Character Creation Guide

This is a simple, helpful guide to provide information to those players who are just starting out and playing the game for the first time.

Step 0:  Get some Dice!
If you don't have physical dice, there is a helpful feature provided on this site that will act as your dice. It is known as the Dices Roll feature. You can find this helpful tool/feature in the More/Less Buttons section of your text box (where you post and type responses).

This button is right here

If you're not the kind of person who likes this Dice roller, feel free to use Wizards of the Coast's Dice Roller

Or, as many players have come to do over time, you can run out to your nearest hobby shop that sells board game tools and material and purchase a cheap set of dice to use. Or, if you don't have a local shop that sells these dice sets, you can purchase a set from d20PFSRD's Game Shop. You can also find them all over the internet on other gaming shops/sites , or you can simply order them off of Amazon or Ebay by searching for them.

Step 1: Get a Character Sheet.
Normally, this game requires a printed or digital character sheet. However, thanks to your kind and wonderful administrators, this has been provided in the form of a coded template that everyone who plays in a campaign on this site must follow. You can find this wonderful and useful tool here.

In order to create your own character sheet, you must copy and paste the codes provided on the template and create a new topic in the Character Creation section of the forum. Once you've done this, you can move on to the next step.

Step 2:  Determine Ability Scores.
Now that you've created your new topic and copied and pasted your blank character sheet template to this new topic, you can begin generating your character's ability scores. Abiltiy Scores are the determining factors of your character's strengths and weaknesses and are listed as Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Charisma (CHA) respectively.

These six scores are used to decide a wide variety of details and statistics in other areas of your character sheet and are essential to any character. Some class selections require you to have better than average scores for some of your abilities, so it is important to pay close attention to these scores.

Generating these scores are simple luck in most cases. To get these scores, you simply roll a d6 (six sided dice) four times and drop the lowest number. Make sure to re-roll ones and twos during this process! This is a repetitive process, but necessary.

This is a method we don't recommend, however as fellow players, we feel it is only fair to provide another option. You can also generate these scores manually via a calculator provided by Meet Jody.

Step 3: Choose a Race
This sounds simple enough, but there are as many races as there are people. Paizo, publishers of the original Dungeons and Dragons Pathfinder books and makers of the original game materials offers their original races which range from the core or basic races to advanced races. There are also races provided by third party publishers that have been adapted to work well with the game's mechanics.

These races have been set out in a helpful list located in our Guide to Choosing Races. There are also helpful guides to each race listed in the Guide to Choosing Races. Simply click on the name of each race to be taken to the corresponding guide.

Once you've decided on a race, apply the modifiers to your character's ability scores and any other racial traits. Each race also lists the languages a character of that race automatically knows, as well as bonus languages it could learn. A character knows a number of additional bonus languages equal to his or her Intelligence modifier.

Step 4: Choose a Class
Classes are just as important as your character's Race. Classes are basically what a character does in battle and is essentially their occupation/job. This means that they can be Spell Casters, Figthers, Rangers etc. Each class has specific abilities and skills that they can use and draw upon.

If this is a new character, he or she starts at 1st level in this chosen class. As the character gains experience points (XP) for defeating monsters, he goes up in level, granting him new powers and abilities.

If your character is a spell caster that prepares spells (such as a wizard) you will need to determine the spells your character starts with. There are lists provided for each class provided in a link in each respectable class guide.

Favored Class: Each character begins play with a single favored class of his choosing—typically, this is the same class as the one he chooses at 1st level. Whenever a character gains a level in his favored class, he receives either + 1 hit point or + 1 skill rank. The choice of favored class cannot be changed once the character is created, and the choice of gaining a hit point or a skill rank each time a character gains a level (including his first level) cannot be changed once made for a particular level. Prestige classes (see Prestige Classes) can never be a favored class.

Step 5: Allocate Skill Ranks
Determine the number of skill ranks your character gets. This is done by adding 2+ your Intelligence (INT) modifier (and any other bonuses, such as the bonus received by humans).


Then place these ranks to your desired skills, but remember that you cannot have more ranks than your level in any one skill (for a starting character, this is usually one).

Each level after, your character gains a number of skill ranks that depend on your class plus your Intelligence (INT) modifier. Investing a rank in a skill represents a measure of training in that skill.

Note: Humans gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional rank whenever they gain a level.

Step 6: Choose Feats
Now that you've chosen a race and a class and added your skill ranks, now you can choose how many feats your character receives. The number of feats you get to choose is based on your character's class and level. You may select them from those presented in  this list of Feats List.

• All characters begin with 1 feat.
  
• If your characters race is human you get 1 additional feat (for a total of 2).
  
• If your characters class is fighter you get another feat (total 3).
  

Step 7: Determine Starting Hit Points (HP)
A character starts with maximum hit points at 1st level (the maximum number on its Hit Die) or if its first Hit Die roll is for a character class level.

To determine a hit points for levels beyond 1st, roll the dice indicated by its Hit Dice. Creatures whose first Hit Die comes from an NPC class or from his race roll their first Hit Die normally.

You may refer to the list below to know your character's class hit dice:

Class	Hit Dice
Alchemist	d8
Barbarian	d12
Bard	d8
Cavalier	d10
Cleric	d8
Druid	d8
Fighter	d10
Gunslinger	d10
Inquisitor	d8
Magus	d8
Monk	d8
Ninja	d8
Oracle	d8
Paladin	d10
Ranger	d10
Rogue	d8
Samurai	d10
Sorcerer	d6
Summoner	d8
Witch	d6
Wizard	d6

Step 8: Get Equipped
Each new character begins the game with an amount of gold, based on his class, that can be spent on a wide range of equipment and gear, from chainmail armor to leather backpacks. This gear helps your character survive while adventuring. Usually you cannot use this starting money to buy magic items without the consent of your GM.

The armor or other protective devices you purchase may affect his starting Armor Class (AC), so once you have purchased armor or other protective devices you can determine your Armor Class (AC). 

Please look at the table below to determine your character's starting gold.

Class	Starting Wealth	Average
Alchemist	3d6 × 10 gp	70 gp
Barbarian	3d6 × 10 gp	70 gp
Bard	3d6 × 10 gp	70 gp
Cavalier	5d6 × 10 gp	175 gp
Cleric	4d6 × 10 gp	140 gp
Druid	2d6 × 10 gp	70 gp
Fighter	5d6 × 10 gp	175 gp
Gunslinger	5d6 × 10 gp	175 gp
Inquisitor	4d6 × 10 gp	140 gp
Magus	4d6 × 10 gp	140 gp
Monk	1d6 × 10 gp	35 gp
Ninja	4d6 × 10 gp	140 gp
Oracle	3d6 × 10 gp	105 gp
Paladin	5d6 × 10 gp	175 gp
Ranger	5d6 × 10 gp	175 gp
Rogue	4d6 × 10 gp	140 gp
Samurai	3d6 × 10 gp	105 gp
Sorcerer	2d6 × 10 gp	70 gp
Summoner	2d6 x 10 gp	70 gp
Witch	3d6 × 10 gp	105 gp
Wizard	2d6 × 10 gp	70 gp

Making a character above 1st level 
If you are creating a character or creature at a level other than 1st, you should consult your GM and the Wealth for Higher Level PC's table below to determine your starting gold.

PC Level	Wealth
2	1,000 gp
3	3,000 gp
4	6,000 gp
5	10,500 gp
6	16,000 gp
7	23,500 gp
8	33,000 gp
9	46,000 gp
10	62,000 gp
11	82,000 gp
12	108,000 gp
13	140,000 gp
14	185,000 gp
15	240,000 gp
16	315,000 gp
17	410,000 gp
18	530,000 gp
19	685,000 gp
20	880,000 gp

Step 9: Determine Saving Throws, Initiative, and Attack Values.
Determine all of the character's other mechanical details, such as his or her saving throws, initiative modifier, and attack values. All of these numbers are determined by the decisions made in previous steps, usually determined by your class choice.

Step 10: Description & Personality
Choose or make up a name for your character (or generate one randomly!), determine his or her age, alignment, and physical appearance (such as height, weight, eye and hair color etc). It is helpful to think of a few unique personality traits as well, to help you play the character during the game.

Step 11: Other (Starting Spells)
If your character is a wizard (or any class that uses spellbooks) then you need to pick spells. A wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells (except those from his prohibited schools, if any; see Arcane Schools) plus three 1st-level wizard spells of his choice. The wizard also selects a number of additional 1st-level wizard spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the spellbook. At each new wizard level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new wizard level) for his spellbook. At any time, a wizard can also add spells found in other wizards' spellbooks to his own.