Character Creation

Character Creation
Cormyr Living Campaign is a concept predicated on the interaction between the players in our community. It's imperative that a strong and well-documented set of rules exists for character creation. I will list the basic rules, and then a few restrictions on character creation. Please read carefully, as any violation of the character creation rules will result in the need to re-build your character until it meets the requirements.

Repeated demonstration of inability to read and follow the rules on this wiki for creating or maintaining a character can result in being removed from the community.

Many of these sections will state that Cormyr utilizes the Pathfinder Society ruleset to determine legal source material for play. The following page of this wiki can be used to help guide you to resources which will help you create your character:

https://cormyr.fandom.com/wiki/Ban_List

How to get started
The first step is to follow the Getting Started page to get a character sheet made for you. You must do this, it's not optional. We don't use Mythweavers, we don't use anything else, we use Roll20. Follow the Getting Started page instructions.

Character Approval
After your character has been created, it must be looked over briefly by any GM, simply to make sure no rules were missed. You may roleplay your character all you want as soon as you're finished, but you may not participate in a GM-run encounter until it has been approved.

When the character has been approved, the approving GM will put their GM name as well as the date of approval in the GM notes of your sheet, so you won't have to do anything else.

Backstory / Bio
While almost entirely up to you, there are a few points to consider when making your character. Do some searching on google and read up on Forgotten Realms a little. The more you can make your character a part of Faerûn, the more fun you'll have. Due to the way we run this group and the campaign setting we've chosen, there are a few items you MUST address with respect to your character's origins.


 * The Kingdom of Cormyr requires all adventurers to be licensed. Because of this, your character must have a legitimate reason to have gotten an adventuring charter. Whether you're looking for glory, money, or just bored, I don't care. But the assumption is that each character in our group is a chartered adventurer, so have a roleplay reason for it.


 * You may not have any aspect of your backstory that would imply an ability to affect the setting. Basically, don't have a character that claims to be the Princess' ex-boyfriend, and the king's rightful heir, or any such stuff. This setting is meant to be accessible and well-defined for anyone to play in, and backstories such as this would negatively affect the stability of the setting from a GM runability standpoint. Claiming to be of noble birth from a different part of the world is completely legitimate, just make sure the ties are vague enough not to cause issue.


 * Your character may not have a backstory that places them as a member of any military or political organization residing within Cormyr, including the Purple Dragon Knights, War Wizards, Harpers, etc.
 * As mentioned in our rules: Eastern classes, and equipment are not available for play within this campaign setting without explicit approval from the GM team, and likewise characters may not come from the eastern setting regions of the Forgotten Realms (e.g. Kara-Tur) without the same approvals. These regions had extremely limited contact with the central regions of Faerun during the Era of Upheaval, and it does not make sense for very many, if any at all, of the people of these regions to have passed into Cormyr. Players wishing to play characters from these regions must have a compelling reason to want to play this character backstory or be long-time members of the community, and demonstrate extensive knowledge of the FR setting and the regions the wish to come from.
 * Similarly, player cannot come from Regions like Maztica and Zakhara without explicit GM approval, as these regions are quite distant from Corymr.
 * Additionally, your character receives a Regional Language as a bonus (independent of any other languages you may receive) based on the area that was selected as their Homeland in addition to your other starting languages. If you are unsure which language is native to your homeland, discuss with a GM.

Ability Scores
Ability scores in Cormyr are generated with 20 Points using the point-buy system described in the Core Rulebook.

As is allowed by this method, a character may choose to lower a particular ability score below the starting point of ten, however in Cormyr your character may have no more than two ability scores below ten.

You may subtract up to two points using the point-buy method for Ability Scores with a +2 racial bonus, or for Ability Scores with no particular bonuses (the minimum final score for an ability with no negative racial modifiers is 8.)

You may only subtract a single point using the point-buy method for Ability Scores with a -2 racial penalty. (the minimum final score for an ability with a negative racial modifier is 7.)

Hit Points
At first level, you take the maximum hit points for your class (e.g., a d8 class gets 8 points.) Every level thereafter, you take half + 1 (e.g. a d8 class gets 5.)

Alignment
As any experienced GM or player will tell you, evil characters tend to disrupt the stability of any group. This will be even more so the case when we expect players who have just met to play a session with each other.

Your character must be any non-evil alignment. Whether that means good or neutral, chaotic or lawful, is completely up to you. But no evil.

Class
Cormyr utilizes the Pathfinder Society ruleset to determine legal source material for play.

Two notes:

Note 1: Bear in mind that, as mentioned above, eastern classes, and equipment are not available for play within this campaign setting without explicit approval from the GM team, and likewise characters may not come from the eastern setting regions of the Forgotten Realms (e.g. Kara-Tur) without the same approvals. These regions had extremely limited contact with the central regions of Faerun during the Era of Upheaval, and it does not make sense for very many, if any at all, of the people of these regions to have passed into Cormyr. Players wishing to play characters from these regions must have a compelling reason to want to play this character backstory or be long-time members of the community, and demonstrate extensive knowledge of the FR setting and the regions the wish to come from.

Note 2: Special rules apply regarding the use of guns. Additionally, since we are a Forgotten Realms setting, we will go with the Forgotten Realms lore that gunpowder is a magical alchemical substance. This doesn't affect anything except that guns cannot be used in anti-magic fields.

Race
Cormyr utilizes the Pathfinder Society ruleset to determine legal source material for play. Pathfinder Society restricts a number of races, and the details are difficult to discern from their ban list. The full list of legal races for play is compiled on our wiki:

https://cormyr.fandom.com/wiki/Legal_Races

Feats, Spells, etc.
Cormyr utilizes the Pathfinder Society ruleset to determine legal source material for play.

Take note that due to the nature of the game style and concept, GMs cannot be involved all the time with all aspects of your progression. Due to this, Crafting feats are  NOT  allowed in Cormyr living campaign. You will be able to purchase custom-crafted items if you feel that your character needs them. The rules for all item purchasing can be found in the Experience and Loot page.

Because crafting isn't allowed, some classes may have their 'free' feats impacted. Please read the Campaign Character Rules page for information on substitutions:

https://cormyr.fandom.com/wiki/Campaign_Character_Rules

Archetypes
So long as you understand the rules for applying archetypes to your character (You cannot take multiple archetypes that replace or affect the same class feature, etc.) you may apply legal archetypes. The archetypes you select must be legal for play within Pathfinder Society.

Skills
In addition to the normal "adventure" skills, we also allow background skills.

Background skills allow players to take 2 additional skills ranks per level in non-combat/survival skills, allowing for more diverse characters. Essentially these are the characters "hobbies" and interests.

Background skills are: Appraise, Craft, Handle Animal, Linguistics, Perform, Profession, and some Knowledge

This also adds 2 new skills: Artistry and Lore. see the link above for details. NOTE: Any class that gains Craft or Perform as a class skill also counts Artistry as a class skill. Lore is always considered a class skill for all characters.

Note: background skills only apply to characters with PC levels, not companions, familiars, eidolons, etc.

To enable Background Skills, open settings (the gear) on your character sheet. Under Rules Options, select "Display/Enable Unchained Skills" and then "Background Skills". Your skill ranks will be automatically updated on your sheet. See image below or ask for help if you cannot find this

Prestige Classes
Though this doesn't necessarily come into play at character creation, some people like to know what classes may be available to them down the line.

Cormyr utilizes the Pathfinder Society ruleset to determine legal source material for play. Therefore, there are a set of prestige classes legal for play. However, some of these may have requirements that will prevent you from taking them, so be aware of that. (For instance, Assassin requires evil alignment, but characters of evil alignment are not permitted. So Assassin is a no-go)

We may end up adding some pathfinder-translated versions of the 3.5e Forgotten Realms prestige classes to add some Faerun flavor, but this is not yet implemented, and is not guaranteed either due to balance considerations.

Traits
Each character may select two traits from any of the legal material. They must be from different trait categories.

Religion
The setting for this campaign is Forgotten Realms. We do not permit characters to follow Pathfinder dieties. As such, your character should follow a Forgotten Realms diety. You can find a list of the Forgotten Relams Dieties with Domains that have been translated from 3e to Pathfinder on this wiki, here:

https://cormyr.fandom.com/wiki/Deities_and_Domains

Normal restrictions apply (Don't worship a gnome god as an elf unless you have a good in-character reason). More details are available on the wiki page. Additionally, you can learn more about the history and culture associated with each diety at the Forgotten Realms wiki, here:

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Portal:Deities (There's a section a bit down the page called The Pantheons of Faerûn, circa 1374 DR. That's what you want.)

Starting Wealth
All characters in Cormyr Living Campaign start with 150 gold. See the items section below for what you can buy with your new-found wealth!

Items
Cormyr has a very regulated system regarding available items.This will be covered in the Experience and Loot post here. in more detail. Given that the starting gold is 150, you are pretty much going to be able to buy any mundane items you want from the core rulebook, but magic items will be out of your budget. Your character will be audited to make sure you've only spent up to 150 at creation. Please check the Experience and Loot page before you start playing, as well.