Incremental leveling


Homebrew and House Rules


A coworker suggested this idea and I agreed to look into implementing it. The basic premise for it is that he dislikes characters being stagnant for a number of sessions and then suddenly getting a windfall of hit points, skill points, new feats, new abilities, etc.

His idea was to spread out the increases over the level. After some discussion, we decided upon a quarter system where each quarter level the character gets something, one or two hit points, a couple skill points, and/or a feat or class ability. We decided on, for lack of a better term, a leading progression where there character starts racking up the next level's abilities.* Things chosen by rolling, such as hp, would be determined before hand so that the progression could be laid out.

It would be weighted so that most of the increases happened towards the actual level increase. So, if there's only 1 new class ability, then it happens at the actual leveling. A new spell slot of an already know spell level could happen during the incremental stages but gaining a slot for a new spell level would only happen at the actual level. (E.G. A 2nd level cleric would get his second level spell at the actual increase to 3rd level while a 6th level cleric might get her 4th 1st level spell at 1.5, but only get her new 4th level spell when truly hitting level 7.)

An example
One of the characters in my group is an inquisitor. Currently he's at level 1. So, before they start playing, the player would roll his hp earned for level 2. Let's say he rolled a 5. Due to his int, being a human, etc., he gets 10 skill points per level. At level two he also gets his BAB bumped up and three class abilities: cunning initiative, detect alignment, and track.

At level 1.25 (500 XP, medium progression), the inquisitor gets 1 hp and 2 skill points.
At level 1.5 (1000 XP), he gets 1 more hp, 2 skill points, and a choice of any of the three class abilities
At level 1.75 (1500 XP), he gets another hp), 3 more skill points, and another choice of class abilities.
Finally, at level 2 (2000 XP), he gets 2 hp, 3 skill points, a BAB increase, and his final class ability.

Advantages
- Cool stuff more often. Great for those players that get bored easily. (*Looks sideways at a particular player in his group.*)
- It helps to smooth out that sudden Ding! "Hey look, I is more powerful!"

disadvantages
- Bookkeeping. It's yet another layer of tracking that has to be done. If regulated to after the session ends, then that mollifies it somewhat.
- The characters will be increasing in power so that the GM will have pay closer attention to encounter balancing.
- It would have to be customized for each character for each level. Of course players could easily do it for their own characters with the GM signing off on it after a quick review.

It's still in a very rough idea stage. I've only thought about it for a little bit and thought I'd toss it out here to see if anybody has had experience with this sort of idea.
And if you made it this far, thank you for your time reading my rambles. :)

*It could also be a trailing progression if one wished. You level but only get some of that level's abilities, the rest are doled out over time. Personally I'd hate to level but have the GM giggling and holding back on all the stuff my character just earned; handing it out like a parent doles out Halloween candy as you stand there in your dinosaur costume crying, "but mom, I earned it."

[Edited to typo a correct.]


This reminds me of zeroth level characters......

It seems too complex!

I have been know (as a DM) to give a bonus skill points or something during an adventure, such as a skill point in ride after a major amount of time "in the saddle" or a new knowledge for being in a library looking up a certain topic.......a skill point in perform when someone discovers a masterwork flute and tries to learn to play.....


KenderKin wrote:
This reminds me of zeroth level characters......

If you choose to do the "trailing progressing" format, yeah, you'd start with nothing. Which I don't like. Hence going the other way where you start getting the next level's stuff early.

KenderKin wrote:

It seems too complex!

I have been know (as a DM) to give a bonus skill points or something during an adventure, such as a skill point in ride after a major amount of time "in the saddle" or a new knowledge for being in a library looking up a certain topic.......a skill point in perform when someone discovers a masterwork flute and tries to learn to play.....

It is more complex, but at the same time I think it could actually help some players. Heck, two years in and half of my "new" players still stare at their character sheet like a monkey doing a math problem. Each level brings all sorts of agony.

I don't think it will add all that much extra work. A quick roll for hp, and jotting down on a note the stuff gained at each step. But then we've yet to try it, I might be back next week saying that I deep sixed the whole idea.

By slowly introducing class abilities, it might help them learn the new items rather than getting a handful tossed into their lap all at once. (Lord help them actually crack a book open during the week and read up on upcoming abilities... but that's a rant all to itself.)

Contributor

You should read my Steps System for leveling, which I originally wrote for Monte Cook's World of Darkness and made generic for Pathfinder/D&D.


Interesting thanks. I'm going to digest it more fully when I'm, ahem, not on my work's clock. :)

It does fit our fairly lax, "level when it feels right" system. Our group has a lot of attendance flux and I typically track the XP of a generic player and use it to level the whole group at one go.

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