5e "building focus" a different way to level up...

[BerzerkerUnit]

I'm ruminating on an idea...

So say you can divide XP between Base levels and Focus Levels. Focus levels are levels of your class that are only accessible after a certain number of encounters without rest, as you continue to build on prior successes, get in the groove and power on.

Focus levels are cheap, Base levels are normal. Example: You're a fighter1. You earn 300 xp, you can go to level 2 or buy 3 focus levels (the numbers can be tweaked, this is an example).

Now you're a fighter 1 when you wake up, but after 2 encounters you become Fighter 4 (or Fighter 2 Warlock 2 or whatever). You can stay level 4 until you take a rest, then you reset to level 1.

I had this idea when I was thinking of highlevel play, where your "walking around level" is 10, but as you engage in greater challenges in rapid succession, you "awaken your true power."

Any thoughts on what a limit might be before level 10 (I'm thinking 3 levels or maybe up to the next tier...)

Anyone else got any refinements?

[JNAProductions]

I'm ruminating on an idea...

So say you can divide XP between Base levels and Focus Levels. Focus levels are levels of your class that are only accessible after a certain number of encounters without rest, as you continue to build on prior successes, get in the groove and power on.

Focus levels are cheap, Base levels are normal. Example: You're a fighter1. You earn 300 xp, you can go to level 2 or buy 3 focus levels (the numbers can be tweaked, this is an example).

Now you're a fighter 1 when you wake up, but after 2 encounters you become Fighter 4 (or Fighter 2 Warlock 2 or whatever). You can stay level 4 until you take a rest, then you reset to level 1.

I had this idea when I was thinking of highlevel play, where your "walking around level" is 10, but as you engage in greater challenges in rapid succession, you "awaken your true power."

Any thoughts on what a limit might be before level 10 (I'm thinking 3 levels or maybe up to the next tier...)

Anyone else got any refinements?

Just gut feeling, I don't think this would work well. It's a cool concept, but I think you'd need a system DESIGNED with this in mind-for one, define an encounter. If you fight a cat, is that an encounter? What about two goblins? Are two goblins still an encounter at level 20? Because they should be at level 1.

Making 5E work with this idea is probably gonna be harder than building a system from the ground up with this idea.

[Amechra]

I feel like it'd be best to handle this kind of thing based off of the difficulty of the encounters. So maybe you unlock your Focus Levels by getting into Deadly fights or whatever.

Or you could make it a matter of falling below a certain HP threshold, or a matter of how many hit dice you've spent.

[BerzerkerUnit]

Just gut feeling, I don't think this would work well. It's a cool concept, but I think you'd need a system DESIGNED with this in mind-for one, define an encounter. If you fight a cat, is that an encounter? What about two goblins? Are two goblins still an encounter at level 20? Because they should be at level 1.

Making 5E work with this idea is probably gonna be harder than building a system from the ground up with this idea.
You are almost certainly right.

I feel like it'd be best to handle this kind of thing based off of the difficulty of the encounters. So maybe you unlock your Focus Levels by getting into Deadly fights or whatever.

Or you could make it a matter of falling below a certain HP threshold, or a matter of how many hit dice you've spent.
Spent hit dice unlocking features, that does inspire me in the same vein.

Maybe something simple like spent hit dice become focus dice and you can use those dice to boost skill checks and damage rolls...

[BerzerkerUnit]

Focus Pool
When a player character expends a hit die to recover hit points during a short rest, that die is placed in a focus pool accessible by all players.

These Focus dice remain in the pool until one or more players complete a long rest or they are spent.

Any player can spend any die in the pool to roll and add the total to an attack, check, or save after they’ve rolled but before they know the result. No more than one focus die can be added to a roll.

Some character perks may provide additional uses for focus dice.