Character Creation Guidlines / House Rules

[The Vermicious Knid]

Applications:  Start a new topic in this subforum and label it with your character's name.  You can use any format you like as long as all of the necessary information can easily be found.

Players:  I will be choosing between 4 and 6 players.

 

Level:  4th.

Races:  Hill Dwarves only (renamed to shield dwarves for the Forgotten Realms).  No other races/subraces are allowed.  You may juggle your two ability score bonuses around to different abilities.  You can also choose any artisan's tools with your Tool Proficiency racial trait, not just the three listed in the entry.  If one or both of your classes (see below) would grant proficiency with all of the the weapons listed under Dwarven Combat Training, you gain a bonus feat instead.  This is on top of the feats you normally gain as mentioned below under Feats.  Otherwise Tasha's rules may not be used to alter your race.

Classes:  Gestalt.  Each side of your gestalt is treated as its own build, particularly when it comes to spellcasting.  You can find the variant rules you should use for gestalting in 5e at the GM Binder.

Multiclassing:  Not allowed.

Alignments:  Good alignments are automatically accepted, but neutral alignments will require permission.  Evil alignments will not be accepted at all.  Your characters are the would-be hereos of Highhome, chosen for some show of selfless heroism you performed (however small) that garnered the king's attention.  You're not anti-heroes/villains or murderhobos.  Shoot, you're not even technically adventurers yet.

Abilities:  Six 4d6 rolls, reroll 1s and 2s, drop the lowest die, and arrange as desired.  You can roll twice and use the better set.  That should give you a range of 9 to 18 for each roll.

Ability Score Improvement:  Ignore the rule in the Gestalt house rules linked to above regarding this class feature.  This feature instead grants you a +2 to one ability score and a +1 to one other.  You also gain a bonus feat, as mentioned under Feats below, and you don't have to choose between one option or the other.  If you would gain this feature twice at any given level (most notably at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19), you only gain it once instead.  For nonstandard lists like those of a Fighter, you gain the full benefits of it at the listed level even if your other class doesn't provide an ASI that level.

Backgrounds:  Any that makes sense for dwarves who have lived and worked their entire lives in their stronghold in the Moonshae Isles.  Examples of ones that are inappropriate are Far Traveler, Outlander (ironically considering their destination), Pirate, and Sailor as your people live in a landlocked region surrounded by mountains.

Custom Backgrounds:  These are allowed as per the rules in the PHB, pending my approval.

Proficiencies:  You gain one additional proficiency of choice, choosing either a skill or tool representitive of your second class.  This is in addition to any granted by your classes, background, or choice of feats.  Otherwise follow the Gestalt rules linked to above.

Feats:  One bonus feat at 1st level, and a free one each time you'd be entitled to an Ability Score Increase.  Lucky is not available as a feat.

Gold and Magic Items:  1,000gp gifted to your group as a whole by your king for travel expenses, none of which you can spend during chargen.  You also received 100gp each to buy personal supplies before the mission, plus a set of gifts from the king's former days as an adventurer that are equivalent to two common and two uncommon items of choice.  One of the uncommon items can be rare instead, but it must be a weapon, armor, or shield.  This is in addition to whatever your class and background grants you.  Magic items that boost your ability scores to a specific value, like an amulet of health, or grant a bonus to your saving throws, like a cloak of protection, are not permitted during chargen.  All other magic items other than those with a simple +1 or +2 bonus will require DM approval.

Trinkets:  Roll or pick twice from any applicable trinket table.  Be sure to come up with a paragraph or so on what these trinkets mean to you and how you acquired them.

Mounts:  Unfortunately, the method you'll be using to travel from the Moonshae Isles to the Outlands is limited to only 8 individual creatures, and there won't be enough for everyone to have their own mount (especially if anyone has an animal companion).  If there is room, the king is more than happy to supply you with a free pack mule with all the appropriate gear (and maybe even a small wagon if none of you have a companion) to help carry your gear, but you'll need to acquire actual mounts once you arrive.  Otherwise, you're on foot.

Buying or Selling Magic Items:  This is not allowed during chargen.  You can sell any mundane item given to you by your class or background, but at 50% of its listed cost.  If no costs are given, you cannot sell them.

Spells:  Spells can only be chosen from the PHB during chargen.

Portraits:  Character art is highly recommended.  You will also need a 100x100-pixel token to use on any maps I post.

Edited January 9, 2023 by The Vermicious Knid (see edit history)

[The Vermicious Knid]

Allowed Books:  All 5e sourcebooks are allowed.  No third party or homebrew material.

Special Note:  Psionics are rare and considered weird and alien, and due to their history in the Realms, psionic users are considered taboo and not to be trusted.  Be wary of that if you're interested in them and be sure to incorporate it into your backstory.  This of course is meaningless in the planes itself, but will be important to know when interacting with each other or other primes from the Realms.

Edited January 9, 2023 by The Vermicious Knid (see edit history)

[The Vermicious Knid]

Banned Rules

General Rules:  Multiclassing.

Races:  All races other than Dwarf, and all subraces other than Hill Dwarf.

Feats:  Lucky.

Magic Items:  Static ability score increasersThis includes any items that boost an ability score to a specific value, such as how an amulet of health puts your Constitution at 19.*, saving throw increasersThis includes items like a cloak of protection.*.

 

More will be added as needed.  Some of these bans are only during character creation.  Those are marked with an asterisk (*).

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by The Vermicious Knid (see edit history)

[The Vermicious Knid]

Other Requirements:  Must include a description, personality, and backstory.   Up until the start of the game you were simply miners, guards (known as cragwardens), and other simple townsfolk of your village, not brave adventurers of the wild frontier.  What magic items you have all come from King Finellen, though one or two could be a family heirloom if it makes sense for your character.

Edited January 8, 2023 by The Vermicious Knid (see edit history)

[The Vermicious Knid]

Origin:  You all hail from Highhome in the Forgotten Realms, located in the fortified valley of the Cambro Mountains on the Moonshae Isles.  There are only a handful of you left in what was once a great dwarven stronghold, but your numbers have slowly dwinedled away over the years, and now you are maybe 100 strong.  High birth mortality, poor crop yields, and a number of natural disasters have all laid claim to your people.  The most recent catastrophe is a mysterious ailment known simply as stoneblood that has begun sweeping through what few of you are left.  Once infected, your very blood begins to grow thick like molasses and turns into a deep greyish color over the course of two to six weeks, eventually killing you when your heart can no longer pump it effectively.  While forced isolation is helping, the contagion is still slowly spreading through the stronghold and many people are scared and hopeless.

 

Your sovereign ruler, the good King Finellen, has been told by his court seer—a half-blind diviner named Jezzlum Crookedeye—that the only known cure for this mystical disease lies somewhere within the fabled Dwarven Mountain of the Outlands.  Thanks to a rare and dangerous scroll he acquired during his adventuring days, one bearing the spell plane shift, King Finellen can have Jezzlum transport you to center of the Outer Planes, the appropriately named Outlands, and has tasked you to travel to the Dwarven Mountain located somewhere therein and do whatever it takes to secure that cure before it's too late.  Unfortunately, it's a one-way trip and you will need to find a way to return home on your own once you find the cure.

Edited January 9, 2023 by The Vermicious Knid (see edit history)

[The Vermicious Knid]

Deities:  You can revere any dwarven deity still active in the Forgotten Realms in the 15th century.  That includes all of the ones listed here except for Thard Harr, who is not currently answering prayers or granting power to his worshippers.  Whether that means he's dead or not is unknown.

 

It is highly recommended that you choose a patron.  Not just becaues the Time of Troubles proved that they're real, but because of what happens to you when you die in the Planescape setting.  You may even run into one or two of their avatars or other servants while searching for the stoneblood cure.  You never know!

Edited January 8, 2023 by The Vermicious Knid (see edit history)