Level Up!

Develop New Abilities

Over time your character will grow throughout their adventuring career. In D&D, this is known as leveling up! Often times you'll be granted new skills that'll aid you in and out of combat—you may even be granted access to Spellcasting! Lastly, your HP (Hit Points) will incrementally increase, making your character a little more resilient.

Let's continue developing Vadania, our Wood Elf Ranger we created last time.

Level 2

As seen in the Ranger's progression table below, Vadania will retain the same Proficiency Bonus as Level 1, but will gain a Fighting Style and learn Spellcasting. 

Fighting Style

We'll select the Archery Fighting Style for Vadania since we imagined her equipped with a bow and slinking through the trees and undergrowth. 

This option will grant her a +2 when making attack rolls with ranged weapons! 

Whenever you attack another creature you'll roll a twenty-sided-die, add your Dexterity or Strength modifier (depending on selected weapon type), and add your proficiency bonus if your character is proficient with that weapon type. 

NOTE: Rolling a Critical Hit or Miss: If you roll a 20 you'll get to do double damage and automatically hit. However, if you roll a 1, the attack will certainly miss, regardless of modifiers added to your roll.

ENCOUNTER: Vadania Attacks!

Let's say Vadania lets loose an arrow at a hostile creature. After rolling a d20 we got a 7 (not very high - let's hope the enemy's Armor Class or AC is low). Next we'll add +7 to the attack to see if we hit the enemy. 

TO HIT: 7 (d20) + 7 (prof bonus, dex mod, & archery fighting style) = 14 and the enemy's AC is 13, so Vadania managed to land a hit! Nice!

Next we'd roll one 8-sided-die and add 3 to determine the damage done to the enemy. We rolled an 8! The highest possible number for this die. 

DAMAGE: 8 (d8) + 3 (dex mod) = 11. Vadania has inflicted the enemy with 11 piercing damage with her arrow!

Spellcasting

Vadania is granted 2 spells at second level. As seen in the progression table above, there is a Spells Known category. As her level increases, she'll be able to learn more spells, adding them to her repertoire.

NOTE: Spell Slots represent the amount of spells you can cast before you run out—you can replenish these spells with a rest. 

We'll select Cure Wounds and Hunter's Mark for Vadania from the Ranger Spells List. Cure Wounds will allow her to heal herself or allies and Hunter's Mark will cause a chosen enemy to take an extra d6 damage when hit with a weapon AND give advantage to Vadania with Perception and Survival checks—she'll be able to track down her enemy if they try to escape! 

Concentration

Notice that Hunter's Mark contains a "C" next to it. This means the character must maintain concentration in order to keep the spell active.

Concentration with the spell will end if Vadania:

• Casts another spell requiring concentration - check the requirements of your spells before casting!
• Takes damage - Vadania can roll a Constitution saving throw to see if she maintains Concentration.
• Is incapacitated or killed 

Spell Levels

Another feature to note regarding Spellcasting is the Spell Level. Ranging from levels 0-9, spells can increase in potency, strength, and duration. Typically, you'll see that lower level spells are available in higher quantities whereas the higher level spells are less abundant. Choose wisely!

Vadania's progression table shows us that she only has access to 1st level spells and will continue to gain them. She'll also make her way up to 5th level spells by the time she's level 17! 

Hit Points

Finally, Vadania will have an increase to her HP! Each Class is assigned a particular die size that matches their hardiness. Rangers are granted a 10-sided-die. In order to calculate HP for each level progression you'll roll your Class's assigned die and add your Constitution modifier. Add this to your total HP and you'll have your new maximum HP!

Vadania started with 12 HP at level 1. Let's see where she'll end up at level 2!

After rolling a d10 we got a 4. Next we'll add her Constitution modifier, which is a +2. This strengthens Vadania's HP from 12 to 18!

As Vadania continues to level up she'll learn new abilities and increase in her overall fortitude! 

Now that we've successfully built a character from scratch and leveled them up, let's see what it means to use these new abilities in combat. 

Next Up: Mechanics of Combat

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