Would it be fun or detrimental to lvl up PCs in mid combat? You know, theyve slogged it out with the big boss, are on the edge and out of options, and they reach down deep and pull some amazing new powers out of their collective butts to turn the tides and win with. Epic, right?
But in actual gameplay I imagine itd be, ok lets put this slogfest on pause and select feats and do lots of math!
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you need to rest to gain any of the benefits of leveling up so no leveling during combat
That’s a common house-rule (I use it) but not RAW
A character advances in level as soon as he earns enough experience points to do so—typically, this occurs at the end of a game session, when your GM hands out that session's experience point awards.
You only need to do what the GM deems needed. While I can see where you're coming from with the whole 'reaching down to their seemingly last reserves and a pulling out some new amazing power' I think levelling up in combat would spoil the flow and be a bit of a slog. Also different people take a different approaches to levelling their characters, with some immediately levelling their characters and other taking a little longer; a few of the people I play with have had weeks or possibly months of rl time at this point and still haven't finished levelling.
Of course you could go for a partial level up e.g. the paladin has used up their Smite for the day but you know at the next level (which they've just gained) they get another use so you could describe them being suddenly strengthened by their faith and gaining the smite evil and some additional HP.
I like leveling mid fight. Of course, I tend to like xianxia novels
The comparison gets more explicit if you read The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich, which combines a D&D setting with the 'cultivation' (read- level, but kung fu) concepts of xianxia
Those tend to have "sudden break throughs in cultivation" or "epiphanies allowing new insight and skills".
The thought came while i was having a reminiscent dbz flashback.
Maybe handing out hero points in those epic moments would have the same feel.
You could do fairly easily by having the players come prepared by leveling on different sheets ahead of time, then tell them they get to swap sheets at an appropriate moment.
I've done away with XP in my games, personally favoring the 'milestone' method, but I haven't attempted mid-session leveling, let alone mid-fight. Late game (higher levels) that seems like it would potentially create several issues.