So I've no idea what to do...

[Bauglir]

It's hard to find a group of people when you live in the middle of no where in the middle of Northern Ireland.

Where do you live? There's a fair few of us that meet up in Belfast weekly. If you are able to travel there you should be able to find a group.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

You could also avoid the swim and ride skills entirely.

You have access to a lot of other skills, just at a lesser rate of advancement.

Ride, Jump, Climb, etc. are class skills for fighters, but others like Survival, Knowledge skills, Balance, etc are cross-class skills, which means you can gain ranks in them, but it costs twice as many skill points (2 points for each rank).

So, if you think your Dwarf has never gone swimming and is unlikely to ever ride anything, you can take those 4 skill points and spend them on two ranks in another skill.

If he's a religious character, you could put them in Knowledge: Religion. If he's spent time in the wilderness, you could put them in Survival. Or any other skill you felt fit the character.

 

[Lord of the Enarkae]

Where do you live? There's a fair few of us that meet up in Belfast weekly. If you are able to travel there you should be able to find a group.

It's not the Dragonslayers at Queens is it?

I should be starting at Queens this year.

Oh and Canis I swapped my Dex and Int around.

 

[Bauglir]

It is indeed

 

[Henry]

Rel, earlier in the thread he mentioned swapping his INT and DEX scores, because he wanted a skilled dwarf more than a nimble dwarf. However, I don't think he ever re-posted his corrected stats, though, so easy confusion to happen.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Now you need to pick your initial Feat!

 

[Lord of the Enarkae]

Now I need to go to work.

 

[Lord of the Enarkae]

Ok a feat, I'm not gonna go for anything too extreme... just something exotic, proficiency in exotic weapons to be precise since I'll be using the Dwarven Waraxe. As a fighter do I get an extra feat?

So a quick recap of my struggle:

STR - 17 +3
DEX - 12 +1
CON - 20 +5
INT - 16 +3
WIS - 11 +0
CHA - 6 -2

Skills (Thanks Henry):
CLIMB +7 = +3 + 4
CRAFT
HANDLE ANIMAL +2 = -2 + 4
JUMP +7 = +3 + 4
RIDE +3 = +1 + 2
SWIM +5 = +3 + 2

Dwarven Waraxe
Large Wooden Shield
Scale Mail

For Jump and Climb I get a -4 armour check penalty cause I've chosen Scale Mail. Now I'm thinking for swimming it's -1 for every 5lb of weight so I get -11 for 55lb?

As for a craft I was going to go for Weaponsmithery even if that isn't a real word. Someone will have to explain to me how exactly to use that since it's giving me a spot of bother.

 

[wizardneedsfood]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the Dwarven Waraxe counts as a martial weapon for Dwarves, so you'd already have proficency with that. Instead you could take Weapon Focus (Dwarven Waraxe) to get a +1 to attack rolls. And yes, as a fighter you get a second feat as well.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

...but I'm eager to learn and will be most grateful towards anyone who helps me out here. This whole D&D lark looks like the sort of thing I would be interested in and have a lot of funning learning and doing. I know what the game is but I have very little clue on how to play it, there's lots of information here but no "Hey stupid, read this first" thread to get me started. So basically "all" I want to know is:

- What books do I really need to play?
- How do I create a character and get them into a game?
- Everything else there is to know.

Well maybe that last one is asking a bit much, but if some of you can point me in the right direction then hopefully I'll find my way.

You can always start with the SRD (System Reference Document), too. The SRD is basically the D&D Core books minus most of the flavor text (aka 'fluff') and the character creation rules. But there is enough there for you to get a feel for the game. There are links to the SRD files at the top of the 'Rules' forum.