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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 2618059" data-attributes="member: 177">Well, if you want training to be effective, as a DM you are in your rights to say, "Training is challenging yourself.  Since you're meeting challenges, you earn XP, and go up levels."  And suddenly, training is effective.I don't do that for four basic reasons - 1) It means the heroes are not special.  Anybody can (and will) get to where the heroes are just by practicing, without having history or stories behind them.  That's not entertaining enough for me.  2) I think training should be able to get you up to the level of what a normal human can do, but not beyond that.  Analogy to real-world training fails because mid to high level characters can do things that no real-world human could ever accomplish, no matter how hard they trained.   3) "Epicness" (which shares some similarities to Robert Jordan's "tav'eren") helps describe why the PCs go up against greater and greater challenges, and why low-level PCs generally don't run into things they cannot handle unless they are stupid.  There's no particular reason why a mundanely trained 15th or 20th level fighter should not just encounter normal orc for all of his existance.  There's no particular reason why all the 1st level characters don't meet great wyrms.  If, having accrued (or revealed, in WayneLigon's case) "epicness" alters fate, so that these higher level people keep running into greater and greater challenges than the less-epic populace, all this is nicely explained.4) Highly effective training is a disincentive to heroic action.  This is similar to #1, above, but more about the mechanic than the esthetic.  Sane people, given two routes to power, will take the safe one for as long as it is reasonable, they want to prepare well for a rough lifestyle.  So, your basic character should, if they have a choice in the matter, train up to the point where training works well, and only then go out and seek their fortune.  This, in essence, sets where "1st level" or "starting character" is.</blockquote>

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