DM Newbie here... I am trying to understand when leveling up occurs in the Starter Kit (Dragon of Icespire Peak). According to the Source:
Characters gain a level each time they complete a starting quest, until they reach 3rd level. Once they are 3rd level or higher, completing a starting quest has no effect on their level.
Characters gain a level each time they complete two follow-up quests.
Characters gain a level if they slay Cryovain the white dragon.
So if I have my players embark on the Umbrage Hill as their very first mission and they finish it by whatever means... (this mission can be very short), they level up. Do I immediately stop gameplay to let my players spend time to level up? Do they have to go back to town to buy skills? Sort of confused here...
Most of the quests in DoIP aren't considered complete until the characters return to Phandalin and talk to the Townmaster. So they'll already be in town and will probably want to rest before they take the next quest. The level up can occur during that rest, then they can begin the next quest if there's still time in the session.
More generally, there is no "training" mechanic to leveling up in 5e. It just happens whenever the PCs gain enough XP or reach an appropriate milestone. Some DMs have the players wait until after a long rest to activate new abilities. I do true milestone leveling in my home campaign, so I just wait until the end of a session to tell the players they've leveled up. Then they start the next session with their new abilities.
Hi there,
DM Newbie here... I am trying to understand when leveling up occurs in the Starter Kit (Dragon of Icespire Peak). According to the Source:
So if I have my players embark on the Umbrage Hill as their very first mission and they finish it by whatever means... (this mission can be very short), they level up. Do I immediately stop gameplay to let my players spend time to level up? Do they have to go back to town to buy skills? Sort of confused here...
Most of the quests in DoIP aren't considered complete until the characters return to Phandalin and talk to the Townmaster. So they'll already be in town and will probably want to rest before they take the next quest. The level up can occur during that rest, then they can begin the next quest if there's still time in the session.
More generally, there is no "training" mechanic to leveling up in 5e. It just happens whenever the PCs gain enough XP or reach an appropriate milestone. Some DMs have the players wait until after a long rest to activate new abilities. I do true milestone leveling in my home campaign, so I just wait until the end of a session to tell the players they've leveled up. Then they start the next session with their new abilities.
Is it required that the DM picks new spells on level up for casters? Or that is just preference if you want to.
No. The player should always be allowed to make that kind of decision for themselves.
A lot of the time, leveling up is done between sessions, but it isn't too uncommon to take a short level up break in longer sessions.
They don't need to buy skills and players make all the level up decisions for their own characters (obviously DMs can change these rules).