Sunday Stats | Class

[wynn]

SUNDAY STATS || CLASSES & SAVING THROWS  

So far, you should have established a set of ability scores for your character, and figured out what the accompanying modifier is to go with each.

These give a very simple way to modify d20 rolls to reflect your character's natural strength, dexterity, constitution, wisdom, intellect, and charisma, but what about other factors? Training they might have, special abilities, magic spells? In order to further specialize your rolls to more accurately reflect what your character can do, they will have to pick a class to take levels in.

If you've played video game RPGs, you're probably familiar with the idea. A class represents a defining aspect of your character. It serves as a framework to build upon as your hero improves and takes levels in that class, and can be stacked with other classes as well, ones that explore a different aspect of your characters' unique personality, skills and traits. Classes aren't meant to be rigid or confining. They aren't restrictive: rather they are defining. When you choose a class for your character, you're laying the foundation of a concept that will grow and expand as you play. How you develop your character remains entirely up to you. When selecting a starting class, you're looking to find what fits with the most basic defining trait of your character.

Keeping track of your class information will be a lot easier if you use a character sheet. Luckily, there are nice free downloadable ones here. I personally recommend using the "Urban Arcana" character sheet, as that is the setting in which Knights of Legend takes place.

So far, all you should have on your sheet would be your character's ability scores and mods. Go ahead and fill those in. I'll wait right here. You can also fill in the Character Name, Player, Species, Age, Gender, Height, Weight, Eyes, Hair and Skin fields if that floats your boat.

You should end up with something like this. [Example NPC sheet for Gar] Ignore all those other fields for a second. We'll get there.

STEP ONE: CHOOSE A CLASS

At level one, you have two choices about where to get your base class from. Either D20 Modern, which offers 6 starting classes, or Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which offers 11. I highly recommend using the D20 Modern classes if you are unfamiliar with the D&D system, as they fit more with the modern elements of storytelling, and are the classes meant to be used in an Urban Arcana setting. However, if you have a very specific idea for your character that seems to fit better with a D&D class, that's ok too, especially if your character originally came from the Shadow World.

The 6 basic character classes in d20 Modern are:

1. The Strong Hero: Powerful and good at combat, the strong hero typically relies on a high strength score.
2. The Fast Hero: Quick and nimble, the fast hero typically relies on a high dexterity score.
3. The Tough Hero: Able to shrug off the most damage, the tough hero typically relies on a high constitution score.
4. The Smart Hero: Brilliant and skillful, the smart hero typically relies on a high intelligence score.
5. The Dedicated Hero: Strong willed and alert, the dedicated hero typically relies on a high wisdom score.
6. The Charismatic Hero: As charming smooth talkers, charismatic heroes typically rely on high charisma scores.

The 11 basic character classes in D&D are:

1. The Barbarian: The barbarian is seen as the archetypal warrior who uses brute strength and raw fury to excel in combat.
2. The Bard: The bard is versatile, capable of combat and of arcane magic. Bards use their artistic talents (musical, generally) to induce magical effects.
3. The Cleric: Clerics are powerful healers due to the large number of healing and curative magics available to them. With divinely-granted abilities over life or death, they are also able to repel or control undead creatures.
4. The Druid: Druids wield nature-themed magic from being at one with nature, or from one of several patron gods of the wild. Druids have a unique ability that allows them to change into various animal forms, and various other qualities that assist them in natural settings.
5. The Fighter: A fighter is a versatile, weapons-oriented warrior who fights using skill, strategy and tactics.
6. The Monk: A D&D monk is a fantasy martial artist, specializing in unarmed combat.
7. The Paladin: The paladin is a holy knight, crusading in the name of good and order, and is a divine spellcaster.
8. The Ranger: They are protectors of nature, skilled woodsmen, and often live reclusive lives as hermits.
9. The Rogue: A rogue is a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks. The rogue is stealthy and dexterous.
10. The Sorcerer: A sorcerer is weak in melee combat, but a master of arcane magic, the most generally powerful form of D&D magic. Sorcerers' magical ability is innate rather than studied.
11. The Wizard: A wizard studies and uses arcane magic, and is considered less effective in melee combat than other classes.

STEP TWO: TABLE INFO

Once you've selected a class, you'll want to click on the link above to view the table. Ignore any stuff on that page about alignment, hit die, skills, action points or feats for now. We're just looking at the table.

Looking across the first row (1st class level), find the values given for Base Attack Bonus, Fort Save, Ref Save, Will Save, and (if you are using a D20 Modern class) Defense Bonus and Reputation Bonus. Now go ahead and fill those numbers in on your character sheet in the places I've highlighted here. You can also fill in your class name and level at the top.

STEP THREE: ADD YO' MODIFIERS

After you have those filled in, we can add in our ability modifiers (the ones in the top left, next to your ability scores, that we figured out last week), into the equations for Defense, Initiative, Fort, Ref, Will, and Melee/Ranged attacks.

For Defense, you'll put whatever your Def Modifier is (for example, Gar has a 17 Def, with a +3 modifier, so I put a +3 in that box). Def mod also goes in the init, Reflex and Ranged sections under ability mod. Fort save adds your Con mod, Will save adds your Wis mod, and melee attacks add your Str.

While you're down in the melee/ranged area, drop whatever value you plugged into the "Base Attack Bonus" box (the number you got off the table) into the appropriate box on both of these lines. It's way less confusing to look at it than to read what I just said probably so here is step two.

STEP FOUR: BASIC ARITHMETIC

Ok, now that we've got that all settled, you can add the numbers across in the Defense field (notice that in the defense line, it's whatever numbers you put in the boxes + 10), in the three Saving Throw fields, in the Initiative box, annnd down in your Melee & Ranged attacks. It should look like this. MATH \o/

STEP FIVE: HIT POINTS

BUT WAIT, you might say, where did you get that hit point number that you put in the last one? Well, go back to the page above where your good old class table is and find the part that says "Hit Die". It'll be a number such a 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, etc. This means every level you go up in that class, you get to roll that type of die and add those hit points to your current total. But wait! There's more. Hope you didn't use Constitution as a dump stat, b/c you also get to add your Constitution modifier to the number you roll for hit points every time you level too.

Sweet. B)

But at level one, you don't even have to roll. How's that for service. You automatically get the maximum number of points that that die could offer. So, Gar, for example, as a smart hero has a d6 hit die, and a Con mod of +2. So 6 + 2 = 8, which is her starting hit points. Go ahead and put whatever number you get into the Hit Points box.

STEP SIX: BE LEFT WITH MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS / Learn something about Saving Throws, I guess.

BUT ARDEN WHAT ARE ALL THESE NUMBERS THAT I JUST FIGURED OUT AND WHAT DO THEY DO BLARGO BLARGH BLARGH.

Well, hit points are pretty self explanatory, and you won't need to worry about Melee and Ranged Attacks or Initiative or Defense until we talk about combat in one of these upcoming mini lessons. So fine, I will throw you a bone and teach you what Saving Throws are.

As a superswank adventurer, you have more to worry about than straightforward combat attacks. Sometimes you might walk into a dangerous trap or end up facing down dragon breath or have to try to resist someone charming your pants off literally or wind up in a grenade blast zone, etc. etc. etc. Generally, in these weird ass circumstances, you get a saving throw, to try and reduce or utterly avoid the negative effects of whatever is happening. Just like usual, a saving throw is based on a d20 roll plus a bonus. That bonus is the number we just figured out and put on your character sheet, aka your base save bonus (from the table) + relevant ability modifier.

There are 3 different types of saving throws:

Fortitude Saves: These saves measure your ability to stand up to massive physical punishment, or attacks against your vitality and health such as poison or paralysis. You might make a Fort save to avoid passing out when having to run or walk or climb super long distances on little to no food. You might need to make a Fort save to stay awake if your character is running on no sleep, or to hold their breath underwater for a certain time. Your Con mod is added to your Fort saves.

Reflex Saves: These saves test your ability to dodge massive attacks such as explosions or car wrecks, or just your general reflexes (like if someone throws something at you and says "Think fast!") It might involve catching something before it hits the ground, or stopping yourself from running off a cliff face that rears up in front of you. Your Dex mod is added to your Reflex saves.

Will Saves: These saves reflect your resistance to mental influence and domination as well as to many magical effects. It's also used in opposition to skill checks made by people attempting to seduce your character (if your character... makes an effort to resist, at least) or coerce them into agreeing with them / doing shit for them. In other words, it represents your Will power, which covers a lot of shit. B| Your Wis mod is added to your Will saves.
And that is all! Questions, comments, concerns, inability to figure out what class to use, let me know here or elsewhere and I will halp you. Halp you so much.

Next time, we'll talk about those skill point things. B)

Comments

[king]

okay so character creation I am cool with, but what are my limits on building to a predefined (ie canon) character? like, Arthur's been weapons training literally his whole life, how can I reflect that? should I just start at level one, guesstimate a higher level, or build up until I feel the stats are appropriate?

also sob can i dual-class? I'd like to take some initial levels in Ranger to reflect his hunting/tracking/patrolling skillset but only maybe 3 so as to avoid the Ranger spells kicking in, and then switch to Fighter.

[technophobic]

I talked to Megan about this briefly too, I think, but I'm okay with canon people being up to level 4 or 5 at most when they start out, and that can, of course, include multi-classing. Most of my breakdowns here will be just for the people who have no idea how to do anything d20 so for those of you who are familiar with the systems, I trust you guys! If you end up using the AC system (which is optional), I keep track of xp per character there, so you could use that for future leveling from 5 upwards.

For characters who have a lot of canon powers that won't be reflected until they've leveled down the line, I am suggesting that people have the memories of those abilities be fuzzy at first until they actually get the experience of using them again and remember what / how to do it, which gives some stat leeway for 'growth'. Just a suggestion though, do whatever works best for you!

[king]

all of that sounds cool with me! yay character sheet!!