Does Harry Dresden 'Level Up' After Each Book?

Question

I spun this out as an offhand comment on this question but it made me think about it.

When we first meet Harry in Storm Front his powers are quite weak for a wizard and as the series progresses he gradually but consistently improves, mostly between books but sometimes within the book.

It appears that Harry Dresden follows the class progression of a Dungeons and Dragons Wizard as he increases in power. The progression appears to be that he is level one in Sotrm Front and gains one level after each book. For instance his favourite 'Fuego' spell seems to be very similar in concept to a Burning hands spell (1st level) as opposed to a Fireball spell (3rd level spell which he could use as a 5th level Wizard).

Is there any instance in the books of Harry using a spell that would be beyond his level if we follow the D&D Wizard spell progression?

As we don't know which set of rules or rules variant Harry may be following please feel free to use any D20 source.

Further Clarifications:

There are a number of official and unoffical rulebooks which allow for different ways to handle spellcasting but the core D&D rules allow a Wizard to memorise four different spells at 1st level. Most optional rules then allow those spells to be cast more flexibly via some sort of spellpoint system.

The feats system introduced in D&D 3 allows Wizards to approach their magic use more flexibly too. For instance Harry, if he was based on a Wizard, could have chosen a metamagic feat that increases his power output at a cost in effort/spellpoints.

Afterthoughts:

I've been rereading Storm Front the last couple of days keeping my idea in mind. Harry really does use only a limited repertoire of spells, mostly his wind push and pull, a fire blast, the finding spell, and his shield. While they definitely don't fit with the descriptions of D&D spells they are kind of similar with a little stretch of imagination and due to his use of a 'gust of Wind' lookalike spell you could easily roll him up as a 3rd level D&D Wizard with the right set of optional rules.

There is at least one notable exception. When attacked by a toad demon Harry manages to call down a lightning bolt which is a third level spell and only available to 5th level Wizards. However he does it by channeling the lightning rather than producing it which is something pretty much outside of most D&D rulesets.

I gave the answer to Jeff because he provided the key point about the Gust of Wind spell but everyone gave good answers, so thanks to all.

Answer 1

There is plenty of evidence that Harry does not operate under the rules for D&D in any meaningful way.

• Harry can cast several spells in the first book which are far more powerful than a low-level arcane caster could use (for example, Gust of Wind could never launch an elevator in the way Harry is forced to).

• Harry's spells do not have anything like the limitations spells in D&D have. Harry's fugeo, for example, isn't limited the way fireball or burning hands is - it will continue unabated until Harry wills it to stop, unlike the fire-and-forget spells in the sourcebooks.

• Harry casts spontaneously, without preparing ahead of time. This means that under D&D 3.5 (the only system I'm strongly familiar with) he would have to be a sorcerer. No sorcerer could know that many different spells at low levels.

• Finally, we know Harry doesn't operate under the D&D rules because he has his own RPG. If that's not good enough, he's been build in Mutants and Masterminds (2nd edition) a couple of times (3E).

Answer 2

In a word, no.

All of the changes in Harry's abilities as a wizard come from several clearly identifiable sources that are clearly discussed in the books.

1. Study, practice, research, and preparation: It is the nature of Wizards in Harry's universe be constantly working on their craft. Harry makes the point in several places that there are limits to how much energy a wizard can come up with "off-the-cuff" but that given time to make advanced preparations, they can be very powerful opponents.

2. Enter Lasciel: When Harry picks up the Denarian and Lasciel's shadow enters his consciousness, he gains the ability to use Hellfire. Harry is not an idiot though, and uses it sparingly. Eventually, he breaks the connection to Lasciel and loses the ability to use Hellfire (just in time for #4 below).

3. Take on an apprentice: One of the things that Harry comments on repeatedly was that taking on and apprentice, and going over basic magical theory with them helped improve his own understanding and mastery of those same basics. At several points, Harry comments about how he would never have been able to do a particular piece of magic without this improved mastery.

4. Enter Uriel: At the end of one of the books, as a reward for his efforts, Harry gains access to Soulfire.

5. Enter Mab: Becoming the Winter Knight gave him access to an entire new type and level of power.

It seems to me that his progression is based more on individual effort, plus special circumstances and would be more like GURPS than Dungeons and Dragons.

Answer 3

Evidence from the Books

Yes, Harry gains in knowledge and power in between most of the books. He gains some during a few of the novels. That said, Harry doesn't "level up" in a manner similar to D&D characters.

Exception Spoiler:

but not before Ghost Story. After all, he's mostly dead during it.

For the most part, Harry does gain in power and ability over time, with some very clear jumps at certain points for good reasons.

Cold Days has a MAJOR jump in Harry's power when he becomes the Winter Knight.
Likewise, when he learns how to use soulfire, that also is a significant jump.

And evidence from the Official Dresden Files RPG...

As a further aside, the Dresden Files RPG does not use a class and level approach; Harry is presented at a midpoint... neither his relatively weak self of Storm Front, nor his über-buff status after Cold Days.

It's before he becomes a warden. It doesn't even mention the soulfire, Molly, nor several other important minor characters. So it probably is Harry pre-Death Masks, and certainly before Dead Beat.

Note that the milestones system in the DFRPG is organized on three tiers:

• Minor: change an aspect or reduce refresh to gain more stunts/powers, or swap the rank of two skills.
• Significant: add a skill rank and also an option from the minor.
• Major: increase Refresh by 1, regain your extreme consequence slot (if used), and then as a significant milestone.

Note that in general, each book looks to be a significant or major milestone.

Answer 4

Winter Knight - An added TEMPLATE that Harry has taken.

His spells get more powerful - A higher level wizard has a higher caster level.

Starting at level one - No. Just no. Wizards in DF have to have a "minimum number of abilities". Just having magic isn't enough. A "1st level wizard" would be those magic users that aren't members of the White Council. Dresden HAS to be higher than level one. By quite a margin at that.

Hellfire/Soulfire - An energy modification that can be applied to any spell to increase it's power.

Levelling Up - A lot of people are getting hung up on Harry learning more through study. They seem to be forgetting a basic premise of D&D. Exp is only a MECHANISM to emulate real life. In fact normal D&D says that if you gain exp too fast, that you won't level up, as you should gain exp in accordance to the time it would take to practice/study/etc to learn the new techniques and get better. Killing a terrasque at level 7 shouldn't catapult you to level 20.

Basically, even though the character has enough exp to level up, they still have to do so over time. They just don't need to fight any more monsters to do so, and can safely study in their room at home until they have taken enough time to level up their new exp count.

It's the little rules that people forget...