider using it as a GP sink (you hear a beautiful Vistani love song being sung in the tavern, with instrumentation you can't begin to imagine, but the gypsy offers to teach it to you...for a fee...), but I'm not too concerned aobut it.
I expect the wizards and other casters to study, search and join schools, covens, and guilds in order to pay dues and thus be training all the time. That way when the time comes, they just level up.
I use the "training" as an excuse to touch base with the setting and get the PC's reaction to it. Our party ranger met a vampire hunter. Our party Cleric/Fighter experienced a vision. If anyone was a member of a guild, I'd probably mention something like "your allies in the guild share their new library with you and you learn so much you gain a level!" The point is to characterize their advancement, so that it's a character moment as much as it is a mechanical moment.
How do you do this in your campaign? What about the mega-dungeon scenario? Do you make them leave the dungeon to go get trained?
I don't make them leave the dungeon, but I think about what the dungeon could have that could "count" as training. Like, if there's a trap, maybe the party thief gains a level by spending some of her long rest tinkering with the thing in a way that suddenly "clicks" for them.
lowkey13 said:
Some tables require you to keep track of your ammunition. Some table you write, "20 arrows" and then forget about it- forever.
Some tables require you to track rations and water. Others? Well, two weeks rations last through level 20.
Some players enjoy accounting for their downtime. Other players hate this type of homework and consider it an unnecessary chore.
And, yes, some tables enjoy a more detailed accounting of leveling up, and other don't (I always have 20 arrows, because ammunition is boring!).
Another nuance is that you can want different levels of granularity for all of these things.
I don't keep track of ammunition - but I
do have "supplies" that are required to rest, and "supplies" is an abstraction of consumable adventuring supplies including ammunition (along with rations, water, oil for your armor, whetstones, torches, rope, other random adventuring supplies, etc.).
I try to target my details to "things I want the players to care about." In
Curse of Strahd, I want the players to care about the fact that thay're Not In Kansas Anymore (so gaining a level of Cleric in Ravenloft looks differently than gaining a level of Cleric in the Forgotten Realms), and also to remember that safe places are few and far between (so you need supplies if you are to get there).