Character Creation

[Enoch]

Here we will walk through character creation, step-by-step. This is kind of a group activity, and it will affect things like what towns are available (in Torchbearer, there are a few towns of different sizes that you can return to for the Town phase, as well as some other potential towns, depending on what classes are chosen). In our game, we'll assume that there are lots of towns, but only a handful where you can safely go. The Princeguard, as well as "loyal" citizens, will see you arrested and hanged (or burned) in a heartbeat.

The steps of character creation are as follows:

1. Choose Your Class and Stock: this will determine the basic framework of your character.
2. Where is Your Home?: this gives you an extra skill and a trait.
3. What are Your Social Graces?: choose a social skill you're good at.
4. What's Your Specialty?: Everyone gets to pick a single skill (off a limited list) that they are particularly good at.
5. How are You Wise?: "Wises" are knowledge skills; you get to choose one based on your race/species.
6. Nature: how much do you embody the "inner nature" of your stock? Nature is a powerful ability, but a high Nature limits your ability to grow and change.
7. Circles and Relationships: who do you know? Who are your family, friends and enemies?
8. Starting Resources: hint: you'll be poor, at least at first.
9. Choose Adventuring Gear: this is almost a mini-game itself, and we'll work as a group to make sure the bases are covered.
10. Choose Your Weapon: yes, singular. Even shields are considered weapons. We'll talk about how combat works.
11. Starting Armor: some characters will start with armor.
12. Starting Spell and Prayer Choices: again, some characters will start with magic. We choose it here.
13. Choose Alignment: are you Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic? As rebels, Chaotic may seem the obvious answer, but Lawful doesn't necessarily mean you support the Prince's law.
14. Beliefs, Instincts, and Goals: these are aspects that will affect roleplay and are essential to earning rewards.
15. Level: you're level 1.
16. Starting Rewards: I'm convinced they added this step to impress upon you what an outcast you are, as you don't start with any.
17. Name: even if the Prince's men call you "monster", you still have a name.
18. Raiment: what is the one distinctive thing your character wears?
19. Age: choose your age.

This looks intimidating, but most of these we'll breeze through quickly.

Step 1: Choose Your Class and Stock

This step will determine a lot about your character: their Will and Health (essentially mental and physical hitpoints, as well as abilities derived from them), your beginning skills, a Trait (which can be used to benefit you, or alternately to make things tougher but gain a metacurrency called Checks), your weapon proficiencies, and your armor proficiencies.

So yeah: it really lays out the framework for your character in a way that a lot of newer non-OSR games won't. If you're not familiar with Torchbearer, don't worry too much about the details--just look at the classes and pick one that sounds interesting. I (and the other experienced players) will be happy to answer questions about any of the stocks. A list of the classes/stocks can be found on p1 of the "Campaign Burning" thread.

Feel free to respond to this thread with any questions or ideas or what-not.

[drpete]

Woot!

Here we go. I would like to be a Dwarven Adventurer.

Does the setting, with dwarves being driven out, constrain things like my home choice, or should we just find an expression of how that looked if I pick a human settlement?

[Enoch]

The way I envision it, the human towns (Metropolis, Crossroads, Remote Village) are known (and may even be known sympathizers), but there are plenty of non-human towns scattered about in out-of-the-way places. The Prince either doesn't know about them or simply can't exert effective control over those areas. If you want to hail from a Dwarven Outpost or the like you can.

We can work on a map that will have terrain to support all of the available towns. I envision the domain containing a vast forest and a mountain range riddled with caves, at least some coastline with barrier islands, likely a major river ending in a swampy/marshy delta, etc. Lots of lost and unexplored places that Men believe are legends if they've even heard of them. Elves lurk in dark forests, the Undermountain rings with the sound of dwarven hammers still, and secluded mountain valleys host orcish villages.

But the Prince knows it, and he intends to change all that.

[Rex]

I would like to go with a Witch, Human stock.

Female, Name Ganna

Special human skill Survivalist 3
Home: Busy Crossroads
Home Skill: Cook 2
Home Trait: Quick Witted 1
Social Grace: Haggler 2
Specialty: Healer 4

Witch
Special Skill: Healer 3+1=4 for specialty (see above)
Will 4
Health 4
Moon child
Skills: Alchemist 3, Enchanter 2, Lore Master 2, Mentor 2, Scholar 2
Starting Weapon: Wand
Alignment: Unaffiliated
Familiar: Cat
Familiar (Unaffiliated) [2d6] = 7
Circle 1 spell: Eldritch Darts

Not sure about what to take for a Wise
Nature: Human (Boasting, Demanding and Running)
Base Nature 3
? 1 Quietly prepare
? 2 Listen to Wisdom
? 3 Do not fear (add Brave trait)
Circles 4 total
Friend yes, +1 circle
Parents Orphan, Keepsake 1D treasure
Mentor yes, +1 Circles, Healer
Enemy, yes, +1 circles, GM picks

A start anyways. Ideas, thoughts?

[Stirling]

I posted a generalisation of 'I come from the Capital'. What skills and traits does that offer?

[Enoch]

Rex, looks good off-hand (I'll walk through it later this weekend).

Stirling, Capital is fine. I assume you want that to be the Metropolis. I'll post its skills and traits as soon as I get a chance (as well as the other steading types). What's the capital's name?

Question for everybody- what's this principality's name (or at least, what do you all call it)?

[Enoch]

Rex, looks good off-hand (I'll walk through it later this weekend).

Stirling, Capital is fine. I assume you want that to be the Metropolis. I'll post its skills and traits as soon as I get a chance (as well as the other steading types). What's the capital's name?

Question for everybody- what's this principality's name (or at least, what do you all call it)?

[Enoch]

Stirling, what was your character in prison for? Was he guilty, and do your companions know?

[drpete]

Hi Stirling!

It seems like you've run a bit ahead in the step by step process, and filling in stuff on your character sheet ahead of schedule.

For human thief, you get...

Raw Abilities Distribute 8 points between Will and
Health; neither stat may have a rating
lower than 2 or higher than 6.

Skills: Criminal 3, Manipulator 3, Scout 3,
Dungeoneer 2, Fighter 2

Trait: Devil May Care

Weapons: Sword, hand axe, dagger, bow
and crossbow
Armor: Leather

Special Skill: All human characters choose one of the following skills and give it a rating of 3: Criminal, Haggler, Pathfinder or Survivalist. As a thief, if you choose Criminal when selecting from the human special skill list, start
the skill at rating 4 rather than 3.

Devil May Care: Thieves are rakes and libertines. Their swagger and ability to spit in the eye of danger helps them win admirers and keep a steady hand when others would
shake in their boots. It can also lead them to take foolish risks to protect their reputations.

Weapon: A thief starts with a dagger.
Armor: A thief does not start with armor.

So, assuming you are taking criminal 4, you wouldn't have haggler or cartographer at this stage, or the loner trait.

Picking the capital (a " Metropolis") let's you pick a skill from this list at 2: Haggler, Sailor or Steward
It also gives you one of these two traits as your second trait (after Devil May Care): Extravagant or Jaded.

[Marullus]

So, I'm going to show two examples (because I can't decide between the characters yet anyway). For this one, I'm applying the Mythcreants house rule that you add traits rather than swapping them in the Nature questions. The Gnome Illusionist is in the Wanderers, Outcasts, and Exiles book.

Example #1 - The Gnomish Mastermind

The first to a Gnome Illusionist. I'd like him to be the half-sized mastermind, trying to bring together the revolution. For the team build, I'd like him to be the Persuader specialist.

He grew up around the Wizard's Tower, a skilled potionmaker until the Farquad's forces routed them. (+Skeptical trait, +Alchemist skill).

Gnomes get a trade (+Alchemist) instead of a social grace, but I'd like to take Persuader as his Speciality role (+Persuader skill).

He gets Potions-wise as a gnome, but then also will choose Scheme-wise. As a gnome he is also Meticulous (+Meticulous Trait).

His nature is Complaining, Mending, and Hiding. He was raised at the wizard tower (+Curious trait). He loves dangerous devices (+1 Health, +Reckless trait). He is terrified of big predators (+1 nature).

He picks one illusion spell (Arcane Semblance, Celestial Music, or Dance of the Fireflies). I'll probably take Dance of the Fireflies, but will decide later. He needs no spellbook and can use no scrolls; it is ambiguous how many slots and how often they refresh so we'll assume he can cast it once per adventure phase and it refreshes every Camp.

Extra penalties: He is tiny, so is only Order of Might 2, his backpack as -1 slot, and he cannot carry full large sacks.

His friend is Belda, a Loremaster who was librarian at the wizard's tower (+1 Circles). He is older himself and his parents died years ago (+1D treasure family necklace). His mentor is Greymalkin the Persuader and a travelling bard who survived the wizard purge (+1 Circles). His enemy is Seargent Falco, who he humiliated in the battle of the tower (+1 Circles).

While my goal will need to be written when the session begins, my belief and instinct are broader and can tell a lot about my character. I'll start with a belief about bringing together a group and making them a team (using his passion for potions as a metaphor). Potioneering is going to be his gnome-knack, so my instinct will focus on that. This helps him regularly improve his alchemy ability (which other wise is hard) and provides practical benefit to the group as he whips-up elixirs to remove conditions.

Satisfied that I know who this character is, I'll figure out his equipment later. He gets either a sling or a dagger and a smaller-sized backpack (5 slots, not 6) when I do that process. He's not a fighter so could probably have a backpack, but is also a dungeoneer... if I dont want to take a penalty to dungeering, I'd need to take the satchel instead (and have 2 slots, not 3). His neck slot will be occupied by his family heirloom, which he needs to describe.

Summary:

Code: Select all

Name:  Farwin the Shrewd
Will 5, Health 4, Nature 4, Circles 4 (Order of Might 2)
Skills:  Alchemist 3, Arcanist 3, Cartographer 2, Dungeoneer 2, Haggler 2, Persuader 2, Scholar 2, Scout 2, Steward 2
Traits:  Meticulous, Skeptical, Curious, Reckless
Wise:  Potions-wise, Scheme-wise
Spell:  Dance of the Fireflies

Belief:  The magic of the melting pot applies to people as well as potions.  
Instinct:  Always brew a an elixir in camp. 

[drpete]

Ok, big question here, as we go... is it "better" to work towards high skills, or to spread out to a bunch of low ones?

[Marullus]

For this example, I'm going to experiment with Mythcreants rule #3 for Skill Creation. The default class does some weird things under the nature questions that violate the logic from Mythcreants Rule #2.

Example #2 - The Great Wolf who Remembers
For this example I'm picking the race and class of Dire Wolf Omega from the Frozen Fiends book. I'm thrilled they included the "intelligent great-wolf" option and I love to roleplay from a wolfish perspective. In this particular setting of Creatures of Legend, I think this is an extremely thematic option... I'm channeling the Big Bad Wolf from Red Riding Hood, or Gmork from the Neverending Story.

The Dire Wolf has its own specific hometown options; I'm choosing Wild-Born since he was not bred in captivity by orcs. (+Scout skill, +Loner Trait). The wolf also starts with the Ravenous trait (+Ravenous).

His social grace will be Manipulator because he lie to human children about the grandmothers, and I'll take Manipulator as his Specialty as well. (+Manipulator Skill x2)

He starts with Man-wise (and thus speaks common) and also will take Legendary-Place-Wise as he has lived his life in the evershrinking wilds and knows their secrets.

I'll come back to Nature Questions in a bit.

The wolf is required to take Loner trait and Circles 1 - he can't start with friends. (+Loner Trait).

Further Restrictions: A wolf also has no Resources score (his town phase is minimal), he can't learn 14 of the skills ever, and he has almost no wear-slots for equipment. (He has only a head, neck, and two torso slots to work with.)

He does start with a fur coat (functions like a cloak for recovery) and a choice of a natural weapon. For now, I'll pick Crushing Jaws (+1s Attack in Kill, Capture, Drive-off conflicts).

Nature and Skills
To answer his Nature questions, he seeks the thrill of the hunt, prefers discourse to violence with intelligent prey, and roams wild and free, not spending time in settlements. (+Cunning Trait, +2 Nature)

His Nature descriptors are super useful (Hunting, Howling and Roving) so in choosing to act by your nature in the nature questions, it specifies that you lose whole skills (Hunter and Pathfinder), which would mean you use the Nature roll for those in the wild vice using the skill if you spent more time among humans away from your nature. This is where the Mythcreants logic helps understand that this is really broken. It sacrifices almost half his skill points to get +2 nature.

I'm proposing custom building his skills instead under Mythcreants rule #3. I would like a wolf who has high Lore Master passed down through his pack as a creature of legend. Rule #3 says: "Each PC gets 3 skills at rank 3 and 3 skills at rank 2. They then get 3 points to increase up to 4, or open new skills at 2."

I'll pick Loremaster 3, Fighter 3, then keep Scout 3, Manipulator 2, Scavenger 2, Survivalist 2 from the book's original suggestion. (The book had Hunter 4, Pathfinder 2, which we are not choosing due to nature questions). I'll spend the three points to raise Loremaster to 4, Raise Fighter to 4, and open Commander at 2. If Enoch wants two skills lost, then it will drop Scavenger and lower Fighter to 3.

We then add in +1 Scout and +2 Manipulator from the character creation above.

So, we end up with a wise wolf who remembers the old places and old ways, is well practiced at lying to human children and leading them astray, and a fierce fighter in his battles with men.

Code: Select all

Name:  The Big Bad Wolf (Garrick)
Will 3, Health 5, Nature 5, Circles 1 (Order of Might 3)
Skills:  Loremaster 4, Fighter 4, Manipulator 4, Scout 4, Scavenger 2, Survivalist 2, Commander 2
Traits:  Loner x2, Ravenous, Cunning
Wise:  Man-Wise, Legendary-Place-Wise 
Weapon: Crushing Jaws (+1s Attack in Kill, Capture, Drive-off conflicts).

Belief: The old ways can right this, once awoken.   
Instinct:  Always hunt before dawn (i.e. before camp).  

[Marullus]

Ok, big question here, as we go... is it "better" to work towards high skills, or to spread out to a bunch of low ones?

Most things are well balanced to prevent a clear answer to these types of questions. Having a skill is better than no skill unless the action falls within your Nature descriptors. (Humans have a Boasting nature - if you are manipulating by boasting you can roll your Nature dice as long as you don't have a Manipulator skill.)

Skills are harder to open after creation and they are harder to raise the higher they are. Both are beneficial to start with.

I would like to go with a Witch, Human stock.

A start anyways. Ideas, thoughts?

I love the witch - it has interesting twists. For one, you can't cast your spells. You only work through objects. You can put a spell on your wand and cast it, then recharge it in Camp. You might want an instinct to always recharge your wand in camp, otherwise it takes spending a Check to do so (and puts you at a disadvantage against a Magician who studies his book for free). You can learn Prayers as well as spells and you can imbue prayers into food, clothing, etc. An interesting twist is how this gives you delayed triggering that others can't have.

When we last ran a witch, the GM allowed enchanting rolls in Camp as well as town and allowed you imbue your spells as well as prayers. (Baking cookies and lacing them with the Thread of Friendship spell, for example...) Not sure how Enoch feels about that.

You can pick any spell you want which is also a rare gift compared to other casters. While Eldritch Bolts are straightforward, others in the party can fight combat. I personally would recommend looking at the creative applications of other spells considering you work by enchantment (per above).

I would also compare Healer and Alchemist (since you have both) and consider which you like best.

I was fond of playing an old matronly woman who's long handled spoon was her wand and who revolved around cooking and potionmaking and dispensing home remedy wisdom. I'm glad you're picking up Witch - feel free to steal my ideas.

[Rex]

So if prayers are on the table I could take one of the healing prayers and make healing potions/wand correct? It looks like there is one for each that heals anger, exhaustion or fear. There is a protection from cold type but it seems less useful. The most useful non-combat spell looks to be Arcane Semblance, especially considering the campaign idea. It would allow me to make potions of limited polymorph basically and my wand could have 3 charges as well. Lightness of Being, Mystic Porter and Supernal Vision could be useful but are more specialized. Mystic Porter might be the best but don't see how it would work as a potion. Everything I could find on picking spells in Torchbearer said your first choice needs to be Eldritch Darts.

Also wondering about traits, could I take the Wizards Sight? I think I get another one correct?

I was thinking of more a younger girl, just figuring things out. She could be the groups cook (is 2 high enough?) and Healer (4 seems high enough). The ability to make potions and wands would be something she is just starting to do. I seem to have talked myself into the Arcane Semblance, it just seems to fit the campaign idea well.

If you decide to run the big bad wolf, which would be really cool, I will take Legendary-Beast Wise. Maybe her mentor was a legendary beast of some sort and she is a red riding hood type.

[drpete]

This has got me reevaluating my thoughts on my dwarf. Now I'm thinking about a storyteller (orator) SMS leaning into that, instead of greed.

[Enoch]

A storyteller is not only super-flavorful, but the Orator skill is a lot more useful than it may seem at first blush. Not only can you use it to convince crowds, but it can be used to help party members get over the Afraid and Angry conditions.

Marullus, if you wanted to go with Great Wolf, I'd have to look at that carefully- he loses those skills for a reason, and using an optional house rule to add skill ranks back in is no bueno.

[Enoch]

To be clear, using the Mythcreants rules in character burning will require explicit GM approval. That will generally come when changes need to be made to fulfill a concept but not simply to increase a character's power. Power balance is important in Torchbearer.

Mythcreant's skill substitution assumed the character had those skills to begin with. The wolf is deliberately denied them.

[Stirling]

Thinking of sticking with thief class but going with the idea Clough was a smuggler rather than a burglar type and taking Sailor skill in preference to Haggler from Home location list. I was hoping 'cartographer' was in the home location list to align with his criminal skill of casing joints and studying blueprints but if the map regions have rivers and coastlines that skill also opens up the possible water travel options (if we could steal a boat).

Any thoughts?

Social graces and Natures. Might need some guidance on those.

[Marullus]

To be clear, using the Mythcreants rules in character burning will require explicit GM approval. That will generally come when changes need to be made to fulfill a concept but not simply to increase a character's power. Power balance is important in Torchbearer.

Mythcreant's skill substitution assumed the character had those skills to begin with. The wolf is deliberately denied them.

Totally agree. This was an experiment. The important part is adjusting concept to integrate Loremaster, which is key to the desire to play the wolf.

I was shocked at how it turned out, honestly... No character should begin with four 4 skills. I went back and crossreferenced the Mythcreant rules and figured a few more things out (and where I went wrong).

The Mythcreant rules of three 3s, three 2s, and three mobile are full totals. Non-humans start with the six skills, Humans start with 5 and a human-choice, and the three mobile are actually the Hometown, Social Grace, and Specialty. (I added those choices on again after, which explains some overage.)

Mythcreant rules #2 addresses Traits but not skills. This was the original item I wrote as a question in the experiment above. Their logic that you should add traits instead of swapping traits is solid. It doesn't address instances where you raise nature while lowering a skill and I thought that an oversight. I am more convinced now that the balance of it works. In the wolf example, eliminating the whole skill is to the benefit of the character, but for balance purposes it should be +1D for -1D as for all other classes if adjusting skills.

The wolf has 14 skills that can't be learned (and two more due to the nature questions) - my proposal is to adjust skills to add Loremaster as a primary (which is an allowed skill) and Fighter / Commander if there's room. Accounting for the better understanding above, we remove two skill dice, which leaves three at 3, one at 2, and the three adds (which for fairness to others, I think should still at least roughly map to a Hometown, Social Grace, and Specialty.)

Redoing it:
Loremaster 3, Scout 3, Fighter 3, Manipulator 2. We say his Specialty is Loremaster, his social grace is Manipulator, and his hometown trait goes to Survivalist as Wild Born.

Result with skill swapping:

Skills: Loremaster 4, Fighter 3, Manipulator 3, Scout 3, Survivalist 2, Hunter 2, Pathfinder 2

For comparison, this is how it turns out with normal questions and no skill swapping:

Skills: Hunter 4,, Scout 4, Manipulator 4, Pathfinder 2,, Scavenger 2, Survivalist 2

In both cases, the skill loss from Nature questions is maintained. The former allows the Loremaster focus and Fighter instead of Scavenger for what he's doing around humans.

[Marullus]

Also wondering about traits, could I take the Wizards Sight? I think I get another one correct?

You don't normally pick one freely - they come from your class, hometown, and nature questions.

Wizards Sight is the class trait for Magicians, so you likely won't get it.

I was thinking of more a younger girl, just figuring things out. She could be the groups cook (is 2 high enough?) and Healer (4 seems high enough). The ability to make potions and wands would be something she is just starting to do. I seem to have talked myself into the Arcane Semblance, it just seems to fit the campaign idea well.

If you decide to run the big bad wolf, which would be really cool, I will take Legendary-Beast Wise. Maybe her mentor was a legendary beast of some sort and she is a red riding hood type.

If your witch is his friend with a red cloak, I am really incentivized. That's so fun! (And, it explains why he joins with the humans in the first place.)

I think Arcane Semblance is a great choice. That should be fun.

To try and be clearer on options:
* You get one first circle spell to start. You pick, which is different.
* At level 2 you can choose between a new spell, a prayer, or having your cat talk.
* You have a wand and can give it up to three charges of one spell. You recharge it in Camp, spending an action.

* Anyone with Alchemy can make a potion base and then a faster casts their spell into it. (Not unique to witches)

* You can enchant a mundane object with one charge of one spell. (Unique to Witch) This basically replaced scrolls for you.

They may also enchant clothing, jewelry, gems, mirrors, candles and other mundane gear. These items’ enchantments are limited to one charge of a single spell of any circle.

* Once you have a prayer you can put it into an object (not your wand) (Unique to witch)

Witches are able to use the Enchanter skill to hex or charm objects, anything from food or drink to clothing or gear. Hexes are cursed objects while charms are blessings placed upon an object. The witch curses or blessed the item with a prayer using the Enchanter skill. Anyone using that item will trigger its effects which persist according to the prayer’s description.

* Alchemists make Elixirs that cure conditions.
* Healers make poultices to give extra dice to characters testing to recover on their own.

* It is unique to the Witch that she gives spell powers to others. Anyone can use the magic in her wands or items. (Only spellcasters can use scrolls, by comparison).

* She can only cast her Enchantments in camp or town - she cannot cast spells directly during the Adventure phase (which is what her wand is for).