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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Pathfinder #169: Kindled Magic / Life in the Academy

Advancing Your Branch Level

Source Pathfinder #169: Kindled Magic pg. 62
Unlike your character's level, your levels in your primary and secondary branches don't advance automatically when you gain Experience Points. Instead, you advance your branches through academic achievement; early in your career, this typically happens via bookwork and exams. As a student at the Magaambya, you can use either the Study downtime activity or the Cram downtime activity to represent your accomplishments in your studies and exams, with the timing based on the academic calendar (as noted for the GM in each volume of the Adventure Path).

Truly accomplished scholars also might be able to use the Practical Research activity as a downtime activity in the field to gain additional new insights and academic advancements during adventures, as opposed to during the normal curriculum. Later volumes of the Adventure Path will note such opportunities for the GM, but if you have additional ideas for location-based research beyond those provided in the adventures themselves, the GM might reward your creativity with an additional opportunity to perform the Practical Research activity and raise your branch levels!

Even with these extra opportunities, you can't advance your primary branch level above your character's level, or your secondary branch level above half your character's level (both with a minimum of 0). If the result of any of these activities would raise a branch level past those limits, put a star next to your branch's level. The next time your character gains a level, raise that branch's level to the new limit and erase the star. This way, if you have an opportunity to advance your branch level, you don't have to wait until your character level is high enough to pursue it.

Each of these downtime activities takes a few months, as they occur over an academic semester. You might have encounters during or between these checks as the story requires.

Study

Downtime 
Source Pathfinder #169: Kindled Magic pg. 63
Requirements You are an initiate, attendant, or conversant.
You give everything you have to your studies, in keeping with your branch. Choose either your primary or secondary branch and attempt a skill check with one of the branch's associated skills against a standard DC of the branch's level.

Critical Success Incredible results! You ace every exam and cause a stir that all the instructors notice. Increase the level of the branch you chose by 2.
Success You succeed in your studies admirably. Increase the level of the branch you chose by 1.
Failure You need to work harder and try again. Your branch level remains the same.
Critical Failure You make a major mistake that requires you to perform remedial studies. The next time you would get an opportunity to attempt this activity, you must skip that opportunity to catch up.

Cram

Downtime 
Source Pathfinder #169: Kindled Magic pg. 63
Requirements You are an initiate, attendant, or conversant, and your branch level for either your primary or secondary branch is 2 or more levels below the limit.
Realizing that you're falling behind in your studies, you cram more than you probably should. You Study twice, each in a branch that satisfies the activity requirements. However, the extra studying comes at a price. Until the next time you take the Study downtime activity, you're particularly tired from all the extra hours cramming; at the start of each day of adventuring, you must succeed at a DC 8 flat check or be fatigued for that day.

Practical Research

Downtime 
Source Pathfinder #169: Kindled Magic pg. 63
Requirements You are a conversant or lore-speaker.
You identify something interesting in the field and perform special research on it. This requires an appropriate check, which the GM will describe when the opportunity arises. The results of the check vary. While they typically include all the benefits of the Study activity, some opportunities for Practical Research also offer unique benefits, such as access to new character options.