Introductions and Basics

Common Terms

Main Attributes: There are six attributes a character has that modifies almost everything else. These are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Perk: Something a character gains while leveling through their progression. These would include Abilities, Definitions, and Feats.

Definition: A defining feature of a character that is rooted in their skills, abilities, history, and so forth.

Ability: A perk that grants a new option for a character to use in or out of combat.

Feat: A perk that passively augments, modifies, or changes an existing option a character already has.

HD: Hit Dice, it is the 'level' of a character.

Saves: An attribute totaled up and added to a saving throw to resist or dodge an effect. There are four types of saves: Ego, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. The DM, Ability entry, or Spell entry will note which spell needs to be made.

Building a character

Inquire about starting HD

Starting HD should be selected based on the scope and general idea of the campaign. The DM will be who decides what the starting level is. HDs are divided out into competency groups.

Apprentice: HD 1 - 4: Apprentice are usually characters in training, typically at an academy, in a guild, or following someone who knows what they are doing. These levels should be reserved for campaigns that want to work through the training and foundational ages of a character. No story should be complex and should revolve around the characters learning the ropes.

Journeyman: HD 5 - 9: Journeyman are characters that have graduated or are licensed to operate on their own in whatever career or fields they have been studying in. Level 5 is the suggested starting HD, as it is when a person would be properly starting their career. Stories should be medium scoped, helping towns in trouble, rescuing a hostage, and other classical story lines.

Professional: HD 10 - 14: Professional characters are well established in their fields. While not typically known outside their circles, they do have reputations. Experts, politicians, and peers respect these people and are more willing to entrust difficult tasks. Professionals are often tasked with complicated issues that can range from: breaking apart crime syndicates, destroying important military targets, or felling very dangerous mythical creatures.

Elite: HD 15 - 19: Elite characters are regionally known and extremely competent in their respective careers. It isn't uncommon for Elite characters to be in charge of taking down regional threats within a kingdom or saving the kingdom itself. Another place Elite level characters are often found is in training apprentices.

Master: HD 20: Master characters are typically known around the world, though they might not be a household name. Often considered the best or one of the best in a given field, Masters are called upon for the most dangerous threats. Campaigns using Master level characters should be truly grand in scope.

Character Concept

The first thing to do in Defined is to build a character to one's preference, entirely. Think of things like, 'do I want to make a melee master? Or perhaps a wizard? Something in between? How about a sneaky healer?' There is no need to shoehorn a concept into some kind of pre-built class, though some suggestions of builds will be presented in other areas of the site. With this system a character of any type should be possible with the tools at hand. The Definition Master should always be willing to work with a player for specific design or desired traits of a character. To start an example character creation process will be given through this page.

Since it isn't always easy to come up with a character without seeing what is possible, looking through the pre-built progressions might spark some ideas. Pre-built progressions can be found here. While the possibilities of what can be mixed together are endless, this is a selection of builds that run along familiar lines, and a few unfamiliar character archetypes.

When we get an on-site character sheet I would suggest opening it here. Until then, there is a Defined Character Sheet available for free use on Roll20, which is a great resource.

Choose a Species

The first step in building a character is to choose what they are. Look through the species options, which is a non-exhaustive list of available species in defined, and pick one that is interesting. All species come with some bonuses, negatives, and one of three perks. They can be Mystic, Savant, or Versatile. These offer the following perks:

Mystic: The character will gain an extra ability at first level.
Savant: The character will gain a secondary definition at first level.
Versatile: The character will gain an extra feat at first level as well +1 base skill growth.

Whatever bonuses and penalties the species might have, should influence what kind of progression, magic, abilities, and career the character might have. Though, not all characters will choose a path best suited to their natural talents. As an example of how to synergistically pick a species and a progression. The species for a character is an elf. Elves have a +4 species bonus to their base Dexterity and a -2 species penalty to their base Constitution. This means they will be good at things that require dexterity. Bows, melee combat, reflex saves, and movement skills will be something elves have natural talent in. Maximum Hit Point, fortitude saves, and concentration will be tougher for this character. With that in mind it might be best to build them considering that they will be best as a second-line kind of character.

Pick a Progression Chart

Main Progression

Go through the list of progressions and find one that suits the character design in mind. In general, the more magic a character has, the less proficient in weaponry they are. There are 4 progressions that can be selected: Non-magic, Basic, Standard, and Advanced. Every progression has applicable attack curves, which in turn determine save, skills, and weapon proficiency.

Null: This is for characters who are magically mute, and instead rely on exceptional physical prowess to achieve their goals. Null characters can select medium or high attack curves and gain a lot of perks very quickly.

Basic: For characters that have a strong physical but have some magical skill, this is the progression. Basic characters can select medium or high attack curves, and gain a large amount of perks fairly quickly.

Standard: If a character is imagined as a hybrid caster and physical fighter this is likely the most applicable progression. The standard character can only select a medium attack curve and gain perks at an average rate.

Advanced: Characters that are meant to be casters first and foremost will use this, as they gain the most amount of spell access. An advanced character can only select the low attack curve and gain perks at the slowest rate.

Sub-Progression

Each progression also has three sub-progressions. These are divided into Combat Focus, Generalist, and Specialist. These change the type of perks that are gained at the designated levels. It also determines HP die modifier, and base skill point modifier.

Combat Focus: Combat Focus will be best suited to a character concept that is straight forward and does a small number of things very well. This is accomplished by the combat focus sub-progression offering more HP, and more feats. They do suffer a lack of skill points.

Generalist: Generalist is suited for a broader concept of a character. One that might excel in a moderate number of things. As they level they gain a mix of abilities and feats. A generalist sub-progression has average health and a moderate amount of extra skill points.

Specialist: Specialists often have a lot of abilities, and often have many ways of dealing with situations as a result. They get many abilities as they level. However, they do suffer from lower HP, but also have a large number of skills.

Saves

Be sure to select which saves are high and which saves are low as determined by the attack curve of the progression.

Universal Progression

In addition to the selected progression, all characters obtain feats, abilities, and attribute upgrades as they level. These are called the universal progression perks.

Fill everything in

The next steps are fairly straight forward. Fill in a character sheet with all the information for the respective HD. As a note, the progression charts are not cumulative, instead they show the bonuses as they would be at that HD. Visit the following pages to look for Abilities, Definitions, Feats, and Spells.

After filling in all the perks and basic numbers, we'll want to work on skills. A character's number of skills known and skill points are determined from sub-progression and attack curve. The maximum number of skill points that can be put into any one skill is always HD + 3, and half that for untrained skills (round down). If a skill has 6 or more points, it might apply a miscellaneous bonus in the form of a skill synergy

After getting the skills filled in, it's time to determine maximum HP. This is a mixture of several things. Each progression gives a bonus each HD, constitution also increases max HP per HD, and then there is an HP die that is rolled. Level 1 the roll is always maxed. Every level there after the HP dice is rolled, re-rolling any 1's and added to the total.

Combat

There is a section of this website dedicated to combat, seen here.