Dragon's Egg RPG - Character Creation

[Steerpike]

This post provides information on the initial steps to creating a character for the Dragon's Egg RPG.

Attribute Scores

Begin by assigning values to your six attributes or ability scores (I use the terms interchangeably): Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Those of you familiar with D&D will recognize these attributes. For those who are unfamiliar:

• Strength (STR) represents your character's physical strength.
• Dexterity (DEX) represents your character's reflexes, manual dexterity, and hand-eye coordination.
• Constitution (CON) represents your character's overall health, and the ability to withstand pain, suffer physical damage, avoid fatigue, and fight off sickness or poison.
• Intelligence (INT) represents your character's mental aptitude. This is the ability to learn quickly and apply learning effectively through deductive reasoning.
• Wisdom (WIS) represents the depth of your character's personal experience, intuition, the ability to make well-considered decisions or judgments, and personal connection to a deity (if any).
• Charisma (CHA) represents some combination of your character's attractiveness, personality, willpower, leadership, and ability to influence others. A high CHA doesn't necessarily mean physical beauty, though it may include that.

We will use a point-buy method of generating ability scores. Each character has 66 points that you can allocate among the attributes in any way you wish, except that no score can be greater than 18 after allocating points. Once you have assigned your scores, be sure to check your racial modifiers (if any) and make the appropriate adjustments (see the "Dragon's Egg RPG - Races" post.

You will have a modifier for each ability score, and the value of the modifier depends on the score. The modifiers for various ability scores are as follows:

Score / Modifier

1 / -4
2-3 / -3
4-5 / -2
6-8 / -1
9-12 / 0
13-15 / +1
16-17 / +2
18-19 / +3

There is a distinction between Prime attributes and other attributes. Each class has a corresponding Prime attribute, and when you choose your class that attribute will become one of your character's Prime attributes. The distinction is important because many of the actions you attempt will be based on an attribute check. For example, a Thief attempting to disable a trap will make a DEX check. Because DEX is a Prime attribute for Thieves, the character will be more likely to succeed than he would attempting something tied to a non-Prime attribute.

In addition to the Prime attribute designated by class, each player can choose one additional Prime attribute for the character. If the character is human, the player may also choose a third Prime attribute. This balances out some of the other advantages the non-human races get in the game.

Alignment

Select an alignment for your character. We will use a standard Law/Chaos:Good/Evil alignment system. The alignments are as follows:

• Lawful Good - These characters are dedicated to following the strictures of society and respecting law and order. They act for the benefit of society, and of others, and place great value on truth, honor, and life.
• Lawful Neutral - These characters place primary importance on order, structure, and regulation of behavior. Good and evil are largely irrelevant because everything flows from the order of law.
• Lawful Evil - These characters value structure and order and place no limit on attaining it, especially if the goal is to their own benefit. They do not value life or have concern for others. Ultimately, they seek to impose their ideals on others through strict regulation.
• Neutral Good - These characters have a healthy respect for both law and freedom, typically choosing a road between the two for the benefit of al.
• Neutral - These characters believe in a balance between law and chaos, and good and evil. They largely follow their own code, which may change according to the situation.
• Neutral Evil - These characters have beliefs similar to neutral good characters, except they tend to follow a road than benefits themselves as opposed to others.
• Chaotic Good - These characters view the greatest good as coming through individual freedom and liberty. They place primary importance on individuality over law or social structure.
• Chaotic Neutral - These characters value individual freedom and have no qualms over how to obtain it, whether through acts that are good or otherwise.
• Chaotic Evil - These characters tend to value little, disdaining others and often seeking to destroy for their own reasons or pleasure. They seek power and the ability to wield it as they see fit.

The descriptions above are to give you an idea of the alignments. The boundaries between them are fuzzy. Further, the alignment you state at the start of the game will be the alignment your character is presumed to have when the game starts. Actual alignment through the course of the campaign will be determined by your character's actions.

Hit Points

At first level, every character will receive maximum hit points. Your maximum number of hit points is your hit dice plus your CON modifier. By class, the hit dice are as follows:

• Fighter - d10
• Ranger - d10
• Rogue - d6
• Assassin - d6
• Barbarian - d12
• Monk - d12
• Wizard - d4
• Illusionist - d4
• Cleric - d8
• Druid - d8
• Knight - d10
• Paladin - d10
• Bard - d10

Starting Gold

All characters start with maximum starting gold. This varies by class as follows:

• Fighter, Ranger - 240 gp
• Rogue, Assassin, Bard - 120 gp
• Barbarian, Monk - 80 gp
• Wizard, Illusionist - 100 gp
• Cleric, Druid - 200 gp
• Knight, Paladin - 240 gp

Coin exchange rates are as follows: 10 copper = 1 silver; 10 silver = 1 gold; 10 gold = 1 platinum.

Of course, in order to determine your starting gold you need to have selected a class. Please see the "Dragon's Egg RPG - Classes" thread for information on the various classes. Once you have selected your class, it will be time to purchase equipment.

 

[SeverinR]

Does dexterity bonus/penalty apply to armor?
Missles?

18 dex Would it be +3 to hit with missles? -3 to get hit?(when not wearing metal armor) (thief)

 

[Sparkie]

Does dexterity bonus/penalty apply to armor?

I'm pretty sure, yea. In Legendary Sidekick's case, Baldhart's AC is 10 even though she has leather armor because of her low DEX.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

18 DEX =
for ranged attack: +3 to hit
for defense: +3 to armor (13 AC + armor points)

I couldn't bring myself to make Baldhart awesome at all things combat because I want her lovable and smart, so yeah, her armor is undoing the damage of a 4 in DEX. She'll be using that war paint to cover her scars.

 

[SeverinR]

Is the ability check your ability -20 and you need to roll higher then that number?
And if a thief with 18 dex, Dexterity check- failure would only be a roll of 2 or less?
automatic failure a 1, no matter the bonuses if any?

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

The 18 means nothing. Think of the 18 as the cost of having a +3 in a skill. (Like you spent 18 gold on DEX training, which is why you're awesome at it. I spent 4 gold, and well... I got what I paid for.) You spend attribute points. You get modifiers. (So I never think about the 18/13/9/4 I put into skills. I only consider the numbers +3/+1/0/-2.)


DEX checks work like this:

You roll 1d20+1+3. That's 1d20 + LEVEL + DEX MOD. Dex is one of your primary attributes, so you need to roll a 12 + LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY or better. Only Steerpike knows what the level of difficulty is for each specific task. I'm going to assume that he often uses 1 as that level, but who knows?



Anyway, if you do a DEX check:

YOU ROLL 1d20+1+3

YOU GET minumum of 5 / maximum of 24

YOU NEED a 13 to succeed in a level 1 challange, 17 if it's a level 5 challenge, etc.

YOU HAVE a 60% chance of success if it's a level 1 challenge.



Note Baldhart's feats of strength always have rolls of 1d20+1+3+4. The +4 comes from a barbarian skill, but other than that, it's a standard STR check which works like your DEX checks. (You just don't get the +4.) I've been getting lucky rolls lately, which is why I was so sure that I broke the door and threw those guys.

 

[SeverinR]

So minimum is 13, with my bonuses +3+1, thats a 9.
for my check for traps, a 7.
As Max S. would say "Missed it by that much."

basically I need double digits rolls for level 1 difficulty.

 

[Ravana]

So minimum is 13

For everything except hitting in combat, pretty much: base difficulty of 12 + difficulty level. It is possible for the GM to assign a challenge level of 0, but normally it will be at least 1.

That's if what you're doing involves an ability you took as Prime. If not, then it's 18 + difficulty level.

with my bonuses +3+1, thats a 9.
for my check for traps, a 7.

+3 for your DEX, +1 for your level: yes, you'd succeed with a 9; for checking for traps, +2 for class ability, so with a 7. If your target number was 13. You will generally not know what the actual target you're aiming for is.

basically I need double digits rolls for level 1 difficulty.

At your current level, that's a good rough estimate—emphasis on the word "estimate," since difficulty level will affect this. If the difficulty is a 4 rather than a 1, for example, you'd need to roll a 10 to succeed. So, yes, a double-digit roll should put you safely into a "confidence" range—for this task, for your character—and if it fails, you've learned something about the difficulty level you're up against.

On the one hand, it may not seem all that fair that you would fail to accomplish something you're trained to do 50% of the time. On the other, you're a 1st level character, and are succeeding roughly 50% of the time… so on the whole, not bad.

Not bad until a failure gets ya killed, at least.…

•

The one exception to the above is combat, where your roll is against the enemy's armor class, you don't add your level (you add your class "to hit" modifier for your level: for all 1st level characters other than fighters, this is +0), and it doesn't matter what your Prime stats are—those who don't have STR or DEX as a Prime are no worse off than those who do. At our level, this will generally make it harder to hit than it is to accomplish skill checks: most things will have better than AC 12. The good news is there won't be a difficulty level modifier, either… usually.

You do still add your STR (melee) or DEX (ranged) modifiers; there may also be any number of other possible modifiers, such as weapon specialization, divine boons, and an endless variety of situational modifiers.

•

While this is something that is a GM call, it may be possible in some situations to improve your chances of success by taking extra time to "get it right." It may also be possible in some situations—though this would be less common—to obtain a rough idea of the difficulty level you're facing. For example: say your detect traps roll was a success: okay, you've found a trap. Rather than moving directly to a "disarm" attempt, you could ask the GM if you can inspect the trap, to see how difficult it might be to disarm it. The GM might say no (for various reasons, the simplest being you can't view the mechanism well enough); he might require another skill roll to make the determination; or he might tell you "it looks simple," "you're pretty sure you can handle it," "you have your doubts," "you've never seen something like this before," or "it would require at least three hands, a magical lockpick, and a giraffe."

What he won't tell you is that it's a difficulty level of 1, 3, 5, 10 or 27*.

Bottom line: it never hurts to ask. And unless you're under immediate threat, taking a bit of extra time will never hurt your chances, even if it turns out it doesn't help them, either.

*"Normal" difficulty levels run up to 10, but there will be times the level is higher. Traps requiring giraffes to disarm will always be higher than level 10.