D20 Mechanic: Character Advancement
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.
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. Finally, add new feats. For more information on when you gain new feats and ability score increases, see the table below.
Character Advancement and Level-Dependent Bonuses
| |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wealth | |||||||||
| Level | XP Total | Level Bonus | Feats | Ability Score | Attunement | Attunement Bonus | kp | gp | dp |
| 1 | 0 | +0 | 1st | --- | 100 | --- | --- | ||
| 2 | 100 | +1 | +1 to one | 1st | +1 | ∞ | 4,000 | --- | |
| 3 | 200 | +1 | 2nd | +1 | ∞ | 8,000 | --- | ||
| 4 | 400 | +2 | +1 to two | 2nd | +2 | ∞ | 12,000 | --- | |
| 5 | 700 | +2 | 3rd | +2 | ∞ | 16,000 | --- | ||
| 6 | 1,200 | +3 | +1 to all | 3rd | +2 | ∞ | 20,000 | --- | |
| 7 | 2,000 | +3 | 4th | +3 | ∞ | 24,000 | --- | ||
| 8 | 3,300 | +4 | +1 to one | 4th | +3 | ∞ | 28,000 | 8 | |
| 9 | 5,400 | +4 | 5th | +3 | ∞ | 32,000 | 16 | ||
| 10 | 8,800 | +5 | +1 to two | 5th | +4 | ∞ | 36,000 | 24 | |
| 11 | 14,300 | +5 | 6th | +4 | ∞ | ∞ | 32 | ||
| 12 | 23,200 | +6 | +1 to all | 6th | +4 | ∞ | ∞ | 40 | |
| 13 | 37,600 | +6 | 7th | +5 | ∞ | ∞ | 48 | ||
| 14 | 60,900 | +7 | +1 to one | 7th | +5 | ∞ | ∞ | 60 | |
| 15 | 98,600 | +7 | 8th | +5 | ∞ | ∞ | 72 | ||
| 16 | 159,600 | +8 | +1 to two | 8th | +6 | ∞ | ∞ | 84 | |
| 17 | 258,300 | +8 | 9th | +6 | ∞ | ∞ | 96 | ||
| 18 | 418,000 | +9 | +1 to all | 9th | +6 | ∞ | ∞ | 108 | |
| 19 | 676,400 | +9 | 10th | +7 | ∞ | ∞ | 120 | ||
| 20 | 1,094,500 | +10 | +1 to one | +7 | ∞ | ∞ | 140 | ||
| 21 | 1,771,000 | +10 | 11th | +7 | ∞ | ∞ | 160 | ||
| 22 | 2,865,600 | +11 | +1 to two | +8 | ∞ | ∞ | 180 | ||
| 23 | 4,636,700 | +11 | 12th | +8 | ∞ | ∞ | 200 | ||
| 24 | 7,502,400 | +12 | +1 to all | +8 | ∞ | ∞ | 240 | ||
| 25 | 12,139,200 | +12 | 13th | +9 | ∞ | ∞ | 280 | ||
| 26 | 19,641,700 | +13 | +1 to one | +9 | ∞ | ∞ | 320 | ||
| 27 | 31,781,100 | +13 | 14th | +9 | ∞ | ∞ | 360 | ||
| 28 | 51,422,800 | +14 | +1 to two | +10 | ∞ | ∞ | 400 | ||
| 29 | 83,203,900 | +14 | 15th | +10 | ∞ | ∞ | 600 | ||
| 30 | 134,626,800 | +15 | +1 to all | +10 | ∞ | ∞ | 800 | ||
XP Total: You must have this many experience points before you can progress to this character level.
Level Bonus: Don't worry about this for now.
Feats: You gain a feat at 1st level, and an additional feat at each odd level.
Ability Score: See below.
- "+1 to one:" You gain a +1 bonus to an ability score of your choice.
- "+1 to two:" You gain a +1 bonus to two ability scores of your choice; you cannot select the same score twice.
- "+1 to all:" You gain a +1 bonus to all ability scores.
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: If a force item provides a bonus equal to your attunement bonus, this is the bonus you use.
If you attune to a force item at a level for which there is no listed attunement bonus, treat your attunement bonus as +0.
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. Note that this category is divided into the currencies of the three economies. When creating a higher-level character, if your level has "∞" listed for a given economy, you can have any number of items that can be purchased in that economy as you desire without limit; once you have outfitted your character, you have extra currency in the second-highest economy you can access equal to your level times 100.
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.”
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.
There is no XP penalty for having "uneven" levels due to multiclassing.
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