Character Creation Rules

(As described here)

1: Get a Character Sheet
Go to this thread and get the character sheet there, or use Hero Labs or PCGen to create your character.

2: Determine Ability Scores
Go to the SRD here and get your stats chosen. We'll be using the point buy method. Specifically we'll be using the "Epic Fantasy" point buy total of 25. That page has a really cool point buy calculator on it that helps you keep from going over.

3: Choose a Race
Pick a race, applying any modifiers to your ability scores and any other racial traits. Each race lists the languages a character of that race automatically knows, as well as a number of bonus languages it may learn. A character knows a number of additional bonus languages equal to his or her Intelligence modifier.
Note: See the Linguistics skill for more information pertaining to Languages.

4: Choose a Class
A character's class represents a profession, such as fighter or wizard. If this is a new character, he or she starts at 1st level in this chosen class. As the character gains experience points (XP) for defeating monsters, he goes up in level, granting him new powers and abilities.
If your character is a spell caster that prepares spells (such as a wizard) you will need to determine the spells your character starts with. Consult your GM to determine this list.
Favored Class: Each character begins play with a single favored class of his choosing—typically, this is the same class as the one he chooses at 1st level. Whenever a character gains a level in his favored class, he receives either + 1 hit point or + 1 skill rank. The choice of favored class cannot be changed once the character is created, and the choice of gaining a hit point or a skill rank each time a character gains a level (including his first level) cannot be changed once made for a particular level. Prestige classes (see Prestige Classes) can never be a favored class.

5: Allocate Skill Ranks
Determine the number of skill ranks your character gets based on his class and Intelligence modifier (and any other bonuses, such as the bonus received by humans).
Class Skills Each class has a number of favored skills, called class skills. Refer to Table: Skills Summary and look for your chosen class across the top row (abbreviated name.) Look down the column for your chosen class. Any skill with a "C" in it is a Class Skill for your class. It is easier for your character to become more proficient in these skills, as they represent part of his professional training and constant practice. You gain a +3 bonus on all class skills that you put ranks into.
Then allocate these ranks to desired skills, but remember that you cannot have more ranks than your level in any one skill (for a starting character, this is usually one).
Each level thereafter, your character gains a number of skill ranks dependent upon your class plus your Intelligence modifier. Investing a rank in a skill represents a measure of training in that skill.

6: Choose Feats and Traits
Determine how many feats your character receives, based on his class and level, and select them from those presented in Feats.
All characters begin with 1 feat.
If your characters race is human you get 1 additional feat (for a total of 2).
If your characters class is fighter you get another feat (total 3).
All characters start with two Traits. These should represent your background or some recent development in your life.

7: Determine Starting Hit Points (HP)
A character starts with maximum hit points at 1st level (the maximum number on its Hit Die) or if its first Hit Die roll is for a character class level.
To determine a hit points for levels beyond 1st, roll the dice indicated by its Hit Dice. Creatures whose first Hit Die comes from an NPC class or from his race roll their first Hit Die normally.

8: Get Equipped
Each new character begins the game with the same amount of gold, 150 gold pieces, that can be spent on a wide range of equipment and gear, from chainmail armor to leather backpacks. This gear helps your character survive while adventuring. Usually you cannot use this starting money to buy magic items without the consent of your GM.
The armor or other protective devices you purchase may affect his starting Armor Class (AC), so once you have purchased armor or other protective devices you can determine your Armor Class (AC). Some Favored in House benefits allow you to buy gear at reduced prices. Only those with these feats can use this however.

9: Determine Saving Throws, Initiative, and Attack Values
Determine all of the character's other mechanical details, such as his or her saving throws, initiative modifier, and attack values. All of these numbers are determined by the decisions made in previous steps, usually determined by your class choice.

10: Description & Personality
Choose or make up a name for your character (or generate one randomly!), determine his or her age, alignment, and physical appearance (such as height, weight, eye and hair color etc). It is helpful to think of a few unique personality traits as well, to help you play the character during the game.

11: Other (Starting Spells/Infusions/Powers)
If your character is a wizard (or any class that uses spellbooks) then you need to pick spells. A wizard begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells (except those from his prohibited schools, if any; see Arcane Schools) plus three 1st-level wizard spells of his choice. The wizard also selects a number of additional 1st-level wizard spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the spellbook. At each new wizard level, he gains two new spells of any spell level or levels that he can cast (based on his new wizard level) for his spellbook. At any time, a wizard can also add spells found in other wizards' spellbooks to his own (see Magic).

Warforged

Built as mindless machines to fight in the Last War, the warforged developed sentience as a side effect of the arcane experiments that sought to make them the ultimate weapons of destruction. With each successive model that emerged from the creation forges of House Cannith, the warforged evolved until they became a new kind of creature—living constructs.
Warforged are renowned for their combat prowess, their size, and their single-minded focus. They make steadfast allies and fearsome enemies. Earlier warforged models are true constructs; some of these remnants of the Last War appear in monstrous varieties, such as the warforged titan (described on page 302).
Personality: The warforged were made to fight in the Last War, and they continue to fulfill their purpose with distinction. They fight fiercely and usually without remorse, displaying adaptability impossible for mindless constructs. Now that the war has ended, the warforged seek to adapt to life in this era of relative peace. Some have settled easily into new roles as artisans or laborers, while others wander as adventurers or even continue fighting the Last War despite the return of peace.
Physical Description: Warforged appear as massive humanoids molded from a composite of materials—obsidian, iron, stone, darkwood, silver, and organic material—though they move with a surprising grace and flexibility. Flexible plates connected by fibrous bundles make up the body of a warforged, topped by a mostly featureless head. Warforged have no physical distinction of gender; all of them have a basically muscular, sexless body shape. In
personality, some warforged seem more masculine or feminine, but different people might judge the same warforged in different ways. The warforged themselves seem unconcerned with matters of gender. They do not age naturally, though their bodies do decay slowly even as their minds improve through learning and experience. Unique among constructs, warforged have learned to modify their bodies through magic and training. Many warforged are adorned with heavier metal plates than those their creator originally endowed them with. This customized armor, built-in weaponry, and other enhancements to their physical form help to differentiate one warforged from another.

Relations: As the warforged strive to find a place in society for themselves after the Last War, they simultaneously struggle to find ways to relate to the races that created them. In general, the humanoid races of Khorvaire regard the warforged as an unpleasant reminder of the brutality of the Last War and avoid dealing with them when possible. In Thrane and Karrnath, the warforged are still seen as the property of the military forces that paid to have them built, and most warforged in those nations serve as slave labor, often used to repair buildings and roads damaged or destroyed in the war. Throughout the rest of Khorvaire, they have freedom but sometimes find themselves the victims of discrimination, hard-pressed to find work or any kind of acceptance. Most warforged, not being particularly emotional creatures, accept their struggles and servitude with equanimity, but others seethe with resentment against all other races as well as those warforged whose only desire is to please their “masters.”

Alignment: Warforged are generally neutral. They were built to fight, not to wonder whether fighting is right. Though they are perfectly capable of independent thought and moral speculation, most choose not to wrestle with ethical ideals.

Warforged Lands: Warforged originated in Cyre before its destruction and have no homeland. Most of them have dispersed across Khorvaire, laboring as indentured servants in Korth, Atur, and Flamekeep, or struggling to find work and acceptance in Sharn or Korranberg. A few congregate in the Mournland, attempting to build a new warforged society free from the prejudice and mistrust of the older races.

Dragonmarks: The warforged never possess dragonmarks.

Religion: Just as most warforged are not inclined to align themselves with any particular moral or ethical philosophy, few show much interest in religion. Some warforged have found a kind of answer to the questions of their existence by taking up the cause of one religion or another, but these remain a small (if rather vocal) minority among their kind. A larger number gravitate to a messianic figure called the Lord of Blades. This powerful leader gathers a cultlike following of disaffected warforged by preaching a return to the Mournland and rebellion against the “weak-fleshed” races.

Language: Warforged speak Common, since they were designed to communicate with their (mostly human) creators and owners.

Names: Warforged do not name themselves and only recently have begun to understand the need of other races to have names for everything. Many accept whatever names others see fit to give them, and warforged traveling with
humans often are referred to by nicknames. Some warforged, however, have come to see having a name as a defining moment of their new existence, and thus search long and hard for the perfect name to attach to themselves.

Adventurers: Adventuring is one way that warforged can fit into the world—at least as well as any adventurer ever fits in. In the wilds of Xen’drik, the ancient continent of secrets, few people care whether you were born or made, as
long as you can help keep your companions alive. A fairly large number of warforged choose an adventuring life to escape from the confines of a society they didn’t create and at the same time engage in some meaningful activity.

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Racial Traits: A warforged possesses the following traits.
A living construct is a new subtype of construct, a created being given sentience and free will through powerful and complex creation enchantments. Living constructs combine aspects of both constructs and living creatures, as detailed below.
Features: As a living construct, a warforged has the following features.

• A warforged derives its Hit Dice, base attack bonus progression, saving throws, and skill points from the class it selects.

Traits: A warforged possesses the following traits.

• Unlike other constructs, a warforged has a Constitution score.
• Unlike other constructs, a warforged does not have low-light vision or darkvision.
• Unlike other constructs, a warforged is not immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities.
• Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain.
• A warforged cannot heal damage naturally.
• Unlike other constructs, warforged are subject to nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects.
• As living constructs, warforged can be affected by spells that target living creatures as well as by those that target constructs. Damage dealt to a warforged can be healed by a cure light wounds spell or a repair light damage spell, for example, and a warforged is vulnerable to disable construct and harm. However, spells from the healing subschool and supernatural abilities that cure hit point damage or ability damage provide only half their normal effect to a warforged.
• +2 Constitution, –2 Charisma: Warforged are resilient and powerful, but their difficulty in relating to other creatures makes them seem aloof or even hostile.
• Medium: As Medium constructs, warforged have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Warforged base land speed is 30 feet.
• Composite Plating: The plating used to build a warforged provides a +2 armor bonus. This plating is not natural armor and does not stack with other effects that give an armor bonus (other than natural armor). This composite plating occupies the same space on the body as a suit of armor or a robe, and thus a warforged cannot wear armor or magic robes. Warforged can be enchanted just as armor can be. The character must be present for the entire time it takes to enchant him. Composite plating also provides a warforged with a 5% arcane spell failure chance, similar to the penalty for wearing light armor. Any class ability that allows a warforged to ignore the arcane spell failure chance for light armor lets him ignore this penalty as well.

Alternate Racial Traits
Sage/Lab Model: Not all Warforged were originally created for battle, especially the first few. Sage or Lab model warforged gain the unarmored body trait (which replaces Composite Plating), and gain Focused Training. This replaces Slam.

• Focused Training: Warforged gain a +2 bonus to one skill, and treat that skill as a class skill for all classes.
• Unarmored Body: Warforged have no inherent arcane spell failure, don't count as wearing armor, and can wear armor or magic robes and gain their full effect.
• Gain +2 to choice of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. Lose -2 to Con. These sage models are precise and well developed mentally, but are not as sturdy as their brethren.

Scout Model: Designed for reconnassaince and observation, these halfling sized are quick and alert.

• Small Sized: Scout Model Warforged are Small creatures and thus gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks. They still have a base movement of 30 feet, however. This replaces their normal Medium size
• Observation Training: Warforged gain a +2 bonus to Perception and Survival. This replaces the Slam racial ability.
• +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength. Scouts aren't as sturdy, and by necessity of their duties must have a slightly higher developed sense of self, but their primary benefit is their increased alertness. This replaces the normal Warforged Ability modifiers.

Notes for Hero lab:
For the run of the mill normal Warforged:

• Go to the adjust tab. Add a new "other" adjustment. Add an Ability Score (Permanent) and close this window. Choose Wisdom and add +2. This will counteract the penalty to Wisdom.
• On the background tab, choose composite plating unless you take one of the warforged body feats at first level.

For the Sage Model:

• Go to the adjustments tab. Choose to add "other" adjustments. Choose Class Skill and Skill Bonus. Choose the same skill for both. You gain a +2 bonus to the same skill you get as a class skill for all classes.
• If you are increasing Intelligence, add four (4) "Ability Score (Permanent)" adjustments. Wisdom and Charisma each get +2. Constitution gets a penalty of -4.
• If you are increasing Wisdom or Charisma, only add three. Constitution is penalized by -4. The stat you choose to raise should be at +4, while the other is at +2.
• On the background tab choose unarmored body.

For the Scout Model:

• Go to the adjustment tab. Choose to add "other" adjustments. Add size category. Do not close. Add Skill Bonus twice, and Ability Score (Permanent) 4 times. Hit Close. Wisdom should be +4, Charisma should be +2, Constitution should be -2, and Strength should be -2.
• For each of the skill bonuses, choose Perception and Survival, and add a +2 bonus to each.
• On the background tab, choose composite plating unless you take one of the warforged body feats at first level.

JulianAmici wrote:

2: Determine Ability Scores
Go to the SRD here and get your stats chosen. We'll be using the point buy method. Specifically we'll be using the "Epic Fantasy" point buy total of 25. That page has a really cool point buy calculator on it that helps you keep from going over.

That point-buy isn't bad. I found this one that I really like:

http://tools.digitalightbulb.com/pbcalc.html

It shows you the point buy next to the score in a drop down with the total at the bottom rather than a points remaining. Use the top one for Pathfinder.

I try to think of it like a game: See if you can spend 25 points without going over ! -- I lose a lot.

T.