Creating Our Characters

I believe your character sheet is all set, Demagor! 👍

Thanks again for the opportunity, Len.

Starting the character creation by rolling attributes.

So that's : 10, 11, 15, 14, 9, 5.

So I guess standard array it is... I'm considering different options for the character. Thought an arcane caster could be a good complement to the party, and if he/she could do some healing, that would be great. Don't want to play a bard, though, not confident that my writing skills are up to the task. As a wizard, I could take the theurge tradition, which allows the wizard to learn clerical spells. As a sorceror, divine soul ancestry could also allow casting clerical magic (can cast more often, but a narrower selection). Or I could do a Cleric with the Arcane Domain. If you all have any suggestions, preferences, don't hesitate to voice them. I'm not very attached to any concept so far, so I'm open to any ideas.

Do it randomly 😜

Welcome matmaisan! Since your character will use divine magic, I should mention a bit about the religion of the world.

Myths tell of Elder Gods that created the world, but they left long ago and very few revere them or even remember. Today people worship the New Gods, more akin to angels and nature spirits in other settings. They hold very specific titles and portfolios, and they might only hold sway in certain regions of the world. Some of them are mortals that ascended to godhood, others are concepts given life by worshippers. Although they don't age they can be killed, and all require worship or they will fade and die.

The most popular religion in Iskandar is the Church of Lothian. It is based around a martyred saint named Lothian who rose from his own grave and ascended into Heaven, becoming the most powerful of the gods according to his followers. In fact, the harshest of Lothian doctrines maintains that Lothian discovered that all other beings claiming to be gods were actually demons in disguise; this belief teaches that he rose again to bring order to the previously disordered, godless universe. This was the state religion of the Vendian Empire, which has endured after the Empire's collapse twenty years ago.

I won't list all the New Gods you might worship as there thousands. Here are some related to magic:



Also feel free to define your own god. There might be multiple gods of magic and wizardry with different, competing followings.

This is very interesting, Len. Really like the idea of a god of lost secrets, and will probably have my PC be a follower, even if he’s not a cleric. Not yet sure if I’ll build a divine caster that dabbles in arcane mysteries or a wizard that can cast a few select priest spells. Tending towards the latter, since I already play my share of clerics. I liked the idea of the mystic theurge in 3.5, so I might actually try a build with an arcane caster that multiclasses into a cleric at a later stage, or vice versa.

Sounds great matmaisan. Arcana Domain cleric is definitely the easiest way to make that happen, but multiclassing cleric/wizard definitely opens up more options for customizability. Feel free to reflavor things to match the Mystic Theurge concept.

@Knifesedgegames, matmaisan was thinking about connecting his character's backstory to your downtime research activity. Since he is a worshiper of the god of lost secrets and an aspiring mage, he might have been somebody that helped you uncover the secret of the Seal of Astaroth. Are you down with that? Feel free to figure out the details together.

@matmaisan what kind of time frame do you need for making your character? no rush, just wanting to know approximately when we should exoect to start up again. I think we will run as a party of three for now.

To further reduce pressure, I'm cool with all players tweaking their characters as they go, so if you try it one way and regret it, you can always change it later.

Absolutely! Makes sense, perhaps a connection made during Berry’s magical studies before he quit and now his go-to guy for this kind of research.

I'm actually going to do something simpler for now. I'm going for a Clr1 (Knowledge domain) and Wizard1 (tending towards divination). So s/he will have access to both spell lists from the get-go, no need to take subclasses/traditions just to have access to some spells from each list. As the game progresses I'll start making choices that make sense in the context of the game. I'm thinking of the character as someone obsessed with secrets and knowledge, brought up in a scholarly tradition (cloistered scholar background). A bookish indiana Jones of sorts. Eager to go into the world and unearth its secrets after many winters spent in a Monastery s/he really liked. I'm thinking a variant human with Keen Mind. Once I'm settled with the character concept, I should be able to move swiftly to complete the sheet and submit it.

Would make sense that Knifesedge's character and s/he would have known each other in earlier times, and since my character would have privileged access to a Library, she would become an invaluable information source. Having been consulted on thius mysterious door, my character would have volunteered to join the party in its investigation.

Also, do you need me to fill in the GP 5th ed sheet, or do you prefer working with a DnDBeyond link, Len?

Character sounds great!

The GP sheet would be ideal. There is a charavter-specific die roller built in to the site now. It provides buttons to make checks, saves, etc by just clicking on the ability or whatnot.

I apologize for my extended (and more importantly, unannounced) absence!

Welcome to the game, @matmaisan!

wb Jabes

Welcome back Jabes

Thank you Jabes! I’m thrilled to be joining. Let me just try to wrap up my character!

Looking forward to seeing your character, matmaisan!

So, I've submitted my character.

Len had suggested that I begin with a week of downtime in which Laurent would research the Seals of Astaroth and, in particular, whether the balance of attitudes of knowledgeable people with regards to these seals was positive ('Astaroth's seals keep us safe from the eldritch horrors below, they should never be meddled with!') or negative ('By hiding these accesses to this mythic underworld, Astaroth has deprived Iskandar of the opportunity to plunder the wealth, artifacts and history that lay idly beneath our unknowing eyes". Not knowing what wealth he has accrued in his path to level 2, I am unsure as to how much he could spend to increase his chances of finding something useful.

Also, regarding his gear, Laurent would like to equip himself somewhat better: since his clerical training gives him access to light and medium armor and shields, the question of his wealth would determine if he could buy a breastplate and shield, or some other mix of defensive items.

Good question matmaisan. You'll just have the gold you acquired from character creation (which isn't much) but we can waive the 50gp fee for library access (account for in your background). Let's also ignore your lifestyle expense for this downtime since you didn't have a first level adventure to acquire gold to fund it.

So, consult "Research" in the downtime activities thread for the way to resolve research. Basically make an Intelligence check and consult the table. Roll a d10 for complications; on a 1 there is a complication.

You can do your rolling and narrating in Downtime Sessions thread.