Magic Items or Permanent Effects that Increase EXP or Character Level

[ViperMagnum357]

What it says in the title: has anyone ever gone on a treasure hunt to tally up all the ways to increase EXP or character level without encounters or GM handouts?

Item Familiar can boost EXP, but it still has to come from somewhere. So far, what I have found are just the seven artifact books; Vile Darkness and Exalted Deeds from the DMG, and the five Librams/manuals from the Epic Level Handbook. I vaguely recall a feat or something similar that allows you to gain experience by teaching/mentoring other people, but I cannot find it.

If you remember anything that grants levels or EXP, feel free to drop it in this thread.

[Glimbur]

Bards can Inspire Greatness for 2 bonus hit dice. Some people will tell you that you can maneuver skill points around using this and Psychic Reformation or whatever and per Air Bud rules (it doesn't say I can't) you then use your higher skill ranks to get into PrCs or feats or whatever sooner. I'd check with your DM and not rely on it for a RAW competition like Iron Chef. Hope that helps.

[bekeleven]

There's always lycanthropy (fun with cure loops. Afflict, do nonsense, cure it, repeat.)

Kingdoms of Kalamar has the coin of power, which gives 2 levels for possessing it. Don't try to make RAW sense of it, though, it's impossible. (Of course the same can be said of thought bottle.)

[Khedrac]

I find it hard to believe I am going to mention this, but a Deck of Many Things has a small chance to grant xp - either "10,000xp or 2 draws" or "50,000xp and a medium wondrous item".

No, I wouldn't use one as a method for this either.

[AvatarVecna]

Thought Bottles sorta for this but only in a roundabout way. I will say that however cheesy a Thought Bottle is, it still at least requires you to earn all that XP in the first place, such that your XP reset point has a lot of XP, whereas.an item giving free XP is getting around the need to earn it at all.

Admittedly I'm also a bit confused as to why such an item would be necessary even. If you're facing a creature tough enough to give you XP, it's giving you a decent chunk. Leveling up isn't hard.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Fail your Fort save on a negative level, then heal it back up by greater restoration. You gain enough XP to be halfway to the next level. If you'd just gained a level or spent enough XP to put you at the minimum for your level, that's half a level's worth of XP you just gained.

If you catch lycanthropy, use the negative level trick to boost your XP total up to your current ECL (including animal HD and LA), store your XP in a thought bottle, then cure your lycanthropy, you can then use the thought bottle to gain several class levels at once.

[emulord]

In Dungeonland 2, you can read Murlynd's book for 10K exp. Theres a 3.5 conversion around somewhere, but since its a AD&D module originally theres weird stuff like that.

[Zanos]

I vaguely recall a feat or something similar that allows you to gain experience by teaching/mentoring other people, but I cannot find it.
The Magister template from Forgotten Realms is a (very) powerful spellcaster charged with protecting and distributing magical knowledge. He gains XP equal to half the XP it costs to create a magic item if he gives it away, which is a net loss, but importantly if he teaches someone a spell it's treated as giving away a scroll. So if he taught someone wish he would get half of 5153 xp, since that's how much it costs to create a wish scroll.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The Magister template from Forgotten Realms is a (very) powerful spellcaster charged with protecting and distributing magical knowledge. He gains XP equal to half the XP it costs to create a magic item if he gives it away, which is a net loss, but importantly if he teaches someone a spell it's treated as giving away a scroll. So if he taught someone wish he would get half of 5153 xp, since that's how much it costs to create a wish scroll.I wonder what the best spell is for teaching someone else in this way? Wish is obviously a decent contender, but I'm sure there's at least one at there with a higher XP cost.

[ViperMagnum357]

The Magister template from Forgotten Realms is a (very) powerful spellcaster charged with protecting and distributing magical knowledge. He gains XP equal to half the XP it costs to create a magic item if he gives it away, which is a net loss, but importantly if he teaches someone a spell it's treated as giving away a scroll. So if he taught someone wish he would get half of 5153 xp, since that's how much it costs to create a wish scroll.

Ah, I was certain I had seen it somewhere. Template, though...that would have taken forever to locate. Many thanks.

[ShurikVch]

Draco Mystere - minor artifact from Draconomicon:

In addition, a sorcerer who reads Draco Mystere gains 1 point of Charisma and sufficient XP to place him halfway into the next experience level (which must be used to increase his sorcerer level). Other characters who peruse the book do not receive these benefits.

[unseenmage]

I find it hard to believe I am going to mention this, but a Deck of Many Things has a small chance to grant xp - either "10,000xp or 2 draws" or "50,000xp and a medium wondrous item".

No, I wouldn't use one as a method for this either.

Put the deck in your handy haversack, only take the card you want.

[Saintheart]

Indirectly, there's the Distilled Joy spell which I think comes from BoED. Takes a day, produces 2 XP worth of ambrosia (which admittedly can explicitly only be used for item creation, but it's still XP which doesn't have to come from the character and therefore is a net gain if you're into creating items.)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Indirectly, there's the Distilled Joy spell which I think comes from BoED. Takes a day, produces 2 XP worth of ambrosia (which admittedly can explicitly only be used for item creation, but it's still XP which doesn't have to come from the character and therefore is a net gain if you're into creating items.)Even better, the spell's duration is Permanent, so the character will always produce ambrosia upon experiencing joy, unless they're dispelled.

[reddir]

Put the deck in your handy haversack, only take the card you want.

It has been said that as the Deck is an Artifact it would not be affected that way by the Haversack's magic.

I think this was either Sage's advice or customer service, but I don't recall clearly.

[Jack_Simth]

If you get:
1) A warforged bard cohort that can Inspire Greatness on you constantly
2) A Wight under your control

Then you can:
1) Have the Warforged Bard Inspire Greatness on you, and keep it up.
2) Have the wight apply a single negative level to you.
3) Wait the 24 hours.
4) Voluntarily give up the save on the negative level, letting it become permanent.

This sets your XP level halfway through the prior level... but hit dice count towards levels! You go from 11th (real level) +2 hit dice (Inspire Greatness) = 13th level to the XP needed for 12th, plus halfway to 13th. You then let the Inspire Greatness expire, and you're now 12th, when you were previously 11th. Fully doable by an evil Cleric-11, or by a Cleric-9 in a party with a Bard-9 (as long as the bard is warforged or something).


Thought Bottles sorta for this but only in a roundabout way. I will say that however cheesy a Thought Bottle is, it still at least requires you to earn all that XP in the first place, such that your XP reset point has a lot of XP, whereas.an item giving free XP is getting around the need to earn it at all.

Admittedly I'm also a bit confused as to why such an item would be necessary even. If you're facing a creature tough enough to give you XP, it's giving you a decent chunk. Leveling up isn't hard.

The item's intended as insurance against level loss from death, level drain, and the like. But it can be used for various exploits with magic item creation.

[RNightstalker]

Put the deck in your handy haversack, only take the card you want.

Heck of an idea, especially if the "deck" is placed in the haversack loosely


It has been said that as the Deck is an Artifact it would not be affected that way by the Haversack's magic.

I think this was either Sage's advice or customer service, but I don't recall clearly.

I could see it going either way, would make for interesting discussion.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Any such effect with a duration other than instantaneous (or permanent, I guess) could be indefinitely extended by the acorn of far travel trick (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?546179-Un-Hallow-that-Stacks). Just make sure whatever plane your oak tree is on is timeless with regards to magic and other effects.


<snip> Find or plant an oak tree somewhere, preferably on a plane that is timeless with regards to magic. Cast a Sculpted (un)hallow spell so that it affects some of the tree's canopy. Tie the acorn of far travel (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) spell to it. Now all the acorns in the AoE are affected by the spell, so you can give acorns out to whomever you like. (You can only have one AoFT spell in effect at once; this doesn't preclude you from affecting multiple acorns with the same spell.) Now use Sculpt Spell to make a bunch of line-shaped (un)hallow spells pointing straight up. Now each of these (un)hallow spells has a different spell attached to it, such as haste, polymorph, magic circle against evil, death ward, etc. Now you count as being under the tree's canopy while you hold the acorn, and all these spells are in effect under the tree. If you want more than one at a time, just make sure you occupy more than one 5' space, and make sure good spell combos are all next to each other below the tree's canopy.

[Zanos]

Any such effect with a duration other than instantaneous (or permanent, I guess) could be indefinitely extended by the acorn of far travel trick (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?546179-Un-Hallow-that-Stacks). Just make sure whatever plane your oak tree is on is timeless with regards to magic and other effects.
While unhallow doesn't use exclusive language in defining it's spell list, anything else on the imaginary set of possible spells is undefined, and within the realm of the DM. Tying arbitrary effects to an (un)hallow is not RAW.


It has been said that as the Deck is an Artifact it would not be affected that way by the Haversack's magic.

I think this was either Sage's advice or customer service, but I don't recall clearly.
Could always have someone on standby to activate an amulet of second chances, which literally rewinds time. Or forced dream.

[mattie_p]

Could always have someone on standby to activate an amulet of second chances, which literally rewinds time. Or forced dream.

I'm fairly certain you can use items with lucid dreaming, and if it doesn't work out you can leave the dream without it affecting you. And if it does work out, you just used a dream copy of the card, not the real thing, so it's still there for the next dream.

I'm away from books and LD isn't allowed at my table, so unclear.

[DarkSoul]

The Nether Scrolls. RAW, reading a single scroll gives you a level in an arcane spellcasting class of your choice. There are 50 different scrolls grouped in 5 chapters of 10 scrolls each.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

While unhallow doesn't use exclusive language in defining it's spell list, anything else on the imaginary set of possible spells is undefined, and within the realm of the DM. Tying arbitrary effects to an (un)hallow is not RAW.That's a bonus, at this point. If the oak tree is on a plane that is timeless with regards to magic, you can have all those anyway; all the spells would have unlimited duration regardless.

[St Fan]

Fail your Fort save on a negative level, then heal it back up by greater restoration. You gain enough XP to be halfway to the next level. If you'd just gained a level or spent enough XP to put you at the minimum for your level, that's half a level's worth of XP you just gained.


Nope, you are wrong:


A character who has a level restored by restoration has exactly the minimum number of experience points necessary to restore him or her to his or her previous level.

A restoration spell bring you back to the minimum amount of XP, not halfway to the next level. There is a way to economize XP through level loss and restoration, but that's not it.

The trick is, when you have a need to sacrifice XP by casting some spells or creating magic items, right after having gained a level (to minimize the XP loss) if you lose said level, you find yourself at the halfway XP point of the previous level. Then, spend as many XP as possible creating magic items, up to the minimum XP for the current level (you cannot spend more) within the 1 day/level limit of the restoration spell. Once the level is restored, you're at the minimum amount of XP to have it, and also have a bunch of magic items or permanent spells for which you wasted no XP.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Nope, you are wrong:



A restoration spell bring you back to the minimum amount of XP, not halfway to the next level. There is a way to economize XP through level loss and restoration, but that's not it.

The trick is, when you have a need to sacrifice XP by casting some spells or creating magic items, right after having gained a level (to minimize the XP loss) if you lose said level, you find yourself at the halfway XP point of the previous level. Then, spend as many XP as possible creating magic items, up to the minimum XP for the current level (you cannot spend more) within the 1 day/level limit of the restoration spell. Once the level is restored, you're at the minimum amount of XP to have it, and also have a bunch of magic items or permanent spells for which you wasted no XP.Huh. Not sure how I mixed those up.

Thanks for letting me know.