Memorization

The goal of this new, homebrew mechanic is to allow players

a unique way to improve their character beyond what they start
with and what they gain through levels. Many of the things
players can gain through this mechanic can also be gained
through feats, however it will be much more costly to gain these
things through memorization, and in some ways less effective.
For example, the Weapon Master feat allows player characters to
gain proficiency with four different weapons. However, through
memorization, gaining proficiency with any single weapon would
cost either a large sum of gold, or the use of a magical skill
book (a new type of loot introduced to flesh out this mechanic).
So what’s the point then? If feats are better, then why not
just take them instead? Well there are a few reasons to utilize
the memorization mechanic. First, feats can dramatically change
the way a character is player, and as such it’s important to
choose yours wisely. For example, if you just want to give your
character a little bit more of a unique twist, like having your
Wizard become proficient with Rapiers, then it may be a bit
dramatic to have him take the weapon master feat and gain
proficiency with three other weapons he won’t even use. The
memorization mechanic is also intended to give players a more
realistic way to learn languages. A Dwarven Paladin may already
know a slew of useful language, but if, for instance, he was
told that soon he would be fighting off a horde of demons? Then
perhaps it might be useful to know one of the several demonic
languages. He isn’t attempting to take a great leap and learn a
new language as a feat of intellectual prowess, as a feat might
thematically imply, he’s just trying to prepare.
But, that’s enough lollygagging. Let’s get to the mechanic
proper.

Part 1: Memorization Slots

To begin with, each character will have a number of
‘Memorization Slots’ equal their intelligence modifier +1. So, a
Wizard with an Intelligence of 17 and a modifier of +3 will have
a total of 4 Memorization Slots.
Whenever a character either undergoes training to learn a
language, or gain proficiency with armor, weapons, tools, or
skills, whatever they learned takes up a Memorization Slot. This
is a permanent decision and cannot be undone. These slots are
intended to be used sparingly with a great amount of
consideration.
Finally, with the creation of Memorization I have also
created a new feat to flesh out the mechanic, you can see it
listed below:
Adept Student
You are fascinated by the process of learning and seek
constantly to add more knowledge to you repertoire. You’ve grown
your potential to a point where you are capable of taking in
more information and are able to effectively recall it more
efficiently.
·​ ​Your Intelligence ability score increases by 1.
·​ ​You can an additional 4 Memorization Slots.
·​ ​You have advantage on History checks to recall knowledge.

Part 2: Learning and Trainers

There are effectively 2 ways to use your memorization
slots. The first is to find a trainer willing to teach you. The
second, is via the use of a skill book, which we’ll get to in a
bit.
For the DM reading this, it’s important to think about
where various kinds of trainers might be. For instance, there
might be a language trainer in a village of relatively medium
size, though they’re unlike to be able to teach more complex or
rare languages, sticking probably to more common ones, like
Elvish and Dwarvish. Think first about the size and general
wealth of a location. The larger and more economically viable it
is, the more likely it is to have a greater number of educated
peoples, and in turn a greater number of educators. However,
even the smallest poorest hunting village might have someone who
can efficiently teach Survival proficiency.
There are a few things to note about using trainers to go
over before we get to the actual costs of training. First, once
the cost of learning from a trainer has been paid it must be
followed with a 4 hour training session in order to actually
gain the proficiency. These four hours must be taken all at
consecutively, the player cannot divide their hours into
multiple training sessions. This is intended to increase the
difficult of actually purchasing a session from a role player
perspective. (Author’s Note: 4 hours to learn a language,
weapon, or other may seem like a short amount of time. However,
this number was initially chosen to represent an amount of time
coupled with an amount of money that would equal out to a
significant investment on the player character’s behalf while
still being a viable form of character development.) Secondly,
armor proficiencies must be learn sequentially as Light ->
Medium -> Heavy, in order keep squishy little Wizard from become
iron magi-tanks right out of the gate. Finally, and for
clarity’s sake, when learning languages, tools, instruments,
skills, and weapons, the player character will only ever learn a
single of the chosen type of training. This most specifically
applies to weapons. Trainers will not instruct a player
character on how to use all martial weapons. Rather, the player
character will choose which weapon they want to become
proficient in and learn that weapon, and that weapon only.
Trainers are people who are likely to be very busy and it
will take a significant monetary investment to be worth their
time to teach the player character. In general, these should be
costs in gold for each proficiency a character can learn:
·​ ​Languages: 50 Gold
·​ ​Tools and Instruments: 50 Gold
·​ ​Skills: 100 Gold
·​ ​Weapons: 150 Gold
·​ ​Armor: 200 Gold

Part 3: Magical Skill Books and You

There exists rare magical skill books in the world that
teach the reader how to do a great number of potential things.
Each book teaches 1 proficiency, and they are enchanted to
increase the reader’s ability to take in knowledge quickly and
retain it over a long period of time. It is important to note,
however, that these books are very rare and you are very
unlikely to find them in shops of any variety, or for any
tangible price. In essence, these should be treated similarly to
other magical items, as loot found or given as reward for the
completion of a quest or the defeat of a powerful foe.
 Mechanically, learning from a magical skill book takes 1
hour of intense focus, and once the book has been used one time
its magical charge fades. Its pages will still hold the
knowledge of what the book teaches, however, without the magic
it would take many, many hours of rigorous study to learn the
proficiency from the book alone. Effectively, it becomes an
ordinary manual just like any other, and attempting to learn
from it alone would be wildly inefficient and would generally
result in no great gains of retained knowledge.
It may seem that because of the magical nature of these
skill books learning from this would not require a Memorization
Slot. This would be a misconception, magical skill books still
require to a Memorization Slot to be used at all.

Part 4: Conclusion
And that’s it! You know have everything you need to
developing characters in a way that diverges from their class
gains after character creation. Enjoy the fact that your
character can now take in more information and apply it
effectively to bolster their own prowess in a great deal of
fields!