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Hi all,
Noob here in NJ. Played my first game with a pregenerated character and have been reading core manual and Society playbook to fill in my character sheet.
I have chosen my:
Alignment, class, faction, race and gender, and have generated my ability scores, but I'm getting lost from there!
For example, I read about my class having a bonus on one ability. Do I record that in the base ability score?
I've checked off the skills for my class, but I' not sure if I need to fill in the other calculations, and how to do that. Same with pretty much everything else... I could really use a tutorial on filling out this sheet and what I can refer to when figuring out each section.
Thanks,
Dawn in NJ
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I'd recommend taking a look at the Beginner's Box. It's completely free, and it has a limited subset of the rules (aimed at level 1-2 characters) plus step by step guides of how to work through creating your character. The members of your local lodge will also be an excellent resource - I know at least at my local lodge, the more experienced players are very happy to help a newer player get their character sorted out.
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@Akari: Beginner's Box is not free. Not expensive, but far from free.
@Dawn: By Society playbook, I am guessing you mean the Guide to Pathfinder society Organized Play, currently on version 6. Which is good, so you know some of th erules already, like 20 point buy, no Evil alignments, etc.
Ability scores start by making a couple of choices to start with, as they affect what scores should be high, etc.
Melee types tend toward Strength (Str) for damage, Constitution (Con) for hit points, Dexterity (Dex) for AC, etc.
Caster types tend to specialize in the ability that their casting is based off of.
Intelligence (Int) for Wizards, Wisdom (Wis) for Clerics and Druids, and Charisma (Cha) for Sorcerers and Bards.
Clerics and Druids might also put some points into Cha, since it is used for other class abilities they have.
Race modifies one or more of the ability scores. Elf gives a penalty to Con, but a bonus to Dex and Int, so they aren't bad for Wizards, as an example.
Faction is, at present, more of an RP choice than anything else, and can be different for each of your PCs, once you have multiple PCs.
If you follow the first few chapters in the Core Rulebook (CRB), it should walk you through anything you'll need to calculate, like hit points (max at first level is the die size, plus the Con modifier, plus possible Favored Class Bonus (FCB), spells known (modified by casting stat, sometimes), Armor Class (AC) (which is base 10, plus Dex mod, plus bonus from armor and shield worn), etc.
Hard to go into more specifics, without knowing where you might need additional help.
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Sounds like you just don't know what to fill in where on the sheet?
Kinevon's advice is good. A lot of the details you're after are here, in the first chapter of the Core Rulebook.
Let's say your stats look like this:
Str 10
Dex 16
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 10
Cha 10
Each of those ability scores has a modifier, which you just fill in, like this:
Str 8 -1
Dex 16 +3
Con 14 +2
Int 14 +2
Wis 10 +0
Cha 12 +1
I can't find where this is explained in the PRD, but those modifiers basically change for every even number. Starting 10, 11, it's +0. Going up adds +1, going down subtracts -1. So:
12, 13 is +1
14, 15 is +2
8-9 is -1
and so forth.
But if you choose Human as your race (for example), you get a +2 to any ability score. The most common choice here is to add it to your highest score, since that's the best value for money. So now it looks like this:
Str 8 -1
Dex 18 +4
Con 14 +2
Int 14 +2
Wis 10 +0
Cha 12 +1
That's your basics for your ability scores.
A few easy-to-miss numbers are your Base Attack Bonus and your Saves (Fort/Reflex/Will). You'll find both of them in the table under whichever class you select, and your character sheet should tell you what to add to those numbers.
Does that help?
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You might want to pick up a copy of this book. It'll probably be quite helpful to figure out what kind of builds you want to use.
Aside from that, the advice people have already given is very good.
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Thanks all for your great responses - sorry for the late response on my part, but I've since dove (dived?) into this with two feet!
To answer your follow ups:
I've already begun learning Society Play, and since there is an active group in my area I want to start by learning this- Beginner box is nice, but I need people to play with and since my husband is a non-gamer (at all, nada, no way!), I'd need to find people willing to play with me, which would be just as likely to include those who know as little as I do :)
Kinevon- good basic info. Thanks. I have been doing a lot of back and forth referencing in the book.
Seth Gibson- Yes, another player, John Kretzer, suggested this, and I'll be buying the pdf when it comes out in the next few days! I'm looking forward to that, as it sounds like it may be just the thing I need as a newcomer :)
Zova Lex - Thanks for the Mythweavers suggestion. I did try to do a character sheet on there. On the plus, it is laid out very nicely, and prints beautifully. On the down side, the site can be VERY slow, and I can't share it as easily with others unless they are members, whereas my current character sheets (I'm now working on two characters - one for local one for PbP) are on Gdrive which I can permit anyone to look at. Though the template is smaller and not nearly as pretty as Mythweavers, but a plus (or maybe a minus!) is it does a lot of calculations for me (minus because I'm not learning those details as well- now learning the "why" is that the modifer, or the class skill...) I'm contemplating going ahead and doing my own version, though I'd have to take a step back and go through things carefully, since I won't have calculations already worked out in those.
Glass- my terms were a little mixed up. There are two rules that gave me some starting benefits. As a Half-elf, I get a +1 to choice of ability scores. And as a Druid, I think I get an extra rank in my skillset (which is default 7). I have to look this up again, as I keep forgetting it! (someone else answered from me elsewhere.. I'm just now starting to print things out for reference!).
Oversized- thanks. I'll definitely have to look that up. I saw one video. It was "cute" but not very instructive, so I will try NumenorKing's link :)
Thanks all!!
--Dawn