Character Creation

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Choose your Path

To begin, you should choose between a caster, and a non-caster character as a base. Mixing and matching Spellcaster and Non-caster abilities is totally acceptable, but you must obey the rules of both. To begin, it is recommended you stick to one or the other until you reach high enough of a level to be able to have both.

Choose a race, class, and name for your character

Races There are four core player races you can choose from: human, dwarf, sun elf, and halfling. These races are the primary races that live on Hellan.

Human Racial Passive — Diplomacy: +1 Charisma. Humans are respected by all races of Hellan. Even Halflings avoid robbing human settlements. Without humanity, the confederacy would never have formed. Confederate enemies however, loath humanity (or the ruling nation of humanity, if they are outlaw humans). Language — Common

Dwarf    Racial Passive — Hardiness: +1 Stamina. Dwarves are in tune with the earth. They can sense the general distance and direction to nearby metals and ore. Dwarves are very resilient. They have an innate resistance to poison, and can survive in frigid cold temperatures or burning heat. Languages — Common, Dwarvish

Sun Elf Racial Passive — Long Lived: +1 Knowledge. Sun elves are in tune with the sky. They are excellent navigators as long as they are above ground. Sun Elves have an eye for beauty. Even the untrained can determine the worth of treasure or properties of a magical artifact. Languages — Common, Elven

Halfling    Racial Passive — Quick Fingers: +1 Dexterity. Halflings are nimble and quick-witted. Generations of farming and fishing have granted halflings better-than-average cooking skills and a tendency to befriend animals. Language — Common

If you would like to play another race (such as a wood elf, genasi, goblin, etc.), refer to the Advanced Character Building section of this guide.

Classes

Within this system, you can play any class you want. You could be a fighter, thief, swashbuckler, ninja, sorcerer, necromancer, illusionist, druid, shaman, seer, cleric, paladin, shapeshifter, etc.; the limit is your imagination. Simply choose a defining theme for your character. Simply conform to the Spellcaster and Non-caster rules for the respective schools of abilities.

Add points to attributes

You receive points to add to your main attributes. The number of points you can allocate are based on your level. At level 1, you begin with 10 points, and you gain new points every level.

To act in an RP encounter, you roll a d20 and add your applicable points (imagine your points as a “modifier” for your d20 roll). Spell-casters typically need 4+ Arcana to cast spells, and non-casters need a certain amount of Dexterity and/or Strength to wield weapons, but the attributes are otherwise not used for combat directly.

Defense Tables

As you gain equipment, your armor value will increase. See Basic Equipment for details on the type of equipment you will find, and the requirements of that.

You will notice that armor has a set defensive value. To determine how this affects you in combat, consider wearing basic leather armor. Your defense might be 2, which would make your defense table something like this:

1 - crit fail

2 - no damage

3-10 - full damage -1d4

11-19 - full damage

20 crit success - max damage

The attacker would roll a d20 against your defense table, and depending on what they rolled, they would deal the appropriate amount of damage with their ability according to that table.

Skills

Every character is equipped with specific, trained Skills that give them a +5 bonus to attempt an action out of combat. For example, a bard might be trained in Performance, allowing them to gain a +5 bonus to attempts made to put on a show for a crowd. The Character Skills page explains what skills are available to players in more depth, and the Using Skills page explains how skills are used out of combat.