New Player Walkthrough

# How to Build a Character

So nothing here is meant to be mechanics, or required, or helpful once you know what your'e doing. If you have a friend who knows what they're doing, ask them instead if they have some time. that being said, this walkthrough will help you construct a character through the whole process:

Picking a class

Picking a species

Rolling ability scores

Finding Health HP, initiative

Allocating skill points

finding out hit and damage

Taking traits and feats

The first thing we are going to do is pick our class.

This informs a lot of the choices we’ll make later.

#### I want to use

A. **Lots of magic**

B. *Some magic*

C. No magic

A. **I want to get power from**

1. Science ------------------> Alchemist (Guide)
2. A deity --------------------> Cleric (Guide)
3. Nature --------------------> Druid (Guide)
4. Natural ability -----------> Sorcerer (Guide)
5. Study and practice ----> Wizard (Guide)

B. *I want to get power from*

1. Performance ----------------------> Bard (Guide)
2. Stolen Power ---------------------> Jinxer (Guide)
3. Devotion to a deity --------------> Paladin (Guide)
4. Mutations --------------------------> Shifter (Guide)
5. Pact with a powerful being ----> Warlock (Guide)

C.  I want to fight

1. Sneakily --------------------------------------> Brigand (Guide)
2. With the best armor and weapons -----> Enhancer (Guide)
3. To defend others ---------------------------> Guardian (Guide)
4. Using martial arts --------------------------> Monk (Guide)
5. Because it’s what I do best --------------> Soldier (Guide)
6. By harnessing anger ----------------------> Warrior (Guide)

Go ahead and pull up the guide page for the class you picked.

What ability scores does it need?

What playstyle does it encourage?

What role does it fill?

These guide pages are just suggestions however, and are in no way mandatory rules on how you *should* play, just a helpful hand in learning the ropes. Beginners and experienced players alike are encouraged to throw caution to the wind and ignore the advice contained in the guides if it suits their fancy.

If you don’t like the way it works, go ahead and take a look at another, once you’ve found one you’re happy with, it’s time to look at species.

The recommended species in this guide will help you make a good character easier, but are by no means necessary to have a fun or useful character. Once you have a class and species picked, lets get some stats

Wanderstruck uses 1d4 + 1d6 +1d8 (reroll one) to generate each ability score, but your GM might use another system, so check in with them first. You’ll want to generate 10 stats in this manner.

To assign these stats, it might be helpful to lay them out in descending order.

Example: 17, 16, 14, 14, 13, 12, 12, 10, 9, 8

From here, we can decide where we want to put our best stats first. Look at what your class needs, do they need Intellect for casting? Do they need Power for melee damage? Would this class gain benefit from being either small or large?

Let’s say for a soldier we decided to put stats like this

P: 17, F: 8, G:12, V:16, S:14, I:12, A:14, R:13, E:10, C:9

Once these stats are placed, we can add the species ability bonuses from the species chosen. Some species have ability bonuses that you can decide for yourself, like humans.

Let’s say this character was a human, and we added +2 to Power and Vitality. While we’re on ability scores, we can see by the character advancement table that characters gain a +1 bonus to one ability score at 1st level, so lets add that to Power. This brings their ability scores to

Power: 20, Finesse: 8, Grace:12, Vitality:18, Stature:14, Intellect:12, Acumen:14, Resolve:13, Ego:10, Charm:9

All done with ability scores! We can write these on the character sheet, and calculate the ability modifiers. This is found by subtracting 10 and dividing by 2 (rounding down)

(from here, when I use just the first letter, such as P for power, this refers to the Power modifier)

We can now take note of any other abilities of the species. Write down their species abilities and bonuses on your character sheet.

A character gains languages by their species, plus a number of bonus languages equal to their Intellect modifier at 1st level if their Intellect is 12 or higher.

Note that unlike most abilities, Move Speed uses the total Ability score instead of the modifier, so this character’s speed is 10 +12(Grace) +14(Stature) = 36. This is rounded down to 35ft during combat.

We can find health by adding the creature's Stature score + 2 per level. To a maximum of Stature score + Vitality score (min 1).

Their initiative bonus is equal to their Finesse modifier plus their Grace modifier.

It may come in handy to write down your encumbrance limits, found on the encumbrance table using your Power score.

It’s time to take a closer look at the class page.

First, let’s find HP. Roll the Hit die given by the class (d10 for soldiers) and add the character’s Vitality modifier and half their Stature modifier (rounding down). Though this may be negative, a character cannot gain fewer than 1 HP per level. As the character gains levels, they add this hit die and these ability modifiers each level. Changes to Vitality and Stature also impact a creature’s HP, for instance 2 V drain reduces a creature’s HP by 1 per level due to a reduced Vitality modifier.

Next, we can find skills. Skill points each level is given by class, but at 1st level we gain double this number. We can have a maximum of 2 +½ lvl ranks in any skill, which is a maximum of 2 ranks in any skill at first level. Putting a skill point into a class skill gives one skill rank, but non-class skills require two skill points to get one skill rank. It is more efficient to put skill points into class skills, but if you have plenty it’s fine to get non-class skills if they are important. Add the skill ranks to ability modifiers to find the bonus to these skills.

Next, let’s pick out some gear. Check the class page to see what they are proficient with. Use the table of armors to find a suitable set of armor or shield, if any, that you want to use.

We can use this to now calculate our ACs

AC = 16 + G + Armor + Shield - ½S + Deflection + Dodge

Touch AC = 16 + G - ½S + Deflection + Dodge

Flat Footed AC = 16 + Armor - ½S + Deflection

Flat Footed Touch AC = 16 -½S + Deflection

We can also pick out a weapon using the weapon table. Within the weapons you are proficient with, find a weapon that has a stature minimum (SM) below your stature score so you can wield it in one hand, or within 5 greater to wield it in two hands.

If using two weapons, they must be 5 below your stature score or lower.

To find our bonus to hit, use CB + P - ½S(min 0)

To find damage, use the weapon’s base damage + P(min 0) + ½S(min 0)

For a two-handed weapon, instead add 1.5xP(min 0) + S(min 0)

For an off-hand weapon, add ½ P(min 0)

Next, we can find Resistances. At first level good resistances gain a +1 bonus, bad resistances don’t get any bonus, which is easy to calculate. Check the character advancement table when leveling up to see when resistances gain a bonus.

At 1st level, every character gains a feat and a trait. What feat you take may depend on your class, though Tough and Skill Focus are good for any character. Look through traits to find one that seems fun and useful. Look at the character advancement table to find out when further traits and feats are gained.

Finally we can start looking at class features.

If your class can cast spells we can find the Spell DC by adding 16 + MB plus spell DC modifier, and spell focus by adding MB + Spell Focus modifier (the same ability score used to determine bonus spells each long rest). See the bonus spells table to see how many additional spells you gain per level. If your class casts spells spontaneously check the spells known table and pick out which spells you’d like to know. Prepared casters may need to write down spells in a book, so take note of which you will want to use. Make sure to read the section on spontaneous and prepared casting to understand how each system works.

Other class features are very class specific, make sure to read them carefully to see how you can best use them. Be sure to write down all your abilities to keep track of them. If your class features require making choices, check the class guide page to see what suits you best. One you’re done with class features, you’re all ready to go! Designing a character’s personality and character traits are much more freeform, and I’m in no position to tell you how to do it, so go have fun!