Your character will gradually reach new stages of training called experience levels. As each new level is reached, you will become more skillful and powerful in your chosen profession and areas of skills, as you will have the opportunity to train in new skills, or improve existing ones, each time you advance.
There are a number of ways in which experience points can be earned in GemStone III. The first way is by going out to battle and kill creatures. You and your party are credited with the experience points from a kill based on the differences in your levels versus that of the creature and the percentage of damage you contributed toward vanquishing or damaging the monster.
The use of certain skills in everyday life can earn experience points as well. An excellent example of this is the disarming of traps and picking locks. A number of skills give experience in this manner for successfully using them.
Empaths can earn experience points by healing other characters. To do so, the Empath uses the TRANSFER verb. This verb can transfer wounds or general health damage from the patient to the empath. Note that it is dangerous, and possibly fatal, for an empath to transfer too much damage to himself without healing it in the interim.
From time to time, there will be special adventures and quests in GemStone III that will allow you to gain experience in ways other than combat, such as through unusual events, challenges, or the achieving of heroic tasks, goals and missions.
Finally, there are Roleplaying awards (also referred to as RP awards). These awards are given out at times for exceptional RP. The art of developing a background and personality for your character is highly prized in a setting of this type and is thus rewarded when seen. RP awards are rare.
Experience points you gain during combat are credited to your field experience. Field experience is the raw amount of points you get from immediately doing battle with creatures. Field experience is a measure of how much you have witnessed in your adventures.
You can only learn so much at a time, however. If you gain enough experience in a short time, your mind will gradually numb. Eventually, it will reach a point where you must rest. Once your mind is so saturated, you will earn little or no additional experience. You must absorb your field experience, thereby changing it to real experience. Your stats can affect the amount of experience you can hold at any one time.
Over time, you absorb your field experience, which then becomes real experience. Real experience is what determines your level. Your stats determine how quickly you process field experience. A variety of situational factors also affect the rate.
Levels are gained based on the amount of your real experience. The level advancement amount in GemStone III works this way: you begin at Level 0 with 0 points. For Levels 1-5, you need incremental gains of 10,000 points each. To reach Levels 6-10, 20,000 points per level are required. To achieve Levels 11-15, you must earn 30,000 points per level. Levels 16-20 take 40,000 points per level. At Level 20, you reach the status of Lord, a very honorable and respected position. At Level 20 and above, increases in level cost 50,000 points per level.
A few very extraordinary individuals may reach the status of Legend. You gain this designation at Level 50.
You can return to the GemStone III Character Manager at any time to look at your stats, skills, learned spells and experience points. To return to the Character Manager, you must seek one of the local inns in the town of Wehnimer's Landing, find the front desk and type the command CHECK IN.
Continue on to Scoring.
Go back to Treasure and Booty.
Return to The GemStone III User Documentation Index
If you have problems, comments, questions, or complaints about the GemStone III pages you can send mail to Nora Melton (ntm@tamcon.com) aka Wanton Destruction.
Last modified 2 May 1996.