Leveling Up and Bonus Abilities

Each of the classes I’ve posted on this blog has something in common; they receive abilities as they level up.

I added that feature to each class because, lets face it, standard classes in LotFP are lackluster and boring. However, that dullness serves a purpose; to keep the game gritty, keep the players on their toes, and to avoid the super heroics of other similar games.

I lost sight of all that, especially the third one.

So I’ve been thinking; I don’t want to completely get rid of level up abilities. I also don’t want to turn the game into a bloated feat-fest of super heroes who can never die.

So I came up with the following;

If your character class has level up abilities, you only gain an ability on a 1 in 20 die roll. This is cumulative, so that the higher in level you go, the better the chance of getting something cool. The reasons for this are as follows:

• To reward the players for surviving.
• To keep cool, special abilities without overpowering the game mechanics.
• To keep things gritty.
• To help differentiate characters from each other.

I will be including this in the Strathos player’s guide I’ve been writing.