Training

[poilbrun]

I wouldn't allow my players to be trained this way. What's the point of playing if you can just say that you spend 20 years just training and that you are now level x? However, this rule would be a good way to train troops or NPC as was implied in the original post...

The true problem with these training rules would come, IMO, from the various lifespans of the races. A half-orc can live maximum 80 years, which means he doesn't have much time to spend training. An elf can live 750 years, which means that spending 20 years of his life to train isn't too much of a pain? Why do PC ever encounter low-level elves?

 

[James McMurray]

If your campaign has elves with slower birth cycles (and thus fewer members of their race) it makes sense that they would be higher level. They would have to be to stave off the slavering hordes of orcs.

As for why people wouldn' just say "I train for 20 years and am now level x": this is an adventure game. If a party attempted that in my campaign I would do one of two thigs:

a) Tell them fine, but they are now retired. They haven't adventured in so long that no one wants to risk hiring their old butts. Time to start a new campaign.

b) Interrupt their training time. Inject adventurous activity into their daily lives. If they don't realize that playing the game is funner than training, then I'd find a new group.

I have no problem with this happening in short doses though. There have been many times when my character was just below attaining a new level and would have like to take a week or two off to gain those last few XP.