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SirSpamHammer wrote:Do you go through it step by step from page 15 or do you go straight to page 290 where they have all the dice and information for player races. I kind of think you need to know all the stuff first.

Greetings and Salutations. I love Palladium, but their steps for Character Creation just don't work. Step 1 is rolling Attributes, but Step 4 is selecting a Race. You can't realistically do 1 until after you've done 4 (or at least half of 4). If you play a straight human (and ignore the selecting a race of Step 4), you can clumsily follow the steps as written. These are the steps I'd recommend for Character Creation.

Step 1: Select a Race. This starts on Page 288 of the PF2 main book. Some of the other books have additional races as well.

Step 2: Roll Attributes. The dice you roll is determined by the race you've selected. There are a variety of house rules to further customize the rolls, but that could be an entirely separate thread (or expansion after answering the original question). Also, for now, it's probably best to use the intended system before deciding on house rules. Know the system so you understand what you're customizing.

Step 3: Select an O.C.C. This starts on page 62, but extends far beyond that. Which O.C.C. are still available will be partially dependent on the attributes you've rolled (some O.C.C. have attribute requirements). Note: After this the steps become more fluid.

Step 4: Select starting skills (this can be viewed as part of Step 3), including Related and Secondary skills.

Step 5: Determine Hit Points & S.D.C., as detailed on page 18. Your starting skills should have finalized your P.E. attribute, which is useful for determining your Hit Points. Also, having selected an O.C.C., you know which category you're in for determining starting S.D.C. (skills you selected in Step 4 may also add to this).

Step 6: Determine Psionics randomly, found on page 20. This step should be considered optional. If your race (Step 1) allows psionics, and you didn't select a Psychic O.C.C. (such as Mind Mage), and you're interested in the character having psionics, use this step. Otherwise, skip and proceed.

Step 7: Determine Equipment and Money (this can be viewed as part of Step 3). I left this towards the end as after you know everything your character can do (skills and possible psionics), you can better select equipment to compliment your abilities.

Step 8: Rounding out one's character, primarily selecting Alignment on page 23 (this doesn't have much benefit in game mechanics, but can help provide guidelines for the character's personality), and Character Background (page 32) which should be viewed as optional but can help flesh a character out

Step 9: Play and earn experience points. Characters start at level 1 with 0 experience points (unless the Game Master deems otherwise). Through their actions during game, the character will gain experience points and (eventually) levels. New levels can provide new abilities, new skills, additional Hit Points, and advance all the skills you already know (including Hand to Hand and Weapon Proficiencies (which make the character deadlier in combat).

That should cover the steps of Character Creation (in an order that feels more logical, to me at least). Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.

The Beast wrote:

Prysus wrote:

SirSpamHammer wrote:Do you go through it step by step from page 15 or do you go straight to page 290 where they have all the dice and information for player races. I kind of think you need to know all the stuff first.

Greetings and Salutations. I love Palladium, but their steps for Character Creation just don't work. Step 1 is rolling Attributes, but Step 4 is selecting a Race. You can't realistically do 1 until after you've done 4 (or at least half of 4).

But you can't always do Step 4 without doing Step 3 first, because some OCCs have racial restrictions. But you can't do Step 3 until you do Step 1 due to attribute requirements...

Greetings and Salutations. First, your statement doesn't make sense. If you mean (a) using the book Step 4 (Select an O.C.C. and Race) can't be done before book Step 3 (determining psionics), you're wrong. If you mean (b) using the steps I set out you can't do Step 4 (selecting skills) before my Step 3 (selecting an O.C.C.), you're right that you can't do Step 4 first ... which is why I have Step 3 first and I'm not sure what you're trying to argue a counter-point.

Though I suspect you mean (c), that you can't "always" select a race before selecting an O.C.C., which is false. You can't always select any O.C.C. after you select a race, but that is also true if you roll attributes first. However, you can ALWAYS select a race before selecting an O.C.C. Doing so may simply limit your O.C.C. options. Also, no main book O.C.C. has a racial requirement. A far more common situation is that certain races can NOT select certain O.C.C., which makes selecting race first far more important. Dwarves, Gnomes, Troglodytes, Kobolds, Goblins, Hob-Goblins, Orcs, and Trolls all have limitations, which is over half of the main book races.

In the end though, if you pick a race and then roll your attributes, nothing will stop you from selecting an O.C.C. as long as you meet the requirements (ergo, this method works). On the other hand, if you select an O.C.C. first, there are a variety of things that can happen that will make your race based attributes invalid and you'd need to start over. The method I listed will result in a book legal character every time, while the other way will not.

What you're describing is having a character concept in mind, and then trying to reverse engineer that character. There's nothing wrong with that, and a lot of us do it. However, there's a reason it's reverse engineering. Farewell and safe journeys.