Character creation guidelines for Shackled City

From AJS.COM

The following character creation guidelines are for players in the Shackled City game.

Contents 1 World 1.1 Character background 1.2 Race 1.3 Names 2 Books 2.1 SRD 3 Mechanics 3.1 Ability scores 3.2 Hit points 3.3 Starting experience 3.4 Starting gold and equipment 3.4.1 Equipment 3.4.2 Creating magic items 4 Wiki 4.1 Player info 5 DM's note 5.1 Suggested tools

World

The city of Cauldron is far to the southern edge of the Flanaess between the Hellfurnace Mountains and the Amedio Jungle, just south of the Hold of the Sea Princes. The campaign will center around this area, and characters should be well suited to a sub-tropical climate, urban settings, and human-dominated (though demi-humans are not uncommon) population.

This means that characters who hail from cold climates, are dependant on outdoor environments for their abilities or are frightening to / hunted by human civilization would be poor choices.

Character background

You must provide a character background. For characters starting on the first session, this background must end with:

Player characters can either have worked together in the past or not, at their option. However, they will all have just spent several days on the road with a caravan, and fought against a beholder among other dangers, so they will at least know eachother's names and general abilities.

Race

The races which players may select are:

• Dwarf
• Elan¹
• Elf
• Gnome
• Half-elf
• Half-giant¹
• Half-orc
• Halfling
• Human
• Maenad¹
• Xeph¹

¹ these races are from the Expanded Psionics Handbook, and their rarity may lead to complications for anyone playing one.

Humans, are by far the most common race. Gnomes and halflings are also not uncommon. The rest of the races range from uncommon to unheard of.

Names

Names tend to be European-sounding first and last names. Titles like "Sir" or "the Great" are not appropriate. There are a lot of cultures on the Flanaess, so if you prefer a name that doesn't fit, bring it up on the list, and there's probably something that can easily be done.

If you want to generate a random name, try out http://www.ajs.com/~ajs/cgi-bin/mkname.cgi

Books

The following books may be used in constructing your character:

• Player's Handbook, 3.5 (this is the only book that you must have access to as a player)
• Dungeon Master's Guide, 3.5
• Complete Arcane, Warrior, Divine, Adventurer, and Psionic
• Spell Compendium
• Expanded Psionics Handbook

No other sources may be used without DM permission. The following sources will not be used:

• Unearthed Arcana
• any Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or other non-Greyhawk campaign sourcebooks
• Newer complete books that the DM hasn't had a chance to review (Mage, etc.)

SRD

Alternatively, you can choose to use the d20 SRD, which is entirely free. If you choose to do this, you should note it on your character sheet so that the DM knows the source. Do not mix-and-match in character creation, though if you wish to take a feat, skill or prestige class from the books above, later, that is fine.

Mechanics

Ability scores

Use the standard point buy system from the DMG for ability scores. Spend 28 starting points on attributes.

Don't forget that, at level 4, you get to add 1 to an ability of your choice (and again at 8, 12 and so on).

Hit points

Do not roll hit points. That will be done with the group. However, if you wish to, you may take the average, rounded down, of your possible hit points for each level. So, for example, a level 6 fighter would get 10 hp for the first level (always max) and then 5 x 5 = 25 hp for the other 5 levels, giving a total of 35 hp. This is in addition to any hit points from constitution bonus, feats, etc. Once you roll hit points for a given level, you must accept the roll, but you may choose, level-by-level, so if you roll very low for your 2nd and 3rd levels, you might choose to cut your losses and take the average for the next 3. That's your choice.

The books outline a method where you can take the average by alternating high-low. That's not an option in this game.

Starting experience

If you are starting a new character for the first session, you begin at character level 6 with exactly enough experience.

If you start a new character after the start of the campaign, they will have exactly enough experience to start at the average party level, with no fractional level.

Starting gold and equipment

Use the Dungeon Master's Guide to determine your starting gold, based on table 5-1: Character Wealth by Level on p. 135, and then add half-again that amount. For 6th level characters, this results in a total of 19,500 gold.

If you start on the first session of the new campaign at level 6, you must spend all of your starting gold, leaving no more than 500gp value for your character to carry with them. This explains your reason for wanting to find adventuring work before returning from whence you came.

Equipment

You may purchase any starting gear you wish with this gold, provided it comes from the books listed above. However, although you "pay" for an item, you may choose to incorporate it into your background as a family heirloom or the like. This is fine, and even encouraged.

You do not need to have purchased trivial items such as food provisions and clothes, but if you wish to be that detailed, don't let me stop you!

If you use the SRD, then generic equipment is listed at: http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/equipment.htm

while magic items are listed at: http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/magicItems.htm

Creating magic items

Players may create their own magic items before or during play. If you create a magic item before play starts, simply subtract any XP requirements from your starting XP allocation, and spend starting gold as called for. You can declare that you spent this XP at any level prior to the time the character joined the game.

Wiki

Once you have created a character and a background, go to the Shackled City page at http://www.ajs.com/ajswiki/Shackled_City and edit the Player characters section to add your character as indicated in the text there. You should create a page for your character and describe only the elements of your appearance, abilities and background that the other players would all know.

If you are reading a printed copy, you can always find this document online at: http://www.ajs.com/ajswiki/Character_creation_guidelines_for_Shackled_City

Player info

You may also want to keep your eye on these pages as the game develops:

• Shackled City - Recaps of recent games will be listed here
• Maps and handouts for Shackled City players - Important maps and other handouts
• Cauldron background for Shackled City players - Information about the area
• Notable NPCs and locations in and around Cauldron - Who are the people in your neighborhood?

DM's note

I'm not looking for rules abuses, but don't be afraid to "power game" a little bit. This is a very hard campaign, and will test the limits of any characters run through it. There are many sections of the book which read, "casualties are not unexpected in this encounter," so be prepared.

Suggested tools

You might want to check out PCGen. PCGen is a free program that can do the full suite of SRD character creation, and with data files that you can purchase from Code Monkey Publishing (CMP), it can even do full D&D 3.5 including the "Complete" books, and non-SRD core material. It's a nice program, and has only been getting better. It can be a little bit difficult to learn, but IMHO it's worth it. 5.8.1 is what I'm using (and if you want to use CMP's data files, you have to use it too), but 5.10.0 is out already.