Character Generation

What game? 3.5 D&D, the good, the familiar, and the ever welcoming game we all know and love. This game has been a longtime coming so make characters you’re going to love. Note: characters will die; this is going to be a brutal game, so if you have multiple concepts you will likely get the chance to play out more than one character.

What rules? Homebrew 3.5, based of offical WOTC books with the addition of some Arcanum/Iron Kingdoms style weaponry, classes, and tech. Emphasis on new empires built on the shoulders of older, greater, long forgotten ones. Pockets of unexplored land and sealed tombs exist across the continent, attracting a plethora of raiders and adventurers. Ancient horrors and curses lie under the unclaimed ground, and talk of unspeakable terror is beginning to spread among the working class. Nationwide war has recently ended (~last 10 years), so people have begun to build and dissolve new alliances. Barbarian tribes exist outside of society’s purview, consisting of mainly Humans and Halflings. Gnomes control the northern territory, and Orcs control the southern. Hobgoblins and Goblins are seen as the “wandering race” having little land to call home.

What do we need? 4-6 players, playing in a group for the most part but occasionally separate (as required by the game)

Character creation? Starting level of 2, you will be a mix of fresh and veteran adventurers, likely separated from whatever life you were accustomed too and are adjusting to this new one.

Gold? 500 starting gold; accumulated from your relatively local exploits.

Prestige classes / Long term character builds? run them by me before they will be allowed

Races not allowed? No: Elves, Half-elves, Half-orcs, Dwarves

Races allowed? Yes: Humans, Gnomes, Halflings, Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins

Starting stats? 18, 17, 16, 14, 14, 12; HP (Vitality) = max for two levels (see the house ruling on health later)

Alignment? LG, NG, CG, LN, TN (Don’t QQ – you’re going to be heroes fighting against hordes of evil and saving the world, being evil doesn’t fly as a PC alignment in that setting. Neutral always leads to chaotic neutral, which justifies murder and crime on good NPCs)

House rules? Yes. HP becomes a new stat, called “Vitality;” any and all feats, abilities, etc that increase HP now increase Vitality. A second new stat, called “Wounds,” is added to all living characters and NPCs. Wounds are equal to a characters Constitution score, and when this number reaches zero the character dies. Attacks deal damage to Vitality, and when this number reaches zero, damage is dealt to Wounds. Successful critical strikes deal direct damage to Wounds, on the following scale based on their multiplier:
x2 -> x1, x3 -> x1.5, x4 -> x2.
This change is meant to represent some realism, as damage applied to vitality does not correlate to visible cuts etc, and heals rapidly. On that note, healing spells heal either vitality or wounds *caster's choice* – either reinvigorating (in the case of vitality) or mending torn skin etc (wounds).

A character background? Not required, but should be developed over the course of play.

What genre to the game? This game will involve a good helping of hack & slash, in a medium of horror and arcanum (if anyone has ever played it) along with solid roleplaying and infrequent puzzle solving.

What sources? Players can use any of the 3.5 official content, published by wizards; any variations or classes from other campaign sources should be run by me first.
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A Simple Survey
Please answer the following questions when creating your character:
1. Why have you come to this village? Are you travelling on a pilgrimage? Are you hiding from something? Are you a wandering warrior? An out of work mercenary recovering from your last engagement?
2. Where did you come from before? What was your life like there? Were you a wealthy merchant? A noble? A simple peasant with blighted crops?
3. Do you have a family? If so, do they know where you are? Do you communicate with them regularly? Are they out to get you? Did they all die in a plague or fire, leaving you alone?
4. Do you have any enemies? Do they know where you are? Why are they out to get you? Where do they live and work? How far is their reach?
5. What is your biggest fear? Are you afraid of fire? Disease? Of marauding bandits? What frightens you, and how do you react when you’re faced with your fear?
6. What is your favorite thing? Do you like certain food? The sky at night? A favorite possession or person? Anything at all is fine – as long as you like it more than anything else
7. What do you regret? What is the one thing that you would go back and change, given the opportunity to do so? If you don’t have any regrets, it is because you’ve lived a charmed life, or are you somehow incapable of regret?