Experience & Advancement

Every danger survived and every riddle solved earns you experience points (XP), and XP is the river that carries a hero from frightened first-level nobody to lord of a stronghold. The referee awards XP both for victory and for wisdom: a share of the monster's value and the treasure's worth, and a reward for the clever, the roleplayed, and the brave. It is divided evenly among those who dared it — the party rises together or not at all.

How you rise

Each class records a table telling you how much XP buys the next level, and what each level grants: a new hit die rolled (with your Constitution bonus), a better THAC0, improved saving throws, new abilities and spells, and more proficiency slots. When your total passes a milestone, you advance — roll your hit points, recompute your numbers, and take your new gifts.

A few landmarks on the climb are worth knowing in advance:

• The early levels pass fast, and most heroes spend their whole legend around levels one to ten. Your first hit die is rolled at its maximum, so first level is the frail one and the second is the safe one.
• As you leave the dungeon-crawling years, warriors gain the fighting-mastery that grants extra attacks, priests and druids gain domain and power, and everyone's name begins to carry weight.
• A high prime requisite earns you bonus XP — the class's own ability score speeding your rise. A fighter with an 18 Strength levels a little faster than one with a 10, and that is the system rewarding a hero for being born to their calling.

Name level

Around ninth level (tenth for thieves, twelfth for druids), a character is supposed to be somebody, and the system marks it. The fighter becomes a lord and may build a stronghold; the cleric a patriarch and may raise a temple; the wizard a master and may raise a tower; the thief a guildmaster and may found a guild. From here the game changes texture — you have followers, lands, a seat at the world's table — and your hit points stop rolling and grow by a fixed amount each level. You are no longer an adventurer climbing; you are a power the world must reckon with.

Multi-class and dual-class

Some heroes carry two crafts. A multi-class demihuman (elf fighter-mage, dwarf fighter-cleric) splits every drop of XP between both classes and advances in each, averaging the hit dice. Their power lags a single-classed ally's for a long time and then surges past at the ceiling — their two classes cover each other's weaknesses. A dual-class human masters one class, lays it down to begin another at first level, and earns the old powers back only when the new class overtakes the old. Both are the long, patient roads of the system, and both reward the player who thinks in campaigns rather than sessions.

Death and the new beginning

Characters die. It is part of the story's fabric, and the game is honest about it. When a hero falls, the party mourns, their share of the tale is told, and a new character joins — often a little below the party's level, ready to be carried through the early perils while the veterans do the heavy lifting. Resurrected heroes keep their experience but pay in body and soul, rolling their system shock against the long dark.

The real reward

The tables and titles are the scaffolding. What actually carries a character from session to session is the accumulation of moments — the name that tavernkeepers learn, the enemy who swore vengeance, the stronghold that was a ruin and is now defended, the story that the whole table retells. Experience points buy levels; levels buy power; but it is the sum of adventures that makes a hero worth writing down at all. Roll your dice, keep your sheet honest, and let the river carry you.