'Poly D&D- Coordination Thread.

[Jon Miller]

usual skills are

alchemy, animal empathy, appraise, balnce, bluff, climb, concetrate, craft, decipher script, diplomacy, disable device, disguise, escapeartist, forgery, gather information, handle animal, heal, hide, innuendo, intimidate, intuit direction, jump, knowledge (arcana), knowledge (religion), Knowledge (anture), knowledge (all skills), listen, move silently, open lock, perform, pick pocket, profession, read lips, ride, scry, search, sense motive, speak language, spellcraft, spot, swim, tumble, use magic device, use rope, wilderness lore

Jon Miller

[Makeo]

and you get to specialize in some of them?

[Makeo]

thanks for sending the files jon. now how do i combine and decode them.

[Victor Galis]

I'll try to come with some sort of character creation tutorial for those who are new, but at the moment I'm being sent out on all sort of errands, so it looks like today might not be a good day.

As far as starting gold: it will be max for your class.
As far as hitpoints go: You will get maximum at first and second level, then 3/4ths (round down) every level after that. (Minor enemy hitpoints will probably actually be rolled to make them seem somewhat individual. Not sure what I'm doing with the named badguys yet.)

[Solver]

Makeo, in most email clients, you need to select the messages and somewhere seek the Combine and Decode command.

Victor, some tips on creating a character would indeed be good - I feel I'm gonna make a few stupid things .

[Hot Mustard]

Originally posted by Makeo
if possible. sorry for bugging you. could one of you guys send the pdf's to gmdoz@supanet.com please. and i'll try and decode it this time.

Could you guys at least keep this stuff to PMs? WotC would not approve, and we don't want to get 'Poly in trouble...

[Makeo]

who is wotc?

[Solver]

Probably the guys who have copyrighted the D&D books and stuff... I heard somewhere that it's actually copyrighted content.

[Kramerman]

wotc= Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns most popular d20 system role playing games, like Star Wars (which is a lot of fun) and Modern and stuff like that.

[FrustratedPoet]

Yes, Wizards Of The Coast own the copyrights to D&D (they own Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon trading cards too).

[Victor Galis]

Hmm... this is falling off the first page... must start writing character creation tutorial quick.

[Jon Miller]

yah..

what setting are you using and the like??

I have the guides for almost all the different classes (fighter, barbarrian, monk, ranger, druid, cleric, (maybe wizard, bard, and sorcerer)) as well as a hero builder pdf (published by WOTC)

(the guides give more prestige classes, feats, and the like)

Jon Miller

[SlowwHand]

Maybe guides and such would be available through a file share program.

[Jon Miller]

(they are)

Jon Miller

[Victor Galis]

I tried to write the following introduction to character creation, but I realized it was taking very long, and in some sections really just needed some copying and pasting from the SRD (System Resource Document) which Snowfire linked to earlier.

Victor’s simplified guide to character creation:

This will try to break down character creation into a couple easy steps. Though I will list these in a specific order, only some of the steps depend on previous steps; however, choices made at each step along the way will influence those made down the line. If at any point you are unhappy, it is very easy to go back and make different choices.

One side note before we start: most things in AD&D that involve success or failure consist of rolling a 20-sided die. A bonus of +1 to a skill, your attacks, whatever represents a 5% greater chance of success. (This note inserted here because some races provide minor bonuses to certain skills.)

Step 1: Choose a race.

(See description of races)

Step 2: Ability scores.

In AD&D there are 6 abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma), whose values for a normal human range from 3 to 18, with 10 or 11 describing the average human. Other races will have slightly different scores.

The 3 physical attributes:

Strength: This represents how strong your character is. A high strength leads to a greater likelihood to hit with a melee weapon, higher damage, and a greater carrying capacity.
Dexterity: This represents both how quick and how agile your character is. A high dexterity allows a character to react more quickly, makes him harder to hit, and makes it easier for him to hit with ranged weapons.
Constitution: This represents the hardiness of a character. Where strength represents raw power, constitution represents endurance. A higher constitution allows a character to take more hits and resists exhaustion, disease, poisons, etc. better.

The 3 mental attributes:

Intelligence: This represents a character’s thinking capacity. A high intelligence allows a character to learn more skills and is crucial to any wizard.
Wisdom: Wisdom represents a more intuitive understanding of the world. A high wisdom is critical to any divine spellcaster.
Charisma: Charisma is sheer force of personality. Though it is often mistaken physical appearance, charisma is really more the ability to interact with others, to persuade or intimidate. A high charisma is crucial to any sorcerer or paladin.

What does this mean? Depending on your score in each of these attributes, you gain a bonus to all skills related to that attribute as well as the other things listed:

Attribute: Bonus:
8-9 -1
10-11 0
12-13 +1
14-15 +2
16-17 +3
18-19 +4
x +(attribute - 10) / 2 (round down)

So for instance, having a 12 strength adds 1 to all of your attack rolls (5% more likely to hit). The mental attributes generally affect a wide variety of skills associated with them (more on this later), but tend to play a less prominent role in combat situations. Strength and constitution have very few skills associated with them, while dexterity is useful for a wide range of things from sneaking around to picking locks to picking pockets.

How you pick your skills: In order to have some relative equality among all characters, we will be using a system called point-buy, where you get a certain number of points (32 is my current suggestion) to spend on your attributes.

Attribute value: Cost:
8 0
9 1
10 2
11 3
12 4
13 5
14 6
15 8
16 10
17 13
18 16

Attributes below 8 or above 18 may not be purchased, though racial modifiers are applied after the attribute is bought, so an elf could start the game with a dexterity of 20 or a constitution of 6.

Step 3: Chose a class

(See description of classes)

Each class has several attributes.
Hit die: These range from d4 to d12, and represent how many hit points you have. At first level, you will be granted the maximum number of hit points possible (i.e. one for every side of the hit die) plus one for every point of constitution bonus you have. For instance, a barbarian (d12 hit die) with a constitution of 16 (+3 bonus) would start out with 15 hit points.
Base attack bonus: This represents how much being a member of your class taught you about fighting. This bonus is applied directly to your attack roll. Fighters for instance gain +1 for every level, whereas wizards gain +1 for every two levels (round down).

Base saves: This is a direct bonus to saving throws (rolls made to avoid something bad). There are three types of saving throws (or saves for short):
Fortitude: Attempt to resist some sort of physical effect. Example: attempt to ignore the effects of a poison, or to hold one’s breath for a long time under water.
Reflex: Attempt to dodge something. Example: you set off a trap which shoots a bolt of electricity at you and you try to react quickly enough to get out of the way.
Will: Attempt to resist mental effects. Example: someone casts a spell at you that attempts to make you afraid and you want to resist the effect.

Skill points: Each class grants a certain number of skill points at each level. For instance, fighters get 2, while rogues get 8. Humans gain an additional skill point at each level and each point of intelligence bonus also grants an additional skill point.

Class skills: This is the list of skills that this class may purchase at a rate of one rank per skill point. Skills that are not class skills for you are called cross-class and cost 2 points per rank. (i.e. it’s harder for a cleric to learn to be sneaky than for a rogue).

Additional abilities: Each class grants some other abilities that don’t fall into this category. For instance, being a wizard allows you to cast spells, while being a barbarian lets you enter a rage that increases your strength.

Step 4: Chose skills

At first level you get 4 times the number of skill points you normally get. You may buy up to 4 ranks of any skill that is a class skill for your class, or 2 in any skill that is cross-class. In general the number of ranks you can have in a skill is 3+character level.

(See description of skills)

Step 5: Chose feats

Every character gains a free feat at first level. Humans and fighters get an extra feat at first level (so human fighters get 3 total). Feats are special abilities that don’t require you to be of a particular class, but some may have prerequisites. You will gain additional feats every three levels. (So again at 3rd, 6th, 9th, etc.)

(See description of feats)

Step 6: Buy equipment

In this campaign, you will start with the maximum possible starting gold for your class (listed in the description of your class). You will generally need to buy a weapon and some armor as well as some miscellaneous gear.

(See equipment description)

I think this is it, but I may have missed something.