Apotheosis: Character Creation

The more information you provide, the easier it will be for the DMs to create plot threads that specifically engage your character or give hooks to make your character care about other peoples’ plots.

Game Mechanics

Permitted Sourcebooks for Backgrounds, Races, Classes, & Subclasses

• All official published 5e content, except for Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos and Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is allowed. Twitter content and partner content are not considered officially published. Click here to navigate to a spreadsheet for details on what is and isn't allowed.
• Remember that Evara is a custom setting. While mechanics may be taken from other sources, world lore intentionally diverges from published 5e campaign settings. Having a "Grinner" background feature doesn’t mean much in a world without a Menagerie Coast/Dwendalian Empire. Neither does it make very much sense to lift the lore of Wildemount and say “This part of Evara is Wildemount now”. Be mindful that the flavor of mechanics must match the world. If you can’t work it into the world without turning the world into something else, then you can’t use it.
• Unofficial content such as unearthed arcana, homebrew, partner, or third party publisher content, may be permitted by the mods on a case-by-case basis.
• A reservation of race/subrace/class/subclass/boon is required to submit a character to the group. Click HERE to check if your intended race/subrace/class/subclass combination is permitted.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything: Customizing Your Origin

Everyone is eligible for the customizations described on page 6 of TCE (racial ability score increases {ASIs}, languages, and proficiencies). If you chose a race that was not updated in MPMM, you can still adjust your build to suit.

If your standard racial ASIs do not equal +3 when added together, then your TCE options differ slightly. You can change which ability scores you assign your racial ASIs to, but you cannot change the numerical value associated with the ASIs.

For example: Vanilla Half-elf grants any two +1 and CHA +2 (total of +4 across 3 different ability scores). You may change your CHA +2 to STR +2, then put +1 into two other stats. You may not change the total numerical value of your racial ASIs (i.e., you do not change from total +4 to total +3) nor can you change how the values are divided (i.e., you can't split the +2 into two +1s).

Digital Sheet Manager

A completed D&D character sheet is not mandatory to apply to the group. What we need is your character's personality, history, etc. as described in the Character Information scection below. If you & your character are accepted to Apotheosis, at that point, we will require your D&D character sheet.

We will be using v1 dicecloud dnd sheet manager. Be sure to give editing permissions to yourself, avrae, and your DMs.

New to Dicecloud?

We have a thorough guide to help you set up your dicecloud sheet. If you are unfamiliar with Dicecloud, it is imperative that you read the guide fully and do not skim or skip steps. Although it is not required to apply, you are welcome to finish your dicecloud sheet alongside your character information.

Stat Generation

You can:

• Use the !rollstats command. Roll twice and choose the array you like better. The !rollstats command will give you an array with the following characteristics:
  • Stat total 76-78
  • Minimum score 6
  • Maximum score 18
  • 1 score 6-9
  • 1 scores 16+
  • 4 scores 10+

• Use point buy (link to calculator) with the following custom rules, which you will have to manually adjust on the calculator website:
  • 37-point buy
  • Max 18 (before racial modifiers)
  • Min 6 (before racial modifiers)

• You can choose point buy after you’ve done your 2 stat rolls if you super hate your stats, or switch to rolling after you choose point buy if you decide you want to gamble. However, once you change your mind, there is no going back again. If you switch from point buy to gambling, you cannot revert to point buy if you're unhappy with the arrays you rolled.

Starting Level

Your character starts at level……… 3

You can challenge The Spire of Ascension at levels 10-14 - not before, and not after. See the Quest Guide: For Players article for information on questing and ascending.

Character Creation Boon

All characters begin play with either a bonus feat or a supernatural gift. You are not eligible for this character creation boon if you choose a mechanical background feature that grants a feat (such as Planar Philosopher).

• If you choose a feat, your character must meet any prerequisites.
• If you choose a supernatural gift, it must be flavored to match Evaran lore (i.e., If you choose the Anvilwrought gift from Mythic Odysseys of Theros, you were not forged by Purphoros because he doesn’t exist in Evara). Your gift may be chosen from the following:
• The nine Supernatural Gifts in chapter 2 of Mythic Odysseys of Theros (MOT; Anvilwrought, Heroic Destiny, Iconoclast, Inscrutable, Unscarred, Lifelong Companion, Nyxborn, Oracle, Pious).
• The eight Dark Gifts described in chapter 1 of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (VRGR; Echoing Soul, Gathered Whispers, Living Shadow, Mist Walker, Second Skin, Symbiotic Being, Touch of Death, Watchers)
• The Blessed of Corellon gift described in chapter 2 of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (MTF).
• The two Blessings described in Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk (Blessing of the Solipsistic Mind, Blessing of Dumathoin)

Starting Gear

Your starting gear for Apotheosis includes:

• A random freebie trinket (rolled in the Discord server with the !rolltrinket command)
• Standard gear for your base class or roll for starting wealth depending on your base class to purchase custom gear (in the Discord server using the !rollgold command). If you roll for starting gold, you begin play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less - no need to purchase additional clothes unless you want to - but you do not get the starting GP or equipment from your background mechanic or class. You keep any unspent GP from character creation, but can only use when it is possible to make purchases. Click here for custom starting gear purchase information.
• 1 Common Magical item of A/Au, B/Bu, or Cu subrarity. The Strixhaven Mascot is not permitted as starting gear.
  

Background Mechanic

Choose a background mechanic. Any official/published background mechanics are ok provided they can be flavored to fit into the setting.

Character Information

Information to Provide

Items marked with a * are REQUIRED

• *Physical Appearance (either written description, art by you, or art by someone else that you have permission to use. AI-generated art not permitted.)
• *Name (Your character's full name)
• Alias (if your character does not go by their name, what do they call themselves)
• *Pronouns
• *Race (& subrace, if applicable. If your mechanical race doesn’t match the name of your race in this setting, include both names)
• *Class (& subclass, if applicable)
• *Age (no younger than teenager, please; adults strongly preferred because we really don’t wanna traumatize children)
• *Height (imperial and metric)
• *Weight (imperial and metric)
  
• *God/Gods/Religion (The God or religion your character follows. It is not possible to be an atheist in this setting. Max 3 gods/religions.)
• *Alignment (normally within one step of your god/religion. Evil alignments are not allowed)
• *Personality (per the dnd background mechanic. You can also elaborate if you want. Max 300 words. Bullet points are ok)
  


• *Background/History (Background per the dnd background mechanic. You must ALSO write a history to situate them in the world. Max 750 words. Bullet points ok, so long as they are informative bullet points, not just "born", "got bit by a spider", "masked vigilante now". The story quests will start in Phoebek. Your character can be from anywhere, but has to currently be in Phoebek)
  


• Relationships (These can be other PCs in the group or NPCs)
  • Two people friendly to your character (& why)
  • One person hostile to your character (& why)
• *Goals
• A goal the character has
• A goal that you, the player, want to see developed
• Please note that taking the trials of the Spire of Ascension is a mandatory character goal. Your character’s reasons for wanting to do this are their own. If your character does not start off wanting this, you and I will need to work together for some planned character development to make it so.
  
• *Secrets
• A secret the character knows
• A secret that involves them but that they are not actually aware of yet
• The DMs will also create a third secret which neither you nor your character will be aware of, so expect some surprises.
  
  Note: Goals, Secrets, Relationships, Backstory NPCs, and other elements of a character's backstory may be used by Epic DMs during quest Arcs.

About the character profile

There are no secrets from the DMs, but whatever you choose to redact or mislead your fellow players about is up to you. Just be reasonable about things you are trying to hide OOCly/ICly.

For example, using an alias as your real name is easy! As another example, it is trivial for a changeling to masquerade as an elf, but it would be impossible for a tiefling to masquerade as an elf. If you are a hexblade warlock pretending to be an eldritch knight fighter, keep in mind that someone else planning a hexblade warlock multiclass might be annoyed if you OOCly hid that from them because it affects/changes their plans.

This is not a required template, but you may use this GOOGLE SHEETS WRITTEN PROFILE TEMPLATE for your Apotheosis character. This template was created by AnikiKenshi and is for use only within Apothoeosis. It may not be used for any other purpose.

Are you SURE you wish to keep it secret?
Bear in mind that a secret from other players is, well. Secret. Unknown. Completely hidden. Player DMs do not have the ability to write side stories around your secret plot elements because they won't know those elements even exist. Roleplay partners won't be able to help you set up big reveals or foreshadow future conflict (or future resolution).
You might find yourself feeling discouraged if your secrets never come up -- but no one can help you bring them up if no one knows what they are.

Physical Appearance

At minimum, provide a clear physical description that captures how you imagine them to look (though this written description is not mandatory if you provide a visual reference).

Character art is not required. You do not need to provide a visual reference of your character, but you can if you want to. If you want to provide an art reference of your character, click here to download the art template. If you create or commission character art after being admitted, the visual appearance of the art needs to be approved before it is canon.

• (added August 2, 2024) Due to the divisiveness of AI-generated art, it is not permitted as the physical appearance reference
• If you draw/commission your reference, here’s a pinterest for some inspiration: https://pin.it/6cqesRl
• If you use someone else’s art for your reference, make sure you have permission to use the artwork and give appropriate credit

Race

See the Playable Races article for race options. Apotheosis uses the most recently published version of races/subraces (i.e., MPMM aasimar, not DMG or VGM aasimar; MPMM shadar-kai, not MTF shadar-kai). Not all races will be available at every opening.

If you need more customization, you may:

• Use the TCE custom lineage rules to create an Endling. If appropriate, you will need to work with the DMs to create any appropriate race lore and situate them in the world. Please only create races you intend to use.
• Ask the mods about using older official WOTC published versions of races (i.e., MTF eladrin instead of MPMM eladrin)

Class

All official published WOTC classes are available, except for those published in Strixhaven: A curriculum of Chaos and Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen may be used. If you want to take a class/subclass that isn’t officially published WOTC content (such as a Twitter subclass, or 3rd party class/subclass), you need to run it by the DMs for approval first. First check the What is Allowed spreadsheet, and if the content you are interested in has not been reviewed, check in with us in the #ask-the-mods channel on Discord.

Please note the following flavor caveats on classes/subclasses:

• Make sure you have read the lore about magic before choosing a class/subclass that grants the spellcasting or pact magic feature. It should be pretty obvious what classes fall into what categories of magic, but some classes/subclasses might feel like they occupy a grey area (i.e., is an Echo Knight fighter using magic?).
• Clerics, paladins, and Wizards of the School of Theurgy must derive their magic from a god, except in very limited circumstances (such as blood domain clerics or oathbreaker paladins).
• Divine soul sorcerers are even rarer than aasimars. You can be one, but don’t expect to meet many - if any - others. They may be descendants of a god, descendants of a god's heralds/avatar, or blessed by a god/heralds/avatar. Divine soul sorcs may become the avatar or vessel of gods someday.
• The School of Onomancy is permitted for use but considered taboo in the world of Evara. It is a core belief of the Evara setting that true names have power. Someone who can extract the true names of other beings would have enormous power... but that power comes with enormous personal risk.

Multi-Classing

We follow standard multiclassing rules in this house. BUT

• Your multiclass has to "make sense" from a character lore perspective. It is totally fine if you get your fun from pairing classes together for a more powerful/more specialized build, but it has to make sense, too. You want to play a Bear totem Barbarian/Moon Druid and be an immortal angry animal in combat? Fine, but it needs to make sense how you got those classes. Barbarians are rage monsters, Druids are all about balance and natural order. So how did you ICly become an unbalanced balanced person?
• If you’re choosing to multiclass into something that you don’t meet the vanilla prerequisites for and you can make a case for why the prereq should be something else, you can discuss it with the mods. For example, if you want to be a STR-based rogue - a bruiser and a thug rather than a nimble purse-cutter - you can make your case to the mods for why STR should replace DEX to satisfy your mutliclassing requirements. Any exceptions made for you will also apply to other players in the group, to NPCs, and to villains. The mods may say no for balancing reasons.

God/Religion

Gods and religion are central to life in this setting - following a god or religion is mandatory, even if you're not a religious class (like cleric, paladin). There are lots and lots of different options for how you choose to express your faith, but “I don’t bother with religion” is not one of them. If you choose the Iconoclast character creation boon, you are still required to worship something even if it's not the Evaran Pantheon.

Please read up on the setting's entirely custom pantheon. If you can't work out which god would be an appropriate equivalent god or domains for a particular class (i.e. if you're not sure who to worship as a Hexblade Warlock), then ask.

Alignment

Evil alignments are not allowed. Usually a character’s alignment is within one step of their god/religion. For example, if you worship Adar (a CG god) your alignment is probably CG, NG, TN, or CN. This is not required, but it’s a good rule of thumb.

Personality

Per the D&D mechanic AND 3 positive traits + 3 negative traits. Bullet points are ok.You can elaborate if you want, but no more than 300 words please.

Background/History

Choose a background mechanic and give an overview of your character’s life to situate them in the world. The history/background should include a summary of their life to this point. Try to keep it to a max of 750 words. Bullet points are ok.

At the time of the second opening, we are preparing to launch the 4th Story Arc. The main questline will start in Phoebek and revolve around the ruins of Aman-Tal. Your character can be from anywhere but has to currently be in Phoebek. Your backstory must explain how/why they got there.

Don’t feel like you need to incorporate the character into the setting all on your own. You can create a help ticket (use /ticket create in the Discord server) if you have specific questions related to your concept. Please feel free to "fill in the blanks" if there isn't specific lore written about a location or person.

Depending on where your character is from and what their life has been like, the DMs may reveal additional lore to you about the world or provide you with additional/alternate custom starting gear.

Tip: From the embedded map view, click on a map marker to read the short description, then click the book icon to read the full version. From the full view, hover over a marker to read the short description, then click on a map marker to read the full version.

Evara World Map

Open full size

Off the Edge of the Map

Your character can be from a country that is not mapped, so long as it doesn't conflict with the borders of an existing nation. Your character can also be from a city that is not mapped in a country that does exist. You can submit world lore for consideration here. See the Nations of Evara for examples on what we would look for.

Relationships

These can be other PCs in the group or NPCs or some combination of the two. If you have elaborated on character relationships in your written Background/History, you can pull NPCs or PCs from there as well.

• Two people friendly to your character (& why)
• One person hostile to your character (& why)

[Example Relationships]

1. Friendly
   Martin's friend Audric Cwellen was one of his adventuring mates. Martin and Audric met at temple when they were children. Audric, a Dwarvish holy warrior in the service of Thara, is now the leader of the local cell of the White Fox society, and provides Martin with information and adventure hooks. They resemble like Peter Dinklage in both appearance and attitude.
2. Yebin Thistledown, a fellow party member, is a strange little creature. Martin met the worringly nonchalant gnome in the Darksap Forest and saved him from a pack of Howlers. Yebin makes all sorts of alchemical items and gadgets, and loves collecting odd souvenirs and items, as well as "recreational herbs." Martin and Yebin have maintained a cordial relationship through regular correspondence and the exchange of favors. And recreational herbs.

Hostile

3. Aubrey LeVaine, Martin’s childhood friend, is spiteful towards Audric because they quarreled over the love of Sasha. Aubrey is still bitter about losing her to Martin and blames Martin for her capture. Still, he can provide some magical support if Martin can convince him to let go of his hate.

Goals

A total of 3 goals are required. One goal that the character has, one goal that you, the player, want to see developed. You can include more, but please put them in priority order. A desire to take the trials of the Spire of Ascension is a mandatory 3rd IC goal. Please explain what motivates them to want this in the goals section.

[Example Goals]

1. Character’s goal for themself: Martin wants to reunite with his lost love and to mend fences with some of his former adventuring buddies over the course of his new adventuring career.
2. Character’s goal for the Spire of Ascension: Martin prayed to Thara for a miracle - to bring his lost love, Sasha LeBell, back from the dead. Thara did not grant his request. He feels responsible for Sasha's death, and is willing to go to extreme lengths to bring her back. His goal is to become a god so he can bring Sasha back without relying on any other higher power.
3. Player’s goal for the character: It would be cool to have Martin face and possibly defeat the Dread Pirate Hellbeard once and for all.

Secrets

List at least two secrets about your character.

• One is a secret the character knows
• One is a secret that involves them but that they are not actually aware of yet
• The DMs will also create a third secret which neither you nor your character will be aware of, so expect some surprises.

[Example Secrets]

1. Secret character knows: Martin is a member of the White Fox Society, a secret society dedicated to keeping Coralton, a coastal town in Carthadas, free of tyranny and evil, as well as keeping local governments honest. He provides information and rumors to them, but can be convinced to take a more active role if pressed.
2. Secret character doesn’t know but the player knows: Sasha LeBell, Marin's lost love, is still alive. She was captured by the Dread Pirate Hellbeard and has been kept as his captive for all these years.
3. Secret DMs make up about the character that the player doesn’t know: Not only is Sasha alive, but she has also escaped captivity and mutinied against Hellbeard. She has taken over his ship and crew. She IS the new Dread Pirate Hellbeard.

Note: Goals, Secrets, Relationships, Backstory NPCs, and other elements of a character's backstory may be used by Epic DMs during quest Arcs.