Making characters

Obviously the game has to start somewhere, and this is the most obvious starting point. Making a character. So how exactly does that work? Let's go through step by step

The categories are Body, Mind, and Spirit. The substats for each are Strength and Speed, Intelligence and Instinct, Discipline and Tenacity. The categories are equivalent to the highest matching number of their substats. For instance, if you have a Strength of 5, and a speed of 4, your body is equivalent to 4. Body could not increase until Speed it brought up. For any points put into a category, the substats both increase by 1. If something caused your body category to increase, your strength and speed increase.
The stats are:

**BODY:** Is a measure of the condition of your characters physical aptitude. Body breaks down into:
Strength: A measure of your characters physical power. It decides melee damage, and how much influence you have over the outside world.
Speed: Is a measure of your characters over all physical coordination, it determines your Reaction defense

**MIND:** is a measure of your characters mental prowess and problem solving. It breaks down into...
Intelligence: Is a measure of your characters....well, intelligence. It's used to measure how smart you are.
Instinct: Is a measure of your characters gut re-action and split second decision making when serious thought can't be done. it determines your Repulse defense.

**SPIRIT:** Is a measure of your characters abilities beyond the realm of the physical or mental. It breaks down into...
Discipline: Is a measure of your characters skill with his chosen fighting style.
Tenacity: Is a measure of your characters will power and sheer ability to resist the world at large. It determines your Resolve defense, and Saves.

Your next step will be to choose your characters race. This is a large decision, as it effects a vast majority of what your character can and can not gain access too. While the basic classes have no restrictions on what Races may take them; Some of the the Paths, Advanced paths, and Epic destinies do. Before you choose, ask your games Guardian if any of the races are restricted, or simply wouldn't work in his campaign.

Once you've chosen your race, add your racial bonuses to your stats and move onto step 3.

The Z-Defender is a tank type character, and frontline fighter. He has the highest hitpoints and features that focus on defending allies. Choose a defender if you want to: be the point man, physically resilient, essential. DO NOT choose a defender if you want to: Not be a team player, ignore your allies problems, want to deal a lot of damage.

The Z-Berserker is a power house type character, and front line fighter. though they're far more offensive focused than the Defender. Choose a Berserker if you want to: Be a melee monster, Make your enemies cry, probably be the reason your leader is out of healing. DO NOT choose a berserker if you want to: Worry about enemies attacking you, play tactically, save all of your resources until later.

The Z-Blaster is a heavy artillery type character focused on ki, making him a long range fighter. The vast majority of their powers are focused on long range attacks and area of effect devastation. Choose a blaster if you want to: Bring the thunder, see what it's like to be a living howitzer, do your best to avoid melee combat. DO NOT choose a blaster if you want to: Tank, Punch people, stand in one place when danger comes your way.

The Z-Striker is an all around type character, equally good with both Ki and Melee, best used as a mid to close range fighter. They're a tactically inclined class that can deal great damage when played well, but don't have the hit points to survive too many player mistakes. Choose a Striker if you want to: Play tactically, fill a lot of roles at once, have decent utility without being support. DO NOT Choose a striker if you want to: Spam basic attacks the entire battle, cry about low rolls, study a target and then do nothing to him the entire battle.

The Z-Shadow is a stealthy class that prefer melee to ki. They're best played as a re-actionary character who adapts to his situation on the fly. They're able to inflict sneak attacks when flanking with allies, making them a good source of damage, but they don't have the hit points to survive one on one fights. Play a Shadow if you want to: Be stealthy as fuck, Surprise people in the dark and then punch them, Move around the battlefield like a bat out of hell, taking advantage of allied positioning. DO NOT choose a shadow if you want to: Focus on one opponent the entire battle, cowboy up, never use sneak attack.

The Z-Leader is the groups leader, ensuring his teams success through shows of spirit, determination, and the healing arts. They prefer melee to ki, but can be played as either a mid range fighter or a close range fighter. This is the only class that has healing powers. Choose a Leader if you want to: Support the fuck out of your team, make sure your allies don't die, generally be the boss man. DO NOT choose a leader if you want to: Ignore your allies problems, deal a lot of damage, fight saga villains one on one.

The Z-Elementalist is another artillery type character. Wielding the powers of the natural world in place of their own ki. The elementalist prefers ki to melee, but can be played as a close range fighter with mild success. Their powers often tend to be uncontrollable due to not being their own, making many of their powers dangerous to use around allies. Choose an elementalist if you want to: Constantly move to avoid blasting your allies, Have truly insane crits, generally be different. DO NOT choose an elementalist if you want to: Ignore allied positioning, Get along with your team, not set the world on fire.

The Z-Mentalist is a crowd controlling character that uses psychic power to fuel his abilities. The Mentalist prefers ki to melee, but his psychic powers function off of his intelligence instead of his physicality or spirit. Care should be taken, however, as the mentalist is one of the frailest classes. Choose a mentalist if you want to: Mind fuck the opponent, lock them down, be a smarmy fuck. DO NOT choose a mentalist if you want to: Win fights solo, play like you're a tank, Set off huge, party devastating, attacks that inevitably get added to this game as ultimates to forever commemorate your childishness.
**Variants: An important note** - When you choose to take a variant of a class, you are locked into that variant. You may not take levels of a different variant, or attacks from a different variant.

Hitpoints: Are a combination of body and a number earned at every level. Your class will tell you what that number is.

Surge amount: The surge amount is what you heal whenever you use a healing surge. For all characters, except saiyans, and potentially half saiyans, this amount is equal to 1/4th of your hitpoints. For Saiyans and Half Saiyans who took the ability from the saiyan race, this amount is equal to 1/4th your hit points + body.

Surges Per day: This is how many times in a 24 hour period you may spend healing surges. Lost healing surges are regained after 8 hours of rest, unless you're a namekian who get them back after 4 hours of rest. Some classes also have the ability to regenerate healing surges in mid combat.

Defenses: Defenses are an important factor of combat, as they decide what attacks do and do not hit you. Each classes gives you defense bonuses, but the formula for finding out your defenses is...
10 + Relevant stat + Class bonus + feat bonus + path bonus

Step 5: Choosing a feat

Now you need to choose your starting feat. Remember you only get 1 feat to start with, unless you're playing a human, in which case you have two to start with. Feats are done in trees, when you choose a tree you are locked into that tree until you complete it, being unable to take feats from another tree until you finish the one you've begun (ignoring your racial tree or situational feats).

Step 6: Choosing starting powers

Each class has it's own list of powers they use during combat, and while it would be nice, you can't learn every power from your class, there simply isn't enough time or space. So what do you get?

At level 1 you get:

2 At-Will powers (humans get 3): At-will powers are just that, abilities you can use at any time. They tend to do the least amount of damage among powers.

1 Encounter power: Encounter powers can only be used once per battle, refreshing everytime a new fight starts. These are the third most damaging kind of powers.

1 Daily power: Daily powers can only be used once per day, refreshing after 8 hours of rest (4 if you're a namekian). They are the second most powerful kind of skill and tend to carry a miss effect.

Please note the maximum amount of powers one can have in a single category is 5 without any feats or features that increase it. At every level, you may choose to replace a power you know with another of that category of your level or lower from any available to you from class / path / advanced path / or Epic destiny.

Step 7: Items

Each character begins play with a martial arts uniform (or other clothing), and 1,000 Zenni. The money may be spent on any item you can afford.

Wielding a weapon: Wielding a weapon can be a great way to make up for a lack of decent damage. But beware, it carries a downside as well. While wielding a one handed weapon, melee attacks with the unarmed keyword have a -4 penalty to their attack roll. When wielding a 2 handed weapon, attacks with the unarmed keyword can not be used at all.

Wearing armor: Wearing armor imparts both "DR" and a "Penalty". DR stands for Damage resistance, it's an amount of damage ignored everytime you're hit by an attack. The penalty is a negative to move speed and momentum generation. Armor also works in a Tiered system, with Tier 4 being the strongest armors. If your character is not proficient with an armor, he can not wear it.