New Beginnings (Inactive)

Game Master Azih

Hey guys, check in please as you can, this shouldn't be a long process but there's no need to rush either.

Lurking at least, and probably joining as well.

I'll probably just be lurking for curiosity fulfillment.

Good stuff guys. It's kind of a one on one deal but doing it as a group should be a good time.

I've added a pretty good pdf character sheet to the detail section. There's a lot of really great online character creators but I think going through an actual sheet really helps solidify some concepts.

This one has auto calculations so it's a pretty great compromise I think, you can fill in the numbers and see where they're going.

This is an alternate method of character creation so... it does start with a concept! Do you all have any thoughts on what kind of character you'd like to build? It can be as elaborate or as simple as you want.

I'll leave it up to you guys if you want to restrict yourselves to just the core rulebook and throw it open to all paizo published content (there's a lot of it already). If you don't have a concept then we can just roll randomly too!

We'll do all discussions here and the 'gameplay' will be in the gameplay section. You don't have to create an alias if you don't want to.

Pathfinder 2, like 1 is OGL for rules so you can find allll the options online: Two good options are:
Official SRD at https://2e.aonprd.com/
Fan made site at http://www.pf2.easytool.es/tree/

The three main concepts to help create a character are

Ancestries (what was called Races)
Backgrounds (new in 2e)
Classes (of course)

I'm in!

Will take a look at what's out there 2e wise :)

Don't go too deep! We'll delve into the particulars as we play through creating your character.

Really, a bare concept should be good enough to begin.

I lowkey suspected that if I came back with "high str orc eldritch knight" this might be pointless :p

So let's hmm go with something that may have opportunities to branch?

"Magical mischief"!

In 1e there would be a few ways to build that - even a prc whose name I didn't want to use for the concept - so let's see how this works out.

Too bare? Too narrow? I'm up for altering or changing concept entirely if needed :)

Hi there! I'm back in town and digging through things. I'd like to participate but I'm going to need a few days to get caught up on work and games.

I think I'll go with a straight fighter. Former failed Red Maiden (just out of training when the events of CotCT happen). Looking for a new start and a bit of coin/self worth.

Nah those are both great. I'll @ you guys in gameplay. Stage 1 of character creation is complete! (high str orc eldritch knight would have worked too!)

For Stage 2. The first thing to is to download the linked sheet and put 10s in all the ability scores. In traditional fashion this should lead to 0s in your modifiers, which is the only thing that matters. Should have gotten rid of scores paizo...

Buuuuut without numbers in the boxes how will the sheets be compatible with a system of rolling Xd6 and then just winging it :D

Too vague? Not vague enough? We'll see :)

Figured it was better to add something. I can elaborate later if needed :D

Did I miss stage 1 already? :)
Can I go to to stage 2 without clear concept - not knowing what I'll be when I grow up? Just starting from "tribal/nomad family"?

OK, here's FC's alias. I've posted in gameplay and filled in the numbers on the sheet.

You guys are really great players and the baby versions of your characters are wonderful. Wish I could promise posts every day.

Alright Stage 3 for Lessah!

And hey for anybody else finding Stage 1 boring, just let me know and we can move on to Stage 2 as well. I think most of the unique action economy and crit/fail systems of pf2e have been introduced. But I do believe it's still a fun process to complete. Completely up to you guys.

Stage 3 is big since here you will start picking different options for your character. Just like many other fantasy games Pathfinder Second Edition allows you to play as a member of many different species that populate a diverse fantasy world. Unlike many other similar games Pathfinder Second Edition uses the terms Ancestry and Heritage to describe this diversity. Taken together these define the biological origin and cultural upbringing of a player character that grant your character unique abilities they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. In other games these may have been called other terms such as race and sub-race or alternate racial traits.

So... @Lessah, do you have an idea for an Ancestry and then a heritage from within that? Also, note that Pf2e has the concept of VERSTALIE Heritages which you can take as opposed to the ancestry specific ones.

Versatile heritages are origin concepts such as aasimar, tiefling, etc. that can be applied to any ancestry So you could be a tiefling dwarf if you wish, or a more dwarf specific forge dwarf heritage.

There' also half-heritages like half-elf, and half-orc, according to the core rules these can only be applied to the human ancestry buuuut... if you really want to be a gnome-orc or something then we can talk about it.

Hmhmhmhm you did just dangle a gnorc there :p

But probably not. I'll take a look around!

And it's been fun so far.

I've got an idea in mind for a PC. Asta's ancestry will be Korvosan human. Pretty vanilla and certainly not a gnorc!

I'll probably just be lurking for curiosity fulfillment.

And I'm not sure how I missed that your avatar was an adorable squirrel! Oh Astri would be so proud :p

I'll just crack open the shiny 2e box and grab the Sprite of the Luminous kind.

And the old thread is archived. And there's new music! And you've gone and picked one of the weird ancestries Lessah!

Congratulations Lessah, you're an Adolescent now. Your ancestry provides your character with starting hit points, a size, a base speed, some combination of ability boosts and flaws, and other benefits such as enhanced senses.

Pathfinder 2 also gives a little bit of idea of the general tendencies of your chosen ancestry and heritage, you can play into the tropes or away from them as you wish but Sprite is certainly great for magical trickster.

Sprite is also the only Tiny ancestry in the game. You can fill in the size in the character sheet.

It's also on the more frail side with 6 hit points. Yup your ancestry does give you starting hit points. 20 feet is on the slower side as 25 feet is the standard speed of most races.

Like a lot of ancestries, sprite gets 2 boosts and 1 flaw. The boosts are to Dexterity and Intelligence and Strength is the flaw. Boosts increase your score by 2 points while flaws decrease by 2 points, so you should have 12 in dex and int and 8 in str right now.

You also have a 'Free' boost which means you can put that in any attribute OTHER than the abilities already boosted, so you can can't boost dex or int again. So... what kind of sprite are you at your tender age... slightly stronger than most of your peers, slightly wiser and more perceptive, hardier, more of a force of personality?

One thing to remember at this point is that the game works better if the stat that is going to be the most important to you is as high as it can be, which means boosting it as much as possible. Magic can be based off of int, wis, or cha, so boosting wis or cha might be the best if those are going to be your spellcasting stat. I'll let you decide and we can always retcon later if you want to build something slightly different later.

Here's a quick table of what the various abilities affect in the game, as you fill in the sheet you'll see the modifiers pop up in the right places:

Ability Changes
STR Melee attack and damage rolls, the athletics skill
DEX Ranged attack rolls, reflex saving throw, armor class, the acrobatics, stealth, and thievery skills
CON Fortitude saving throws, hit points
INT The Arcana, Crafting, Lore, Occultism, and Society skills
WIS Will saving throws, Perception, the Medicine, Nature, Religion, and Survival skills
CHA The Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Performance Skills

You get common and sylvan languages, and one more since your int is 12, choose from the list in the sprite basic info.

You also get low-light vision which is pretty common, and you get the very unique ability of magical strikes which means your strikes become magical right away!

The pdf I gave is a bit odd as it puts all the feats and abilities all the way down at page 9. I'd put the low light and magical strikes abilities there to remember them.

Luminous sprites are fun, you naturally glow like a firefly. You can turn it on and off and change the colour with but a single action! Put that in the feat and abilities section too for your reference.

You also get another choice! A first level ancestry feat!

There's five to choose from. You could get wings (weak ones), some extra magic, the ability to speak with bats... a corgi mount....

Also, for the purposes of this system, you're going to get some gear, in a world as full of fantastical threats as the one your character is growing up in, every child is expected to have some level of familiarity with weapons for self defense. In the Melee strikes section of the character sheet write club for one weapon and in the damage section for that weapon write down 1d6 B. In the Ranged strikes section of the character sheet write hand crossbow for one weapon and in the damage section for that weapon write down 1d6 P.

So you've got a free boost to choose and a first level ancestry feat! Make your choice and we'll do the gameplay when you do.

@Asta, so, you're an adolescent human! Humans are kinda basic, but they're also pretty great. There's three heritages, half-human heritages, and even versatile heritages to choose from just like Lessah.

You get 8 hit points from the ancestry, medium size, 25 feet speed, Two ability boosts to put where you please (can't pick the same ability twice though!), and the language is common, if your int is boosted you'll get another.

You also get a whopping 19 or so first level ancestry feats to choose one from! The benefits of being vanilla. Some have pre-reqs that you might not fulfill.

So... heritage, attribute boosts, and one first level feat! Some human choices won't come into play until you actually pick a class, but that's okay! You'll be picking a class soon enough!

And since you guys are adolescents, you probably know what your names are.

And since you guys are adolescents, you probably know what your names are.

So you can ignore it when your parents call.

That starts at 4 tbh.

@Karma! Any idea on ancestry and heritage, attribute boosts and first level ancestry feats?

That's pretty much the decision points. And don't forget to add your starting gear guys.

Mmm names. The hardest bit of any character :p

Picking +Con, Gnomish and Luminous Wings. Also stealing Erytheis as a name for now.

That starts at 4 tbh.

My four year-old concurs.

I'll choose Str and Con for ability boosts. For a heritage, versatile I guess? So one ancestry feat and one general feat if I understand correctly.

Ancestry feat: Natural Ambition (gives a general feat)

General feats: Canny Acumen (will), Toughness

So Asta, you've stumbled across one of the core concepts of pf2 character building, and of the unique features of humans, which is
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS... errr Feats

You're correct that the versatile heritage ancestry feat gives you a general feat of you choosing, but the Natural Ambition first level feat actually gives you a CLASS feat of your choice, you haven't picked a class yet, so could you hold onto that one for a bit until we get to the class part of character building?

Which one of the General Feats do you wish to retain?

Also Humans just... mess up my system as most heritages don't start interacting with feats or proficiencies or ANYTHING until the next stage, but I'll come up with something...

Pesky pesky humans :p

I think I'll retain canny acumen. Thanks for the clarification, GM!

Argh, work's been killing me...

I was thinking human / half-orc would suit the nomad idea fine. Maybe half-orc just for variety.
But I don't want to be a classic barbarian brute. So let's pick CHA and DEX for ability boosts.

Ancestry Human
Heritage Half-orc
Boosts Cha, Dex
Ancestry feat Orc sight

Works been killing me too, I'll try and get stuff up for the two of you tonight or tomorrow.

Sorry to hear work's murder. Hope it eases up :)

Very nice Karma.

Since it doesn't quite make sense to have a nomad with a crossbow too much, why don't we go ahead and swap it out for a shortbow for your adolescent half-orc. If that makes more sense.
Shortbows are 1d6 p just like crossbows.

Lessah! You're onto stage 4.
Adulthood!

Here you will continue to build your character as they mature from a young person into an adult who has gained skills and knowledge in a vocation.

There's some real odd and uniquely interesting backgrounds in the game now, but let's not make you an Amnesiac or anything like that and stick to one of the common ones. There's a looooot of them but the common ones are pretty standardized.

Artisan, Astrologer, Charlatan.... what did your sprite end up doing as they became and adult. Are they still in the woods close to the village? Somewhere else?

Hmhmmhmmmmhm options. Lots of them ...

Sorry, life is very busy. Hope to get caught up soon.

Though I yearn to see the wider world, I haven't traveled far from my village yet. I still have my apprenticeship to our shaman to finish. We don't always see eye to eye - I may be a tad bit impatient at times. But I do enjoy learning about plants, potions and most of all magic.

Very nice @Lessah, a little bit of grounding before you get your big head.

So what ability boosts do you pick?

Now let's talk about your training in Occultism and Herbalism Lore! Check T against Occultism and you should see your Occultism skill jump up by 3. Same for Lore, but as that's open you should put in Herbalism there.

First off Occultism is knowledge of occult magics and topics while Lore is knowledge of some specialized subject. For example Herbalism Lore.

Proficiency is a system that measures a character’s aptitude at a specific task or capability, and it has five ranks: untrained, trained, expert, master, and legendary.

It achieves this by giving the character a bonus that’s added when determining the following modifiers and statistics: AC, attack rolls, Perception, saving throws, skills, and the effectiveness of spells. If you’re untrained, your proficiency bonus is +0. If you’re trained, expert, master, or legendary, your proficiency bonus equals your level plus 2, 4, 6, or 8, respectively.

Let me know when you're ready to proceed!

At this early part of your character’s progression, you can be either Untrained, in which case, you do not gain any proficiency bonus on your rolls, or Trained in which case you add your level plus 2. Since your character is not even level 1 yet, this means they add 2 to any roll or benefit that they are trained in. Once they achieve level 1 at the end of the character creation process this will go up to 3.

I think I plop down +Int, because any tricksy magic seems likely to want it, and +Dex because being sneaky about it may come in handy. Also I'll be quite tiny and the other two physical stats are harder to envision :p

With that I think I am ready to proceed.

Pathfinder 2 is pretty generous with stat boosts so you can have a perfectly viable sprite or gnome barbarian, even a non gnorc version!

Skill feats are pretty awesome. They're ways to enhance skill use in a way that isn't just number boosts in a diverse way. Root Magic for example is a nice boost to an ally's saves once a day.

@Karma, you've heard my spiel on backgrounds with Lessah, what do you think? I mean... there's a Nomad Background which might be a perfect fit! Sometimes the most obvious choice is the best one. What do you think as you grow into adulthood?

Yes, Nomad sounds both good and obvious. I'll pick that one.

So at this stage @Karma, you get two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Survival skill, and a Lore skill related to one terrain you traveled in (such as Desert Lore or Swamp Lore). You gain the Assurance skill feat with Survival.

So two boosts please, each will go up by 2, you can't pick both Dex and Cha sadly!

Your Survival will become trained so you'll get a proficiency bonus of level+2 in your adulthood (so... 2). Same for the Lore, pick a Terrain please!

And write down your Assurance in Survival skill feat in the appropriate place (the character sheet has a section for Skill feat from Background somewhere in there).

@Asta, you have any thoughts on your background as you grow into adulthood? Guard, Marital Disciple, Squire, Warrior? There's a lot of nice choices there.

Well, Asta's from humble beginnings, so Guard probably makes sense.

@Asta Being a Guard requires as much skill with social interaction as it does with Strength.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Intimidation skill and the Legal Lore or Warfare Lore skill. You gain the Quick Coercion skill feat.

So choose your ability boosts, whether you leaned more towards the legal side or the brawling side of being a guard, and the Quick Coerceion skill fight.

The ability boosts go into the abilities, the Skills has a place to tick Intimidation up to Trained, fill in your lore and put it at Trained, and the feat section should have a place for background skill, Quick Coercion goes in there. The character sheet will give +3 for the proficiency but you're not level 1 yet, so just remember it's actually +2.

Oh yeah let's start putting the benefits of your human heritage in! Put in your Canny Accumen (will) in as a Skill feat on your character sheet as well.... which means your proficiency in will Saves shoots up to Expert. You get +4 proficiency to your Will save (It'll be +5 when you hit Level 1) . Truly impressive for one so young!

@Lessah! You're growing up so fast compared to your bigger peers! You're onto Stage 5! Neophyte Adventurer!

At this point your character has either left their old vocation behind or delved into mastering its intricacies. Either way they are well on the way to exceeding most of their peers and becoming the exceptional individuals that define a first level adventurer in Pathfinder Second Edition. Your character accomplishes this by gaining the benefits defined by the class they have either chosen, or has been chosen for them by circumstance.

So.. here's the biggest decision! What. Is. Your. Class! You've focused a lot on your Int and Dex, if you want to be magical then an Intelligence based caster does make the most sense!

Alchemists, Inventors, Investigators, some kinds of rogues, witch, and wizard are the classes that make the most use of intelligence, the last two are the ones that are int based casters.

Let me know what you think.

Thinking that my home region would be Hold of Belkzen, so what the terrain type would be? Mountains? Badlands?

Ability boosts: Con, Cha

I'd say Plains makes the most sense without being too specific. And with that you should be good.

Edit: Actually I'll let you choose between Plains and Mountains based on how you feel the terrain is of the land your peoples move over. Even the harsh lands of the Hold are diverse.