TfV Campaign Setting - 5e Character Creation

To play in the world of Olum using Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition 2014 (DnD 5e), new content has been created to replace features that do not fit with the campaign setting. As with any 5e game, the Gamemaster (GM) has the final say in what can or cannot be used in a campaign. It is encouraged however that the options presented in this guide be used in its totality, both for power balance and for maximum world immersion.

Getting Started

The first choice when creating a character varies from player to player, but for our purposes, we will be starting with choosing an Ancestry.

Ancestries

To better reflect the playable creatures found throughout Tales from Vaxus versus common fantasy tropes, all of the 5e Races found in official source books have been removed in favor of custom Ancestries that better align with the various creatures and factions found all across the world. These Ancestries have been balanced against one another while also maintaining a similar balance found in official 5e content, with an emphasis on roleplay and unique traits being the main factor in their creation. Pains have been taken to include a large variety of Ancestries to replace the standard 5e races, with some traits including multiple choices so that players who choose the same Ancestry can play that Ancestry in different ways.
There are three main categories of playable Ancestry Templates, with the first being Heartkind, followed by the Draelish Species, and lastly, the wonderfully numerous Wildling Types:

• Hearts (known as Humans in our world) are a race of humanoid creatures that, though simple in form and not possessing any innate magical traits, make up the bulk of the world's population. Known for creating small pockets of safety in a world dominated by the Wilds, Hearts utilize both technology and magic to overcome the endless tides of Change. Click here to explore Heart Kind and their Ethnicites.
• Draelish are saurian-like creatures whose history has been shrouded since ancient times. Largely nomadic and known for their keeping of long-held traditions and close-knit families and clans, little is known about them other than that they possess a type of innate magic that no one else is able to wield. Click here to explore the Draelish Species and their Affinities.
• Wildlings are the enigmatic denizens that inhabit and rule the Wilds that virtually cover the entirety of the world. Rarely leaving their magical domains, Wildlings can live anywhere and can come from anything. Click here to explore a variety of Wildling Types and their Generations.

Talents and Restrictions

bob

Backgrounds

bill

Alignment

jack

Religion

jill

Though lacking in innate magical abilities and biologically diverse traits, Hearts more than make up for this through their uncanny ability to improve basic tools and skills to their needs and adapt to environments through ethnic diversity. When playing as a Heart, you start with these Ancestry traits:
Moving on from the first step, the second step in Character Creation is picking your Ancestry's Talents and Restrictions. A plethora of roleplay-centric traits have been added as a supplement to the Ancestry's gameplay traits called Talents and Restrictions. These are meant to help players learn about and embrace what it means to truly live as their chosen Ancestry in the world around them, whether that includes beneficial or detrimental traits. Though these are largely intended to not affect combat and can be treated as optional by the gamemaster if they so desire, it is encouraged for players looking for increased immersion to take up one or two if available.
The last step in Character Creation has to do with picking your Lifepath. A common staple of DnD 5e, Backgrounds have been replaced in favor of Lifepaths. Lifepaths are skill trees that allow players to frame their old lives as common folk and their new lives as adventurers as one complete journey, allowing one to improve upon skills learned in their old life while another wishes to explore new skills.

Battle of Mafect by Abner Koenigma

Click here to go back to the TTRPG Campaign Setting page.

Finding Your Ability Scores using Point Buy
As mentioned in the System Overview, players are encouraged to use the 5e Point Buy Calculator when creating their TfV character. Before you start, however, make sure that in the Custom Rules setting, you have the Available Points set at 27, the Maximum Purchasable Attribute Before Bonuses set at 15, and the Minimum Purchasable Attribute Before Bonuses set at 6. Back at the Calculator, make sure that the Select Race option is set to Custom Race, as we will not be using any of the standard 5e races.
Ability Scores act a little differently when using this Campaign Setting. For every odd score, you will either gain a positive or negative passive trait or active ability depending if you go above or below 10. These have been implemented to give more weight to your Ability Score choices, encouraging players to be careful when dumping scores outside of their class's main stats while rewarding those who venture out from them. You can view these Ability Score traits and abilities here (link coming soon).