PC's training between "adventures"

[Fencer_guy]

Playing a very young dwarf magus in an all dwarf underground game. He suffered his first major loss in battle to a drow. (he didn't die but was reduce to under 0 and had to roll to stabilize)

I was thinking that the direction he would go after this would be to train harder and push himself to be a better sword fighter so he wouldn't lose again. Sort like the characters do in all the fighting anime.

What I am asking is how to bring this up to the DM and what sort of in game mechanic would this entail. Would he level up faster? (we are using the medium track so would he go to the fast?)

OR

Like just extra experience in general?

OR

...

Any ideas at all? What would you say as DM??

[Matthew Downie]

If you could level up a PC just by saying, "I train really hard," wouldn't everyone do it?

[Fencer_guy]

One things I was thinking was that he would do arena combat. Not for the gold but for the experience in fighting. Grab extra patrol out in the wilds of the underdark. Going around to the other martial school and asking for lessons. ( like in all the kung-fu movies)

[blackbloodtroll]

Sometimes I forget that people still use experience.

All my DMs just pick an appropriate time, then tells us to level.

Solves tons, and tons of problems.

[Rennaivx]

Flavor-wise, it's totally appropriate to mention that, while you're in downtime, you're taking patrols, training in different martial traditions, maybe sparring with other party members, etc.

In terms of actual mechanics, it isn't exactly fair to the rest of your party that you get to gain more experience and level faster just because of flavor. If you want to work that kind of study in, maybe look at taking a level dip in another class if it's beneficial to you, or take a fairly martial feat next opportunity you get and flavor it as being part of this "extra training".

There are rules for gaining experience in downtime, but it is expressly listed as being for the purposes of catching up with the rest of your party if you've suffered some sort of missed session, permanent negative level, etc. rather than a way to get ahead of the others. In fact, it specifically prohibits using this method as a way to get ahead of other party members.

It's definitely something worth including in your character's story, but difficult to work in mechanically without giving yourself an unfair advantage.

[zza ni]

well.since you ask about trainig effects not just for xp... you CAN use the retrainig mechanisem. id say use it to get your hp up to max as an effect of your training.

(using retraining among other let you get your hp up to the maximom you wuold have gotten if you rolled max on the hp each level.)

you will need a tainer though. and need to pay him.

edit. just noticed it is a long page so to make it easy on you, here is the part about hp retraining:
"
Sometimes the dice aren't in your favor when you gain a level and the hit points you roll are especially low. Unlike retraining other character abilities, retraining hit points doesn't involve replacing an existing ability with a new one, it just increases your maximum hit points.

Retraining hit points takes 3 days and requires you to spend time at a martial academy, monk monastery, or with some kind of master of combat who is at least one level higher than you. At the end of the training period, increase your hit points by 1. You can retrain hit points only if your maximum hit point total is less than the maximum possible hit point total for your character.

Example: If you are a fighter 5 with Constitution 14 and you haven't allocated any of your favored class bonus to hit points, your maximum possible hit point total is 60: (d10 HD + 2 from Constitution) × 5 levels. If your maximum hit point total is already 60, you can't retrain hit points because you are already at the limit. If you took the Toughness feat, you would gain 5 hit points and your maximum possible hit point total would also increase by 5, which means your ability to retrain hit points would be the same as without the feat.
"

[Popupjoe]

As a GM I'd give a hero point for good character flavor like this. It gives you a little something for your effort that isn't game breaking.

[GypsyMischief]

I have nothing to add, but I'm posting anyway to reinforce the opinions already shared by Renaivx and Matthew.

You're not losing anything by "training in your downtime" which makes it hard to justify giving you anything...you know what I'm sayin'? If you were missing out on some sort of boon I could see giving you a little comparative boost, but nothing's free.