Character Advancement (Elemental Powers)

Advancing as a character is a fundamental part of your growth and progression, representing accrued knowledge, lived experiences, and battles fought and won (or lost).

How to Level Up
To level up, there are two routes depending on your referee: experience or milestones. Experience is typically earned by completing missions or winning combats or tournaments; milestones are typically earned by accomplishing acts that advances one’s cause, such as defeating a bandit chief, unraveling a mafia, or winning battles in a war.

The expected maximum level of any character is 10; although it is possible for characters to go beyond this limit, it is not common and should be done with caution.

Experience
Experience (or XP) is an abstracted measurement of your character's accumulated knowledge, moments, and training over time.

Your character starts at level 1 with 0 XP. To level up, you must gain 15 XP.

While a daunting number, you may find it surprisingly simple to level up,

Gaining Experience
You gain experience progressively and consistently. At the end of the session, check the following table to see which ones you fulfilled this session:

This list is by no means exhaustive, and you and your group are encouraged to think of new ways to gain experience. Referees should add incentives for gameplay they want to encourage.

Milestone
Milestone is an alternative way to level up. Milestones track your accomplishments and achievements relative to your current strength, and uses those to measure your progress.

Examples of milestones are defeating a bandit gang at level 1-2, unraveling a branch of a mafia at level 3-4, or winning a battle in a war at level 6-8.

You require 5 milestones to level up each time.

Milestones are awarded solely by your referee, but the group should have input on what does and does not count as a milestone relative to your current state.

Benefits of Leveling Up
When you level up, your character also improves in terms of what they can do and how tough they are. Do the following in order.


 * Your level increases by 1.
 * You gain an additional [ 10 + VIT ] HP.
 * You gain an additional [ 6 + PER ] SP.
 * You gain an additional +2 supply.
 * Increase ONE attribute score by +1 permanently, to a maximum of 20.

Note: Increasing your VIT score retroactively increases your total HP as well. This isn't a quirk of HP but rather how the system works as a whole.

Leveling Checkpoints
From level 1 to 10, there are certain points at which you gain some bonuses for leveling beyond the normal progression.

At level 3, 6, and 9, you may choose one of the following:


 * Gain another power (called a secondary power).
 * Focus on a secondary power you already have.
 * Gain a feat.

At level 3, 5, 7, and 9, you can learn powers from the next tier. For example, at level 3, you can learn from Tier 2, at 5 from Tier 3, etc.

At level 4 and 8, you may benefit from +1 short rests per day for a total of 3 at level 8.

Obtaining Multiple Powers
Do you have aspirations of other powers? Do you see what your neighbor does and do you want to do it too? No one can blame you! The good news is that even if you can't force your body to take on a new power immediately, your raw prowess and talent as you evolve can attract certain ones to you.

Whenever you reach level 3, 6, or 9, you can select another power that is not your base power. When you select a new power, you gain access to learning its abilities.

However, this comes with caveats as your body is not accustomed to this new force. First, you do not gain the base passive for free (although you can learn it for 5 SP). Second, you can initially only learn a limited subsection of its abilities.


 * 1) If you've selected a secondary power once, you can only learn abilities from it whose levels are less than or equal to half your level, rounded down. For example, a level 3 character could only learn level 1 abilities from their secondary power.
 * 2) If you've selected the same secondary power twice, you can only learn abilities from it whose levels less than or equal to your level - 2. For example, a level 6 character could only learn level 4 or lower abilities from their secondary power.
 * 3) If you've selected the same secondary power three times, you can learn any abilities from their secondary power, and all abilities you learn cost 1 SP less to learn.

You can select more than one secondary power at each level; you do not need to select the same one multiple times. However, selecting another power comes at the cost of not being able to gain a feat at that level.

Choose wisely!