Leveling Up

In many other RPGs, you choose a class, and that class provides your character with as they level up. Instead, Frostmark is driven by your character's backstory. Depending upon the backstory contents, your character will have access to a different set of ability origins (AO) and dictates which abilities you can pick within the AOs. Which ability origins fit with your character is determined through a conversation with your GM, where both of you discuss which AOs would make sense.

***Which ability origins and which abilities?***

An AO is a group of leveled abilities with a theme. Thereby, your character should only have access to AOs that fit your character's theme. This can take the form of different activities in their backstory or simply be in the character's biology. Consider what the character has been trained in, what their careers are, special events that shape them, or simply, what their approach to obstacles and danger can be. A character who faces issues through careful deliberation could have access to [*Tactics*] or [*Finesse*] perhaps, but an AO like [Power] wouldn't make sense with their personality. The same goes for abilities. Whenever you are picking abilities, pick them in accordance with your character's theme and backstory, and confer your choices with your GM.

***What does ability origin do?***

When you and your GM have settled on one two four AOs for your character, you may pick abilities from those AOs whenever your character levels. The ability you choose for the level (and its parent ability origin) decides your characters health points, their talent with spellcasting, and if they receive extra skill points. Always take note of which AO you choose at any given level up and mark it down in your character sheet.

***Ability origin choices are not finite***

As your game goes on, depending upon your character's choices and actions, access to ability origins may change. Most often, this takes the form of acquiring access to another AO by focusing on specific training, finding a master, or a special event that occurs in play. In very rare cases, a character can also lose access to an AO. For example, this could happen when a [Divine Oath] taker breaks his or her oath. This is ultimately up to the GM to decide which consequences it will have, both storywise and mechanically.

***One to four ability origins***

A character can have access to one to four AOs at any given time. If a character has only one AO and loses access to it, the GM and the player must immediately decide upon giving the character access to another AO. Possessing several AOs does not necessarily make your character stronger, just less specialized as you can pick abilities from several different themes (AOs).

***AO Tags***

All ability origins have three "tags." They determine which health dice your character gains for the level if they receive additional skill points and how much spellcasting they will be able to purchase. Remember, for each level, you pick an ability from another ability origin than the last level, the tags your character gains for the level might change.

***Health dice***

Every time you level up, your character gains a health dice. The health dice are rolled when you level up to increase your character's total health points (HP) and can be used to recover health points during a short rest. The size of the health dice and the roll result will determine your character's health point gain.

At level 1, your character always gains the maximum amount of HP, which is the full HD value modified by the character's Vitality modifier. For every level after that, roll the HD given by the AO you pick. If you would roll a number that is half or lower than half, add half of the maximum value of the HD to the result. You will also add your vitality modifier to your HP each level.

*If your HD for a level is 1d8 and you roll a 4 (half), add 4 to the result (half of the maximum value of the HD).*

Your HD, depending upon your AO picks, may change on different levels. You do not reroll your whole HP pool with the new HD. The HD you gain when you level up only adds to your HP total. Keep track of your different HD values and how many of each your character possesses. This changes how your character recovers HP from a short rest. Read about HD and short tests in the "Rules" section.

*If you pick an AO with a 1d8 for level 3, you add upon the HP total with the 1d8. If you switch over to a 1d10 for level 4, you add upon your HP total with the 1d10.*

***Bonus Skill Points***

If you select an ability from an AO with the tag "Bonus Skill Points: None," it has no effects, and you can ignore this tag. When you select an AO's ability with the tag "Bonus Skill Points: Extra" for the first time, you receive four skill Points to assign in skills of your choice. This bonus does not activate again if you pick an ability from another AO with the same tag. Additionally, every four times you pick an ability from an AO with the "Bonus Skill Points: Extra" tag, not including the first level, you receive two skill points to assign in skills of your choice. All AO levels with the tag "Bonus Skill Points: Extra" counts towards these rewards.

*If you choose an [Tactics] on level 1 (has the extra skill point tag), you receive 4 skill points. If you would pick [Artistry] on level 2 (who also has the extra skill point tag), you do not gain 4 skill points again. However, after 3 levels of [Tactics] and 2 levels of [Artistry] (level 5 total), you gain 2 skill points as you have picked 4 abilities from AOs with the extra skill point tag.*

***Spellcasting***

To acquire spellcasting (Soul Magic), the character must first have a plausible reason in their backstory to have gained a Soul Mark. Read more about this requirement in the "Acquiring Magic" section, under "Spellcasting." The GM can also give characters opportunities to gain spellcasting later in play. As soon as the GM agrees that your character has spellcasting, you can purchase Soul Magic with the Potential you gain from the last tag.

*The spellcasting tag generates a pool of Potential for each level up. If your character possesses spellcasting, you can use your Potential to purchase cantrips, spell slots, and spells known or spent on Exaltation. If you don't possess spellcasting, your character still gains Potential at every level and can be spent on Exaltation. Read more under the "Potential" section.*

***Activating AO's Tags***

After choosing an ability (or two if it was level 1, 2, or 3), you activate the tags you gained from that ability's AO. Activating the tags means to;

* Increase your health point total with the HD tag
* Check if you received any extra skill points from the bonus skill point tag
* Note how much Potential you gained from the spellcasting tag, possibly spending that Potential immediately on spellcasting or saving it from future purchase or Exaltation.
* On level 1 to 3, you receive two abilities per level up, one Primary Selection ability and one Secondary Selection ability. Only the "Primary Selection" ability can activate your tags. The three tags cannot be activated during one level up.

*If you would pick an [Artistry] ability at level 5;*

* *You receive a 1d8 to calculate your new HP total*
* *Check if you received any extra skill points*
* *See how much Potential you gained from the Moderate spellcasting tag and purchase spellcasting/Exaltation now or later*

***How to navigate the Ability Origins***

Whenever you level up, you get to pick your character's ability from an ability origin your character has access to. This section outlines rules when you pick abilities.

***You must meet the requirements of the ability***

You can't pick an ability that requires or refers to another ability that you do not possess.

*For example, suppose you have access to [Discipline]. In that case, you cannot pick the level 5 ability "Stunning Strike" (requires the expenditure of "Mastery" points) if you do not already possess the level 2 ability "Mastery" (which gives the character "Mastery" points).*

*Likewise with [Finesse] 's "Dashing Courage" ability that refers to "Sneak Attack." If you do not have "Sneak Attack," you cannot pick the "Dashing Courage" ability.*

***Total level vs. [AO] levels***

Any ability that refers to "total level" describes your character's total level (all ability origin levels added together). On the other hand, "[AO] level" asks for the specific number of levels your character possesses in one ability origin.

*For example, a character might have 3 levels in [Devotion] ([AO] level) but also 2 levels in [Divine Oath] and 1 level in [Predator], giving them a total level of 3+2+1 = 6.*

***Pick abilities equal to your total level***

You can pick Abilities from an ability origin you have access to from an equal or lower level than your total level.

*For example, if you have a character that just leveled to level 10, they may pick abilities that are level 10 or below.*

***No need to start from level 1***

If you pick another ability origin next level, you do not have to pick an ability from level 1 in the new ability origin. You pick according to your total level.

*For example, if you have a [Tactics] character that just leveled to 7 and through roleplay, your character gains access to the [Pact] AO as well, you can pick an ability in [Pact] that is level 7 or below that you meet the requirements of.*

***Level 1, 2, and 3 has Primary and Secondary Selection***

Level 1, 2, and 3 in an AO provide your character with two abilities instead of just one, a Primary Selection (PS) ability and a Secondary Selection (SS) ability. However, only the Primary Selection ability activates your tags for the level. The Secondary Selection ability is only an extra ability your character receives and does not activate tags. The Secondary Selection ability does not count towards any [AO] levels or your total level. If your character has a total level higher than 3 and wants to pick a Primary or Secondary Selection ability (an ability that is level 1 to 3 in that AO), the character always gains a Primary and Secondary Selection ability.

***Primary and Secondary Selection don't need to be from the same AO***

The Primary and Secondary Selection abilities on levels 1 to 3 in an AO do not need to be picked from the same AO, nor do they have to be the same level as long as they are equal or lower to your total level.

*For example, if you possess [Tactics] and [Finesse] and your character is total level 3, you can pick Primary Selection in [Tactics] at level 2 and Secondary Selection [Finesse] from level 1.*

***One ability per selection and/or level***

If a level or a Selection offers several choices of abilities, you can only pick one.

*For example, if you have a level 1 character and you want to pick your Primary Selection ability from [Divine Oath], you must choose between "Divine Sense" and "Proclaim Judgement." If you want to pick your Secondary Selection in [Artistry] instead of [Divine Oath], you must choose one of the three available abilities in that Selection. Next level, if you want to, you can go back to the same Primary and Secondary Selections and choose the abilities you did not pick up as long as the abilities do not state otherwise.*

***You can't pick abilities with the same name twice (some exceptions)***

You can't pick an ability twice with the same name, even if they are present in two ability origins. There are some exceptions to these rules, which are explained further in this section. The exceptions are:

* Subtypes
* ASI or Feat
* Fighting Style

***Subtypes***

All ability origins have subtypes. A subtype is a further specialization into one aspect of an AO. The subtypes are always expressed as bullet points with a repeatable title ("College" for [Artistry], "Vow" for [Soul Oath], etc.) and subtype titles that repeat ("Charmer" from "College" and "Aegis" from "Vow," etc.). If you pick subtype ability in one AO for your character, you cannot pick abilities of another subtype in that AO. However, you can pick other subtypes from other AOs. “Pact Boon” options (“Blade”, “Bond”, etc.) work the same way as a subtype, after you have chosen, for example, “Blade” you cannot pick another “Pact Boon” option.

*For example, if your character picks "Protective Pomp" in the "Charmer" subtype from [Artistry] 's "College" (name of the section detailing the subtypes), they cannot pick any other "College" options than the "Charmer" abilities in [Artistry].*

***ASI or Feat***

Level 4 in all ability origins offers the same ability, "ability score improvement or feat" (ASI or Feat). Be mindful that you may choose any ability origin that you have access to when you pick this ability (if you haven't already picked ASI or Feat in that AO on that AO level) if you want to activate any specific tags. You can only pick ASI or Feat for a specific AO a number of times equal to how many times that AO offers the ability to you, still abiding by the level requirement of abilities.

*For example, if you have access to [Artistry] you can pick ASI or Feat five times with that AO when you reach a total level of 19. With [Tactics] levels, seven times at total level 19. If you have access to both [Artistry] and [Tactics], you can pick ASI and Feat with [Artistry] on level 4, gaining its tags, and then on level 5 pick ASI and Feat again with [Tactics], but gaining the tags of [Tactics]. The level 4 ASI and Feat for either [Artistry] and [Tactics] cannot be picked again. You can pick ASI and Feat again with [Tactics] when your character becomes level 6 or above as [Tactics] offers another ASI and Feat on that level.*

***Fighting Style***

"Fighting Style" is a special ability that grants your character bonuses with specific styles of combat. Underneath "Fighting Style" is several bullet points, such as "Defense" and "Archery." When you pick "Fighting Style" for the first time, you can only choose one of the listed effects. If you have or gain access to another ability named "Fighting Style" in another AO, on another level, or in another Selection, you can pick another ability, choosing a new effect each time.

*For example, on level 2 in [Divine Oath], you can choose to gain a "Fighting Style" instead of "Smite" in the Primary Selection. Then, in the Secondary Selection, you can choose another effect from the "Fighting Style" presented there.*

***Retroactive levels***

If you pick an ability at a later level that has an effect that becomes stronger the higher total level you are or, the more [AO] levels you have (the ability's AO), you count your total level or the [AO] levels you have for the purposes of that ability.

***Location of "See below" abilities***

Some abilities ask you to choose between several other abilities and end with the term; "See below." These abilities can be found below that AO's level 20 ability.

***General Upgrade***

If you have no ability options that your character meets the requirements of when you level up, or there are no abilities that suit your character, you can always exchange your ability (Primary as well as Secondary Selection) with a General Upgrade. If an AO has no new ability to offer on a given level (Primary as well as Secondary Selection), there is already a General Upgrade listed there. General Upgrades are called "Magical Upgrade" or "Martial Upgrade" in the AOs, depending upon if the AO has minor spellcasting ("Martial Upgrade") or moderate to major spellcasting tag ("Magical Upgrade").

***General Upgrade*** [Artistry] [Devotion] [Discipline] [Divine Oath] [Finesse] [Occult Learner] [Pact] [Power] [Predator] [Soul Oath] [Soul Weapon] [Tactics] [Unique Ancestry] [World Magic]

Gain one of your choice:

* One point to use in the Accomplishment section or to store for later purchase in the same section
* 10 Potential

If you are higher level than 3 and want to pick a Primary and a Secondary Selection ability from level 1 to 3 in an AO, you cannot exchange both the Primary and the Secondary Selection ability to the General Upgrade.

***Improved Upgrades***

After special total levels, 5, 10, and 15, you can pick the Improved Martial Upgrade or Improved Magical Upgrade instead of a normal ability or a General Upgrade in your AOs. The Improved Upgrade can only be chosen once across all your AOs, and you must meet the total level requirements of them. If an AO has no ability on level 5, 10, or 15, an Improved Martial Upgrade or an Improved Magical Upgrade is presented there instead.

***Improved Martial Upgrade*** [Discipline] [Finesse] [Power] [Soul Oath] [Tactics]

Gain one of your choice:

* Two points to use in the Accomplishment section or to store for later purchase in the same section
* +1 to an ability score
* Pick an additional feat from the feat list

***Improved Magical Upgrade*** [Artistry] [Devotion] [Divine Bestowal] [Divine Oath] [Occult Learner] [Pact] [Predator] [Soul Weapon] [Unique Ancestry] [World Magic]

Gain one of your choice:

* Two points to use in the Accomplishment section or to store for later purchase in the same section
* 20 Potential
* +1 to an ability score
* Pick an additional feat from the feat list