Our Adventure Together
Arvor is a fantastical place of adventure and whimsy, but more than that it is
our place. The "our" is important: it's not
mine! It is a world that we create and explore together. If anything about the way the world is setup bugs you, or you wish you had different character options,
let's talk. I don't want anyone to feel unhappy with their choices, or like they are walking on eggshells in my dollhouse. Weird mix of metaphors...
Character Creation Step-by-Step
Choosing a Species
Most official species are fine, but review the
Species of Arvor page before you make your decision. While racism isn't one of Arvor's primary problems (we get to choose what our fantasy world's like), your choice may impact how you're perceived and how much you stand out. There are also a handful of species that do not canonically exist in Arvor for lore-reasons.
Choosing a Class
You can choose one of 13 official classes. We will use the
optional class features for all classes. All official subclasses are fine, but no Unearthed Arcana subclasses please. They tend to go away, or have weird balance issues.
Class flavor: You can flavor your class abilities however you want, as long as there's no mechanical impact. Want your Barbarian to go Super Saiyan when they rage? Sounds rad to me.
Can my character's God take their powers away? Clerics, Paladins, and to a lesser extent Warlocks all get their abilities from some powerful entity or force. Sometimes, people worry that a GM will "take away" their character's powers as a plot point or punishment. This is something that will never happen without an
extensive out-of-game conversation
and agreement between us. And probably never at all. So don't worry about that when making your choice.
There are some modifications and caveats to a few classes for our table, you can read about them below.
Fighter
Fighter is a solid class, but there are a handful of changes for our table:
- Indomitable is only expended if it succeeds.
Monk
- Unarmed strike counts as a melee weapon attack. Any ability that requires a melee weapon attack is triggered with a Monk's unarmed strike.
- Unarmored movement's Level 9 feature enables a monk to attack while on a wall or water. You cannot end your turn there without falling or sinking, but you can pause within a turn to attack from those surfaces.
Ranger
The original ranger has some issues that make it underpowered, so if you want to play a Ranger, I recommend you turn on all the alternative features from Tasha's – they are much better.
Please review the No Animal Companions House Rules before you decide to make a ranger.
- Rangers are prepared casters instead of known casters. Rangers can prepare their spells daily, like a Cleric or Paladin. Fits with the whole "channeling nature" thing.
Rogue
The Rogue's
Evasion ability is modified to be applicable in more situations:
- Beginning at 7th level, you can nimbly dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as an ancient red dragon’s fiery breath or an ice storm spell. When you are subjected to an area effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to avoid or reduce damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.
Sorcerer
- Sorcerers know a number of metamagic equal to their proficiency bonus instead of the listed progression. This grants more metamagic options, and you gain them more frequently.
Choose a Feat
Everybody gets a free feat to start! No feats that grant a +1 to ability scores, though.
Choose or Create a Background
You can choose from one of the pre-made backgrounds, or create your own using the rules in the PHB. This should fit your backstory.
Develop a Backstory
No need to go crazy – a paragraph is great! As you design your backstory remember: your character’s greatest adventures are ahead of them, not behind them. A level 1 warrior probably didn’t single-handedly slay a dragon!
As part of this step, you should capture:
- Why would they take up the adventuring life?
- What motivates them?
- What secret(s) are they keeping?
- What attachments do they have in Arvor? (People, groups, places, things)
- What is their personality and disposition?
- Where are they from? Pick a location, or let me know if you want to create one together! Checkout the map on the homepage for inspiration.
Share it with me! You can do it all on your own and then share, or we can do it collaboratively (I enjoy that stuff, so you're not imposing). If you come up with a meaningful backstory, I'll do my best to make them feel like a real part of the world and give them meaningful interactions and quests.
