Revision as of 09:14, 19 December 2015

This section outlines how character advancement works in Trinity, since we're using a rough combination of 3.5 and Pathfinder.

Overview

As player characters overcome challenges, they gain experience points. As these points accumulate, PCs advance in level and power. The rate of this advancement depends on the type of game that your group wants to play. Some prefer a fast-paced game, where characters gain levels every few sessions, while others prefer a game where advancement occurs less frequently. In the end, it is up to your group to decide what rate fits you best. Characters advance in level according to the table below.

Advancing Your Character

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.

The process of advancing a character works in much the same way as generating a character, except that your ability scores, race, and previous choices concerning class, skills, and feats cannot be changed. Adding a level generally gives you new abilities, additional skill points to spend, more hit points, and possibly an ability score increase or additional feat (see the table below). Over time, as your character rises to higher levels, he becomes a truly powerful force in the game world, capable of ruling nations or bringing them to their knees.

When adding new levels of an existing class or adding levels of a new class (see Multiclassing, below), make sure to take the following steps in order. First, select your new class level. You must be able to qualify for this level before any of the following adjustments are made. Second, apply any ability score increases due to gaining a level. Third, integrate all of the level's class abilities and then roll for additional hit points. Finally, add new skills and feats. For more information on when you gain new feats and ability score increases, see the table below.

XP Total: You must have this many experience points before you can progress to this character level.

Max Skill Ranks: The most ranks you can have in any one skill is equal to your character level.

Feats: You gain a feat at 1st level, and an additional feat at each odd level.

Ability Score: You gain a +1 bonus to an ability score of your choice at 4th level, and every four levels thereafter.

Attunement: You gain the ability to attune to force items, with your first slot at 2nd level, and an additional attunement at each even level after, to a max of nine items at 18th level. You cannot attune to more items than this amount, but these can be items of any type (for instance, if you have seven attunement slots, you could attune to seven rings).

Attunement Bonus: A force item that: is a weapon, armor, or shield; provides a bonus to saving throws or an ability score; or otherwise provides a bonus to anything else other than skills or energy resist, provides the listed bonus to the attributes that it would normally provide a bonus for (thus a weapon provides the listed bonus to attack and damage rolls with that weapon, and so forth).

Wealth: This is your expected wealth per character level. If you are creating a character of higher level than first, use this table to determine how much wealth you start the game with.

Multiclassing

Instead of gaining the abilities granted by the next level in your character's current class, he can instead gain the 1st-level abilities of a new class, adding all of those abilities to his existing ones. This is known as “multiclassing.”

For example, let's say a 5th-level fighter decides to dabble in the arcane arts, and adds one level of wizard when he advances to 6th level. Such a character would have the powers and abilities of both a 5th-level fighter and a 1st-level wizard, but would still be considered a 6th-level character. (His class levels would be 5th and 1st, but his total character level is 6th.) He keeps all of his bonus feats gained from 5 levels of fighter, but can now also cast 1st-level spells and picks an arcane school. He adds all of the hit points, base attack bonuses, and saving throw bonuses from a 1st-level wizard on top of those gained from being a 5th-level fighter.

Note that there are a number of effects and prerequisites that rely on a character's level or Hit Dice. Such effects are always based on the total number of levels or Hit Dice a character possesses, not just those from one class. The exception to this is class abilities, most of which are based on the total number of class levels that a character possesses of that particular class.

If the level of each of your classes - not counting racial paragon classes or prestige classes - is not within 1 of each other, then you suffer a 20% penalty to all experience points you gain until your class levels are "even" again.

Favored Class

At character creation, select a favored class from your race's favored class list. If your favored class is listed as "any," then select any one class.

That class does not count for purposes of multiclassing XP penalties.

In addition, each time you gain a level in that class, you can choose to either gain +1 HP or +1 skill point.