Anime Character Basics

And so, it begins.

Designing new characters for should involve a thoughtful collaboration between you, the other players, and the GM. Your objective is to create a character who is fun to play and has a strong motivation to undertake adventures, while simultaneously ensuring a good fit with the GM’s plans for the dynamic anime fantasy stories that will unfold. In these rules, you can choose to spend as little as a few minutes or upwards of an hour designing a character. The difference lies in the amount of detail and individuality you build into your character. At no time during a role-playing campaign do you have more control over the destiny of your character than during the creation process, because that’s when you establish their adventuring foundation. As questions arise concerning specific game mechanics or special character abilities, the discussions you have with your GM and fellow players are of paramount importance.

Session Zero

Session zero of your game establishes the essential baseline of what comes next and takes a broad perspective of your upcoming adventures. This is the time to answer big- picture questions, such as: What is the setting, sub-genre, and tone? Will we be having adventures in an existing anime or manga series (and perhaps taking on the roles of those main characters), or are we playing in an original creation? What sorts of things will our characters be doing? With how much money and gear will they start?

Your group will also need to discuss the practical, real-life aspects of the upcoming game as well. How often are we meeting to play (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or on some other schedule)? Is there a fixed number of sessions until we finish, or are we playing an open-ended campaign? What is the ideal number of players for the game storyline? Where are we playing and who is hosting the game nights? Or are we playing online instead? Your group may not have all the answers at this point, but discussing such parameters now ensures everyone is on the same page about the time commitment expected.

Now is the ideal time to also discuss your preferences involving game issues such as: theme and story maturity; combat intensity and frequency; drama versus comedy ratio; and the roles that players can take to co-create the adventures. When you establish the foundation for your game together, you’ll discover and actualize an amazing experience that you all want to play.

Collective Creation

When preparing for the launch of a new role-playing campaign, players typically create their characters in isolation based on the setting information the GM provides. This tendency may not produce the best results for a strong start to the adventures, though, since both the characters and the players lack cohesion for this innately social activity.

Consider the benefits that a group character creation session provides to the team. Discussing the nature and roles of everyone’s character ideas together ensures that the group dynamic is balanced and that every character has unique benefits that will allow them to shine during the game. Establishing character connections is also easier in this initial group meeting, since you can co-develop resonant backstories to provide friendship contexts in the game setting. Finally, group character creation reduces the chances of missed opportunities when designing your team (i.e.. having a hole in your party). Traditional dungeon-crawling adventures may be significantly more challenging if your group is missing a spell caster, healer, warrior, or thief!

After scoping the game, spend the rest of session zero talking about the ideal composition of your character team and the strengths and individuality that each character member can bring to the group. Everyone should ideally be open to concepts they may not have considered earlier, and look at their character’s role in the larger context of the game. Spending additional time with the players and GM at this stage of character creation will yield great benefits compared to the typical isolated development tendency.

Starting Level

Once the GM and players together have outlined the general framework of the upcoming adventures, it’s time to discuss your group’s starting character Level. A character typically starts at 1st Level with zero Experience Points, which is the launching point for their adventuring life. Alternatively, your group may want to play more accomplished heroes that start at 2nd Level or higher. Consider the six Level groupings described herein and how they align with the players’ visions for their characters.

Novice (1st Level)

The characters are just starting their new lives as brave and heroic adventurers, and are eager to embark on their first quest. The character may have known each other for a long time – or perhaps they could be recently associated companions – but they have never adventured together before.

Capable (2nd to 4th Level)

The characters have some previous experience working as heroes (or even villains!), though they are still rough around the edges. They have been learning the traits and abilities that define their chosen Class, and feel more comfortable extending themselves in slightly dangerous situations. They may be starting to build their reputation if they have been journeying together as a party during this time, or they may be applying their individual adventuring experiences collectively in a new group dynamic.

Seasoned (5th to 10th Level)

The characters now have a solid understanding of their roles – and responsibilities as adventurers. They are unlocking mid-ranged powers and abilities, crossing into new areas of competence and effectiveness. Wealth and magical items are no longer seemingly unreachable goals, and the characters now have a firm reputation – individually, collectively, or both. They have expanded the scope of their quests, and are comfortable confronting dangers that threaten cities, kingdoms, organizations, and influential nobles.

Veteran (11th to 16th Level)

The characters have achieved status that few adventurers ever reach, since by this milestone most have retired comfortably, stopped adventuring due to grievous injury, or perished along the way. Their fame has certainly expanded across multiple kingdoms and their talents and abilities are sought after by numerous nobles, guilds, and prospective apprentices. Wealth and resources are available to the characters in abundance, and thus it’s clear that the adventuring life itself – rather than the potential awards that can be gained continues to drive the characters towards larger and more dangerous achievements.

Mythical (17th to 20th Level)

The characters have advanced so far in their adventuring lives that they are now considered mythical archetypes of their Class and masters of their respective domains. Stories about the characters’ brave (or perhaps infernal!) exploits are told across the world, expanding with each telling. It’s not uncommon for the fate of the world, or even the cross-dimensional multiverse, to lie in the hands of the characters and their legendary actions.

Epic (Above 20th Level)

With this challenging power tier, the character’s abilities are potentially forceful enough to single-handedly change the world (or even worlds). Few obstacles can stand in the characters’ way and pose a significant threat. Players and the GM should be cautious about starting their adventures at this extreme degree of ability, since with great power comes great responsibility – and certainly great complications! Nevertheless, this seemingly godlike character range does reflect the power intensity of some popular anime shows.

Starting Experience Points

Novice characters that begin the game 1st Level start with zero Experience Points (XP). Otherwise, characters start the game with the minimum amount of XP needed to attain their starting Level (see Table 08). For example, characters created to start at 3rd Level being their adventures with 900 XP, 9th Level starters are granted 48,000 XP.

Starting Level-Based Benefits

If the characters are starting the game at a Level beyond 1st, they will also gain the features and benefits of every skipped Level up to their starting Level. For example, if the players start their characters’ adventures at 6th Level, their characters also start with all the benefits of Levels 1st through 5th from their choice of Classes.

Discretionary Points

In addition to benefits a character receives from their starting level and class – and every Level beneath their starting Level – they also start with a fixed number of Discretionary Points that they use to assign a Race, Ability Scores, and additional Attributes. A player can increase their character’s pool of Discretionary Points by also burdening their creations with one or more Defects. Character have 80 Discretionary Points to allocate during character creation. If a character begins the game above 1st Level, the GM can also award additional 1 Point for each Level above 1st as a bonus. These extra Points reflect the treasure items the characters would have found and special abilities the characters would have unlocked while adventuring through those missing Levels. Such extra Points are in addition to the normal starting Level-based benefits described earlier.

Character Benchmarks

This game offers nearly endless possibilities when spending Points on your creation. Problems relating to balance and suitable challenges could arise if players focus their Point allocations in only a few options, when compared to players that have created less- optimized characters.

For example, if all the characters in a fantasy story are only protected by modest protective armor (such as chain mail), but one character has complete immunity to all weapon damage (Rank 6 of the Immunity Attribute), it is difficult to confront the group with an opponent that can threaten the highly protected character without being a vastly overpowered enemy to the majority.

Unlike the strictly Leveling-based enhancements provided to characters that only use the core rules – in which character abilities are prescribed with numerous restrictions – these options can present challenges to players and GMs unfamiliar with the flexibility of Point-based games. In short, it’s possible to create “broken” characters using these rules without helpful benchmarks.

Table 01: Character Benchmarks

Character Level	Maximum Ability Scores	Maximum Attribute Ranks
Novice (1st Level)	1 @ 18 | 1 @ 17	4
Capable (2nd – 4th Level)	1 @ 19 | 1 @ 18	5
Seasoned (5th – 10th Level)	1 @ 20 | 1 @ 19	6
Veteran (11th – 16th Level)	1 @ 22 | 2 @ 20	8
Mythical (17th – 20th Level)	1 @ 24 | 2 @ 22 10
Epic (Above 20th Level)	No maximums	No maximums

Table 01 presents a list of optional, but suggested, minimums and maximums when creating your character to avoid widely varying character abilities in your group. As you build your character and progress through the creation process, refer back to this section to ensure you aren’t straying outside the recommendations. Players and the GM can collectively decide to modify or ignore specific benchmarks (or all benchmarks), or permit appropriate exceptions where desired.

Maximum Ability Scores

Two values are listed here, limiting the character’s highest and second highest scores.

Maximum Attribute Ranks (Effective Rank)

These benchmarks are for Attributes that increase linear bonuses (such as the +1 Hit Point/Rank for the Regeneration Attribute, or +1 Check bonus/Rank for the Inspire Attribute) or have descriptive Rank benefits (such as those for the Connected or Mind Control Attributes). Attributes related to size may exceed these limits. The benchmarks also do not apply to Attributes that offer one choice per Rank from a selection of discreet and unconnected benefits, such as the Combat Technique, Sixth Sense, and Special Movement Attributes. Furthermore, the Weapon Attribute Rank limit is determined by the maximum normal damage benchmark column instead.

Maximum Proficiency Bonus

A bonus ceiling is imposed in games that allow access to the Enhanced Proficiency Attribute.

Maximum Armor Class

A characters’ maximum AC includes all aspects available to them, including physical armor and shields, Dexterity bonus, class features, spells, the AC Bonus Attribute, etc.

Maximum Normal Damage

The typical maximum damage includes all base sources of normal damage – including mundane weapons, the Weapon Attribute, other Attributes, Race features, Ability bonuses, spells, etc. – but before considering additional damage from critical hits, called shots, Defects, etc.

Maximum Proficiency Bonus	Maximum Armor Class	Maximum Normal Damage
+3	20	25
+4	22	40
+5	24	60
+7	26	100
+10	30	200
No maximums	No maximums	No maximums

Your Character’s Framework

A character outline is a broad concept that provides you with a frame on which to build your character. It is not fully detailed; there is no need to concern yourself with the character’s specific skills, powers, or background details at this stage. Use the game scope established in your earlier discussions as the starting point for your character, and build your outline on that foundation. Continue discussing your character ideas with your group to ensure your creation works well with the concepts of the other players and with the overall themes and focus of the upcoming game.

Character Strengths

In many campaigns, the players may find it advantageous to create complementary characters with unique sets of abilities. For example, a team fighting supernatural evil in dungeons across the kingdom might include a combat specialist or two for bashing monsters, a spiritualist for dealing with ghosts and the undead, a psychic or sorcerer for handling magical opponents, and an information broker for digging up background information. A degree of specialization helps players enjoy their characters by giving them a unique identity.

At the same time, it is equally important that the characters not be too specialized, or the group will lack cohesion and other players will sit around bored while each specialist has their own little adventure within the game. It is a good idea to identify a minimum set of capabilities that everyone should have. For example, in a campaign that will focus on fantasy martial arts, perhaps everyone will be competent warrior, but individual characters may possess different fighting styles and unique backgrounds – which could be reflective of different fighting classes such as Hunter, Ninja, Samurai, Shadow Warrior, etc.

The group of characters may be independent fantasy adventurers. In other game concepts, the characters may be part of a larger organization and would logically have helpers in supporting roles. An example of this scenario is an elite infiltration force in a thieves’ guild. A guild leader, information specialist, tools and weapons expert, healers, cooks, and other personnel may support the rogues on their missions. A few of these roles may make worthwhile player characters, but often this “supporting cast” is best filled by background characters created and controlled by the GM. These characters may become the group’s friends, colleagues, love interests, or rivals as the game progresses, but they also free the characters to take on roles that let them share in the same story action.

Character Weaknesses

Game characters may be larger than life – sometimes even figures of myth and legend – but usually they still have one or more weaknesses. Is the character vulnerable to some forms of magic? Does it take a while for the character’s powers to activate or can they be negated by a special substance? Does the character struggle with a particular life aspect? Providing weaknesses to a character adds greater depth and potential for role-playing opportunities, but be sure to consider aspects of social discomfort concerning your choices.

Defining Your Character

You should decide on your character’s Race, age, and sex or gender, determine a broad archetype for their personality, and sketch an idea of ethnic and social background. Of course, it is equally important that a character has room to grow beyond your initial concept. A character that you have spent hours perfecting and detailing may quickly become stagnant and uninteresting once play begins. A good character outline usually focuses on one or two main personality traits and leaves plenty of room for you to explore and develop the character into a fully rounded individual over time. Although the starting archetype should be an integral part of the character, it should not rule all of their actions. At some point during the game, your pacifistic martial artist may be driven to an act of vengeance, or your angst-ridden rogue may finally discover a cause in which to believe. As long as these developments proceed naturally from events in the game, they should be a welcome part of the role-playing experience.

Background Details

One of the most effective ways to better visualize your character is to provide detail through your creation of a background history, a character story, a character drawing, or other unique creation (perhaps using a website, video camera, music collection, etc.). Spending time to develop your character without rules will enhance your role-playing greatly, and can give the GM a window into your character’s motivations.

This step in character creation gives you a chance to answer important character questions before gameplay begins. What formed their outlook on life? Where do they live? Work? Earn money? What are your character’s likes? Dislikes? What about family? Friends? Romantic interests? Enemies? These details add depth to your character, but you should not become obsessed with them. Leaving room for growth can provide development opportunities during the course of the adventures.

Character Quiz

To help spark creative inspiration for your character’s background, answer the 30 questions listed on the character quiz. If you have the time and desire, write and answer your own additional questions, too.

Group Connections

Work with the other players to establish background connections between your characters before the game adventures begin. Perhaps some of your team grew up together and have been friends for their entire lives. Or instead they could have worked together in the past and have maintained a professional relationship (or rivalry!) ever since. The characters can even be related by blood or marriage, though this revelation might have been a recent surprise rather than a long-established situation. Furthermore, don’t neglect establishing group connections with background organizations and cabals as well, since they can provide excellent future hooks.

What’s in a Name?

You have the freedom to name your character whatever you like, but the GM may have some ideas for character names that fit a particular setting. Anime series are often notorious for employing odd, but plausible, fictional names for fantasy characters. Sometimes these are actually borrowed from Western or Asian mythology or named after objects such as cars, gemstones, motorcycles, or rock stars, making them sound suitably exotic without being totally unfamiliar. Unless your campaign is a comedy, however, avoid a silly name since it may ruin the suspension of disbelief for the other players.

Game Mechanics Structure With the foundational basics of character creation nearly complete, you’ll soon move onto the construction of your adventuring hero. Of course, it’s somewhat challenging to create a character properly without understanding the context of the rules. Although you could jump ahead for a more detailed explanation of these rules, the brief summary presented herein provides the essential knowledge you need to understand the next steps.

Dice And Notations

Like most fantasy rpg games, these rules use polyhedral (multi-sided) dice. This typically includes dice with the following number of sides: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20. When a random number needs to be generated through a dice roll, the exact dice to be rolled will be indicated by the formula XdY+Z, where:

• X is the number of dice rolled
• d represents the word “dice”
• Y is the type of die rolled (number of sides)
• Z is a fixed value added to the roll (omitted for a zero)

For example, 2d8+4 indicates you should roll two eight-sided dice and add 4 to the generated value. Similarly, 2d10-2 means roll two 10-sided dice and subtract 2 from the result.

Rolling Dice

When using dice to resolve the outcome of unknown events, you usually roll one twenty-sided die (d20). You’ll roll other polyhedral dice with different numbers of sides to determine attack damage, Hit Points, spell effects, and more.

Depending on the task you are attempting, one or more game values are added to your die roll result and then this “check total” is compared to a Difficulty Class (or DC) to determine if your character was successful. When attempting to hit someone in combat, the check total is instead compared to the target’s Armor Class (AC). If someone is opposing your action, though – such as in a contest of Strength or Skill – you instead compare your check total to the opponent’s check total, with the higher value winning the contest.

Difficulty Class (DC) Range

The Difficulty Class (DC) against which check totals are compared range from DC 5 (Very Easy) to DC 30 (Nearly Impossible). DC 15 is considered Medium Difficulty. See Table 20 for a complete list of DC values.

Ability Check

An Ability check is used when innate talent in one of the six abilities – Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma – is more important than learned expertise or combat capability to resolve the action.

Ability Check Total = d20 die roll + Ability Score modifier

Skill Check

A Skill check a subset of an Ability check, except it is used when the task is governed by both an Ability and a particular Skill. If the character is proficient with the Skill involved, they add their Proficiency Bonus to the roll when determine the Skill check result.

Skill Check Total = d20 die roll + Ability Score modifier + Proficiency Bonus (if proficient with Skill)

Saving Throw

A Saving Throw (or Save) represents an attempt to resist a spell, a trap, a poison, a disease, or a similar threat. You don’t normally decide to make a Saving Throw; you are forced to make one because your character is at risk of harm. Each Save is tied to a specific Ability (such as a Dexterity Saving Throw to avoid a trap). If the character is proficient with the Saving Throw Ability Score required – linked to their class or modified by Attributes they add their Proficiency Bonus to the roll when determine the Saving Throw result.

Saving Throw Total = d20 die roll + Ability Score modifier + Proficiency Bonus (if proficient with Saving Throw)

Initiative Roll

All characters make an Initiative roll at the beginning of combat to determine the order of character action. An Initiative roll is the same as a Dexterity check.

Initiative Roll Total = d20 die roll + Dexterity modifier

Attack Roll

An attack roll is made when attacking with a melee or ranged weapon (and some spells) during combat. The Ability Score modifier is usually Strength for melee attacks and Dexterity for ranged attacks. If the character is proficient with the weapon used in combat, they add their Proficiency Bonus to the roll when determine the attack roll total.

Attack Roll Total = d20 die roll + Ability Score modifier + Proficiency Bonus (if proficient with Weapon)

Damage Roll

Each weapon and spell specifies the damage it inflicts upon a successful hit. You roll the damage die or dice (such as 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, etc.), add any modifiers, and subtract the damage inflicted from the target’s remaining Hit Points. When attacking with a weapon or while unarmed, you add your Strength or Dexterity Ability modifier – the same modifier used for the attack roll – to the damage.

What Are Hit Points?

Hit Points, or HP, are an abstracted game value that represents a combination of physical resilience, mental durability, and will to live, as well as overall luck during physical conflict. Characters and creatures that have many Hit Points are more difficult to overcome, injure, and kill than those with few HP.

Damage Roll Total = Dice Roll + Ability Score modifier

Ability Scores A character’s core, base abilities are determined by six values known as Ability Scores. These values describe the character’s innate, natural aptitude at interacting with the world. The six Ability Scores are:

• Strength (Str)
• Dexterity (Dex)
• Constitution (Con)
• Intelligence (Int)
• Wisdom (Wis)
• Charisma (Cha)

The values of these abilities range from 0 to 30, with a normal Human range from 3 to 18. The normal Human maximum is 24, but legendary characters or supernatural characters may have higher ratings up to 30. A character’s starting Ability Scores can be later modified by their choice of Race, class features, special abilities, Attributes, and Defects.

Establishing Ability Scores

Players have several options for establishing their characters’ Ability Scores, which they record on their character sheet. Consult the GM to determine which method you’ll use.

Randomly With 4d6

Roll 4d6 and sum the total of the three highest die values to generate an Ability Score between 3 and 18. Repeat this process five times, and then assign the six numbers to the six Ability Scores in the order of your choice.

Randomly With Excess 3d6

Roll 3d6 and sum the die values to generate an Ability Score between 3 and 18. Repeat this process seven times to create a list of eight numbers. Discard the lowest two of these numbers, and then assign the remaining six numbers to the six Ability Scores in the order of your choice.

Strict 3d6 in Order

Beginning with Strength and moving through the six Abilities until Charisma, roll 3d6 and sum the die values to generate an Ability Score between 3 and 18 for each. The generated values must stay with their assigned Abilities; do not assign the six numbers to the six Abilities in the order of your choice (as recommended in the earlier two suggestions).

Random Variant: Re-Roll 1s

As a variant to any of the above three methods, re-roll any 1s. Then follow the remaining instructions as described.

Fixed Numbers

Rather than generating random numbers by rolling dice, each character will start with the following six values: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. Assign these six numbers to the six Ability Scores in the order of your choice.

Table 02: Ability Score Modifiers

Score	Modifier	Description
1	-5	Inept
2-3	-4	Infant
4-5	-3	Child
6-7	-2	Significantly below adult human; youth
8-9	-1	Below adult human average; teenager
10-11	0	Adult human average
12-13	+1	Above adult human average
14-15	+2	Significantly above adult human average
16-17	+3	Highly capable
18-19	+4	Extremely capable; normal maximum
20-21	+5	Best in the region; adventurer maximum
22-23	+6	Best in the country
24-25	+7	World-class capability; human maximum
26-27	+8	Excessive capability
28-29	+9	Legendary capability
30	+10	Cosmic capability

Players’ Choice

Assign a number of your choice from 3-18 to each of the six Ability Scores. Check with the GM for limitation they are placing on this assignment method (such as “maximum of one 18” or “nothing higher than 17”).

Ability Score Cost

Abilities cost a number of Points equal to the Ability Score, which are paid for with the character’s starting Discretionary Points. Consequently, a character with high Ability Scores will spend more of their Discretionary Points and have fewer remaining to select a Race and assign Attributes.

If a character has insufficient Discretionary Points to pay for the Ability Scores generated, you can either reduce one or more Ability Scores to (or below) an affordable value or you can burden the character with one or more Defects.

Ability Score Definitions

Every task that a character attempts in the game is covered by one of the six Abilities. This section explains in brief detail what those Abilities mean and the ways they are used in the game.

Ability Modifiers

Each Ability has a modifier that is the number you add to or subtract from dice rolls when your character tries to accomplish something related to that Ability (see Table 02).

Strength (Str)

Strength measures bodily power, athletic training, and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force. Strength provides a modifier to:

• Strength checks
• Strength-based Skill checks, if proficient
• Strength-based Saving Throws, if proficient
• Melee attack and damage rolls, if proficient

Any creature that can physically manipulate objects has at least 1 point of Strength. A character with no Strength score can’t exert force, usually because it has no physical body or because it doesn’t move. Such a creature automatically fails Strength checks.

Lifting and Carrying

A Medium-sized character can push, drag, or lift 30 lb times their Strength Score. They can freely maneuver and comfortably carry one-half that amount (15 lb times Strength).

For each size category away from Medium, multiply (for larger than Medium) or divide (for smaller than Medium) the character’s lift and carry capacities values by 5.

Jumping Distance

A Medium character can typically jump forward with a running start a distance in feet equal to their Strength (or half that distance from standing). For vertical leaps, a character can jump up to 3 + their Strength modifier in feet (1 foot minimum).

Strength Skill Example

Athletics

Dexterity (Dex)

Dexterity measures agility, reflexes, balance, and hand-eye coordination. Dexterity provides modifiers to:

• Dexterity checks
• Dexterity-based Skill checks, if proficient
• Dexterity-based Saving Throws, if proficient
• Ranged attack and damage rolls, if proficient
• Armor Class, if proficient
• Initiative rolls

Any creature that can move has at least 1 Point of Dexterity. A creature with no Dexterity score can’t move, but if it can act through magical means, it applies its Intelligence modifier to Initiative rolls instead of a Dexterity modifier.

Dexterity Skill Examples

Acrobatics, Artisan, Climbing, Sleight of Hand, Stealth

Constitution (Con)

Constitution measures health, stamina, and vital force. Constitution provides modifiers to:

• Constitution checks
• Constitution-based Skill checks, if proficient
• Constitution-based Saving Throws, if proficient
• Hit Point maximum at each Level, determined by class

Any living creature has at least 1 point of Constitution. A creature with no Constitution has no body or no metabolism. It is immune to any effect that requires a Constitution Save unless the effect works on objects.

Constitution Skill Example

Controlled Breathing, Swimming

When a character’s Constitution modifier increases by 1, their Hit Point maximum increases by 1 for each Level moving forward as well as for each Level previously attained. For example, if a 7th Level character has a Constitution score of 17 (highly capable; a +3 modifier) and increases it to 18 (extremely capable; a +4 modifier) upon reaching 8th Level, their Hit Point maximum immediately increases by 8 – one for their current Level plus one for each of the earlier seven Levels.

Intelligence (Int)

Intelligence measures mental acuity, accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason.

Intelligence provides modifiers to:

• Intelligence checks
• Intelligence-based Skill checks, if proficient
• Intelligence-based Saving Throws, if proficient
• The number of prepared spells for Wizards
• The Saving Throw DCs of spells that Wizards and Psionicists cast
• Spell attack rolls for Wizards

Any creature that can think, learn, or remember has at least 1 point of Intelligence. A creature with no Intelligence score is an automaton, operating on simple instincts or programmed instructions. It is immune to all mind-influencing effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).

Intelligence Skill Examples

Arcana, Alchemy, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion

Wisdom (Wis)

Wisdom reflects how attuned you are to the world around you and represents perceptiveness and intuition. Wisdom provides modifiers to:

• Wisdom checks
• Wisdom-based Skill checks, if proficient
• Wisdom-based Saving Throws, if proficient
• The number of prepared spells for Clerics/Druids/Rangers
• The Saving Throw DCs of spells Clerics/Druids/Rangers cast
• Spell attack rolls for Clerics/Druids/Rangers

Any creature that can perceive its environment in any fashion has at least 1 point of Wisdom. Anything without a Wisdom score is an object, not a creature. Additionally, anything without a Wisdom score also has no Charisma score, and vice versa.

Wisdom Skill Examples

Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Survival

Charisma (Cha)

Charisma measures your ability to interact effectively with others. It includes such factors as confidence and eloquence, and it can represent a charming or commanding personality. Charisma provides modifiers to:

• Charisma checks
• Charisma-based Skill checks, if proficient
• Charisma-based Saving Throws, if proficient
• The number of prepared spells for other spellcasters (including Bards, Paladins, Sorcerers, and Warlocks)
• The Saving Throw DCs of spells other spellcasters cast
• Spell attack rolls for other spellcasters

Any creature capable of telling the difference between itself and things that are not itself has at least 1 Point of Charisma. Additionally, anything without a Charisma score also has no Wisdom score, and vice versa.

Charisma Skill Examples

Deception, Intimidation, Leadership, Performance, Persuasion

Character Quiz

1. What are your character’s central strengths and weaknesses? What is your character’s primary emotional state?
2. What role does your character fill in a group? Describe your character’s family or tribe.
3. Who are your character’s three most valuable contacts? What personal values and beliefs does your character hold? To whom is your character closest and why?
4. What does your character need the most? What are your character’s life goals?
5. What does your character fear the most? Describe your character’s appearance.
6. How does your character define “heroism”?
7. Describe your character’s hobbies, interests, desires, and likes. What would your character do if they killed an innocent bystander? For what does your character have little patience and tolerance?
8. Does your character hide any emotions in public? How does your character view death and beyond? What does your character dislike about themselves? Describe your character’s bedroom or rest location.
9. Describe a perfect date night or other enjoyable outing. Describe your character’s relationship with money.
10. Describe your character’s views on authority and the law. Who has impacted your character’s life direction the most? How does your character view forgiveness and revenge?
11. What are the origins of your character’s special abilities? What is the prime motivation behind your character’s actions?
12. In which way does your character focus their personal growth? Describe the accomplishment of which your character is most proud. How does your character think they might die?
13. How would your character describe themselves in a single sentence?