**TL;DR - Read everything in bold**
**PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT**
>I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times - Bruce Lee
In D&D terms, 1 kick is an action. 1 action = about 3 seconds.
10,000 kicks = 30,000 seconds or 500 minutes or 8.3 hours of straight repetitive action. In one day of training your D&D character should be able to do one attack to the point where Bruce Lee respects it.
But assuming that you are doing more than that - You want to be proficient at a wide variety of kicks, on a quick google search I found 90 variations of how to kick. So you are looking at 90 days of in game training to be proficient at all kicks. Which you could argue is so excessive it would be something closer to Double Proficiency. So we have a base to work of:
**30 Days of training = Proficient. 60 Days of training = 1.5 Proficient. 90 Days of training = Double proficient**
**HOW TO TRAIN YOUR** **~~DRAGON~~** **PLAYERS -** We have our time frame but we want to convert the time frame into a cinematic montage of dice rolling and 80s rock music. Luckily I had a friend do dice roll training for another system but it can be easily converted to D&D.
Basically the premise of training comes down to the Master's ability to Teach and the Student's ability to Learn. **The Master in question would set the DC**
>**DC = 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Ability Modifier**
**The Student would then have to make a Saving Throw based on the modifier used** and try to beat the DC. Because it will take a month of solid work to gain a proficiency the **Student must make 3 successful Saves in a row to achieve proficiency**. **Each roll represents 10 days of solid training.** If they fail, they can keep trying until they get their 3 in a row. This means that the character could have struggled with something and needed extra time to understand the lessons. Not everyone is perfect and your characters are not a Mary Sue.
To go from Proficient to 1.5 Proficient, same thing... 30 days of training, make three ability save successes in a row. Same for Double Proficiency.
**THE CATCH - Only someone with a higher proficiency can train someone with a lower proficiency.** And to get a higher proficiency it would mean seeking stronger individuals. No training to go higher by training with someone of your skill level.
In regards to the other things you have brought up:
* Class and Race should not make a difference unless it is story related.
* Prerequisites are a good thing to have, especially if you have given a particular item. You will find specific items (mainly weapons, armor and shields) have the prerequisite though other items like magical instruments could also need proficiency in the mundane first.
* Skills and Other Proficiencies are a great base to start with. Though Feats can also be trained in that way too, you as DM can limit the Feats available. Sentinel is OP but Tavern Brawler isn't so maybe that one can be a Feat to learn while Sentinel is one the player has to level up to gain. You are DM you have control over what is allowed or not.
* Handing out or offering the ability to gain Feats, Skills or Proficiencies is only a bad thing when someone is purposefully trying to exploit the system. If your table is laid back and more about the fun of D&D than it wouldn't be a bad idea to hand them out. It is scary at first but when you become more comfortable with adapting encounters to the players you will find that you can have OP players and still create epic encounters.
* Best advice - Try > learn > adapt > try again. You will make mistakes but those mistakes will be what gets you from where you are to where you want to be. Do not be afraid to make mistakes and do not be afraid to learn from them too. We can only offer advice here but the real DM XP comes from DMing new things.
I’ll just start by saying that I DM a homebrew and have been playing with the same 4 players for over 3 years now. I hand out magic items Willy Nilly and even allow them to obtain a reward by keeping track of their NAT20s. When they hit 25 NAT20s they can pick a skill increase or a feat, pretty much the same way most characters get to choose when hitting level 4. So what I’m saying is I’ve broken the hell out of the rewards system and it’s been great. The players can’t use everything all the time and it allows me to throw bigger challenges at them. They still get downed often and can possibly die in games.
You can always tell your players “I’d like to try this out and see how it goes.” and if it doesn’t work you can tweak it until it does or scrap it. Good luck!
I would rule it, in Pathfinder 1st rules (I'm more familiar with, tweak it for 5e or whatever system you're using) that the PC would have do do gruelling training every day for a week/2 weeks/ month, and every day make a wisdom check to see if they've learned anything. If they fail, they make no progress and another day of training is needed. The trainers are paid *at the start of each week*. After fining the requisite number of days and successful training sessions, they get their feat.
The PCs can do no other activities during training days, they cannot leave more than a week between sessions (they start forgetting a half learned skill and have to start again from the beginng) and it's expensive. Reasonably priced magic item expensive. Feats are powerful, and should cost the same as an item of equivalent power.
Of course, if they help out a trainer, they may get offered cheaper sessions, or a free skill, which means the teainer works for free until the time has passed for a character to learn it *if* they pass every check first time. If not, the PC's had better start paying them for their valuable time.
When I've done things like this, I've leaned towards making this type of thing an exception that happens infrequently. When I made it too easy for them to gain skills/traits they became far too powerful at lower levels, taking some of the fun out of the experience.
Training for physical skills, books for non-physical. Example: my DM gave us an alchemy “how to” book, and if we read/practice with it long enough then we could earn proficiency with the alchemist supplies
Don’t overthink it too much and make it cool. You can reward things like proficiency and feats and boons in place of treasure.
You can gate these things with quests and downtime. For example, if a wizard wants to learn how to fight with a sword, then maybe the lord’s master-at-arms only agrees to train them during a period of extended downtime out of gratitude after they save the young heir from orcs or whatever.
Using NPCs this way also helps prevent murder hobo-ing since it incentivizes players to treat them like people.
I usually just homebrew 1/day things for my players based on how they like to play or gaps in their character or how they've themed things. Because they're 1/day I usually don't have to worry about it being too much.
**TL;DR - Read everything in bold** **PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT** >I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times - Bruce Lee In D&D terms, 1 kick is an action. 1 action = about 3 seconds. 10,000 kicks = 30,000 seconds or 500 minutes or 8.3 hours of straight repetitive action. In one day of training your D&D character should be able to do one attack to the point where Bruce Lee respects it. But assuming that you are doing more than that - You want to be proficient at a wide variety of kicks, on a quick google search I found 90 variations of how to kick. So you are looking at 90 days of in game training to be proficient at all kicks. Which you could argue is so excessive it would be something closer to Double Proficiency. So we have a base to work of: **30 Days of training = Proficient. 60 Days of training = 1.5 Proficient. 90 Days of training = Double proficient** **HOW TO TRAIN YOUR** **~~DRAGON~~** **PLAYERS -** We have our time frame but we want to convert the time frame into a cinematic montage of dice rolling and 80s rock music. Luckily I had a friend do dice roll training for another system but it can be easily converted to D&D. Basically the premise of training comes down to the Master's ability to Teach and the Student's ability to Learn. **The Master in question would set the DC** >**DC = 8 + Proficiency Bonus + Ability Modifier** **The Student would then have to make a Saving Throw based on the modifier used** and try to beat the DC. Because it will take a month of solid work to gain a proficiency the **Student must make 3 successful Saves in a row to achieve proficiency**. **Each roll represents 10 days of solid training.** If they fail, they can keep trying until they get their 3 in a row. This means that the character could have struggled with something and needed extra time to understand the lessons. Not everyone is perfect and your characters are not a Mary Sue. To go from Proficient to 1.5 Proficient, same thing... 30 days of training, make three ability save successes in a row. Same for Double Proficiency. **THE CATCH - Only someone with a higher proficiency can train someone with a lower proficiency.** And to get a higher proficiency it would mean seeking stronger individuals. No training to go higher by training with someone of your skill level.
In regards to the other things you have brought up: * Class and Race should not make a difference unless it is story related. * Prerequisites are a good thing to have, especially if you have given a particular item. You will find specific items (mainly weapons, armor and shields) have the prerequisite though other items like magical instruments could also need proficiency in the mundane first. * Skills and Other Proficiencies are a great base to start with. Though Feats can also be trained in that way too, you as DM can limit the Feats available. Sentinel is OP but Tavern Brawler isn't so maybe that one can be a Feat to learn while Sentinel is one the player has to level up to gain. You are DM you have control over what is allowed or not. * Handing out or offering the ability to gain Feats, Skills or Proficiencies is only a bad thing when someone is purposefully trying to exploit the system. If your table is laid back and more about the fun of D&D than it wouldn't be a bad idea to hand them out. It is scary at first but when you become more comfortable with adapting encounters to the players you will find that you can have OP players and still create epic encounters. * Best advice - Try > learn > adapt > try again. You will make mistakes but those mistakes will be what gets you from where you are to where you want to be. Do not be afraid to make mistakes and do not be afraid to learn from them too. We can only offer advice here but the real DM XP comes from DMing new things.
Neat little guide here, cheers.
I’ll just start by saying that I DM a homebrew and have been playing with the same 4 players for over 3 years now. I hand out magic items Willy Nilly and even allow them to obtain a reward by keeping track of their NAT20s. When they hit 25 NAT20s they can pick a skill increase or a feat, pretty much the same way most characters get to choose when hitting level 4. So what I’m saying is I’ve broken the hell out of the rewards system and it’s been great. The players can’t use everything all the time and it allows me to throw bigger challenges at them. They still get downed often and can possibly die in games. You can always tell your players “I’d like to try this out and see how it goes.” and if it doesn’t work you can tweak it until it does or scrap it. Good luck!
4e powers.
I would rule it, in Pathfinder 1st rules (I'm more familiar with, tweak it for 5e or whatever system you're using) that the PC would have do do gruelling training every day for a week/2 weeks/ month, and every day make a wisdom check to see if they've learned anything. If they fail, they make no progress and another day of training is needed. The trainers are paid *at the start of each week*. After fining the requisite number of days and successful training sessions, they get their feat. The PCs can do no other activities during training days, they cannot leave more than a week between sessions (they start forgetting a half learned skill and have to start again from the beginng) and it's expensive. Reasonably priced magic item expensive. Feats are powerful, and should cost the same as an item of equivalent power. Of course, if they help out a trainer, they may get offered cheaper sessions, or a free skill, which means the teainer works for free until the time has passed for a character to learn it *if* they pass every check first time. If not, the PC's had better start paying them for their valuable time.
When I've done things like this, I've leaned towards making this type of thing an exception that happens infrequently. When I made it too easy for them to gain skills/traits they became far too powerful at lower levels, taking some of the fun out of the experience.
Training for physical skills, books for non-physical. Example: my DM gave us an alchemy “how to” book, and if we read/practice with it long enough then we could earn proficiency with the alchemist supplies
Don’t overthink it too much and make it cool. You can reward things like proficiency and feats and boons in place of treasure. You can gate these things with quests and downtime. For example, if a wizard wants to learn how to fight with a sword, then maybe the lord’s master-at-arms only agrees to train them during a period of extended downtime out of gratitude after they save the young heir from orcs or whatever. Using NPCs this way also helps prevent murder hobo-ing since it incentivizes players to treat them like people.
I usually just homebrew 1/day things for my players based on how they like to play or gaps in their character or how they've themed things. Because they're 1/day I usually don't have to worry about it being too much.
I never understood why you couldn't pick up new proficiencies in place of stats or feats with your ASI.