Building Bhakashal - Character Creation - PCs
Image by Sean Andrew Murray - http://seanandrewmurray.com/
As part of the September character creation challenge, I will be creating a new PC/NPC every day of the month. Sometimes they will be a mid to high level NPC, but for a while I will stick to 1st level PCs to give a flavor of what it is like to create a character in Bhakashal.
Process
A. Choose a character class
B. Choose a Playable Group and Faction
C. Generate Stats
D. Calculate Saving Throw Bonuses and HP
E. Add Skills and Playable Group Abilities
F. Choose Deity and Languages
G. Choose Equipment and Clothing
H. Pick Armor and Weapons and Assign Attack Bonuses
I. Calculate Wealth
J. Calculate Encumbrance
K. Assign Spells/Class Abilities
M. Assign Personality Traits (optional)
N. Customize Playable Group Lore (optional)
O. Name Character
A. Choose Class (d20)
Beastial (druid)
Cavaral (monk/magic-user - all/only evocation magic)
Chimerist (all/only alteration magic)
Conjuror (all/only conjuration magic)
Gyre (Generic magic)
Jinx (spider/druid - all/only plant magic)
Justiciar (paladin)
Mercenary (fighter)
Myrmidon (fighter/magic-user - potions only)
Necromancer (all only necromantic/abjuration magic)
Phantasmist (Illusionist)
Seer (cleric - all regular cleric spells and all divination magic)
Slayer (ranger/assassin)
Spartan (monk)
Spellbinder (druid/magic-user - all/only elemental and animal spells)
Spider (spider)
Thaumaturge (spider/magic-user - scroll spells only)
Theurgist (fighter/illusionist - all/only enchantment and illusion spells)
Vox (bard - all sound spells and sound based versions of other spells)
Warlock (magic-user)
Choice: Beastial- Faction - Bhakashal Coven [N]
B. Choose Playable Group
Playable Groups - Bhakashal (d12)
Chitin - Insect People
Garudin - Bird People
Humans - Primate People
Jugyi - Turtle People
Kutya - Dog People
Malu - Fish People
Rakasta - Cat People
Saan - Lizard People
Togmu - Frog People
Urdyll - Plant People
Vodnik - Castor People
Yalan - Snake People
Rolled - Human
C. Generate Stats
For each stat roll 3d6
Numbers:
4 4 3/ 5 5 1/ 3 3 4/ 3 1 4/ 4 4 4/ 6 6 2
S11/I11/W10/D8/C12/C14
Apply stat minimums
WIS 15 CHR 15
S13/I16/W15/D6/C9/CH15
Switch any two stats (you cannot produce a result less than a minimum)
I will switch DEX and CON
S13/I16/W15/D9/C6/CH15
Apply playable group bonuses
+1 WIS, +1 CON
S13/I16/W16/D9/C7/CH15
Apply Ability Modifiers
Bhakashal uses the following spread of modifiers:
3: -3
4-5:-2
6-8: -1
9: 0
10-11:+1
12-14: +2
15-17: +3
18: +4
For Charisma use +1=5%
So that gives us:
S - 13 [+2]
I - 16 [+3]
W - 16 [+3]
D - 9 [0]
C - 7 [-1]
C - 15 [+3]+15%
D. Calculate Saving Throw Bonuses and HP
All classes get a +1 bonus per 2 levels of experience and bonuses based on their stats. So that’s +1 across the board, then:
Paralyzation STR and CON [+2]
Poison CON and DEX [0]
Death Magic WIS and CON [+3]
Petrification CON and CHR [+3]
Polymorph WIS and CHR [+7]
Breath Weapon DEX and INT [+4]
Spell WIS and INT [+7]
Hit points are class based, a beastail has a d6 roll, roll or take the average of 3. I choose to take the average, so 3.
HP: 3
E. Add Skills and Playable Group Abilities
In addition to skills related to their playable group, all PCs get a roll on the general table for every point of INT bonus. For a human you get to pick from 8 skills associated with the playable group, and you roll once on the table. I decide to roll between the playable group skill options and get Shipwright
Bhakashal Skills
I then note the playable group abilities:
Move: 12”(land) 9” (trees)
Infravision
+4 on saving throws against brightness related blindness
Take an action and concentrate - reduce surprise to 1 in 6
F. Choose Deity and Languages, Factional Alignment
I roll for this and get Rjam – God of Courage, Skill in Combat.
The PC can speak human automatically, and gets one “free” language, I take Saan as Saan is the most common language spoken in Bhakashal.
Due to their INT bonus they get three further languages.
Bhakashal Languages - (3d12)* Special Table 1 - (d12)
I roll for each and get Togmu, Togmu and Kutya. The second Togmu gets me a roll on Special Table 1 for languages, and that gets me Ogre. It is decided by the player and the referee that the PC knows how to speak Ogre as their mother was a wealthy city merchant for many years, and had an ogre as a bodyguard. So Human, Saan, Togmu, Kutya and Ogre.
Factional Alignment - In Bhakashal PCs do not have an alignment, however, alignments do apply to institutions and groups, for example, in Bhakashal every Noble House, Guild, etc., has an alignment
Lawful institutions prioritize and reward groups and cooperation, chaotic institutions prioritize and reward individuals and independence.
Good institutions behave altruistically and avoid harming others wherever possible
Evil institutions will harm to achieve their goals and are fundamentally selfish
Neutral organizations do not have strong tendencies along any of these lines
This PC's faction is the Bhakashal coven, which is aligned as Neutral, which means they are focused on being servants to nature, whatever that brings, and take their cues from the natural world. They have no strong preferences between group or individual motivation, or altruistic or harmful behavior.
G. Choose Equipment and Clothing
I’ll choose a standard equipment loadout, Type B - Backpack, 50’ rope, (3) iron spikes, flint and steel, (3) torches, waterskin, iron rations, blanket, (3) candles, (3) flasks of oil, lantern, small sack - 250 gp encumbrance
Beastials wear loose white robes, along with a woven sithak reed sleeve over their left arm. They wrap their left arm in thornwood vines, and they touch the thorns to draw a drop of blood as a material component for each spell they cast.
H. Pick Armor and Weapons and Assign Attack Bonuses
Beastials do not generally wear armor.
Attack bonus for a 1st level Beastial is +1 to hit
The PC gets two weapons to start, in this case I’ll choose a naginata as the main weapon, but rather than taking another weapon I will take advantage of Bhakashal’s Proficiency bonus and add +1/+1 to the naginata.
Naginata 1-8/1-10, WS: 4, WvrsAC: -1M/+1L/+2N, critical: Dismount
I. Assign Wealth
All PCs start with 50 gp, a 50 gp gem and 50 gp piece of jewelry, plus 10gp per ability score bonus point in whatever form they want. Their ability score bonuses total:
S - 13 [+2] I - 16 [+3] W - 16 [+3] D - 9 [0] C - 7 [-1] C - 15 [+3]
+ 10 total, so I will take
50 gp, 50gp emerald, 100 gp ruby, 50gp gold ring
Deduct cost of equipment, armor and weapons,
Equipment: 10 gp
Weapon: 10 gp
So 30 gp, 50 gp emerald, 100 gp ruby, 50 gp gold ring
J. Calculate Encumbrance
250 gp from equipment
Weapons - naginata - 100 gp
No armor.
- 50gp for CON bonus
Encumbrance 300 gp, that means they can pick up 200 gp in weight before moving down one speed category
Encumbrance: +200 gp
K. Assign Spells/Class Abilities
Beastials in Bhakashal are free casters, when they gain the ability to cast a new level of spells they gain access to the whole spell list for that level (e.g. all of the 1st level spells are available at 1st level), and may cast the spells without any advanced prayer or preparation. They still have a limit on how many spells may be cast per day by level, but any spell from the lists can be cast. At first level they can cast 1 spell per day from this list:
First Level
Note that this is a significant selection of spells to cast from at 1st level, but they can only cast 1 spell per day at 1st. Because there are so many spells for Beastials, the casting times tend to be longer than for warlock spells, and ALL beastial spells require thornwood vine as part of their casting components.
All beastials have a particular animal clan, I roll for this and get clan Boar, so this PC will have a burragh wood boar mask (dark red in color) as part of their dress. Note that all masks from a particular animal clan are identical, and can only be told apart from a small mark on the mask.
Identify plant type, animal type and pure water.
Beastials are generally accompanied by 1-3 animals of their clan type when they adventure, I roll and the Beastial has 2 boars as animal companions (MV:15”, AC:7, HD:1,NA:1,DA:2-5,S:M), under the scope of an animal friendship spell. They will know 1 trick for every point of WIS bonus for the beastial, in this case: attack, chase and retrieve.
Beastials from each clan try to exemplify one or two characteristics of their animal avatar, in this case I choose: stubborn.
L. Assign Personality Traits
I roll for these: perceptive, friendly, proud
M. Customize Playable Group Lore
6 feet tall, brown hair, thin
Level headed and fair
N. Name - Aaramos Griven
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