This page lists some sample starting charactersheets for inspiration and examples for creating your own character. These are all fairly solid builds, so feel free to copy them as they are if you don't want to get too involved in the statting to start with.

Credit for these charactersheets goes to Drac.

Human Warrior

Equipment

• Chain armour
• 1 handed weapon
• Shield

Character notes

This is an “all round warrior” build. By taking shield use at level 2 and then use all weapons at level 3 you gain a good flexibility as what to use as your primary and backup weapons.
2 extra rounds of health and the maximum armour for your level gives you a good survivability in fights on a linear.
First aid 2 allows you to stop fallen comrades bleeding 1 location at a time.

Further skill development:

Increasing first aid to 3 will let you stop people bleeding much faster. If you want to deal more damage then picking up the 2 handed skill is a solid investment. Blind fighting 1 means you are no longer crippled by the blindness spell and only needs 1 more XP.
Also now is the time to invest in Combat Awareness levels 1-3 so you can buy combat awareness 4 and get a point of Dodge as soon as you reach level 4.

Roleplaying tips

The all-round warrior has a great number of backgrounds, and what probably influences your character the most is where they learned their martial training?

• Are they are mercenary who has spent their lives guarding caravans? (Never do anything without getting paid!)
• A militiaman from one of the cities? (if so consider swapping out first aid 2 for subdual 1, this will reduce you to 2 spare XP, but lets you guarentee you won’t accidentally kill people when bopping them with a truncheon!)
• A war veteran (for which army? The king has fought wars with many of the neighbours!)
• Part of a militant order of one of the churches, and thus a lay follower of one of the gods?

Inspirations

The main character from almost all sword-and-sorcery movies is almost inevitably an all-round fighter. They are a film staple, either as heroes, villians or legions of faceless mooks.
Spartans from 300 and Achiles are good high level warriors.

Human Berserker

Equipment

• Chain armour
• 2 handed weapon

Character notes

The classic barbarian-style beserker: everything is about dealing damage: shield use, armour and first aid have been dropped in favour of berserk and 2 handed weapon skill. This gives you an extra degree of damage, but sacrifices the defence a shield gives you so you can expect to take more damage too.

Speak to the Ref team about a good trigger for berserk, you want one that is not so common that you will fly off the handle at every location, but not so rare that you will never flip out.

Further skill development

You are at the peak of damage for the starting character, things wont get better until you can afford melee 5. Getting Armour 3 as soon as possible will be important for surviving linears. Blind fighting is a good investment for you, as is more health since you will be taking more damage than the shield using warrior. Finally if you feel like playing a more wilderness barbarian you might want to buy a level or 2 of wilderness for track and scent recognition skills. At this stage you can’t enter unarmed brawls, so spending 1XP on brawling can increase your roleplaying opportunities with the other martial characters.

Roleplaying tips

The berserker is all about size. Be big, be brash, be bold. He lives for 3 things: wine, women and war. Get in people’s faces, challenge them to fights, when they get fancy with their silly duelling rules smash their faces in with your great sword. It’s not personal, it’s a matter of showing and assessing strength. Just be prepared that some of them may be stronger than you – respect those that show it and disregard those who are weak.

Where have you come from to acquire this outlook on life? – the sample skills assume Cymru (wales), you are a long way from home, why have you left your lands and wandered here? Other classic options include Caledonia (Scotland) and Norsca(Norway), each has its own language (Caledonian and Norscan respectively) that you can replace Cymric with. All 3 cultures have been invaded by / have invaded Albion recently so there are many reasons why you might have decided to wander for a time. You may not be overly fluant in Common, so feel free to add a heavy accent to your speech not understand when people talk quickly at you, or to break into your native tongue when excited or explaining something complicated.

Inspirations

• Thor (Norse God)
• Wolverine (X-men)
• Thog (Order of the Stick)
• Barak (Belgriad)
• Conan the barbarian is what happens when a berserker is too skilled to die, and so keeps going.

Kender Subterfuger

Equipment

• Short sword
• Dagger
• Cosh
• Leather armour

Character notes

The archetypical rogue, streetfighter is all about fighting with weapons in either hand – your main hand has a short weapon, your offhand has a dagger for parrying and backstabbing. You are much more effective if you can get behind a target so you can backstab them.

You have alias to allow you to come up with a whole new persona for investigating (or hiding!) in the bar at interactives and forgery allows you to forge official documents.

Your higher than average income gives you flexibility in terms of adventuring supplies. Consider buying some poisons from the guild of alchemists to increase the damage of your backstabs.

Your biggest weakness is that you are fragile! You won’t last long in a straight fight against a warrior or wildernesser! Use your armour wisely, and being a kender gives you 2 free points of Dodge – this lets you dodge the first 2 blows aimed at you, make sure you remember them!

Further skill development

You will not be able to improve your hits until you reach level 4, but you can start saving now: buying health 1-3 so you are ready at level 4. Similarly you can buy dodge 1-3 at this level so you can buy dodge 4 soon into level 4 and get another point of Dodge. Your biggest purchase in level 4 is probably backstab 2, adding another level of damage to your backstabs.

Roleplaying tips

Kender are typically bouncy, irreverent, playful, brightly coloured and very, very annoying. If the rest of the bar can barely stand your presence then you are doing it right! Kender like to take “things” so consider getting the light fingers skill at level 4 and use it to pick the other characters pockets!

Think about why your character in in Brighthelm (probably excitement), and what sorts of adventures he wants to get in with.

Inspirations

• Simbad
• Dastan (Prince of Persia)
• Odysseus (the odyessy)
• Half the cast of pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow is a rogue at the top of his game

Hydrokin Water Mage

Equipment

Weapon (empowered so as not to count towards metal limits)

Spells

• Create Water (Green)
• Shell of Ice (Green)
• Talk to Animal or Plant (Green)
• Liquefy Item (Green)
• Converse with Liquid (Green)
• Patch of Ice (Green)
• Entangle (Green)
• Detect Magic (Grey)
• Analyse Magic (Grey)
• Behold Magic (Grey)

Character notes

You do not do much damage yourself, but you are one of the best supporters a party can have, able to HALT enemies to keep them out of a fight, or use STRIKEDOWN and DISARM to help your allies by disabling he opponents they are fighting.

Your weakness is your frailty – you have only 2 hits per location and only 4 points of armour in total, further you cannot cast if stuck in combat so you need the other party members to act as meat shields so you can get the spells off. Write out some spell vocals and practice them so that you can remember them quickly when the chaos starts.

When actually in combat you are only doing HALF, so it will take you a long time to win in melee, for linearing you probably want to borrow a staff or spear to try to keep your enemies at a distance.

Further skill development

You have a lot of spare XP in this build, you want to invest it in Elemental Might 2 as soon as possible. This not only gives you an additional 10 mana, but also increases your mana regeneration rate to 2 mana per combat, meaning you can throw out many more spells over the course of an adventure.

Alternatively Ritual magic costs 10xp and will allow you to take part in rituals which can involve fun roleplay and consequences.

Once you reach level 4 invest in Empower Magic Weapon 2. This will raise your damage call to SINGLE and is immune to DISARM. Consider whether you want to concentrate further on Green spells or invest in some more Grey spells. Grey magic is generally useful for a variety of situations, and “Talk to Magical Effect” will allow you to identify any magical items you might find.

Finally, there are many other spells available “off syllabus,” that is, in your college library but not listed on the website. Once your character has entered play you can ask the refs for a list of what spells they can easily find, see “Learning Spells” in the “Magic Rules” section of the website.

Roleplaying tips

You are probably pretty smart, you are in magic college after all, as a mage a lot of your life revolves around the College of Magic: classes, labs, research. Planning for eventual jouneymanship and mastership (and of course, ultimate cosmic power).

The college is why you are in the city, but why are you coming to the Sussex arms on a friday night? A place and time famous for violence, explosions, magical mayhem and demon incursions. It is filled with thugs, children of the light, and hopefully some fellow students, possibly with a warlock making sure you don’t get up to any trouble.

Inspirations

• Students from unseen university, and of course Rincewind
• Willow (Buffy the vampire slayer)
• Merlin from the TV series Merlin.
• The merlin from legend and Gandalf are classic high-level wizards.

Human Scout

Equipment

• Hardened Leather armour
• Bow or crossbow
• Backup 1H weapon

Character notes

A master of ranged combat, you can inflict a great deal of damage with bows and crossbows, and not just on your own. Strategically hitting an enemy with DOUBLE STRIKEDOWN when they are fighting your companions means that enemy probably won’t get up again!

Like the wizard you become much less effective when forced into melee, so you want to be staying behind the warrior.

Also playing a larp archer is difficult! It takes practice to load, aim and fire a bow quickly. Crossbows are easier, but harder to get hold of.

Your fur and leather hardening gives you much more armour than normal – your studded leather actually counts as chain, giving you the same armour as a full warrior. First aid 3 means you can actually bandage people and get them up at the end of a fight, a very useful skill. Finally you can smell several of the common creatures found in the wilds around Brighthelm: goblins, swogs, humans, and undead.

To up your damage consider buying some poisons for when you linear.

Future Progression

You may want to buy camoflague, but with the flat and open nature of Granchester medows it becomes hard to use often. Weapon competency gives you more weapon options, opening up dual wielding and 2 handed weapons. More recognise scents always come in useful.
Moving into level 4 you want to get your targeteer up, letting you call TRIPLE strikedown and the next level of tracking.

Roleplaying Notes

Chances are you spend a lot of time out of the city, probably on your own stalking through the fenlands that surround the city. Maybe you earn your living as a hunter, bringing in swog meat for sale to keep the money in whilst you stalk rarer, more challenging prey. Are you a protector of one of the nearby villages? Keeping the beasts at bay and finding children who wander too far into the fens. Or are you from further away? there are many wild places in Sussex and the surrounding lands, did your ancesters roam a rugged patch of earth for a dozen generations before you were forced to leave and come to the city?

Inspirations

• Legolas from Lord of the Rings
• Aragorn is a wildernesser who has also taken some levels of warrior
• Robin hood from legend is a wildernesser with a splash of subterfuger, from the latest film he is a wildernesser / warrior
• Drizzt (Dungeons and Dragons)
• The Nights Watch (Game of Thrones)

True Elf Priest of Nephthys

Miracles

• Speak to Corpse
• Order
• Spiritstrike
• Cure Minor Wounds
• Empower Minion
• Induce Emotion
• Spiritsweep
• Cure Serious Wounds
• Raise Death's Head
• Command
• Spirit Hammer
• Healing Circle

Equipment

• Weapon

Character notes

As a priest of Nephthys, it’s all about knowing what to use when. Most people will probably appreciate your healing abilities, but they are a limited resource and your god will not look kindly on you using them too altruistically.

In battle you are fragile like the mage, and you have less power to call upon but your miracles are in general more powerful that equal level spells. Appropriately applied Mind Control can keep enemies out of the fight, while Humble can pin an enemy down for 10 seconds so your party can batter them before they get up. Healing is useful to pick your allies up after a fight and stop them bleeding. Healing Circle can stop a group of people bleeding in one stroke (but be sure there are no unconscious enemies in range!)

Given raising the dead is currently technically legal but frowned upon by just about everybody, you have to be careful with what you are doing in the city, and who witnesses it when you are outside of the city. A mercenary is likely to get over any ill feeling when your zombie takes some damage instead him, but a Paladin of Aten will probably try to kill you for “defiling” the dead!

Future progression

As an elf, you are particularly fragile, however your point of Dodge means that you should be able to put some distance between yourself and your attackers if they get to close. Nevertheless, buying another round of hits as soon as possible is highly reccommended. More spirit is always useful, so Spiritual Power is a good next investment. At level 4 get empower spirit weapon as that raises your damage to SINGLE and is immune to DISARM. Consider branching out into the other trees: Warrior 1 will allow you to get proficiency with a form of weapon, 4 more points of armour, and by combining fortitude 1 and fitness 1 with health 1 & 2 you can get another round of its. Similarly first aid will give you an excuse to be spending time around the dying, so you can choose to help them on their way and taint their souls.

Roleplay notes.

Like the paladin the major influence on this character is their devotion to their God. You are literally bound to your God and are expected to serve them, Nephthys is not known for being forgiving. Why did you devote yourself to him: Power? Comfort? The very control over death?

Nephthys followers often go out of their way to make friends with people worth knowing, but review the usefulness of their alliances regularly. Someone who can be consistantly useful is a resource worth protecting, with liabilities it is better to cut your losses. Followers of Nephthys may appear fickle and self-centered but most have an interest in the wellbeing of the society that they live in.

Inspirations

• Imhotep (The mummy, mummy returns, Mummy 3)
• Littlefinger (Game of Thrones)
• Lord Vetinari (Discworld)

Paladin of Aten

Equipment

• Sword
• Shield
• Armour (partial chain mixed with leather)

Miracles

• Purge 1
• Mighty Blow

Character notes

A paladin: a warrior who also has spiritual powers. Following Aten, the god of purity, protecting innocence, and smiting undead makes this the classic paladin from tabletop and myths, the behaviour of paladins from other gods varies as the gods outlook varies. You are not quite as tough as a warrior, and have much fewer spiritual powers than a priest, but by combining the 2 you are a versatile and effective member of a party. You can take almost as much pounding as the warrior can, and in addition you can use your miracles to heal comrades, hinder enemies or empower your allies.

You have a limited amount of spirit with which to cast miracles, so they are best saved for when it’s really needed.

You may wish to use a great-weapon instead of sword and shield, in which case you can change shield use in melee 2 for use all weapons.

Further skill development

You need to make a choice as to how you want to split your future XP: more warrior, or more priest. More warrior you should buy warrior 3, armour 3 and melee 3 as soon as possible. For more priest there are 2 more miracle trees: smite body and knowledge to buy at level 1, along with purity and valour that can be increased to level 2. Smite Soul 2: Spiritsweep can be a nice trick to pull in combat, taking one opponent out of the fight while you deal with the rest.

Roleplaying Tips

You are a paragon of a religious order, with your soul quite literally bonded to your God. This will have shaped a lot of your characters personality, and God and church will expect great things of you.
Similarly you chose a militant warriors path rather than a more priestly role, think about why you did that and what sort of person you are likely to be. Priest of Aten in particular have a tendency to extremely zealous in their duties, sure that they know what is best for others even if they don't accept this themselves.

Why are you in the Sussex arms? It is a well-known hive of scum, villainy, mages and undead attacks.

Inspiration

• Damien (Coldfire Trilogy)
• Miko Miyazaki (Order of the Stick)
• Buffy the vampire slayer#

Orcish Alchemist

Dwarven Subter-Alchemist

Equipment

• Dagger
• Club
• Armour (partial studded leather)

Potions

• Ointment (Cure 1)
• Hunter's Venom (1-shot venom)
• Neutraliser (Negate 1 status effect within 5 mins.)

Character notes

As a dwarf, you can expect to have access to a lot of health regardless of what class you choose. Dwarves are generally scornful of magical and spiritual powers, prefering to succeed through their own merits rather than relying on the favour of aloof deities to grant them abilities. Alchemy gives you access to non-spiritual healing, while also letting you improve your damage when it counts with blade venoms, as well as a few other nice tricks. Combining the Backstab subterfuge ability with venoms packs a truly powerful punch.

Further skill development

At this juncture you could choose to focus on either more alchemy or more subterfuge. Taking the subterfuge option will quickly improve your combat abilities, granting access to longer weapons, backstab, and dodge, as well as some non-combat skills such as forgery. Taking the alchemical option gives access to more powerful potions and more lyrium, which can make your healing both more efficient and effective, as well as granting access to various roleplaying and social alchemicals.

Roleplaying Tips

You might feel slightly cocky, above the god-given strictures of many of the inhabitants, free to pursue your own ends by whatever means you deem appropriate at the time. However, you are still not above the law, and being too brash in the face of fanatical paladins may still be unwise. Still, the militia and paladins can't be everywhere, and there are plenty of profits for the taking on the streets of Brighthelm…