Character Creation

Things to Keep in Mind

First, this game is intended to start small and get bigger (from a quest perspective). It will start local to the character’s starting place, go worldwide, and possibly beyond.

Second, having an idea of your character’s bigger goals is a good idea. Despite the (intended) scope of the game, I will endeavor to see that the characters (over time) are able to achieve some/most of their grander objectives. Thus, the earlier I get the character concepts, the earlier I can work them into the plot.

Third, remember that teamwork will be essential to success. There will be times where party division may lead everyone to disaster. There will be traps, poison, combat, dark places, and lots of water, so a variety of skills will be necessary for the group’s survival. Thus, antisocial characters (and you know the type I mean) are discouraged, though I will not necessarily say no if you really want to be that kind of character. Party solidarity would be a nice change though.

Fourth, having an idea about how your character will act/react to circumstances is a good thing, but please be willing to play with character attitudes when the game proper starts.

Fifth, there will almost definitely be a Kender in the party. I will attempt to rein her in somewhat, but please be mentally prepared for this.

Character Concept

All players are requested to provide me with a character concept, which should include the character’s background, training, and goals. Filling out this character study is not strictly necessary, but would add to the depth of the characters.

Ideally, all characters will know each other (or at least know a couple of the others) as part of their background. In addition, all characters should have some form of work as a day job. Your characters are not full-time adventurers… yet.

You make your home in Llafanwyr’s capital city, Te’ralyn.

All characters are considered to be natives of Te’ralyn, with the following exceptions. In all cases, you are expected to currently live in Te’ralyn, though your character may have visited any one other Cremaian country. Should you choose to have traveled, you will be provided with additional information about that country.

• Bards may have traveled all over Cremaia and to one country in Asuris or Kafre’en.
• Wizards may have traveled to Salinar to study, in which case the character must be a specialist wizard.  In this case, the character receives the bonus feat “Salinar Tutor” (The character has an established contact in Salinar, and also has access to Salinar’s huge library; this feat is also essential for characters hoping to pursue higher end magic-based prestige classes).
• Barbarian characters are either from Dofmariel or are refugees from Gochanrall.
• Kender are always visitors, though any Kender characters are established members of the Kender community in Te’ralyn.

Character Race

At this point, I will say that almost any race that has an ECL of 1 will be permitted, with the exception of Warforged and Kobolds. I will give you an automatic okay here for any race from the PHB. I am also willing to discuss taking a bloodline as outlined in Unearthed Arcana.
If you are wanting to play a nonstandard race from any other source, however, run it by me. Odds are that I will okay it.

Character Class

All classes from the PHB1, PHB2, or any of the “Complete ~” books are permitted, with the exception of Samurai, Shugenja, Ninja, Monk, and Wu Jen, which may not be taken at first level.  A human character may take the feat “Haiconian Ancestry:~” at first level. This feat grants the player one heirloom weapon (the only way to begin the game with an Oriental weapon) and will also permit the character to seek training in one of these classes, should the character ever travel to Haicon and find a trainer.

Please keep in mind that not all prestige classes will be available, and that you will need to seek a trainer to advance to a prestige class or to multiclass. In addition, for most prestige classes you will also need to attract the attention of the prestige class’s organization.

If you want to play a class from a source other than the ones listed here, check with me, and I’ll probably okay it (but maybe not).

Character Abilities

While this likely will not matter until Sunday, I figured I would give you a head’s-up on how ability generation will work.

• Players will roll 3d6 six times.
• Players may reroll any ones on rolls of 9 or less, and they may reroll any one dice if the total rolled is under 7.
  • On these rolls, all numbers count as one lower than the new number rolled. IE, a 6 is a 5, a 5 is a 4, a 4 is a 3, a 3 is a 2, a 2 is a 1, and a 1 is a 0. Yes, it is possible to actually reduce your total score by rerolling. No subsequent rerolls will be permitted.
• In the unlikely event that a player fails to roll 15 or higher even once, that player will be granted one stat at that number in place of his/her lowest rolled total.
• Players may then organize the rolled numbers among the six abilities as they choose.

Skills

I am using a variant rule from Unearthed Arcana for skill use in this game. The full description is on pp.81-86 of that book. For the sake of ease, I’ll provide a brief outline of this rule here.

• Complex skill checks. Essentially, it’s a rules system incorporating multiple skill rolls to succeed on certain skill checks. The more challenging the task, the more skill checks required. The player needs to succeed ‘X’ number of times before failing ‘Y’ number of times to succeed.
  • This variant doesn’t apply to all skills, nor to all situations, but things like lock-picking, trap-disarming, knowledge checks, and search will almost always require multiple checks.

Feats

I think I am going to give free reign on feats across most books. No specific martial arts/ki feats is my only prohibition, though you will have to get my final okay on any chosen feats.

I am, however, using another rules variant here, related to weapons known. The full rules are in Unearthed Arcana pp.94-97. Essentially, every class knows only a certain amount of weapons, and the divisions are more specific than merely simple, martial, and exotic. This one I’ll let you look up for yourselves, but ask below if you have any questions.

Spells

Most anything goes for starting spells, as long as you adhere strictly to the known spells list for the given class. As per the norm, check with me to confirm.

Equipment

Starting money is as per the PHB tables. For other classes, the number from the closest logical class of the core classes will be used.

You can have almost anything you can afford.

Other Rules Stuff

I want to use these four alternate rules. They are designed to work together, somewhat, as some aspects will offset the extra difficulty of others. I’ll give a basic overview of each here, and you can tell me whether you want to use them or not in the comments section below. I think that if two of you say no to a rule, we won’t use it. If nobody says anything, I’ll assume that they’re all okay.

All are from Unearthed Arcana.

1. Defense Bonus pp.109-110: Every character gains a defense bonus (which represents a character’s ability to avoid being hit) that increases as s/he levels up. Armor overrides this bonus; it does not stack with it.
2. Armor as Damage Reduction pp. 111-112: Essentially, armor adds a bit less to AC, instead adding DR based on the type of armor. If used with 1. above, the player must choose between taking the armor’s AC mod and its DR or the Defense bonus.
3. Level-Indepedent XP pp.213-215: This simplifies the XP tables for the DM, the PCs need more XP to level, but it shouldn’t take any longer. I’m not giving you an option on this one.
4. Vitality & Wound Points pp.115-119: Okay, this is a bit different. Hit points are now called vitality points, they work in a similar way. The main difference is the wound points. A character’s number of wound points is equal to his/her Constitution. Normally, all damage is done to vitality points, until they’re gone, at which point damage goes to wound points. Taking damage to wound points does not reduce constitution. Critical hits automatically bypass vitality points and instead go to wound points directly, ignoring DR. Any damage to wound points results in fatigue and risks stunning the character. These rules make monsters much more dangerous, as even a basic goblin goes from having 1d8+1 HP to having that many vitality points + 12 wound points! At the same time, a Great Wyrm red dragon goes from 40d12+400 HP to that many VP plus 248 WP! But, and this is the kicker, remember that all critical hits automatically bypass VP and go straight to WP. So, you could technically kill the dragon faster than normal this way, if you were really lucky, but it could do the same to you.

And that’s character creation and house rules. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post below.