The rules in the Player’s Handbook assume that characters have access to everything they need to advance in level—libraries where they can research new spells, trainers to guide their efforts, and places to practice new skills and abilities. Research and training aren’t a part of the standard rules. They’re assumed to be going on in the background. However, you control the background and can decide how you want to handle things such as this. Keep in mind, however, that leaving them in the background is a fine choice.
According to the rules in the Player’s Handbook, characters pick up new skills and feats as they go up in levels. In your campaign, however, you can require that a character can’t learn a new skill or feat that he hasn’t been exposed to. For example, a character in the desert can’t learn swimming unless he spends time at an oasis. You might decide that a character can’t even improve existing skills without the ability and opportunity to practice.
One step further would be to require that a character have an instructor to teach him new skills and feats. Under this approach, a character can’t learn to swim unless he has access to a body of water and someone who can swim willing to train him. Likewise, a character can’t learn the Cleave feat unless he’s got a trainer who knows how to do it and the time and a place to practice by sparring with that trainer. A trainer can be another PC (which encourages interaction and cooperation among the players) or an NPC. Non-player character trainers who are friends of the PCs might train them for nothing; otherwise, professional trainers, who are usually found only in large cities, charge money.
Training Cost: 50 gp per week for a professional trainer (plus related expenses).
Training Time: One week per rank gained in a skill, or two weeks for a feat. A character may work on two skills or feats at once, paying separately for each.
If a single trainer is providing instruction in more than one discipline, then the skills or feats in question should have some sort of connection. For example, a certain trainer might be capable of teaching both Mounted Archery and Ride-By Attack, since the feats are closely related (they even have the same prerequisites). Likewise, a single trainer might be found for Diplomacy and Intimidate, since those skills are both tied to Charisma and involve the same type of activity (getting someone else to do what you want). It would be less likely to find one trainer for both Open Lock and Ride; even though both skills are Dexterity-based, they cover different kinds of activity (fine manipulation of a mechanism versus keeping a mount under control in combat). Scarcer yet would be a trainer who could impart knowledge of Great Cleave and Forge Ring—those feats are so far apart in concept and application that the chance of one character having both of them is close to nil.
If you allow it, at the expense of a certain degree of realism, a character can obtain training ahead of time. A player whose character is at 2nd level, knowing that the character will get a new feat at 3rd level, might choose to have his character train for the feat now either because the opportunity is available or to just get it out of the way.
Distinguishing Skills and Feats: You don’t have to treat skills and feats the same in this context. For example, you can require training or exposure for skills but not feats, ruling that feats are something that develop on their own as a character adventures. Or you can set such requirements for feats but not skills, justifying this by the fact that feats are so much more potent than skills and thus require more investment on the PC’s part to acquire.
Divine spellcasters just get new spells when they gain the ability to cast them. Their deities, or the powers they revere, take care of it all for them. You will not find a ranger in a library trying to learn a new spell.
Arcane spellcasters don’t have things quite so easy. Wizards must learn new spells and add them to their spellbooks. This process is detailed in Arcane Magical Writings.
If you require wizards to actually spend game time on spell research to gain those new spells, assume that it takes one day per spell (but no roll is needed for spells that come with level advancement) and that such research costs twice what it would normally cost to have an NPC cast that spell for the character (see NPC Spellcasting, DMG 107).
It’s perfectly all right for two PC wizards to share spells. According to the standard rules, sorcerers and bards don’t need to study books to get their spells but just automatically gain new spells when they gain levels. However, as a variant rule you could require that each sorcerer contact an intelligent supernatural entity (anything from a lammasu to a demon) to learn new spells. Such creatures usually don’t want payment in gold but prefer to strike a bargain instead. These supernatural patrons teach their mortal friends spells in exchange for an occasional service (which could lead to an exciting adventure in its own right). Playing the patron is in the purview of the DM and, depending on the creature chosen, you should require whatever sort of bargain you see fit. The following are but a couple of examples.
Bards gain new spells by learning new songs. You can treat this just as a wizard learning new spells from books in a library, but the bard is studying with another bard and learning new music. Alternatively, you can rule that the bard must spend an equivalent period of time and money scouring the countryside for new songs, new rumors, and so on.
If you decide to allow characters to develop original spells, you can use these guidelines to handle the situation.
A spellcaster of any kind can create a new spell. The research to do this requires access to a well-stocked library, typically in a large city or metropolis. Research requires an expenditure of 1,000 gp per week and takes one week per level of the spell. This money goes into fees, consultants, material component experimentation, and other miscellaneous expenditures. At the end of that time, the character makes a Spellcraft check (DC 10 + spell level). If that roll succeeds, the character learns the new spell if her research produced a viable spell. If the roll fails, the character must go through the research process again if she wants to keep trying.
A viable spell is one that you allow into the game. Don’t tell the player whether you think the spell is viable when research begins. (That’s the point of the research.) However, feel free to work with the player before the research begins and give him guidance on the parameters under which an original spell might be acceptable in your game.
Research to create new spells is always in addition to any other research involved for gaining spells that are already part of your campaign (if you decide to also require spell research for the new spells that casters are entitled to as they attain higher levels).
The number of spells that sorcerers and bards (and other spontaneous spellcasters) can know is strictly limited; members of those classes can never exceed these limits even through the research of original spells.
You can mandate that to gain any of the newfound class-based benefits earned by advancing a level, a character needs to perform some overall training. This training requires one week per every two levels, rounded up. Training requires a character to train with a character of the same class who is higher in level and costs 1,000 gp per week. If no such trainer can be found, the cost is the same, but the time required is doubled. The money goes into fees, consultants, material component experiments, and other miscellaneous expenditures. Without the training, a character cannot acquire more hit points, class features, saving throw and attack bonus increases, spells per day, skill points, new spells, and so on.
If you dislike the idea of all this formalized training getting in the way of the heroic, epic campaign you have going, simply require that whenever a character gains a new level she must spend one day per level (or just 1d4 days) in downtime. During this period the character is busy training, focusing, or simply resting and cannot cast spells, go on adventures, and so on.
Instead of rolling for hit points when she gains a level, a player may (if you use this variant) take the average roll for the class (see the table below). Constitution modifiers still apply. Below-average hit points hurt a PC more than above-average hit points help, so this variant makes characters slightly more powerful.
| Sorcerer Wizard | Bard Rogue | Cleric Druid Monk | Fighter Paladin Ranger | Barbarian | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hit Die | d4 | d6 | d8 | d10 | d12 |
| Hit points at even level (2nd, 4th, etc.) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Hit points at odd level (3rd, 5th, etc.) | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |