Character Creation

The progress of Character Creation is one of the things that require focus and some insight into what you want your character to do.

Creating your Character, step by step
There are certain "steps" that should be followed for making character creation as easy as possible, while also making it somewhat easy. Keep in mind that character creation works mostly the same way as in D&D 4e, with a few exceptions: Classes and Races are custom to Erterra Legends, while some features in D&D, such as Feats, are not in the game (yet).

Here are the steps in an easy order (A more detailed description of each step follows after):
 * 1) Choose a Race
 * 2) Choose a Class
 * 3) Calculate your Main Stats
 * 4) Choose Trained Skills
 * 5) Choose your Abilities (See your Class)
 * 6) Choose Equipment
 * 7) Fill out the Character Sheet

Character Sheet
The Character Sheet is where you record any information on your character. Name, level, class, race, weapons, armor, etc. Everything that needs to be written down so you can remember it should either be done on the character sheet, or notes you have on the side.

The recommended Character Sheets for Erterra is (unless you know something better and want to use that instead): Ignored features on this Character Sheet: Bloodied Value, Healing Surges, Feats, Action Points, Some RP details (Deities), Paragon, Destiny)
 * Mad Irishman's Character Sheet

Now comes the explanations to the steps I mentioned before.

Step 1: Choose a Race
Choosing a Race is one of the 2 most important aspects of the game. Your race will give you certain bonuses and, in some cases, a special Racial ability. Depending on your race, the GM can decide how NPCs (Non-Player Characters) in the world will react to you. For example, a Human society might despice Elves and have hostile tendencies against Elven travelers passing through their village. In addition, other Players might also have some hate against other races. This is completely normal, and can often result in some pretty interesting and entertaining Roleplaying.

Choose your Race carefully. You won't be able to change your character's race once you start playing.

Step 2: Choose a Class
Choosing your Class is probably the most important choice you make during character creation. Your class will specify how your character work in combat, what abilities they will be able to use and sometimes what bonuses they will get from certain equipment. Like with Races, being obvious during Roleplay about what Class you play can make others react differently on you, both good and bad. Some classes, such as Paladins, are often looked highly upon as heroes and Holy Warriors, while Rogues are quite the opposite, often looked down upon as thieves and murderers. But unlike Races, your Class is not obvious during Roleplay. Even if you wear shiny Plate armor, it doesn't mean you are necessarily a Paladin. Wearing colorful robes does not necessarily mean you are a Mage.

Playing your Class well (or badly, depending on how you want your character to behave), both in combat and during Roleplay might end up giving you some great rewards... or not.

Step 3: Calculating Main Stats
Calculating your Main Stats are usually easy. Your Main Stats are:

For Erterra Legends, the GM chooses One (1) of Three (3) Methods to calculate the player's stats. These are the same as in D&D 4e, with the excepting of some small changes to #2 and #3

Method 1: Standard Stats
This is the "easy" method. New players should probably be introduced to the game using this method.

Take these six numbers (16, 14, 12, 13, 12, 11, 10) and assign them to any Main Stat you want. You cannot change the numbers.

Method 2: Custom Stats
This method is a little more advanced than the Standard. Using this method requires a little insight in what abilities your class can learn and what Skills you might want to use.

Start with these six numbers (8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10). You have 22 additional points that you can arrage to these numbers any way you want.

Method 3: Rolling Stats
This is the most advanced method, and not always as good as any of the above. Advanced players of D&D like using this method to gain a challenge in their gameplay, as you might end up with an overpowered, an average, or an underpowered character depeding on how well you roll.

You start by rolling four (4) 6-sided dice (4d6). Add up the 3 highest numbers you get from this roll and write it down somewhere. Repeat this until you have six (6) numbers before assigning the numbers to the Main Stat as you want. You may choose to reroll the lowest of your scores and use the new number instead, but then you have to use that and cannot go back to the old, even if you roll a lower score.

After calculating your Main Stats, you may want to look at the table below. On your Character Sheet, on the rightmost side of the table where you wrote down your Stat scores, you will find a column named "Ability Modifier". This modifier is the number you will later add to skills, defenses and damage for weapons and abilities. The table below shows the Scores required to gain 1 point in your Stat Modifier. Basically, after a score of 10, every 2 Stat points give +1 to your modifier.

Step 4: Choosing Trained Skills
Unlike in D&D, choosing your Trained Skills in Erterra Legends are not limited by your class. While in D&D, you would get a list of skills to choose from tied to your choosen class, you can choose any 5 Skills and gain a +4 bonus in them. Your Skill score determines how well you can perform certain actions, both out of and during combat, everything from trading, making allies and determine if someone is lying, to tracking, stealing and traveling.

When calculating Skills, you add bonuses (such as Training and racial) and your Main Stat modifier.

The list of skills are:

Step 5: Choose Abilities
When in combat, you will be using Abilities in addition to your Basic Attack (see Combat Guide). Your abilities are determinted by the Class you have choosen to play and are more powerful attacks that can be used whenever they are not on a Cooldown (All abilities except your Level 1 abilities will have Cooldowns, except in a few cases).

The abilities you can learn are found on your Class' page. Some abilties will have Requirements that you must meet to use them, as well as having a Attack vs Defense roll, a Range, Target, Damage and Effect. All of this are explained in the Combat Guide.

At Level 1, you can choose 2 Basic Abilties from the "Level 1" table on your Class' page. These will be the Abilities that you use the most, as they, in most cases, do not have a cooldown. However, they are also pretty weak in comparion to the Abilities you will learn later. How to get additional Abilties are explained in Leveling Up.

Step 6: Choose Equipment
Now your character is almost ready. The last thing you need to start your journey through Erterra is some decent Equipment. Like in D&D, classes have restrictions to what gear they can use. See each respective Class' page for what kind of Armor and Weapons you can use.

You must meet certain requirements to use some pieces of gear, such as special Armor and Weapons. These requirements are usually based on your Main Stats, though custom gear made by the GM or Magical and Legendary equipment might have other requirements, such as Class or Race. In addition, some Classes have certain items that only they can use.

In addition to Armor and Gear, you will find some other pieces of equipment that might be useful for your character on the Equipment page, such as Sleeping Bags, Tents, Food, etc.

Also keep in mind that the GM will be the one deciding how much Gold you will start with and wether or not this is before or after buying starting equipment, and if there will be a limit to what you can start with.

Step 7: Fill out the Character Sheet
Now that you have decided on your starting Equipment, it is time for the final step in Character Creation: Filling out the empty space on your Character Sheet.
 * First, add any bonuses you have for your Main Stats and calculate the Total and Modifier of the Stats.
 * Calculate your Defenses. The Ability modifiers are used to calculate a part of these:
 * The highest of STR or CON are used for Fortitude (FORT)
 * The highest of DEX or INT are used for Reflex (REF)
 * The highest of WIS or CHA are used for Willpower (WILL)
 * In addition, add any special defenses you may have
 * Calculate your Hit Points (HP). Your total HP at Level 1 are your CON score + your Lvl1HP (found on your Class' page)
 * Fill out and calculate your total Skills scores. You might notice the "Passive" skills underneath the Skills table. These are both 10 + your score in the Skill specified (Insight or Perception)
 * Calculate Speed. "Base" can be found on your Race's page, while "Armor" is any penalty your Armor gives you. "Item" are any bonuses your equiped or held items give.
 * Calculate Initiative (INIT). Your Initiative decides when your turn is taken during combat, and are calculated by your DEX modifier + some bonuses that are gained from items and leveling up.
 * The last thing to fill out are your RP details. The importance of doing this is discussable, but it might be very important to a GMs plans for a campaign, so do it as good and quick as possible.

Other things to keep in Mind

 * Second Wind! You have one of these every day, which can be used to heal 25% of your health if you are under 50% HP. Tick it off in your sheet once you have used it.
 * Death Saves! When your character go down to 0 HP, you will fall unconcious and become DYING. Unless someone manage to Heal you back to health within a short amount of time, your character will be dead. Forever! No exceptions (Unless you are revived by the usage of a Ritual)! However, if your allies fail to revive you, you can choose to roll a D20 and sacrifice one of your Death Saves to attempt coming back to life. You only have 3 Death Saves in your character's lifetime, so use them carefully.

Ignore these Stats and Features:
 * Hit Points > Bloodied, Healing Surges, Surges/Day. Healers will have enough abilities to do their work without using Surges, and Bloodied will probably be confused with Bleeding, so I'm choosing to keep it out.
 * Feats - These are special powers used in D&D, but will not be implemented into Erterra Legends (at least not yet)
 * Action Points - These are used to do extra turns during a round in D&D. Due to the amount of stuns I have added to class abilities, I think these will just break it. So for now, they are not in.
 * Class Choices > Paragon, Destiny. These are "special classes" that a character have in addition to their normal class in D&D, which have special requirements and abilities. I have something very close to it planned for a later update, but for now they are kept out.
 * RP Details > Deity/Religion. Because I have not fleshed out much about Religion and Gods on Erterra, these things would just break it all.