Levelling characters in the The Kantas Expanse campaign is based on participation milestones. All new players of the Kantas campaign start their first characters at level 2. You can also start at level 1, should you wish, and level up as described in the Levelling Up table.
Your character levels up after playing a certain number of sessions at their previous level. The Levelling Up table below shows the number of sessions you have to play at each level before earning your next level. Counting sessions played and levelling up your character is not optional. If your character would level up part way through a multi-part session, levelling is at the discretion of the DMs. If an opportunity does not present itself, you level as normal at the end of the adventure, with any sessions played in excess of that level carried over to your new total.
If you have multiple characters, only the one played in the session gains the experience for that game. See Additional Characters in the Character Creation section for more detail.
Some of our players are also DMs, in these cases you can count a session DMed as as session played towards one of your character's next levels.
Current Level | Sessions Played | Level Up to Level |
1* | 2 | 2 |
2 | 3 | 3 |
3-8 | 4 | 4-9 |
9-15 | 5 | 10-16 |
16-19 | 6 | 17-20 |
*Optional
Example: Daisy
Dasha creates Daisy - her first character in Kantas - at level 2. After having played 3 sessions with her, Dasha will level Daisy up to level 3 before her next session.
To help manage game sign ups, it is important to add the name and correct PC level, link to DDB Sheet and Discord ID to your Kantas Forum signature. If a signature is missing the necessary info by Sunday afternoon after sign up, that player will be placed on the waitlist. This also applies if you have one account for multiple PCs and haven’t specified which character you’d be bringing to the game.
Players can still sign up with a quick reply to be quick enough to get in on a game, but afterwards players need to go back and edit that post to clarify who they are bringing. A template for a correct Forum signature can be found in the post “Rumour Board Rules” on the Forum.
In 2024, a new set of D&D rules were published, overwriting some (but not all) the previous rules and classes. In Kantas, you can either select an option from the new 5.5e rules or any of the previous non-Legacy options.
One thing to be aware of - if you intend to pick an older sub-class for the Cleric, Sorcerer or Wizard class, then take a look at the rules for that sub-class, as it will indicate that you get those features at different levels. The 5.5e Rules all align to getting your sub-class at Level 3. These three classes operate differently if you're picking an older sub-class.
Examples
All of the following are valid Characters:
Level 5 Barbarian, Path of the World Tree
Level 5 Barbarian, Path of the Ancestral Guardian
Level 3 Barbarian, Path of the Ancestral Guardian / Level 2 Sorcerer, Aberrant Mind
Level 3 Artificer, Alchemist / Level 2 Cleric, Grave Domain
Level 3 Barbarian, Path of the Zealot / Level 3 Artificer, Alchemist
All of the following are not valid Characters:
Level 3 Barbarian, Path of the World Tree / Level 2 Cleric, Trickery Domain
Your Cleric 5.5e Sub-Class doesn't kick in until Level 3 Cleric
Level 5 Barbarian, Path of the Totem Warrior
Not a valid sub-class (labelled as 'Legacy' in D&DBeyond)
Level 5 Bard, College of Lore (5e)
There is an updated College of Lore (5.5e), so that's legal, but the 5e one is not. Again, it's labelled as 'Legacy' in D&DBeyond.
On or shortly after a character reaches Level 20, players have a choice; either to retire the character (with the option of becoming a significant NPC in Kantas if they so wish) or to become a Graduate.
Regardless of the choice, a character can only play 6 games (including the Graduation/Retirement session) once they have reached Level 20. This is to avoid the highest tier characters dominating the sessions and encouraging them to reach the climax of their story.
If they choose to Graduate, the player will be offered a Graduate game - a special session where they get to choose their companions - designed to wrap up any backstory or narrative issues for the character.
Following this session, Graduates will play very infrequently (we estimate 2 sessions a year), either in special Graduate-only sessions or exceptional sessions labelled by the DMs, and the rest of the time will be off pursuing their own goals elsewhere in the planes.
To reflect this reduced play schedule, Graduate characters will not count towards your character limit. Also, Graduate characters will no longer pay lifestyle expenses, and can only participate in Downtime in a narrative sense, not receiving or giving mechanical benefits (for example, they can no longer learn a language, nor can they be a tutor to teach someone else). Also, they can no longer submit Hooks for sessions.
A Note on Signups for Graduation Games
A graduating PC is able to pick who they would like to attend their session, and generally will reach out to those players and confirm availability etc.
Once this process is complete the names will be added to forum post as usual. When the post unlocks on a Saturday, anyone can sign up for the waitlist. This includes already graduated PCs.
Rather than the traditional first come first served system however, should the waitlist become activated by a PC dropping out, the Graduating Player will be offered the choice of who to call forward.
Retirement is different from Graduation in two key ways.
Firstly, retirement is permanent - the PC will stop adventuring, disappear or even die if appropriate. Essentially, they become an NPC. No take backs, no swapping around.
Secondly, retirement can happen at any level, if you choose to end a character's story before Level 20. This sometimes happens if you decide this character isn't playing out like you hoped but you're at your limit for bringing in a new character.
When retiring a PC, the player can submit a hook for a Retirement game, for which they are allowed to choose their own party. Alternatively, if you would like a quieter exit, you can simply let the KDMs know that you are retiring that character and that's fine too.