Mid Con leveling?


Pathfinder Society


If I play a full day (or weekend) at a Con and my character gains enough XP in the middle of the Con to level up but I do not have a way to level him up as my Laptop is not available do I have to stop playing him until I can get him lveled up or can I level him up when I get back home?

5/5

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You will need to level up at the con. You cannot play a character that is not the correct level for the amount of XP it has. I suggest bringing a copy of the character already leveled up, then just making any adjustments from gear purchased, boons gained, etc. while at the con.

Shadow Lodge

If a player shows up at my table with a character that is not leveled up properly, regardless of weather we are at a con or not, that character is illegal and cannot be played.

If you know ahead of time that the character is going to level up at a con, bring a leveled up version with you if you cannot level up at the convention. A character should always be leveled up properly, otherwise they are misrepresenting themselves and they are not properly prepared for the task at hand.

Scarab Sages 4/5 ***

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I'd advise you "pre-level" your character and have it as a second sheet before con/gameday, so when you hit that new level you can be ready to go, or just add the levels on the fly with the core rulebook (or whatever resources you have) between slots and modify the printed sheet. Just make sure you don't play the wrong level at the wrong table.

Since you don't know how much gold you will get by playing, maybe have a high-importance list of items your character wants.

The Exchange 4/5 5/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rho Mangelon wrote:
. . . I do not have a way to level him up as my Laptop is not available. . .

I REALLY suggest you be able to level your character using a pencil and a character sheet. Not only does this take care of the "laptop" problem, but it's going to make you more confident in how your character plays. In addition, computer programs (even the best) do make mistakes.

Just a couple of sessions ago, I had a player make a skill check and come up with a really high number. "Can you tell me how you got your modifier that high, please?" I asked him. He looked over his computer-generated sheet and added up bonuses, but kept coming up 5 short of the reported total. So, I had him subtract 5 from all his rolls.

Horizon Hunters 4/5 5/5 ****

It depends on the Con, actually. Some larger cons, like Gen Con, will have "Character Creation Stations" from the folks who make Hero Lab. You can bring your character in on a flash drive, update it, and print it off (if you don't use HL, well, it's probably not much help.)

Alternative, you can do as others have suggested, such a pre-leveling your character.

Belafon is right in that if you do all the stuff by hand, you'll have a better understanding of your character, but that doesn't mean that electronic tools that are out there aren't of use.

3/5 *

Levelling can be prepped ahead of time. I've already started doing this for Gen Con. More difficult will be updating ACG class characters at Gen Con. I'm not sure how that is going to work. Ideas from those who had this experience with the APG release are welcome. As much as I can tell, I'm going to have to purchase the book on the first day of Gen Con, and adjust my character at the con before the game? The book is released and made official (and the ACG Playtest Guide made illegal) all on the first day of Gen Con, yeah? Or did I miss something?

1/5 **

Kenneth Fisher wrote:
I'd advise you "pre-level" your character and have it as a second sheet before con/gameday...

Seconded. I generally do this with multiple characters, even ones I'm not sure I'll play.

The Exchange 4/5 5/5

DrakeRoberts wrote:
As much as I can tell, I'm going to have to purchase the book on the first day of Gen Con, and adjust my character at the con before the game? The book is released and made official (and the ACG Playtest Guide made illegal) all on the first day of Gen Con, yeah? Or did I miss something?

You got it. Among other things some of the GMs won't have gotten the book yet either, so expect to have to show the book or PDF to them for new content quite often.

On the original topic I'm not against electronic character generators (I use Hero Lab myself). It's just always better to know where everything is coming from.

Dark Archive 4/5 **

I will bring multiple copies of each character that might level during the con and adjust gear and gold on the fly. Even if I am playing at a local con, I do that ahead of time, just so I am not spending an hour selecting spells, etc. when I should be sleeping.

3/5

I believe you should understand your character. If you can not explain why you have certain benefits most DMs that question them will not allow you to use them.

Also know what your character can do at what situations make them much more usefull to you as a player, or prevents you from accidently cheating.

Shadow Lodge 3/5

Rho Mangelon wrote:
I do not have a way to level him up as my Laptop is not available

This is really strange - what kind of character sheet do you use? Paper or digital? I'm assuming it's not paper. You don't have your laptop, so... is it on a tablet or your phone and you can't edit it? Or have you printed it from your computer?

Disregarding the time constraint, whichever format you use, you should be able to make edits? I think telling us what format of character sheet you're using is key to the answer to your problem. Everyone's guessing.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 **** Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant

It could be that he uses a paper character sheet but only has PDFs. That could be why he couldn't level up without his laptop...

Scarab Sages 4/5

Avatar-1 wrote:
Rho Mangelon wrote:
I do not have a way to level him up as my Laptop is not available

This is really strange - what kind of character sheet do you use? Paper or digital? I'm assuming it's not paper. You don't have your laptop, so... is it on a tablet or your phone and you can't edit it? Or have you printed it from your computer?

Disregarding the time constraint, whichever format you use, you should be able to make edits? I think telling us what format of character sheet you're using is key to the answer to your problem. Everyone's guessing.

I'm not a Herolab user (yet), but I believe the app for the tablet does not let you edit/level the character, only view it and change options, etc.

3/5

Avatar-1 wrote:
Rho Mangelon wrote:
I do not have a way to level him up as my Laptop is not available

This is really strange - what kind of character sheet do you use? Paper or digital? I'm assuming it's not paper. You don't have your laptop, so... is it on a tablet or your phone and you can't edit it? Or have you printed it from your computer?

Disregarding the time constraint, whichever format you use, you should be able to make edits? I think telling us what format of character sheet you're using is key to the answer to your problem. Everyone's guessing.

At one of the stores I play at they print off your characters at the start of each session frpm hero lab.


yes I use Hero Labs and only have PDFs. The option of leveling up on paper and then making the hard adjustments on HL when I have net access is a solid one. I was also under the impression that pre-leveling was just as bad since you don't know that you will get credit for each game. The HL app for the IPAD does not allow leveling up currently though that would certainly solve this issue if they did. I do have paper copies of my character that I use at the table as well as the digital ones. The App has its advantages as a tool as well as the paper sheet.

Thanks for all the responses

Shadow Lodge

Rho Mangelon wrote:
I was also under the impression that pre-leveling was just as bad since you don't know that you will get credit for each game.

Even if you don't get credit, I don't see the problem with pre-leveling, as you would have character sheets for both levels available depending on which level you actually were.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Pre level. And if you forget something, oh well. It happens.

4/5

What I do is use my laptop to update herolab and email the portfolio to myself. Find a wifi connection or tether your phone and grab the portfolio straight onto the iPad.

4/5

Belafon wrote:
DrakeRoberts wrote:
As much as I can tell, I'm going to have to purchase the book on the first day of Gen Con, and adjust my character at the con before the game? The book is released and made official (and the ACG Playtest Guide made illegal) all on the first day of Gen Con, yeah? Or did I miss something?

You got it. Among other things some of the GMs won't have gotten the book yet either, so expect to have to show the book or PDF to them for new content quite often.

On the original topic I'm not against electronic character generators (I use Hero Lab myself). It's just always better to know where everything is coming from.

Definitely have the print book or PDF quickly accessible for your first game after GenCon if you're using a ACG class.

I use Herolab to help plan out characters, but I make sure to have at least the PDFs of all the sources (Herolab provides the source citations) in case there's a discrepancy and to make my legal choices completely legal ones.

Scarab Sages

Mark Stratton wrote:

It depends on the Con, actually. Some larger cons, like Gen Con, will have "Character Creation Stations" from the folks who make Hero Lab. You can bring your character in on a flash drive, update it, and print it off (if you don't use HL, well, it's probably not much help.)

Alternative, you can do as others have suggested, such a pre-leveling your character.

Belafon is right in that if you do all the stuff by hand, you'll have a better understanding of your character, but that doesn't mean that electronic tools that are out there aren't of use.

There was a HeroLab character creation booth just outside the main gaming hall at Paizocon. There is really no reason you can't level your character, as you are supposed to have a PDF or print copy of all of your character's feats/gear/etc. per the rules for PFS.

Shadow Lodge

Ferious Thune wrote:
I'm not a Herolab user (yet), but I believe the app for the tablet does not let you edit/level the character, only view it and change options, etc.

It doesn't, but the latest newsletter indicates that they should be releasing an update later this month that will allow you to link it to your Hero Lab license, at which point you will be able to create and edit characters.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Rho Mangelon wrote:

yes I use Hero Labs and only have PDFs. The option of leveling up on paper and then making the hard adjustments on HL when I have net access is a solid one. I was also under the impression that pre-leveling was just as bad since you don't know that you will get credit for each game. The HL app for the IPAD does not allow leveling up currently though that would certainly solve this issue if they did. I do have paper copies of my character that I use at the table as well as the digital ones. The App has its advantages as a tool as well as the paper sheet.

Thanks for all the responses

Save multiple copies of the porfolio file, Zoom1.por, and Zoom2.por, for instance, for the two levels. You can have them both on your iPad HL app, and just make sure you keep your eye on the one you are opening. If you look carefully, you can see that HL shows the PC info, like class and level, on the screen you select your portfolio from.

Note that I use my Google Drive for my portfolios, and my Pathfinder PDFs, so I can access them on my home desktop, and my iPad on th eroad, if I have Internet access on my iPad at the time...

3/5

Rho Mangelon wrote:
but I do not have a way to level him up as my Laptop is not available do I have to stop playing him until I can get him lveled up

It's worth mentioning that you should have all non-core rulebook books/sources with you when you play anyway, in case the GM needs to look at the source you are getting the cool option from, so in theory you should have said source on you.

not my attempt to be a jerk, just letting people know/reminding some that if you don't have the source, you're not supposed to be using stuff from it.

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