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I'm new to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and am making a character. The career advancement with XP confuses me. I genuinely do not understand how XP converts into advances. Please help.
The problem: how much XP do I need to go into tier 2 in the physician career? The table is very confusing to me.
In Warhammer, leveling works somewhat different from D&D: first you gain XP, then you spend those XP to buy advances and improvments that your career gives you access to. Finally, when you have accumulated sufficient improvements, you either switch to a new career or the next level in your current career, to unlock additional things you can advance.
The rules for how to to complete a career level are given under the somewhat misleading title of "Completing a Career" on page 45. You first must buy enough advances in the career's Characteristics, skills and talents by spending XP, and then can spend another 100 XP to move to the next level in your career (or switch to another career):
When have taken all the Advances you want in your current Career, it's time to change Career. Changing Career means one of two things:
- Moving to a different level within your current Career (...); or
- Moving to an entirely new Career (...)
In each case, you will have to first determine, if you completed your current career level. If you have, changing career costs 100 XP.
Completing a Career
Completing a Career represents mastering your current vocation and being ready to move on to something new. To complete a Career, you must have the number of Advances listed below in all your Career level's Characteristics and in eight of your Career level's available Skills. You must also have at least 1 Talent from vour current Career level. Skills and Talents you have gained from advancement prior to entering your current Career count towards this.
Level Advances 1 5
So you must buy at least 5 advances in the characteristics and skills before you can move to level 2.
Each career marks the relevant skills for each level with symbols (page 44):
Every Career has an Advance Scheme governing its Characteristic Advances. The Advance Scheme shows your character's 10 Characteristics, 3 marked with ✠, 1 marked with [Crossed Battleaxes Symbol] on a brass background, 1 marked with a [Skull Symbol] on silver, and the last marked [Shield Symbol] on gold.
The three marked ✠ are Characteristics you can advance in the first level of the Career.
For physician, the three marked ✠ are Dex, Int, and WP, so you need to buy at least 5 advances in each of them to level up.
Your 8 skills on level one are: Bribery, Cool, Drive, Endurance, Gossip, Heal, Perception, Sleight of Hand, and again you need to buy at least 5 advances in each.
The costs for advancing talents, skills and Characteristics differ from each other and depend on how many advances you already have purchased in each, page 44:
The cost in XP of a Characteristic Advance is shown in the Characteristic and Skill Improvement XP Costs table, and depends on the number of Characteristic Advances you have already taken in that Characteristic.
Each Characteristic Advance adds +1 to the associated Characteristic. So, if you had purchased 4 Agility Advances, and your Initial Agility was 27, your Current Agility would be 31. The Advances would cost 25 XP per +1 Advance, as at each point the number of Advances previously taken would be in the 0-5 range.
The total cost to advance your 3 characteristics marked ✠ to +5 thus is 3 * 5 * 25 XP, or 375 XP. If you wanted to advance them further, the advances would become more costly, 30 XP per advance as per the table, but for getting to level 2 you don't need to.
The skill advances are cheaper each, at 10 XP per advance for 0-5 advances, but you also need to advance all 8 skills. This will in total cost you 8 * 5 * 10 = 400 XP.
Buying a talent costs you 100 XP the first time you take it (see the table on page 49), and as a physician you need to buy at least one of the following to be able to advance to level 2:
Bookish, Field Dressing, Read/Write, Strike to Stun
In total, access to level 2 of the physician career will cost you 375 XP (Characteristic advances) + 400 XP (Skill advances) + 100 XP (Talent) + 100 XP (Level transition) = 975 XP
P.S. You may also be able to buy advances in Characteristics, skills and talents that are outside of your career, but this is dependend on the DM making that possible, and it will cost you double the amount of XP.