Caelynn Nay'lo

Caelynn grew up deep in the Silversage forest near the world tree of Eldrak. Eldrak was a sacred place for druids of the order of Othorion Theneiros to gather and a place that very few non-elves ever got to see.

For most of her early life Caelynn was surrounded by druids, elves and other creatures of the forest. Caelynn's parents were not only druids of the order of Othorion Theneiros but also powerful political figures that represented much of Silversage Forest and its inhabitants.

Due to her upbringing it was hardly surprising that Caelynn also became a druid but deep inside her Caelynn always distrusted the intentions behind the order of Othorion Theneiros. Once she came of age Caelynn agreed to be sent away to take part in a "sensitive" diplomatic mission to see the dwarves of Tarren. Halfway through the journey, however, two of Caelynn's druid companions attempted to assassinate her after she arrived at Ormere in the orc lands of Kaagdish.

Feeling distressed and betrayed Caelynn knew she needed new companions and a new destination. She joined forces with an orc named Hilde and set sail to the violent lands of Chak; the last place her parents would look to find her.

Creating the Concept

Based on the short story above we can fill out Caelynn's basic info part of the character sheet with the concept of "betrayed druid" in mind.

We have chosen that Caelynn worships Dayllril god of nature, plants and growth and filled out the other parts of the basic information.

At this stage we also decided to fill out Caelynn's virtues as well. Virtues are chosen by the player and approved by the GM. All virtues at 2 are considered fairly 'normal'.

In this case Caelynn is fairly impatient (for an elf) compared to her other virtues.

Allocating Attributes

Here we get to assign our 16 attribute points. The image on the left shows the maximum possible for attributes based on race. The maximum for most races for most attributes is 6. In this case Caelynn is an elf so she has a higher maximum for dexterity and a lower maximum for constitution.

On the right we have those assigned attributes. Note that there are 17 'dots' allocated. This is because elves get one extra dot here as a racial bonus.

Assigning skills

Here we can see how we have spent the 15 skill points;

3 in Concentration
1 in Handle Animal
3 in Wilderness Lore
1 in Linguistics
2 in Literacy
2 increasing Athletics
1 increasing Dodge
1 increasing Fortitude
1 increasing Intuition

Before allocating any of the 15 skill points, a player needs to work out how many additional ‘dots’ their character will have due to ability rounding.

Next to each ability on the character sheet there are three letters written in brackets. These three letters represent one of the attributes (example ‘Str’ is strength). The attribute represent the Natural Talent for that ability. Each of the character’s abilities start with half (rounded down) of their Natural Talent. This is shown filled in on the left image.

Also note that, as a racial bonus, elves get 1 extra 'dot' in Awareness, Stealth and Will. These dots are filled out in the next image.

At this stage we cannot go beyond 3 'dots'. The exception to this is if a character’s race forces the stat above 4 (i.e. that character has 3 in that ability because of ability rounding and has a racial bonus (see book for more details)).

Choosing Feats

Starting characters get to pick 3 standard feats. The character must fulfill all the prerequisites for these feats by the end of character creation.

There are OVER 200 feats to choose from each based one of the 16 Trained skills/Abilities! All of these feats are written in chapter 5 of Ascendant Destiny.

For Caelynn we have chosen the feats Nature Sense, Natural Essence and Sneak Attack.

Spending Freebie Points

Freebie Points are a mechanic used to round a starting character off. Freebie Points can be spent to improve your character in any way of your choosing (within limits of course).

Because the elf is quite a powerful race it only gets 8 freebie points to spend during character creation.

For Caelynn we have chosen to spend those points in the following way:

3 in improving Essence stat
1 in raising Wilderness Lore skill to 4
3 in purchasing the 'Vowel of the Forest' magic feat (this is required to cast druid spells and also gives the druid three spells: Ice Shards, Lightning Jolt and Sting).
1 in purchasing three 1st level spells

Calculating Derived Stats and Finishing Touches

The formulas for calculating Derived Stats is located in chapter 11 of Ascendant Destiny. We have filled out Caelynn's Derived stats.

In the final character sheet we have also filled out some of the other details including equipment, weapons/armour and racial details.