

The new rules themselves are not modular players can't use Level Up's new armor types without its new subsystems for breakage and damage type vulnerability, for instance, but they can use the sourcebooks as desired. For example, players can use the Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition Core Rulebook in conjunction with D&D's Monster Manual (with some extra calculation) or use the D&D Player's Handbook with Level Up's Monstrous Menagerie. That said, each sourcebook can be individually used in place of its D&D counterpart. Related: Dungeons & Dragons 5.5 News & Updates: Everything We Know So Far Level Up is essentially an unofficial D&D 5.5 (mostly developed before Wizards of the Coast announced the official D&D 5e revision), compatible with D&D supplements but building on and overwriting its basic ruleset.

It is its own, standalone game, with three original sourcebooks - Core Rulebook, Trials and Treasures, and Monstrous Menagerie - meant to replace their D&D equivalents. It is not, however, a supplement for D&D. It has d20 rolls, six ability scores, ACs, DCs, saving throws, etc. Level Up: A5E is based on the core framework of the Dungeons & Dragons 5e ruleset. But while Pathfinder became a franchise of its own, Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition aims to supplant only the current core rulebooks of D&D 5e and be used with existing D&D settings and modules. Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, a new tabletop RPG coming this November, appears poised to do with current-edition Dungeons & Dragons what Pathfinder did with its third edition.
