Experience and levelling up

Killing monsters earns experience points (XP), and enough of them make you a higher level. Your level (Lv) is in the status bar. The character screen (@) shows it with your XP and the XP at which the next level comes, like XP 85 / 128. Dying shows the level you had reached.

When you level up

The game says “Welcome to level N.” Some things come by themselves at once:

• more hit points (up to level 50) and more mana (up to level 60), as Levelling up below says;
• a chance for each of your stats to rise, by how much you have used it;
• whatever your class’s level table gives at that level: a class ability, a spell, or a talent it names. Your class’s own page has the table.

Then the level-up screen opens by itself, and you make the level’s choices in this order:

1. your skill rolls, every level: two for most classes, more for some, spent on the skills you are trained in;
2. a bonus talent, at the levels your class names (see When you get a talent);
3. a talent, every third level: 3, 6, 9, and so on.

The screen can’t be closed until everything is chosen, and nothing can be saved for later. Your weapon skills are not part of it: they rise with use, not with levels. Later on, some classes can be called into a prestige class.

Earning experience

You get XP for:

• the kills you make yourself: with your weapon up close, with a shot, or with something you throw (see Combat and Ranged combat);
• a creature that bleeds to death from a wound you gave it (see Status effects);
• quests you complete.

A creature that dies to a trap or to another creature, or to a wound another creature gave it, gives you nothing. Neither does anything else, such as a kill you merely watched.

Every kind of creature has a level and an XP value. A creature is worth about 5 XP per level plus 10; the level curve is built on that. The vermin are worth less, and some creatures are not meant to be fought. A few are set to pay more or less than that, and the table then shows what a kill pays and how, 45 (30 × 150 %):

Experience for something new

Meeting something new teaches you a little.

• The first time you kill a kind of creature yourself, it is worth its XP once more, however far below you it is (“You learn something of kobolds.”).
• The first time you arrive on a level, you gain a little for finding your way there (“You gain 10 experience for finding your way here.”).
• The first time you learn a spell by reading its grimoire, you gain 5 XP for each level of the spell (at least 5): 55 for a level 11 spell, 350 for a level 70 one. Spells a class gives you cost nothing and pay nothing; a failed reading pays nothing.

Only the first time counts. A second kobold, or a level you have been on before, is worth nothing more.

Fewer points for weak monsters

The further a monster is below you in level, the less its death is worth. A monster of your own level gives its whole value.

• Below you, it gives its XP times one minus the difference in levels over a number that grows with your level (the table below). Once the monster is that many levels below you, it is grey and gives nothing. Any kill that is not grey gives at least 1 XP.
• Above you, each level it has over you adds 5% to its value, up to four levels (+20%).

For a level 7 character (grey five levels down), a monster worth 100 XP at its own level gives:

So a kobold shaman is worth less every level you gain:

Levels

Every class stops at level 60, its last, except the bard, who stops at 30 (the table below says so for each). The road there is long. A bard at 30 keeps every point of XP earned after it. One who becomes a hunter gains at once every level that XP buys, from level 31 on. The curve itself runs on to level 100, for levels a class does not give.

Each level costs a number of kills of creatures of your own level: 26 for level 2, about 110 a level by level 10, and more for every level after that, up to 243 for level 60 and 323 for level 100. The first levels come faster:

That is about 1,700 such kills to reach level 20, and 9,700 to reach level 60. Real counts run higher, because weaker monsters are worth less and grey ones nothing. At your last level your XP still counts, but buys nothing more. Gaining a level says “You feel more experienced.” and “Welcome to level N.” One kill can bring several levels at once.

Your race and class change how much XP every level needs. Long-lived races and the patient callings need more; short-lived races and everyday folk need less. The two multiply, so an elf wizard needs 175 % of the XP below, and a half-orc commoner 72 %. Character creation says “Levels come slowly.” or “Levels come quickly.” where it matters:

The XP needed for each level, for a character of 100 % (a human warrior, say) and for the quickest and the slowest race and class. The table also shows what each level grows (see Levelling up) and the classes that stop there:

Levelling up

Hit points. Each level up to 50 raises your maximum hit points, and the hit points you have now, by half your class’s hit points plus your Toughness’s share, at least 1. From level 51 on, levels add no hit points, so hit point pools do not run away.

Stats. Each level gives every stat a chance to rise, by what you have done with it since (see Stats).

Mana. Up to level 60, each level raises your mana by half your class’s mana plus what the better of your Intelligence and Willpower adds, if that comes to anything (see Mana).

Skill rolls. Every level gives skill rolls: two for most classes, three for a thief or a ranger, four for a bard, one more for a human, and more for a high Intelligence. You spend them on your trained skills before you do anything else. How much each roll adds depends on how much you have used the skill since its last roll (see Skills).

See also: Talents, Skills, and Prestige classes.