Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khaalis" data-source="post: 1851748" data-attributes="member: 2167">We also have rules for the "pre-adventure" days of PC's.BACKGROUND TRAINING (0TH LEVEL)Choose an NPC class to represent the PC’s early adulthood training before training in their adventurer profession. This class is counted as being 0-Level.  The PC gains the following benefits from level 0. • Skill Points: Gain the 1st level skill points at only a x2 multiplier• Gain the class’s Base Attack Bonus and Saving Throw Bonuses but they remain static until standard class levels would grant a better bonus.• Hit Dice at 1st level is based on the better HD between the 0-level NPC class and the 1st level adventuring class.Available NPC Classes: To be approved by the DM and must be relevant to the PC’s background and class selection.DMG: Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert, WarriorOther Sources: Brute, Cutpurse, Guard, Magewright, Marketeer, Pirate (a.k.a. Buccaneer/Privateer), Sailor, Slave, StevedoreHERITAGE BONUSESAll PCs gain the following heritage bonuses.Languages: All PC’s begin knowing Common. In addition, each PC knows the automatic language of their Region. PC’s with an Intelligence of 12 or more can learn one additional language per point of Intelligence modifier from the available Bonus Languages for their region.Skill Options: Choose one of the following Heritage Skill options at 1st level. All choices must be relevant to the PC's culture.• +3 bonus to two Craft, Knowledge, or Profession skills• +3 bonus to one Class skill• +2 bonus to two Class skills• +2 bonus to one Class skill and choose one appropriate Cross-Class skill to become a Class skill*• +2 bonus to one Class skill and swap two Class Skills for appropriate Cross-Class skills*• Choose two appropriate Cross-Class skills to become Class skills*(*: These skills become class skills regardless of the class currently being trained, thus they remain class skills even if the PC multi-classes after 1st level.)Background Feats: Since most adventures spend roughly 1/4 of their lives pre-adventurer, their background and upbringing thusly has a strong bearing on their abilities. Choose any two Background, Heritage, Origin, Regional, Racial, or Talent feats as bonus feats at 1st level in addition to any gained from race or class.  (Background feats are defined as any feat specified to be associated to a specific locale, race or heritage or that specifically may only be taken at 1st level such as Region feats in the Forgotten Realms, Ancestor feats from Oriental Adventures or Racial feats from Races of Stone.)Starting Equipment: PC’s may take one of the bonus packages for their Region or may instead take an extra 100gp in starting funds instead.Example 1: Thorn spent his younger years dreaming of and training to become part of the Cormyrian Purple Dragons and thus has trained most of his young adult life to be a Warrior and much time on the farm riding horses. However, when applying for the Dragons and taking the entrance examinations, it was found that he had an innate talent for magic and was instead drafted to the War Wizards for training, thus becoming a 1st level Wizard.At Creation, Thorn is a Warrior NPC and a 1st level Wizard and thus gains:* BAB: Thorn's BAB would begin at 1st level as a +1, but would not again increase until it would normally become +2 (thus at 4th level Wizard or 2nd level Fighter).* HD: Thorn begins play with 8+Con HP. Since the Warrior HD is higher than the Wizard’s 4+CON it remains 8+con HP for 1st level.* Saves: Thorn begins at 1st level with a +2 to Fortitude and a +2 to Will. However, his Fortitude save will not increase again until it would normally become a +3 (thus at 9th level Wizard or 2nd level Fighter).* Skills: Thorn has a 14 Intelligence. .....As a 0-Level Warrior he gains (4+INT)x2 skill points and applies his 12 skill points as Handle Animal 4, Intimidate 4, Ride 4......Wizards gain (4+INT)x4 skill points. From his training with the War Wizards he applies his 24 points: Concentration 4, Spellcraft 4, Knowledge (Arcana, Local [Cormyr]) 4 each, Knowledge (Geography, Nobility) 2 each, Profession (Guard) 4.* Skill Option: Thorn trained as a warrior but tested with an aptitude for magic and thus based on that background chooses to apply the “+2 bonus to one Class skill and choose one appropriate Cross-Class skill to become a Class skill” Skill Option, gaining a +2 bonus to Spellcraft and adding Intimidate as a continuous class skill.* Languages: Thorn knows Common and Chondathan as his home languages. Due to his Intelligence, he also learned to speak Damaran.* Background Feats: Thorn, being human, gains 4 feats at 1st level (2 Background, 1 for 1st level, and 1 Bonus from Human racial ability) and chooses them as follows.• 1st Level Class feat: Magical Aptitude• Human bonus feat: Mounted Combat• Background 1: Saddleback• Background 2: Warrior Instinct* Bonus Equipment: Thorn takes the extra 100gp to spend on additional spells for his spellbook.Example 2: If for example Thorn began as a Warrior and then became a Fighter at 1st level...* BAB: Thorn's BAB would begin at 1st level as a +1.* HD: Thorn’s HP would be 10+CON, the better starting HD of a 1st level Fighter d10 versus the starting d8+CON for a Warrior which represents the increased training acquired for the class.* Saves: Thorn would begin play at 1st level with a +2 bonus to Fortitude.* Skills: Thorn has a 14 Intelligence......As a 0-Level Warrior he gains (4+INT)x2 skill points and applies his 12 skill points as Handle Animal 4, Intimidate 4, Ride 4......Fighters gain (4+INT)x4 skill points. From his training with the Purple Dragons he applies his 24 points: Climb 4, Heal 4, Profession (Guard) 4, Knowledge (Local [cormyr], Nobility) 4 each, Spot 4* Skill Option: Thorn trained as a warrior and then for service with the Purple Dragons, and chooses to apply the “Choose two appropriate Cross-Class skills to become Class skills” Skill Option, gaining Knowledge (Local [cormyr] and Nobility) as continuous class skills.* Languages: Thorn knows Common and Chondathan as his home languages. Due to his Intelligence, he also learned to speak Damaran.* FEATS: Thorn being human gains 5 feats at 1st level (2 Background, 1 for 1st level, 1 for Fighter 1st level, and 1 Bonus from Human racial ability) and chooses them as follows.• 1st Level Class feat: Dodge• Human Bonus Feat: Mounted Combat• Fighter Bonus Feat: Weapon Focus (Long Sword)• Background 1: Saddleback• Background 2: Warrior Instinct * Bonus Equipment: Thorn begins with a Masterwork Longsword that was a gift from his father upon entry to the Purple Dragons.This has worked great for us. Not only does it place emphasis on character background development, it actually gives the player a sense that their first 1/4 of their life actually taught them something, unlike a typical 1st level PC that is as green as a newborn under the current system.  We use 2 Background feats as we have found it to be the right balance of flavor/reward for us.</blockquote>

Verification