The Prancing Pony DnD Resource and Blog/Notes

Ability Scores
When you look at the character sheet. A number of things just turn you off. How in the world do I calculate my ability score? The official rulebook states that you have to roll 4 six-sided dice (4d6), take away the lowest dice roll, and add up the rest. When you have done so six times (for each ability), you can now assign your generated numbers to your abilities. So which ability is my first priority, which is my second, and etc? Well, it depends on your class. Read the description of your class and its skills carefully. Once you have decided which ability is the most important, assign the highest number to it. Then repeat until you have assigned numbers to all your ability scores.

S is for Skills
So what do you do for skills? Go back to your character’s class’s page. At the top, there should be a description on how to calculate your skill points. It is the bold letters of “Skill Points at First Level”. Calculate your skill points according to the formula. You may ask: what is your int modifier? Well, it is the modifier that your ability score gives. You can check the chart of ability scores (under the title “Ability Scores”) over here: http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/basics.html. So your int modifier can be found by matching your Intelligence score with the left most column, then looking at the column to the right. For example, an intelligence of 14 will give us a int modifier of +2.

“Okay, I finished calculating my skill points. Now what?” It’s now time to add ranks to your skills. First off, you have to determine your class skills. On your class description page, you will find a list of all the skills tied to your specific class. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use crossclass skills – they’re only more “expensive” to learn. At first level, the limit to how many ranks you can invest in a skill is four. However, if it is crossclass, you have to put in two skill points rather than one to increase the rank by one. For example, a ranger would need to put in four skill points to increase their rank in Escape Artist by two.

Remember what I said about modifiers? Well now you have to apply them again! After you put in ranks, you have to also put in your ability scores under the respective column. The only thing is, you have to read the ability in the parenthesis next to the skill to find out which ability score to apply to the skill. For example, move silently(dex) would use your dexterity modifier.

So what skills would I recommend to you? It’s the same idea as which ability scores should be your priority. Here, your class skills are important, but some crossclass skills are useful as well. The only thing is, you have to realize that everything here is based off your ability score and how often you think you will use that specific skills. Rogues will definately put in four ranks into move silently and hide each.

Skills link: http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/skills.html

There are sometimes when clerics, rogues, rangers, and fighters are simply not enough. Where did all the ninjas, samurais, and other lovely classes go? Well, they ended up in supplemental books that were not part of the core. How about the other races? They are usually in the monster manual, but I will get to that later.

Nonstandard races (I.E. Anything not in the player’s handbook) could usually be found in the monster’s manual, or the SRD (No linky this time, it’s up to you to find it). There are many fun things that you have to do to make a character of a nonstandard race. Level adjustment is what I will talk about. Level adjustment means that the particular race you are choosing is too damn good to be at the same level with the standard races (or +0 level adustment). There are two solutions to this problem. The first one is to enter your character late. For example, a Drow (+2 level adjustment) can enter when the rest of the party is at 3rd-level as a 1st-level character. The other solution is to start from the beginning, but with “negative” levels equal to your level adjustment. These negative levels decrease your ability scores, but each level you gain, you lose a “negative” level. Until you lose all negative levels, you are not allowed to gain another level in your chosen class.

A noncore class is pretty easy to define – a class hat is not part of the 3 corebooks: the player’s handbook, the dungeon master’s guide, and the monster manual. In the SRD, you will see a certain link called psionic classes. What in the world is a psionic class? Well, they are the classes found in the supplement the Expanded Psionic Handbook (XPH). There you find special classes (psions, wilders, soulknives, etc.) that are tailored to a psionic presence in the campaign. These classes, are not core – and therefore not guaranteed to be allowed by the DM.

So where do you find out about these classes? You either buy the books (this time they are more like $15 – $20) or you ask your DM about them. Chances are, he or she might know a thing or two about the nonstandard base classes and thus be able to help you out. However, there is no SRD for any supplement except for the XPH. So, if you want to be a ninja, cross your fingers and hope your DM has the right book.

I love Drow. They have awesome dexterity, unbelievable spell-like abilities, and they generally are badass. However, as a DM, I also am wary of Drow as a player character. The reason? In a role-playing sense, Drow are shunned by society because of the assumption that all drow are evil. While this postulate is generally true, there are quite a few exceptions to the rule. However, people stereotype, and thus will have Drow on their “To Kill” list.

Why did I talk about the Drow? It is because Drow is a race that should not be allowed as a player race unless there are specific rules as to how to play as a Drow. There are many races like the Drow, and it is under the DM’s discreption whether or not to allow these races to be played as a player character. Other classes include goblins, trolls, orcs, duregar, and other evil races. There are also the races with level adjustment, but see the article “Variant Classes and Races” for that.

To conclude, when you are choosing a nonstandard race as your character’s race, be sure to think of the consequences. Whether you will be run out of town once they see your face, or everyone bows down and worships you, you must get permission from your DM. To save them some work, explain how your character will blend in with the “normal” races. Maybe your character will wear a cloak over his body most of the time. Maybe she uses a special magical item that alters her appearance. Just remember that a Drow in a human city has a snowball’s chance in hell, so be wary when you choose a nonstandard race.

So, you’re done making that person that you always wanted to be. The problem is, they can’t fight, and they’re out of a job. Well, never fear! That’s what this second part is for: Getting your character into the game.

Abilities
I can’t be bothered to repeat other people’s work, so I shall refer you to this page of the SRD:

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/basics.html

Technically, the book makes you roll and determine your ability scores before you generate appearance and alignment. Why? So your description can’t conflict with your abilities. For example, a person of intelligence 9 clearly can’t go to bard college and get a degree. It simply isn’t logical. Therefore, try to balance your abilities according to what your character’s description is like.

Skills and Feats
Skills and feats are very important. They are sort of like what talents your character would have. For example, a person with a high rank in swim would look pretty talented when it came to swimming. They also are what your person can do easily. Two-weapon fighting makes your character swing with a weapon in each hand with ease. The pages for skills and feats for the SRD are here:

skills
feats

Classes
The moment you have all been waiting for. The class is the true definition of your character. Are they a defender of justice or a trickster and tale spinner? The classes will define your character’s job and the ideals he or she stands for.

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/classes.html

Next time, we will be discussing how to set up your own campaign and stuff. This is important for DMs only. For players it will be optional reading.

A quick note: Some of the subjects discussed in this article will require the use of a die or dice. A useful link is as follows:
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/toolsScreen.html#
Look at the sidebar and click the link called Dicesage. Here you will need to write in dice notation. Ex: 1d4 = one four-sided die. 2d8 = two eight-sided dice.
Your character is not unlike a protagonist in a book – he or she works to defend some ideal or place in the world. Maybe your character is actually an antagonist, maybe they are the reluctant hero. Either way, your character must have a good foundation.

Race
What is your race? I’m not talking about Africans, Asians, and Europeans. I’m talking about elves, halflings, gnomes, dwarves, and more. Each race has their unique characteristic. Elves tend to be a bit more antisocial towards people not of their race. They also are xenophobes. However, it can be noted that every race has its exception to the stereotype. Not all asians are overachievers, and likewise not all Duregar (usually evil dwarves) are cruel and treacherous. So your race affects many things – your culture, your alignment, and especially your appearance. Choose wisely, as race is one of the things you can never change in the middle.

SRD page: http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/races.html

Backstory
Backstory, while not necessary in a game of DnD, is one of the components of your character’s personality. A farmer’s son will have different views and opinions on life than a noble’s daughter. The backstory also tells you why the character is who he or she is in the present. Why is the drow a sadistic, evil person? It is because that’s how most of his race is, and he just conformed to drow society. This is the importance of backstory. However, current backstory should be left to the DM in most cases, but the far past is yours to invent.

Alignment
What is alignment? Alignment is what dictates your morals. If you are evil, then you would usually be cruel and hostile. If you are true neutral, then you really don’t care about anything unless it’s in your favor. However, there is a need to stress the difference between lawful and good. You can be good, but disregard the law – like how Harry Potter is. The following alignments are as follow:

lawful good (LG)

neutral good (NG)

chaotic good (CG)

lawful neutral (LN)

true neutral (N)

chaotic neutral (CN)

lawful evil (LE)

neutral evil (NE)

chaotic evil (CE)

The Other Stuff
Things that go into this category include: age, height, weight, etc. These can be found on the SRD by following this link:

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/description.html

Please take your time getting this part right, as DMs tend to like their games squeaky clean.