Updates and a reminder about levels

Greetings!

It occurred to me that there was a gap of time where folks coming to the Patreon from RR may not have seen my patch notes post discussing some of the changes that have been made to the way Delver levels work moving into Volume 2. I mentioned it in an a/n on RR after chapter 75 and before chapter 77, but if you arrived during the few weeks before the final chapter released on RR, but after I posted about it here on Patreon, then it may have been easy to miss. I'm copying the relevant text and putting it in this post to hopefully help make sure everyone is on the same page.

I will also be posting the character sheets for the main party in the next week. I have released them to the Discord for early look/review, so if you want to check them out ahead of time, feel free to hop on over and chat. I will also be making a full pdf of volume 1 which has been streamlined and edited, available for anyone who is interested. That will be its own post as well.

Patch notes text (previously noted in prior post. Additional commentary available in that post, which can be found in the updates collection):

Levels

Levels are still a measure of the total number of Delves conquered. However, it is being standardized against Platinum as a baseline.

A Delver is no longer guaranteed to gain a level by completing a single Delve on any difficulty. Now, the Delver must complete a specific number of Delves at a given difficulty to earn a level. The breakdown is as follows:

8 Copper = 1 Level

4 Silver = 1 Level

2 Gold = 1 Level

1 Platinum = 1 Level

Any combination of Delves that would normally net you 8 stat points yields a level. This way, two Delvers who are both level ten, for example, are within a fairly narrow range of stat points between one another (80-87).

The characters in the story initially use the number of Delves or the number of stat points interchangeably when discussing how to level, since they are essentially the same by their understanding–to get stats you have to go through Delves. But, Arlo violates the stat rule, with his level being entirely based on the Delves he has completed. It is thus revealed that the levels are purely correlated to the number of Delves completed and are perhaps inaccurate as an absolute measure of stats.

Although levels are now a more reliable measure of a Delver’s strength, providing an easier rule of thumb for the reader to gauge characters by, they are not a guarantee. This retains the original goal of levels being a somewhat misleading value and still allows Arlo to have better insight into a Delver’s real strength, without making it overly complicated to figure out what the relative strength between two Delvers should normally be. Two characters at level twenty are probably in the same league, although there may still be significant differences in their level of skill, even if their stats are equal.

Metals/Difficulties:

The difficulty that a Delver pursues still has a significant impact on their relative strength to other Delvers of their own level. A level ten platinum has experience in much longer and more challenging Delves and has survived them through outrageous training, dedication, skill, and luck.

The level ten platinum has also earned greater rewards in the form of wealth, loot, knowledge, and sometimes unique abilities or perks as opposed to a level ten pursuing a lower difficulty. A level ten who has done nothing but silver and copper Delves will be ill-prepared to battle a level ten platinum if it came down to it, having lower intrinsic skills, crappier equipment, and a far less nuanced understanding of their own abilities and how to exploit them. The level ten plat and the level ten silver have similar stats, but their ability to put those stats to use varies by a lot. It is still the case that the difficulty of Delves undertaken by a Delver is not immediately obvious to anyone without competent research, insider information, or a unique ability such as Arlo’s soul-sight.

Higher difficulties also increase the soft cap that the character has for their maximum level.

This gets a little into the material covered more fully in Volume 2, but a good bit will likely find its way into Volume 1 as we continue slugging our way through it. This is also something that was hinted at in a few places in the present form of Volume I, so it shouldn’t sound totally unfamiliar (hopefully).

However, if you want to avoid any chance of mechanical spoilers (not really plot-related, just the mechanics of how Delvers pursue Delves and a couple of minor world-building notes), don’t read beyond this line.

Most Delvers pursue a standard 30 Delve per difficulty progression. This is because Delves slowly increase in relative difficulty, even when considering a Delver’s growth in stats when completing a Delve, and growth in intrinsic skills between Delves. This is also why so many Delvers usually wait a while before going into their next Delve. Even with their new stats, they need to train to learn how to apply the stats and grow their intrinsics to stand a chance at the next rung of the ladder.

The common wisdom is that a competent and dedicated Delver has a good chance of surviving thirty Delves at a difficulty they resonate with. This is still a very dangerous endeavor, and the mortality rate is certainly higher than virtually any other profession once you’re tackling gold or plat. After completing thirty Delves of a specific difficulty, the Delver then drops down to the next highest difficulty and is likely capable of conquering thirty more Delves in that lower tier.

Nothing is stopping a Delver from going ‘up’ a tier, but it will be very difficult, and making the jump only gets harder as you level. In most cases, the attempt is lethal.

This naturally results in those who pursue higher difficulties having a lot more runway with their level cap.

For a copper who only tackles thirty copper Delves, they will reach the upper ranges of level 3 but will be unlikely to reach level 4 or higher. 30/8 = 3.75

There’s no lower difficulty for the copper to drop down to, so once they can no longer safely complete copper, they’re out of the leveling game.

A silver Delver with a 30 silver, 30 copper progression has the benefit of 7.5 more levels. 30/4 + 30/8 = 11.25.

A gold Delver with a 30-30-30 progression gets 30/2 + 30/4 + 30/8 = 26.25. This level, 26, is the adjusted level of characters like Umi-Doo, who were level ninety golds. These are very powerful and relatively rare individuals.

For platinum, the rule of thumb is not to do platinum. If you do platinum anyway, there’s historical precedent for what other successful plats did to level, but there is no “common” wisdom on how a platinum Delver progresses through the difficulty because there are so few of them. However, as an example, we can look at the Dukgriens, who were some of the pioneers of the “30-level” difficulty progression.

Both Matriarch and Patriarch Dukgrien have 30 plats, 30 golds, and 30 silvers under their belts. This results in 30/1 + 30/2 + 30/4 = 52.5

Thus, the Dukgriens, the most powerful Delvers seen in Volume I, are level 52.

That's all for now. Thanks!