D&D: Level Up Brings ‘Advanced 5th Edition’ To Kickstarter
Want crunchier rules and customizable characters? Deadlier monsters with exploration challenges? Level Up wants to change the way you play 5th Edition.
Level Up has been on the horizon for a while now, and with it comes the promise of a ruleset with more depth and possibilities. With revamped core classes, reimagined subclasses, and a whole suite of new rules building on the 5th Edition SRD, Level Up promises “Advanced 5th Edition.” But what does that mean exactly? In a nutshell:
New classes and rules will “level up” your game. From rules that enhance exploration to combat maneuvers for characters of all stripes, there are a ton of changes in these books. Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I worked on this project, so rather than take my word exclusively, you might want to check it out for yourself. You can check out previews of the rules throughout the Kickstarter below.
via EN World
After two years of extensive public playtests and surveys involving thousands of players, and input from our active community, we have completely overhauled the 5E game system. From redesigned classes to a full exploration pillar, we’ve revisited every aspect of the game to present this new standalone game, fully compatible with the 5th Edition core rules.
- Core set. The core set consists of three books — the Adventurer’s Guide (characters, and the core rules), Trials & Treasure (magic items, exploration and journeys, and gamemastery), and the Monstrous Menagerie (monsters!)
- A little more. For those who want more, there are two more books — Adventures in ZEITGEIST (a world/setting book) and Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters (a book of legendary heroes and villains from our own world’s myths and cultures).
- These are modular enough so that if you just want the monsters, or our new class overhauls, or our exploration rules, you can buy a single book. It’s all compatible with 5E and will work with your other 5E books!
There are three books all in all. The Adventurer’s Guide which is something of a handbook for adventurers and their players. It’s a standalone guide for Level Up, with all the rules for creating characters and taking them on heroic adventures full of thrilling combat and exploration.
This core rulebook includes:
- A unique origin system which allows you to select your heritage, culture, background, and destiny!
- Full rules for combat and adventuring!
- Hundreds of spells (including dozens of new ones), combat maneuvers, exploration knacks, and other exciting abilities!
- A standalone, advanced rule system which adds depth to the core 5th Edition rules while maintaining full compatibility.
Curious about how some of the rules work? Level Up has provided several previews here:
- You can read the Adventurer’s Guide introduction chapter here!
- Read about armor and materials.
- Check out the dragonborn and the planetouched.
- Have a look at combat maneuvers.
- Look at what we’re doing with spells.
- See our approach to skills.
- Read about stronghold building and followers.
- Take a look at the character sheet.
Level Up overhauls 5th Edition’s SRD and puts an entirely new spin on it. To that end, there have been changes made to the core classes to add more flexibility to “classic” options like barbarians, monks, and paladins:
- The barbarian is now the berserker, reflecting a wider range of rage-based character concepts, such as a gleaming platemail-clad elven Queensguard.
- The monk is now the adept, allowing for more unarmed archetypes like burly brawlers and exalted athletes.
- The paladin is now the herald, named not after a specific order of mail-clad holy knights but allowing for a wide range of holy champions.
You can check out the full list of classes and their subclasses right here so you can get a taste of what other changes lie in store, including a look at the new Marshal class, which promises everything you’d want out of a battlefield commander.
Trials & Treasures is a guide for narrators who want to run more in-depth adventures, with rules for new magic items (and a crafting system), rules for going on journeys and complications that can around while on one, including rules for creating regions full of dungeons, monsters, social encounters, and more.
This 550-page hardcover, spearheaded by Paul Hughes of the Blog of Holding, completely revamps the 5E monsters you already know with new monster math, CR calculations, encounter building rules, variants, and useful tables for each monster such as names, signs, behavior, lair features, encounters, treasure, and more. Read more about our monster tools.
In this book you’ll find almost 600 monsters, variants, and templates to use to customize your own encounters. There are elite monsters–we got to see the revamped Tarrasque a short while ago:
But accompanying each monster’s stat blocks are rules for behavior, adventure hooks, names, and more. Want to see more? Here are some previews:
- Introduction
- Aboleth
- Vampire
- Wraith
- Check out some more monsters here
- Read this book’s introduction chapter
- See the list of monster by Challenge Rating
Back Level Up On Kickstarter
Happy Adventuring!
