Time and Experience [3.5]

[ideasmith]

This variant is intended to slow down constant adventuring syndrome.

Earned Level and Actual Level
The rules below can cause a discrepancy between a characters experience level and experience total. In such circumstances, the level a character has the experience points for is the character’s earned level, while the level the character actual has is the character’s actual level. If a character whose earned level and actual level differ suffers level loss, both levels are reduced accordingly, and the character’s experience total is set to the midpoint of the previous earned level.

Maximum Level Gain over Time
No character can gain more than one level in a given year. If enough experience to gain a second level in a given year is earned, the character retains the experience, which will result in experience gain as soon as sufficient time has passed.

Extra Levels over Time
If an adult or older character fails to gain a level via experience gain in a time period determined by the character's lifespan (see Training Check Frequency By Age, below), the character may have a chance of gaining a level anyway. Roll 1d100 on the Available Classes for Level Gain by Duration table below. If part of the entry is in parentheses, the classes in parenthesis are only available if the character already has a level in that class. While a level may be gained under these circumstances, additional experience points are not gained.

Gaining a new class in this manner is subject to minimum starting age as per starting a new character of that class. NPC classes use the barbarian column; other classes with no specified starting age should be assigned an appropriate column. In no case is the character required to gain such a level.

Training Check Frequency By Age

Age Becomes Venerable	Examples	Level Check Gain Frequency
35-50 years	Half-Orcs, Humans	1 year
71-100 years	Halflings, Half-Elves	2 years
141-280 years	Gnomes, Dwarves	3 years
281-420 years	Elves	4 years

Available Classes for Level Gain by Duration
(Classes in parentheses are only available if character already has a level in that class. See text for other restrictions. ‘None’ may be chosen even if not rolled.)

Die Roll	Level 1	Levels 2-3	Levels 4-7	Levels 8-15	16+
01	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class
02	NPC Class	NCP Class, (PC Class)	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class
03	Commoner	NPC Class	NCP Class, (PC Class)	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class
04	-	Commoner, (NPC Class)	NCP Class, (PC Class)	PC or NPC Class	PC or NPC Class
05	-	Commoner	NPC Class	NCP Class, (PC Class)	PC or NPC Class
06	-	-	NPC Class	NCP Class, (PC Class)	PC or NPC Class
07-08	-	-	Commoner, (NPC Class)	NCP Class, (PC Class)	PC or NPC Class
9-10	-	-	Commoner	NPC Class	NCP Class, (PC Class)
11-12	-	-	-	NPC Class	NCP Class, (PC Class)
13-16	-	-	-	Commoner, (NPC Class)	NCP Class, (PC Class)
17-20	-	-	-	Commoner	NPC Class
21-24	-	-	-	-	NPC Class
25-32	-	-	-	-	Commoner, (NPC Class)
33-40	-	-	-	-	Commoner
41-100	-	-	-	-	-

CHANGE LOG

9/3/2012 Clarified that time advancement not required (Thank you, Yitzi.)
12/21/2013 Frequency of check now depends on lifespan
6/28/2015 Replaced Tables

[Yitzi]

But what if a character doesn't want to waste ECL on NPC classes or on commoner levels? You'd need to adjust ECL for that to work.

[ideasmith]

But what if a character doesn't want to waste ECL on NPC classes or on commoner levels? You'd need to adjust ECL for that to work.

Then they won't take levels in those classes. Will reword to make clearer that 'none' is always a choice on that table.

[ideasmith]

Variant revised; see original post.