Leveling Up & Proficiency Bonus

Leveling up in Ethenrea is not so simple as to gain milestones or to grind for XP. Instead, levels are increased by leveling your skills. Each skill can be leveled up by successfully using the skill a number of times dependent on its level. Once you have leveled a number of skills, you will increase your character level.

In order to increase a skill level, you need to successfully make skill checks a number of times equal to the skill's level and are called skill level points. For example, if your Athletics skill is Level 20, you need to use the skill 20 time successfully. Additionally, natural 20s count double skill level points, and critical fumbles subtract 2 skill level points from your total.

In order to level up at 1st level, 5 skill level ups are required to level up. Each subsequent level requires 5 additional skill level ups beyond 1st level. Additionally, there is no hard level cap as long as you have skills that you can level. Additionally, any skill you that is added by your race or class counts as Innate Proficiency. Innately Proficient skills count as two skills for the purposes of leveling up.

Skill Checks

It is important to note that Profession and Ability Skills aren't often used as much as Combat and Magic skills. To compensate for that, profession skills get a bonus skill level points equal to the difficulty of their difficulty. See below for specifics.

Check Difficulty	Bonus Skill Level Points
Easy (DC 10 or below)	+0
Average (DC 11-15)	+1
Troublesome (DC 16-20)	+2
Difficult (DC 21-25)	+3
Hard (DC 26-30)	+4
Very Hard (DC 31-35)	+5
Almost Impossible (36-39)	+6
Nearly Impossible (DC 40+)	+7

Proficiency

Unlike other systems, the Dragonforged TTRPG measures proficiency separately for each skill. There is no overarching Proficiency like in Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder. Instead, proficiency is measured in Skill Mastery or how much you have levelled the skill, and ranges from Novice to Master. Additionally, Backgrounds, Vocations, and Races state they give out skills, and call it proficiency. This means it counts as a Major Skill, where one successful check counts as two successful checks and increases your Proficiency bonus by 1. Expertise also acts differently, as Expertise counts as three successful checks and doubles your Proficiency bonus. See below for specifics.

Level	Skill Mastery	Proficiency Bonus	Major Skill	Expertise
1-20	Novice	+0	+1	+2
21-40	Apprentice	+1	+2	+4
41-60	Journeyman	+2	+3	+6
61-80	Adept	+3	+4	+8
81-90	Expert	+4	+5	+10
91-100	Master	+5	+6	+12