Season 9 officially kicks off September 17th!
I’m VERY excited about these rule updates -and- after reading this, I believe you will be too! Enjoy my summary below!
Here are the latest AL Players Guide v9.0 and AL Dungeon Masters Guide v9.0, I encourage you to read them yourselves!
Magic Items!
In my not-so-humble opinion – magic items rules are COMPLETELY correct this season. I have to say, this is what I’ve wanted the rules to be for Magic Items since waaaay back in AL Season 1. Simple. Fair. Easy. Common Sense. Very reminiscent of pre-Adventure’s League organized play.
How do I get Magic Items? If you find it in an adventure, you can keep it!
In fact, for general magic items found during play everyone in the party can take it — with the only caveat that you are limited to a number of magic items by the “tier” of your character as follows…
| Character Tier | Magic Items ** | Rarities Allowed *** |
| Tier 1 (1st-4th) | 1 | Common to Rare |
| Tier 2 (5th-10th) | 3 | Common to Rare |
| Tier 3 (11th-16th) | 6 | Common to Rare |
| Tier 4 (17th-20th) | 10 | Common to Legendary |
** Note, this only limits permanent magic items – no limit on consumables, ie. potions.
*** Only Tier 4 can have Legendary Magic Items, but if you find one before Tier 4 you can take it as one of your items -when- you get to Tier 4.
What if have my maximum number of magic items and I find a better one? Ditch it and take the new one!
Hallelujah Hallelujah… Did I mention common sense rules? Yes, yes I did! Very useful in getting rid of obsolete items or those that have been destroyed or have no magic remaining.
Leveling Up Your Character
When does my character level up? You don’t have to track XP, you don’t have to track Advancement Points. Simply, you MAY level up after every AL adventure.
So if you play one AL adventure (no matter the length of the module; 2-hour, 4-hour, etc) at the end you MAY level up to level two. After five, you MAY be level five. After twenty, you MAY choose to be level 20!
Why do I keep saying MAY? Because “you can decline to gain a level”.
So, for example, if you already have an 8th level Barbarian that you play in Tier 2 (5th – 10th) games and want to keep playing your Wizard at level 4, so you can keep playing a Tier 1 storyline – you can! Common Sense again? Yes, yes indeed.
What if I’m playing in a hardcover adventure books? Simple, you either gain a level when your DM tells you’ve gained a level -or- after 4 hours (for Tier 1) or after 8 hours (for Tiers 2–4). Again, with the option of declining to level at your discretion.
Gold and Treasure
Ok, was I the only one that thought Treasure Points took the fun out of looting dungeons and ransacking goblin hovels? Nope – thank Moradin, and the other dwarven gods, they’re GONE!
To summarize, you can earn a maximum amount of gold -per- level of the character.
This being the only reason that you wouldn’t want to “decline to gain a level” (as talked about above) as you will assuredly hit your gold maximum.
Make up a fun reason in game in case you ever hit your limit. Maybe you tithe every thing above that to the local church of Tymora! Hail Tymora, goddess of luck!
I will in fact have my players explain what they are doing with the gold they earn past the limit and eagerly await the shenanigans they conjure up!
Either way, here are the ‘gold’ and ‘downtime days’ info from AL-S9 rules — and an expanded table to give you the full amounts you can have all the way up to level 20!
| Character Level | Gold/Hour (Minimum/Hr) | Gold Max/Level | Downtime Days/Level |
| Tier 1 ( 1st – 4th ) | 20 gp (10 gp) | 80 gp | 10 / level |
| Tier 2 ( 5th – 10th ) | 30 gp (15 gp) | 240 gp | 20 / level |
| Tier 3 ( 11th – 16th ) | 200 gp (100 gp) | 1,600 gp | 20 / level |
| Tier 4 ( 17th – 20th ) | 750 gp (375 gp) | 6,000 gp | 20 / level |
Think of the Hourly Gold Award per hour as guideline for your DM, not as an “elf agenda to provide the working adventurer a living (or in some cases un-living) wage” 🙂
What are my GP, Downtime Days and Magic Item maximums at each level?
| Character Level | Magic Items | Gold Max | DT Days |
| 1st (Tier 1) | 1 | 80 gp | 10 |
| 2nd | 1 | 160 gp | 20 |
| 3rd | 1 | 240 gp | 30 |
| 4th | 1 | 320 gp | 40 |
| 5th (Tier 2) | 3 | 560 gp | 60 |
| 6th | 3 | 800 gp | 80 |
| 7th | 3 | 1,040 gp | 100 |
| 8th | 3 | 1,280 gp | 120 |
| 9th | 3 | 1,520 gp | 140 |
| 10th | 3 | 1,760 gp | 160 |
| 11th (Tier 3) | 6 | 3,360 gp | 180 |
| 12th | 6 | 4,960 gp | 200 |
| 13th | 6 | 6,560 gp | 220 |
| 14th | 6 | 8,160 gp | 240 |
| 15th | 6 | 9,760 gp | 260 |
| 16th | 6 | 11,360 gp | 280 |
| 17th (Tier 4) | 10 | 17,360 gp | 300 |
| 18th | 10 | 23,360 gp | 320 |
| 19th | 10 | 29,360 gp | 340 |
| 20th | 10 | 35,360 gp | 360 |
Miscellaneous
So again, check out the AL Players Guide v9.0 and AL Dungeon Masters Guide v9.0 yourselves! There are a couple other cool things such as…
Renown Items: Once you renown level is high enough, you can get a +1 weapon, +1 shield, +1 rod of the pact keeper, or a +1 wand of the war mage. Note that these do count against your maximum Magic Items count. But no more excuses that you don’t have a +1 weapon when that monster that is immune to non-magical attacks comes for you!
Faction Items: Once you are high enough level in your Faction all factions can get a Ring of Protection, Harpers can get a Ring of Free Action, Order of the Gauntlet can get a Ring of Fire Resistance, Emerald Enclave can get a Ring of Animal Influence, Lords’ Alliance can get a Ring of the Ram, and Zhentarim can get a Ring of Evasion. Note that these do count against your maximum Magic Items count.
New Season 9 “Character Creation Unlocks”: Lingering Legacy of Evil, Plane-Touched Wings and Inherited Malevolence…. whhaaaa… pretty cool.
So, overall – very very happy with Season 9 rules!
Simple. Fair. Easy. Common Sense.
Look forward to playing them with my awesome MAD D&D community!
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