AshDrunbar Character Creation

Oh ho ho! You will be morbidly pleased at what I've done with combat and weapons specifically in Oldest World. You don't roll for damage. I'll explain in full later, but basically what you do is you roll to attack and the enemy rolls defense. If you are determined to be successful by the GM, then your weapon will do a fixed amount of damage based on the technique you used, and how high your attack roll was. Certain weapons and techniques have other nasty effects, like maiming and causing bleed. No more of this static dice block nonsense.

Here's what we got so far:
Race: Human (Zeel)
Virtues: Leon 4(boosted), Eyrie 5(boosted), Grand 4(boosted), Enlight 4(reduced), Nemesis 3, Daimon 6(double-reduced)
Basic Class: Fury
Subclass: Rogue
Physical Ability: Eagle Eye
Zoom in on objects up close or across great distances.
Physical Ability: Falcon Dive
Run about nearly-invisible and cross fragile surfaces.
Physical Ability: Hawk Wing
Turn segments of your land speed into a 5 ft. high fly speed to avoid obstacles.
Alignment: Choose one.
Combat Style: Scimitar
Skill Ranks: 16 (unassigned)
Special Ability: Eyrie Surge
Attack twice or strike true!
Special Ability: Wings Unfurled
Improve your Eyrie PV check.
Special Trait: Pick One

Mmh looking good indeed. I like it.

Guess I'll have to ask about skill ranks and alignment (the fun stuff) next.

Alignment's easy. If you are in favor of your people, be that your nation, all Zeel, all Purebleeds, or all Humans, then you are Exemplar. If you stand against your people (defined as such), then you are Dissent. If you waver from one to the other depending on the situation, then you're Neutral. Most people are Neutral.

Got it. Thought of her as a bit of a desperado, but I won't go out on a limb here, especially considering the group dynamics (obviously, a completely anti-social thug won't fly in a group, etc). So neutral, with a leg into dissent (she's not actively against her people, but don't owe allegiance to anyone but herself, basically... the usual roguish-outsider kinda thing...).

What about skills ? How do they work ?

Fair enough, moving right along.

You've got 16 points to spend, and you can put up to 2 of them into any one skill. That will improve as you gain levels, but this is what you have to start with. There are three kinds of Skill:

General
Acting, Appraise, Athletics, Ceramics, Comedy, Dance, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Guile, Gymnastics, Hide, Keyboard, Language, Oratory, Painting, Percussion, Posture, Riding, Soft Steps, Song, Strings, Swim, Training, and Wind Music.
Knowledge
Archives, Bestiary, Engineering, Navigation, Occult, Religion, Seafaring, and Wilderness
Make
Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Bowyery, Carpentry, Cobbling, Glassmaking, Jewelry, Leathercraft, Locksmithing, Pottery, Scribing, Sculpting, Shipwright, Trapping, and Weaving.

Okay let's have a shot here

General
Appraise 1, Athletics 1, Escape Artist 1, Guile 1, Gymnastics 1, Hide 1, Posture 1, Soft Steps 1, Training 1,
Make
Alchemy 1

Okay I still have 6 extra points to put somewhere... let's see...
Just to be clear: I imagine Gymnastics must be similar to 5e's Acrobatics (at least partially). Now, Posture and Training ? What are these ? And is lock-picking included in Locksmithing, or Escape Artist ? Or not used that way?
Also, does Bestiary give advantage in fighting (kinda like the ranger's favored enemy)? If so, which beasts are covered by the skill? Humans/Humanoids considered part of said-bestiary ?

Let me help.

Athletics and Gymnastics are very similar, but one relies on Leon and one relies on Eyrie. I'd say you should stick with Gymnastics for now. Put the point from Athletics in something else.

Posture is part of a group that includes Dance and Gymnastics, being the most rigid and subtle of the three.

Training is something of a multi-tool. It lets you train people in one skill in which you have ranks. So if you wanted to take it in Training (Alchemy), you could instruct people, give them tips about Alchemy from what you know.

Locksmithing is two-pronged. Yes, making locks and keys is involved, but a clear and popular use for it is the reason you call a locksmith: you need to get into something, and the Locksmith can do that.

Oh, and as a side note: Hide and Soft Steps are sides of the same coin. Hide is a stealth skill, but it's only for staying unseen. Not quiet. Soft Steps is identical to D&D's Move Silently. It's not about visibility, but keeps you quiet.

On your Bestiary question, no. It's more like the Kratt brother or Steve Irwin. For fighting a particular creature, or just escaping them, you want Survival. Both are strictly regarding plants and animals. No fancy monsters, no humanoids. Nada.

Mmh, great, I see...

Then we can try this maybe:

General
Appraise 1, Escape Artist 1, Guile 1, Gymnastics 2, Hide 1, Riding 1, Soft Steps 2, Swim 1.
Knowledge
Engineering 1, Occult 1.
Make
Alchemy 1, Locksmith 2, Trapping 1.

I like it! That's all 16. Good!

By the way, I feel the need to inform you of two things before we continue. You've got a Zeel Rogue buddy who's using a scimitar. Also there is a group chat now.

Update: They have decided on Double Sickles style instead.

Aye, I've just had a look at Octopus's character. Magic Slayer redhead with double sickles, all dressed in black and hooded... pretty neat. Sounds like they'll be either colleagues, or competitors agreeing on a grudging truce for that one instance.

Could make for some interesting roleplay, for sure !

As far as equipment, how do we gear up ? I also thought about armor (light leather, probably... or nothing, according to what works best for her) and also considering a ranged weapon, maybe something thrown or a small hand crossbow / pistol (not sure gunpowder is part of your campaign, though).

Talking about gunpowder, what is the technological level all-in-all ? I noticed on the worldanvil that different countries / continents were attributed different levels...

You're not quite to equipment yet. :) The setting is a quasi-medieval fantasy one. However, this is a globe with a natural dispersion of populations and cultures, so many people have not yet hit their Middle Ages yet. Those between Stone Age and Iron Age are called First Class of Progression. Those between Roman Empire and British Empire are called Second Class of Progression. Those between late Imperial and early Industrial are called Third Class of Progression, which is the farthest that anyone has gone.

Now that you've done skills, Special Trait is next. As a Rogue, you get a choice from three.

Disarming Strike
When you activate this, an attack will also give you a chance to remove the person's weapon.

Weak Point
When you activate this, you focus all your attention on a particular weak point, wait for your moment, and then strike.

Hidden Weapon Strike
When you activate this out of combat, you hide a weapon on your person. Later on, when diplomacy or stealth affords it, you perform an astonishing SNEAK ATTACK!

Seeing as to her nature as a duelist, it'd have to be Weak Point.

With that done, that should put us in Focus territory. Since you're not using a magic variant, you cannot take a Magical Focus. However, the world of Non-Magical Foci is wide open. Do you want an Unarmed, Weapon-based, or Other?

The Other category is stuff like your preferred environment (city or the wild), being a fast sprinter or swimmer, etc.

Okay, I guess in her case a focus on scimitar may be in order... unless we're talking more general, like "long blades" ? Not sure how that works. But she would have a focus on sword-fighting, definitely.

I'm glad you're decisive! This speaks favorably of how you'll play a Zeel. Yes, a One-Handed Blade Focus will do nicely.

When using your scimitar, you will fight as if Master Trained, for a number of combat rounds per day equal to your character level (the rounds need not be consecutive). This means two extra dice on your attack rolls, and you have access to ALL techniques of the Scimitar. When you run out of those rounds, you resume acting as Trained.

When using other one-handed blades, like the short sword, rapier, even a dagger, you will behave as Trained, meaning one bonus die and a greater amount of techniques than you get with heavier blades or non-bladed weapons. All those remain untrained.


Confirm if this is what you want, and we'll move on to equipment.

Yeah, that sounds good. Let's make that one happen !

Onto equipment. Yay!

Please roll 2d10.

(will have to hit the sack now, but will be online tomorrow, we can take it from there... having fun sofar, getting impatient to try this out in the field *wink* g'night ! - it's 2.26am here, way past my bedtime...)

still will do the roll though, what the heck...

I know, I'm sorry things are taking long. It's mostly the pbp format, as usual. My cc process is actually really streamlined when you're doing it in person. The advantage here is on my end, because I can help all of you at once, where in reality I have but one mouth and one second at a time. We're so close to being done though. We've just got equipment, Devotion, and finishing touches.

We'll say your character is impoverished, since you're going with a street urchin background.

15x20 is 300, half and add 10 from background, +20 from being Human, +0 from not being Faery, +10 from Fury, +0 from no magic bonus. Total of 190 gp.

Your scimitar will cost 12 gp, so you now have 178 gp to work with, when you wake up. If you see this before my usual hours, feel free to look at other peoples' character creation threads and see what items cost what. If you want something that you don't see in there, I probably have it in my guide. I'll help you out when we talk again.