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Character Creation Basics
There are many things that make your character unique. Once you’ve figured out a character’s personality, backstory, race, and general “theme”, it’s time to give them attributes and abilities to match. Fresh characters begin at level 1 and slowly increase their capacity over time. Characters stop leveling up at level 10.
The Leveling Up page has a list of the perks that characters receive upon leveling up. This page describes each perk in detail, and how they affect gameplay.
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For quick reference, these mechanics are important for character creation:
Attributes
Overview
Six Attributes provide a quick description of your character’s physical and mental characteristics. Are you muscle-bound and insightful? Brilliant and charming? Nimble and hardy? Your Attributes define these qualities — your strengths as well as your weaknesses.
You receive points to allocate in any way you want to your main Attributes. The number of points you can allocate are based on your level. At level 1, you begin with 10 points, and you gain new points every level. These points can be allocated however you like.
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When your Storyteller resolves situations by asking for a "check", you add the number of points you've allocated to an Attribute to your 20-sided die roll.
List of Attributes
Physical Attributes
Strength
Physical activities that require toughness, like swimming, climbing, running a long distance, lifting something heavy
Dexterity
Physical activities that require speed or balance, like sprinting, dancing, moving in a stealthy fashion
Stamina
Used for fortitude/constitution checks against poison, frostbite, or other things that require hardiness
Mental Attributes
Knowledge
Used for recalling important pieces of lore, noticing details, or other tasks requiring wisdom or intelligence
Arcana
Used for a propensity towards magic, such as spell casting and identifying magical effects
Charisma
Used to be likable, intimidating, or inspiring, whatever best suits your character
Investing in Stats
Additionally, you must invest points in Dexterity, Strength, and Stamina to wear armor and wield weapons or Arcana to cast spells.
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Anywhere from 1 to 5 Strength, 1 to 5 Dexterity, and 1 to 5 Stamina is required for the heaviest armor and bulkiest two-handed weapons. Consult the Weapon Table in the Item Compendium for specific stat requirements by weapon.
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To cast spells, characters must have a high Arcana Attribute.
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Casting Basic Attacks requires 3 Arcana.
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Casting Tier 3 Abilities requires 4 Arcana.
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Casting Tier 2 Abilities requires 6 Arcana.
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Casting Tier 1 Abilities requires 8 Arcana.
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Gaining More Points
Each level, you receive more points to allocate to your Attributes. These points represent the Attributes you have practiced and improved since your last level-up. By the time you reach level 10, you will have 30 points. You can shift around points you have already allocated when you level up with DM approval.
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Attribute Passives
By adding lots of points to one particular Attribute, characters can earn a Bonus Passive that provides a benefit.
Hit Points
Hit points (HP) are an abstraction of a character's durability. Characters do not sustain serious injuries until they are pushed to 0 hit points. Every other loss of HP wears down the character's endurance, deals durability damage to their armor, and generally causes minor wounds like bruising or fatigue.
Hit points are accumulated over time as a character levels up. Level one characters begin with 10 hit points. Commoners, peasants, and other simple humanoids generally have 10 hit points. By the time a character is level 10, they will have 60 HP total.
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Hit Points by Level
Every creature in Ilisara has the same number of hit points depending on their level. Storytellers may give boss creatures more hit points, but this technique should be used sparingly.
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Level 1: 10 hit points
Level 2: 20 hit points
Level 4: 30 hit points
Level 6: 40 hit points
Level 8: 50 hit points
Level 10: 60 hit points
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Increasing HP
By adding 5 or more points to the Stamina Attribute, characters can get a bonus to their maximum hit points. This is the only source of increasing hit point values for characters before level 10, at which time customizations can be made to increase hit point totals. These customizations are detailed under the Level 10 section on the Leveling Up page.
Movement Speed
All creatures in Ilisara have a Low, Medium, or High Movement Speed which is tied to the Dexterity attribute. Although no grid system is required to track movement by feet/yards, there are approximations for how far you can travel with the different movement speeds to aid in roleplay. ​
Snaring, slowing, or crippling a character reduces their Movement Speed by one level. A character with High movement speed who is snared, for example, will move at Medium movement speed. See Status Conditions for other movement-impairing effects.
Defense
Defense is determined by the armor you are wearing. Higher Defense makes your character more difficult to hit in combat, and is generally desirable to have! Here is a detailed breakdown of Defense values and how they mitigate damage. Check the Gameplay page for a thorough explanation of combat rules in Ilisara.
Different types of armor require certain amounts of Strength or Dexterity to wear, and incur penalties to certain types of checks. You won't be very stealthy in full plate armor.
More detail about equipment types, costs, and Defense values are in the Item Compendium. If this is your first character, ask the DM what armor type you already have based on your backstory. It might be none, or simple light armor. If you have no armor, your Defense is 1.