Scaled Continent: Character Generation

I said I've have these ready, so here they are.

Stats: By the book - five sets of 3d6 in order.  I don't care if you use Str Int Wis Dex Con Cha or Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha as long as you decide beforehand and are consistent.  I will award bonus reserve XP ('karma') in an amount TBD (probably ~5000) to players who use Invisible Castle or similar verifiable RNGs to roll their stats, but I do not require it.

Trading statblocks is discouraged.  ACKS chargen is about using what you've got.  Play a class you've never played before!

All classes, races, and proficiencies in the core book are permitted, in addition to some cleric variants.  Some proficiency tweaks:

• Diplomacy permits a character to intervene after a reaction roll has been rolled and the results are known.  He rolls 11+ and 2d6+same modifiers as original reaction roll.  Should the proficiency throw succeed, the higher of the two reaction rolls is used; should it fail, he has bungled and the lower of the two is used.  This proficiency may be taken multiple times, at +4 to the roll per time taken.
• Goblin-Slaying is replaced with Lizard-Slaying, with bonuses applying to dragons, dinosaurs, crocodiles, giant lizards, lizardmen, crocodilemen, snakemen, and other land-dwelling four-or-more-limbed reptiles of human size or larger.
• Mapping lets you reconstruct a player-drawn map from memory on an 11+ should one be lost or destroyed, rather than producing perfect maps from memory.  It also permits illiterate characters to map.
• Seafaring provides a +1 bonus on checks to avoid drowning per level possessed, in addition to its normal effects.  Seafaring III provides a +/- 4 modifier to maneuver into a boarding position or avoid being boarded in addition to its normal effects.

Selecting a class requires that its prime and minimum stats be >= 9 before it is selected.  Once selected, prime reqs can be boosted by lowering non-prime reqs by 2 points per point of prime req gained.  In accordance with the rulebook, the two points should be from the same stat.  This makes doing this actually potentially expensive / a true decision, rather than lowing four 10s to 9s to boost your prime req from a 16 to an 18 with no real cost (as we've seen).

Characters begin play with 20000 XP and 16000 GP.  This puts most classes in the 4th-6th level range.  Prime requisite does not effect these values; if you have +prime req, you are assumed to have reached these values more quickly than your fellows, and may choose (after rolling your age) to subtract a year if you have +5% or up to two years for +10% if human, 2 or 4 if dwarf, or 5 or 10 if elf.  This is useful, as undead drain age rather than levels, but optional as it may drive you into youth, which carries ability score penalties.  See page 248 for aging rules.

Hit points are rolled as normal, except that the first hit die is the best of two rolls (much like L0 men get max(1d4, 1d8) when levelling into fighter, adventurers get max(1dn, 1dn) at first level).

Everything else is per page 253; arcanists start with their repertoires full of random spells (Exception: Phantasmal Force is replaced with Glitterdust from the ACKSPC.  Still an illusion, still powerful, but more clearly written, better-defined in its capabilities, and infinitely easier to adjudicate).  Gold can be spent on magic item rolls, henchmen XP, ships, labs, trade goods, horses, mercenaries, &c.  Henchmen use rolled but unchosen statblocks.  Statblocks used for henchmen are no longer available for use as PCs later.

Trading gold for magic items is a high-risk high-potential-reward strategy, and should be weighed against the purchase of low-power magic items sometimes available in towns.  Purchasing ships and trade goods for their base price may be smart moves.  Players may pool their wealth towards these ends.

Obsidian Portal coming soon, possibly with forum, calendar, and misc other ascendant features.  Likely accompanied by a grumpy post about their recent redesign.