Training to Level

[Gold Roger]

I'd never require training for actual leveling.

However, in my next campaign I'll require that skill increases, feats, spells and some class features are aquired by some in game means. So when you level, you get improved HP, BAB, Saves, CL and already posessed class features immediatly. You also gain skillpoints, but can only spend the on skills you've been frequently using.

Other skills, feats, spells and new class features must still be aquired logically. I think it helps add some flavor and depth to the game, as well as hooks (The old halforc taught me the mageslayer feat, now I'll need to do this errants for him) and helps anchor chars a bit more in the game world. It also gives some more justification for things like mage guilds.

 

[WayneLigon]

I don't require them to train; I assume any 'training' takes place in the downtime hours we usually skip over, or during other breaks in play. This strains my credibility when someone wants to multiclass into Wizard or go from 0 to 8 ranks in Craft (Swords), but I just let it slide. It's better than telling them "OK, five years later, after your apprenticeship...".

 

[diaglo]

for those who don't train or never did.

have you ever asked what lvls and hit points are? or experience for that matter?

i have always required training.

hit points weren't health points. so a guy with 6 hps looks no different than a guy with 1 hp if they have the same Con.

hit points are your training. your ability to turn aside at the last second and only take a glancing blow versus a more fatal one.

the d00d with 1 hp is a guy that just doesn't get it. he steps with the wrong foot and takes a blow in the chest vs a scratch on the arm.

with more training he improves his ability to survive a battle. if he survives enough to make it to train.

experience... is well... that time after the battle when you reflect back and say i shoulda, coulda, woulda... and then you take those ideas, insights, and suggestions and improve on them over the course of training them. some are good and improve you. others are not. and you discard... (you didn't gain enough exp to level).

 

[Archade]

I require down-time to level, but no training or gold cost (unless they want to multiclass into wizard, etc).

Once the characters have sufficient xp to level up, I grant them a positive level (just like a negative level, but in reverse, +1 to hit, +1 to all skills, +1 to all saves, +5hp). After some down time (a week or two at least), they can trade in the positive level for a real class level.

As well, for those characters who fall just shy of xp to level up, I allow (mostly for NPCs) training for xp. A character can study/pray/practice, and gain Id6 xp x (their Int, Wis, or Cha modifier, whichever is best) per week.

Sometimes in the field, if someone has built up more than one positive level, and they want to take a no brainer level (another level in rogue, fighter, sorcerer, etc) I'll let them trade in if they choose.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Don't like "training". I can see the mechanical benefits, but the use of it makes me feel that you can't learn anything without someone else teaching you. And when you trace it all the way back, who taught the first guys how to do all those stuff then?

On the flip side teaching yourself is the only way that you CAN learn something?

Most likely the first guys who learned to do stuff learned through trial and error over a long period of time, probably at great personal cost and or bodily harm depending on what youre talking about.

 

[diaglo]

On the flip side teaching yourself is the only way that you CAN learn something?

Most likely the first guys who learned to do stuff learned through trial and error over a long period of time, probably at great personal cost and or bodily harm depending on what youre talking about.

qft.

 

[kolikeos]

i don't think i'll ever require training to level, but the pcs might still do it in order to get some extra skills or xp or just for the flavor of it. one thing that does require training in my games is learning new lenguages, there is no speak language skill in my games, if you want to learn a new language you have to find someone who can teach you and spend the time learning.

 

[loki44]

I only give out XP between adventures - so it is rare that you have the XP to go up a level mid-adventure. However, there have been times when time was an issue and PCs have gone on to the next adventure without completing training for individual facets.

In our 3.5 and OD&D games we get xp between sessions regardless of where we stop. We've even stopped mid-battle before. We've also had instances where PCs had enough xp to level but events in the game were urgent enough to keep on without levelling. As a player I honestly don't have any problem with training and I think the rationale for it is easily grasped. It's never slowed played for us or broken continuity in the game. Characters who don't need to train while others are can do other things like get married, visit family, start businesses, buy supplies, create alliances, etc. Sometimes tough decisions need to be made. Do I stop adventuring to train for 3 weeks, or do I try to stop the impending fae invasion that will wipe out everything, hmmmm?

Now, the 125 year old elf who has studied magic for a century and is only first level, that's still a tough one to wrap my brain around.

 

[diaglo]

Now, the 125 year old elf who has studied magic for a century and is only first level, that's still a tough one to wrap my brain around.

d00d,

don't be dissing on my ways of magic. i can like totally make things happen.


diaglo "the 126 year old elf sorc in the party" Ooi

 

[Lanefan]

I've always required training...but I handle it a little differently than some, as shown below; if anything strikes you as a good idea, feel free to take it. (conversely, if what you see strikes you as idiocy, let me know...)

When you bump...i.e. tick over the ExP number required for the next level...two things happen: 1. You roll your next level's hit die then and there and gain half the (Con-modified) amount to your maximum; you have to rest into them, or be cured into them, or whatever, otherwise you don't "know" they're there. 2. We have all classes getting 1e-Cavalier-like % increment on stats; you roll these for the new level immediately on bumping.

After you bump but before you train, you continue to gain ExP as normal for a while, but if you let it go too long you start to slow down (in 1e, you stopped completely right at the new-level point); if you get 1/3 through the new level without training you start hitting a 1/3 ExP penalty, if you grind your way through to 2/3 you then hit a 2/3 ExP penalty; it's very rare (but it has happened) that even with this someone can slog their way all the way through to the following level, at which point they're considered trained for the level before and advance at half-rate (and are considered to self-train) from there on, until resuming normal training. It reads here far more complicated than it works out.

When you train, you get the other half of your h.p. along with all the other benefits of the new level.

I usually have training take about 8-12 days, with variance, unless you're a Bard or a Monk; both these classes take substantially longer for flavour reasons. Depending on class, one sometimes has to travel to find a trainer...

Cost is usually about 1000 g.p. per level, as if the new level, again with a variance; for most classes, this goes toward devotions, sacrifices, guild fees, supplies, etc.; a small amount goes to the trainer, but not much, so training people is never as profitable as adventuring.

Lanefan