Gaining Levels[]
The measure of a character’s skill at arms, abilities and even his own profession is represented through levels. Levels are determined by the number of experience points (XP) a character has. Experience in turn is earned by facing challenges and overcoming them in the course of play. Higher-level characters have braved innumerable dangers and fought their way through many battles. These trials have made them even better suited to face further challenges as their increased skills, abilities and spells help them survive more and more difficult encounters. Progress through levels is measured by the experience points a character earns in the course of play. GMs award experience points for overcoming various challenges — perilous hazards, deadly creatures, puzzles, traps and other obstacles that present themselves to the players — as well as for good roleplaying and anything else GMs might find worthy of rewarding.
By finding your character’s experience point total on Table 3–1 to the right, you can easily determine what level he is and how many experience points he needs to gain the next level.
Level Benefits[]
All characters gain the following benefits regardless of class:
• A 1st-level character receives a feat, in addition to any other feats she may receive due to race or class.
• A character gains a +1 bonus to a single ability score every four levels, starting at 4th level.
• A character may select a new feat every three levels.
• A character gains additional hit points, skill points and abilities as allotted by her character class.
Character Level Character Level vs. Class Level[]
A character’s total character level determines where he is on the experience point scale and how many experience points he will need to attain the next level. For characters with a single class, class level is the same as character level. For characters with more than one class, character level is the total of all of their class levels combined. For instance, a 7th-level warrior has a character level of 7. However, a 5th-level mage/3rd-level rogue has a character level of 8, the total of his rogue levels and his mage levels combined. Class levels are the number of levels you have in a given class. For instance, the 5th-level mage/3rd-level rogue above has 5 class levels in mage and 3 class levels in rogue. In class descriptions, the term “level” refers to the class level (the number of levels in that specific class) unless otherwise specified.