Difference between revisions of "Character Advancement"

Revision as of 11:02, 17 February 2011

First Level

First level characters start out with a given amount of Upgrade Points that they can spend on Feats, Skills, and Combat Ability.

Abilities

As Novices, 1st level characters select one Ability to be their Primary Ability, allowing them access to the ability's Primary Features.

Attributes

Many Attributes can only be gained at first level. Gaining attributes after character creation requires both your GM's permission and an in-game reason.

Saves

There are four Saves: Fortitude, Reflex, Will, and *XXXX*. Each are tied to two Abilities. If an attached Ability has been declared a Primary Ability by the character, that Save is a "Fair Save," and uses the bonus found in the "Numbers By Level" table, above. If the Save has two Primary Abilities attached to it, it is a "Good Save." Finally, if the save has no primary abilities attached to it, the save is a "Poor Save."

Appearance, Personality and Backstory

This is also the time to decide what your character looks like, how they interact with the world, and their personal history, as well as simple details such as name, height, Age, and so on.

Leveling Up

Characters level up when the GM decides that they have encountered and overcome enough obstacles to have significantly improved their skills. In order to level up, characters must spend a week in a relatively stress-free environment. During this time, the characters are recovering from their activities, practicing and experimenting with skills, talking to masters and trainers, and researching new information.

Abilities

Every level, a character may improve two Ability Scores by one point.

At 6th and 16th level, characters gain an additional 3 points to spend on improving Ability Scores. Additionally, characters may select an additional Primary Ability, for a total of three Primary Abilities at 16th level.

Upgrade Points

Every time characters level up, they gain 20 General Upgrade Points that they can spend on anything. Additionally, they gain Skill Upgrade Points equal to their Intellect that they can spend exclusively on Skills.

Upgrade Costs

• Combat Ability: 1 additional point of CA for every 8 UP
• Skills: 1 UP to increase the Family Modifier of a skill by 1, 1 UP to increase a specialization modifier by 2, or 4 + (skill's current Tier x2) UP to advance to the next tier of a tiered skill.
• Feats: The UP cost of feats varies, but they generally cost between 4 and 6 UP.
• Branches of Magic: 6 UP to advance one tier in a branch of magic. You cannot have more tiers in a branch of magic than you have levels.

Average Citizens

While the players will undoubtably make use of all of their UP, the general populace is not constantly training. Except for the very elite, the experts and masters, most NPCs have not used all of their UP, leaving many unspent when they level up.

The normal citizen is very rarely above 4th level, and even that is somewhat exceptional.