Season 9 Rewards

Characters gain levels and earn rewards in the form of gold, magic items, and downtime. These rewards are recorded on their Adventure Logsheets — which they must maintain — before leaving the table. Most of these are awarded when you feel it’s appropriate (although magic items can only be awarded if specifically mentioned in the encounter in which they’re found).

Advancement

One Shot Sessions. Characters gain a level once they’ve completed an adventure.

Hardcover Sessions. Characters advance as the DM decides (or when directed by the adventure)

• • If the DM doesn't decide, the characters gain a level after four hours of play (or eight hours at tiers 2 – 4) in a hardcover adventure (maximum of one level gained per session).

  • The DM can decide which characters level up.

Characters advance at the end of a long rest or the session, whichever happens first (though consider the disruption that updating a character may cause).

Downtime Days. A character earns 10 downtime days after gaining a level (20 for tier 2 – 4 characters).

Magic Items

In order to maintain portability in this shared-world campaign, whenever the group you’re playing with finds a magic item, your character can keep it if you wish, though the number of magic items your character can own at a given time is determined by their tier (common, consumable, and story items don’t count against this limit). Instead of gaining a new item, your character can instead replace an item in their possession with a new one — useful in getting rid of obsolete items or those that have been destroyed or have no magic remaining.

• • Characters keep any permanent magic items that their group finds during the session. At the end of the session, each character can keep the items found during the session — to a maximum number of items based on their tier (common items aren’t subject to this limitation).

    • Except as otherwise specified, all permanent magic items that your character possesses counts towards their Magic Item Limit except items of common rarity and story items. Any magic items that aren’t consumable magic items — including those that have a limited number of charges or uses.

  • Consumable magic items (potions, scrolls, ammunition, and soul coins) are equitably divided among the characters — resolving disagreements randomly if necessary. If multiple players want a potion that the group has found, for example, roll a die to determine which character keeps the item.

• Legendary items can only be kept by tier 4 characters, but others finding one instead unlock it and can choose to take possession of it when they reach tier 4 (levels 17 through 20). Until then the item doesn’t count against the character’s Magic Item Limit.

• Only one character a table can possess a story item at the table at a given time.

Magic Items Found During an Adventure

Your group must decide who keeps any consumable magic items they find. If you can’t come to an agreement, your DM determines the item’s winner randomly (usually by a die roll). Also, any permanent magic items found during the session are removed. Once this happens, you can do any of the following:

• Forgo an Item. Forgo any of the permanent magic item found during the session.

• Keep an Item. Keep any of the permanent magic items your group found (provided your Magic Item Limit accommodates it).

• Replace an Item. Replace a permanent magic item your character possesses with a permanent magic item your group found.

• Abandon an Item. Remove an item your character already possesses.

Your character loses any magic items that they forgo, replace, or abandon; they can’t be reclaimed later.

Choosing Magic Items

If an adventure specifically allows you to choose a magic item, your choice must be from either the DMG or the adventure that awards the item. If the adventure doesn’t specify a rarity, the item must be tier appropriate to your character (see below). If you’re allowed to choose an item of a specific rarity, you can choose one of a lesser rarity. For example, if you are awarded a rare consumable magic item, you can choose an uncommon one instead.

Some rewards award a tier appropriate magic item to your character. This is determined by your tier compared to the item’s rarity:

Additionally, if you’re able to choose the type of a magic item, you can only choose a type (longsword, longbow, studded leather, etc.) that is otherwise available for purchase.

Items With Persistent Effects

You can only benefit from a magic item that grants the same permanent benefit once (e.g., tome of understanding, bag of beans, etc.). This guidance is retroactive. Further, items that bestowed a persistent effect (such as a manual of golems, via wishes from luck blades, etc.) count against that character’s Magic Item Limit for as long as they retain the benefit — even if they don’t own the item or it has lost its magical properties. You can choose to replace or abandon the item as normal, but in so doing, the benefits it conveyed (resistance to damage, ability score increases, etc.) are lost.

Multiclass Characters If abandoning an item would render your character ineligible for multi-classing into a class of which they possess a level, you must rebuild your character, but can’t change their original Ability Scores. For example, a fighter who multiclassed into wizard by increasing their Intelligence to 13 via a tome of clear thought must be rebuilt if they abandoned their tome, but their original Ability Scores would remain unchanged.

Cursed Items

An item whose curse precludes its removal and isn’t removed before the session ends must be kept by the character at the end of the session. If this would cause the character to exceed their Magic Item Limit, the cursed item replaces one of the character’s other items (including other cursed items). Characters can’t abandon such an item until the item’s curse is removed (via spellcasting services, etc.) Such items owned by other players are returned at the end of the session (though you could trade for it normally).

Story Items

Characters that find a story item can keep and use the item without it counting against their Magic Item Limit, but only during sessions of the adventure in which the item was found. Only one character at the table can use a story item at a given time. These items can’t be sold or traded.

Unique Magic Items

Items without a specified rarity are of like rarity to items found in the DMG unless they possess additional, mechanical properties outside of the Special Features tables on pages 142 and 143 of the DMG. Items that possess unusual properties are unique and can’t be traded.

Attune to a Magic Item by Familiars

Any item attuned to a creature under your control (familiars, beast companions, etc.) counts against both your character’s limit of three attuned items and the character’s permanent Magic Item Limit.

This doesn’t suggest that such creatures can attune to magic items. Whether or not a mindless undead creature, for example, can attune to and utilize a magic item is still subject to DM discretion.

Trading Magic Items

In order to trade a magic item, you must have it in your character’s possession; magic items held in reserve can’t be traded. Similarly, you can’t trade magic items without magical properties. They can, however, be replaced with a new one. Your character must be alive in order to trade magic items.

Destroying Magic Items

Unless the conditions of an item’s destruction is specifically stated (talon card from deck of many things, ioun stone, +2 nets, etc.) permanent magic items can’t be destroyed. Destroyed magic items count against a character’s Magic Item Limit until they’re removed or replaced at the end of a session.

Mundane Treasure

Mundane equipment under a treasure subheading can’t be sold or traded but can be used until the end of the session, upon which time it’s lost. Any treasure with a monetary value (gp, gems, art objects, etc.) mentioned is ignored. Items without mechanical properties (such as trinkets or other objects without a specified value) are divided equitably among the characters. If more than one player wants the item, a randomly determined character keeps it.

Hourly GP Award. The Dungeon Master has discretion to award gold; each hour a character can be awarded an amount of gold based on their tier (see below). The Dungeon Master has a lot of flexibility in how this gold is distributed and what form it takes, though they can the treasure entries as cues to award gold and what form that gold might take. For example, a goblin might carry dirty copper coins, while a wealthy merchant might carry writs redeemable for gold.

• Alternatively, in a convention setting, you might want to wait and award the cumulative hourly awards at the end in the form of a chest of gold bars from a wealthy merchant.

• The campaign staff strongly suggests that characters be awarded the maximum amount of gold for their tier per hour. Otherwise, the characters earn a minimum amount for each hour of the session.

GP Limit. Once the character has earned an amount of gold equal to their GP Limit, they can’t earn any more until they reach a new level.

• Except as otherwise specified, all gold your character obtains counts towards your Gold Limit. Including, but not limited to, gold earned hourly, by selling items (such as those found by adventuring or those created by crafting, spells or class features), and that earned via DM Rewards.

• Once the character reaches 20th level, their GP limit resets each time they complete an adventure.

Story Awards/Effects/Items. These items or effects are essential to a hardcover adventure’s storyline and are only useable during sessions of the adventure in which they’re awarded. These items don’t count against a characters Magic Item Limit, but only one character can possess a given story item at the same table at the same time.

Planning for the Future

As you gain levels, your character evolves and grows. In advancing your character, the following rules apply:

• • Stopping Progression. If you decline advancement at the end of an adventure (or when your DM awards you a level), your character still keeps any magic items and gold they found during the session (though they’re still subject to the tier-based limitations on both).

    • You can’t postpone advancement (saving it for later) in order to participate in a later adventure, nor can you remove a level once applied. If your character advances to 5th level, for example, that character is no longer able to participate in tier 1 adventures.

• Character Rebuilding. You can rebuild your character prior to playing their first adventure as a 5th-level character — changing any of your character’s statistics but their name and season. Non-mechanical aspects of your character such as alignment, gender, choice of deity, or personality traits can be changed between sessions regardless of level.

  • • Your character keeps any rewards and equipment earned to that point. If your character’s class or background changes, they lose any equipment that it granted, along with the proceeds from selling it, or benefits derived from it, such as copied spells or gold earned by selling it. Similarly, if you change their faction, access to renown benefits are suspended. Story awards can’t be rebuilt, not can you rebuild your character if they’re dead or otherwise subject to something that removes them from play (see Death, Disease, and Curses, below).

• Level 20 Characters. You’ve made it to level 20. Whether you keep adventuring or not is ultimately up to you.

• • Levels. You “gain levels” and earn all of the associated rewards (such as downtime) associated with them, but you remain 20th level.

  • DM Rewards. You can apply DM Rewards to a 20th level character. Epic Boons.

  • Epic boons can only be awarded if the DM is specifically directed to do so by an adventure or other officially released product.

  • Death, Disease, and Curses. Dead characters or those subject to a condition or story award that removes them from play (vampirism, lycanthropy, petrification, etc.) can’t begin a new session until they purchase spellcasting services with gold or trade a permanent magic item (excluding common magic items) to return them to life or to remove any conditions or story awards that removed them from play — including those requiring a wish. This temporarily reduces their Magic Item Limit by 1. This reduction persists until the character reaches the next tier of play (or, for 20th-level characters, until they’ve completed two adventures). This option is available even if their Magic Item Limit has been reduced to 0 or they have no magic items.

The Adventure Logsheet

Though there is no required format, you must use some form of Adventure Logsheet to track your character’s rewards from adventure to adventure. At the end of each session, you’ll record the following information in your Adventure Logsheet:

• • Adventure Name. Write the name of the adventure you played (if a hardcover, write the session’s number).

  • Advancement. Indicate whether your character gained a level at the end of the session.

• Gold. Indicate how much gold your character earned and/or spent during the session.

• Magic Item. Note magic items that your character gained and lost during the session.

  • Downtime. Annotate downtime days that were earned and spent during the session and what downtime activities they were spent towards (including what days, if any, were spent towards a long-term downtime activity — such as training). For example, if you spent 10 days learning Gnomish write “Training: Gnomish (10)” in the adventure logsheet’s note section.

• Adventure Notes. Record other important things that happened during the adventure or information you’ll need later, here: deaths, special rewards (story items/effects, etc.), etc. For hardcover adventure sessions, record the number of hours you’ve played since gaining your last level.

Dungeon Master Rewards

As you Dungeon Master for the D&D Adventurers League (DDAL), you earn DM Rewards. You earn one DM Reward for each one-shot Campaign Adventure or CCC adventure you run, and you also earn one DM Reward for every four hours you DM an hardcover adventure published for fifth edition by Wizards of the Coast. You may expend each DM Reward earned in one of the following ways.

Option 1: Advancement

One of your characters gains a level plus an amount of gold based on their tier prior to advancement. \\

Option 2: Magic Item

One of your characters from the campaign for which you were DMing gains a magic item awarded by the adventure. Forgotten Realms characters can only gain items from Forgotten Realms adventures, and Eberron characters can only gain items from Eberron adventures.

If the character to which this reward is applied, is of a lower Tier than the adventure you DM’d, the character must hold the item in reserve until they’ve advanced to the appropriate tier, at which point they may gain use of the item.

While holding it in reserve it doesn’t count against their magic item limit, but once they can apply it to the character, it does.

Option 3: Campaign Rewards (S9 adventures only)

Rather than using the DM Rewards you’ve gained to advance a character’s level or gain a magic item you can choose to collect them in a “pool” and trade them to gain other special rewards as described below.

• You may only use DM Rewards earned as a Dungeon Master for Campaign Adventures from either the Forgotten Realms campaign (Avernus Rising) or the Eberron campaign (Oracle of War), or from running the hardcover adventure Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus for this purpose.

DM rewards from season 8 and earlier are "expired" and can no longer be applied to a character.

You can expend the levels from your “pool” on any of the Campaign Rewards described below, though you may only place a reward on a character from the campaign for which the reward is designated.

Infernal Pets

No stat block is required since these Tiny ‘cuddly-lovables’ may not participate in or interfere with combat. Get one, name it, describe it… hug it, and make it your own!

Familiars

Any character that can cast find familiar can enjoy the companionship of one of these Infernal critters.

Items-Magical or Otherwise!

From the minds of mages SO mad they make Halaster look as sane as the next all-powerful archmage in the Realms.

*A special note on the properties of compressed magical pigments. They duplicate the effects of certain potions that can be extremely useful under the right circumstances. In order to use them, the pigment must be sprayed across the front of the user’s face, while their mouth is open, and their teeth are showing. Disgusting, I know… but the things we do to survive. WITNESS ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Items-Magical or Otherwise! (Season 9 Eligible*)

*These rewards may only be applied to a Season 9 character.

Vehicles & Mounts (Season 9 Eligible*)

Forget “Planar-Warming!” If you’re not cruising to the screams of the DAMNED, then you’re not cruising AT ALL!!!

*These rewards may only be applied to a Season 9 character.