Magic, Feats and Advancement
Your character in Root and Stem grows through one currency: XP. There isn't a separate feat tree to shop from the way older systems had — instead, every success you land pushes your stats, modifiers, and skills upward, and you decide how to specialize through four expressions of Proficiency. This chapter walks you through earning and spending XP, the Grace meter, Hero Points, and how magic opens up once you wake into a Vessel.
Earning XP
Each level costs more than the last. The XP to reach your next level is simply your current level × 100, and the hard cap is level 300. Growth comes straight from acting in the world and succeeding. Every time you do, the XP a roll generates splits automatically:
| Where it goes | Share |
|---|---|
| Your Root Stat (auto) | 50% |
| A Stem Modifier you choose | 30% |
| A specific Skill | 20% |
XP scales with challenge — you earn more for tasks that rival or exceed your level — and it shrinks the more you repeat the same action (a ×1/repetition factor), so grinding one trick stops paying off fast. A partial success rewards half value, so even a "success at a cost" keeps you moving.
Buying Stats
The auto-split fills your progress over time, but you can also spend XP directly to push a Root Stat up a step during downtime. Each step costs:
| New score | XP cost |
|---|---|
| 0 → 1 | 50 |
| 1 → 2 | 100 |
| 2 → 3 | 150 |
| 3 → 4 | 250 |
| 4 → 5 | 400 |
| 5 → 6 | 700 |
Above 6, steps run 1,200 + 800 per step. Past level 29 you earn Forge Points (one per 10,000 XP) to raise a stat toward 15, add +10 to a skill, or forge a legendary item with your GM.
Grace and Hero Points
Grace is the Creation–Entropy tension meter, a −10 to +10 modifier sitting on every roll. It resets to 0 on a full rest and can shift at most ±5 within a single scene — built up through success and rest, eroded by injury and failure. It's the visible ebb and flow of a scene's fortune.
Hero Points let you bend fate. You hold a maximum of 3, and they reset each session (no carryover). Spend them to reroll a die (1), auto-pass a Luck Save before the roll (1), reduce an injury a tier (1), add +20 to a single roll (1), turn a Critical Failure into a Partial Success (2), or avoid death and stabilize at 1 HP (3).
Specializing: The Four Proficiency Expressions
How your character specializes is captured by four Proficiency expressions:
| Expression | Driven by |
|---|---|
| Core | the generalist with no elective class |
| Melee | CON + DEX |
| Ranged | DEX + perception |
| Magic | INT/WIS + attunement |
Take the path that fits your build — or stay broad in Core and flex your bonus wherever the moment demands. Expressions aren't walls, so a melee fighter can keep a weaker Ranged or Magic expression on the side.
Becoming a Vessel
Magic begins when you become a Vessel, waking the Mana Pool inside you:
Mana = (INT + WIS) × 3
Casting then costs Mana by tier:
| Tier | Mana |
|---|---|
| Cantrip | 0 |
| Tier 1 | 5 |
| Tier 2 | 10 (−10 SRC) |
| Tier 3 | 20 (−20) |
| Tier 4 | 40 (−30) |
| Tier 5 | 80 (−40) |
Higher tiers pull at your Skill-to-Challenge Ratio, so the biggest workings are the riskiest to reach — but in the right hands, even a humble pebble can be turned into a thing of pure, directed force. See the Core and The Roll chapter of the rules for how the graduated die and tiers resolve a casting.