Training

I never found a GM who gave you benefits from training. See, I used to make hardworking characters, like this monk who keep doing squats, situps, pushups, and running every time he could, the onlything I got according to my GM was penalties due being tired, and when I reached certain level a +1 to one stat as any body else including the lazy ass bard who didn't do shit ever

Sure, i'd allow it. Friendly sparring would be allowed and they could gain exp from it. But i'd also remind them that sparring still drains their resources (spell slots, once-per-day abilities, etc.)

If anything, an interrupted training session could make for a fun encounter with wandering NPC's or enemies.

Assuming they're already good enough to make each other better, yes. Make a roll or two. High means it works. Low means you failed. 1s mean you injured yourself and will be hampered somehow for the next session.

Pathfinder has rules for gaining EXP during downtime, it's easy enough to extrapolate.

>>54317291
Depends on how much they train. And it wouldn't be the full-on encounter XP commensurate with the opponents' class levels.

I would expect full days of training before it's worth actual, measurable XP, not just a few daily sparring sessions before dinner.

Yeah that sounds fun.
I'd argue there's a cap on how effective it is, with diminishing returns. After a while you're no longer learning from the same opponent and are just doing the same actions over and over. You need real life experience against opponents you don't know inside out.

But pvp as training sounds cool.

>>54317291
I would outright encourage it and give benefits for it. Fights can't just be a pursuit of saving the world. Sometimes you just wanna be the best fighter, or mage, or whatever.

So imagine an adventurer's league where all kinds of adventurers train together and compete against one another and their own kind of adventurer to be the best.

You'd have team competitions, individual competitions, etc. And you can keep it fun and varied by using gimmick builds the players might not use themselves for NPC's. Use ones with obvious, exploitable weaknesses.

The PC's could train by fighting each other, but they can also train by fighting various types of NPC's individually or as a group. It also gives you an excuse to have different groups of adventurers play against each other, provided both have been provided fair resources and they're in the same league.

I would treat training as a scalable way to improve oneself but with diminishing returns at higher levels. For instance calculate a normal fight with full XP, but give only 10% of the regular XP. At higher levels give 5%, then 1%. And these have to be played out to get the XP, with a limit of once per session to keep things from becoming tedious. I suppose a flat 10% of the total would work at higher levels too. Defeating a single person of your same level isn't worth a massive amount of experience and experience requirements get pretty high.

I would treat the skills and abilities as "training versions". Illusions of fireballs instead of fireballs, training with dulled swords and padded armor, backstabs with blunted weapons, etc. I wouldn't really count them towards daily limits, either. They're not the real abilities, but toned down training ones.

It could be pretty fun.

>>54317291
Legend of the Wulin handles this mechanically. At the end of any fight both combatents can apply conditions to each other, this condition can be beneficial as well as a penalty. As such players can duel and use it as an oppertunity to give each other bonuses.

>>54317291
I'd allow it but factor in injuries and EXP penalties so they only get about 1/4CR worth of EXP from it.

>>54317291
Actually had a 5e downtime event like this happen, we actually ended up leveling twice instead of just once because apparently the roll was so good.

Characters can train as follows:
To receive the benefit, characters must train at least 4 hours per day up to 8 hours per day. They must rest 8 hours after.
They receive 1% XP (that would be needed to level) per 2 hours spent.
Max XP per level gained this way is 25% (or until the character is at 75% XP to next level). Anything more than that is not possible because there isn't anymore to learn/teach from/to themselves.
The rest must be acquired by the common means, learning through real pratice while facing real danger, where new techniques are learned because it is needed, not because it is wanted.

>>54317291

I'd allow it but not provide XP for it. Part of how I model abstracted level systems is that characters are always engaging in exercise/study/devotion to maintain and advance, and that's just one particular way to do so. That's not to say that it wouldn't accrue soft benefits like plot hooks and tactical insights, though.