Is it possible to give a character a free level?

[EightBitz]

Free meaning that level does not cost any XP and does not raise the cost for next level advancement. It's easy enough to give someone a level, and free XP to get there, but that still raises the cost to advance.

[Aaron]

Is it a specific level (i.e. everyone starts at level 2, or when you get enough xp for level 5, skip to level 6)? If so you might be able to mess about with the mechanic which stores the minimum values to reach each level. If not, then it might be possible but it'd be pretty fiddly. What are you trying to do, could you be more specific?

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Is it a specific level (i.e. everyone starts at level 2, or when you get enough xp for level 5, skip to level 6)? If so you might be able to mess about with the mechanic which stores the minimum values to reach each level. If not, then it might be possible but it'd be pretty fiddly. What are you trying to do, could you be more specific?

The sort of thing I'm thinking of is this: Let's say that as a house rule, I want to reward players who make an honest effort at a decent background story during character creation. One of those rewards might be something like, "OK, you're creating a 5th level warrior, but because of your apprenticeship with Frobozz, you get one, free level as a wizard.

[Maidhc O Casain]

The Gestalt mechanics implemented in HeroLab are somewhat problematic, but that might be what you're looking for.

So for your example, make their first level Gestalt Fighter/Wizard, then don't allow any Gestalt after level 1.

[Aaron]

Originally Posted by EightBitz

The sort of thing I'm thinking of is this: Let's say that as a house rule, I want to reward players who make an honest effort at a decent background story during character creation. One of those rewards might be something like, "OK, you're creating a 5th level warrior, but because of your apprenticeship with Frobozz, you get one, free level as a wizard.

For something like that, use the Starting Level incrementer on the configure hero and just set the starting level 1 higher.

[EightBitz]

Originally Posted by Aaron

For something like that, use the Starting Level incrementer on the configure hero and just set the starting level 1 higher.

That still counts against XP points.

EDIT: Nevermind. I was thinking about the other level incrementer, when you're adding a class level.

EDIT 2: Nope. I was right the first time. It still counts against XP.

[willuwontu]

Here's the gestalt script for reducing the characters effective level, might help you make an adjustment for this.

Pre-levels Priorit: 3 Index: 2

      ~ If we are under level 3 don't do anything as we will cause errors
      ~ Once we have three classes then we can modify it down to two.
      doneif (hero.tagcount[Classes.?] < 3)

      var nHitDice as number
      var nGestalt as number
      var iX as number

      nHitDice = hero.tagcount[Hero.HitDice]
      nGestalt = hero.tagcount[Classes.S2Gestalt]
      nHitDice = nHitDice - (nGestalt * 2)
      perform hero.delete[Classes.?]
      perform hero.delete[Hero.HitDice]
      iX = 0
      while (iX < nHitDice)
        iX += 1
        perform hero.assign[Hero.HitDice]
        perform hero.assign[Classes.S2Gestalt]
      loop