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Basics

Character Creation

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 14
From the sly rogue to the stalwart paladin, the Pathfinder RPG allows you to make the character you want to play. When generating a character, start with your character’s concept. Do you want a character who goes toe-to-toe with terrible monsters, matching sword and shield against claws and fangs? Or do you want a mystical seer who draws his powers from the great beyond to further his own ends? Nearly anything is possible.

Once you have a general concept worked out, use the following steps to bring your idea to life, recording the resulting information and statistics on your Pathfinder RPG character sheet, which can be found at the back of this book and photocopied for your convenience.

Step 1— Determine Ability Scores: Start by generating your character’s ability scores. These six scores determine your character’s most basic attributes and are used to decide a wide variety of details and statistics. Some class selections require you to have better than average scores for some of your abilities.

Step 2—Pick Your Race: Next, pick your character’s race, noting any modifiers to your ability scores and any other racial traits (see Chapter 2). There are seven basic races to choose from, although your GM might have others to add to the list. Each race lists the languages your character automatically knows, as well as a number of bonus languages. A character knows a number of additional bonus languages equal to his or her Intelligence modifier.

Step 3—Pick Your Class: A character’s class represents a profession, such as fighter or wizard. If this is a new character, he starts at 1st level in his chosen class. As he gains experience points (XP) for defeating monsters, he goes up in level, granting him new powers and abilities.

Step 4—Pick Skills and Select Feats: Determine the number of skill ranks possessed by your character, based on his class and Intelligence modifier (and any other bonuses, such as the bonus received by humans). Then spend these ranks on skills, but remember that you cannot have more ranks than your level in any one skill (for a starting character, this is usually one). After skills, determine how many feats your character receives, based on his class and level, and select them from those presented in Chapter 5.

Step 5—Buy Equipment: Each new character begins the game with an amount of gold, based on his class, 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. Generally speaking, you cannot use this starting money to buy magic items without the consent of your GM.

Step 6—Finishing Details: Finally, you need to determine all of a character’s details, including his starting hit points (hp), Armor Class (AC), saving throws, initiative modifier, and attack values. All of these numbers are determined by the decisions made in previous steps. A level 1 character begins with maximum hit points for its Hit Die roll. Aside from these, you need to decide on your character’s name, alignment, and physical appearance. It is best to jot down a few personality traits as well, to help you play the character during the game. Additional rules (like age and alignment) are described in Chapter 7.

Age

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 168
You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table 7–1). Alternatively, roll the dice indicated for your class on Table 7–1 and add the result to the minimum age of adulthood for your race to determine how old your character is.

Table 7-1: Random Starting Ages

Race	Adulthood	Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer	Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger	Cleric, Druid, Monk, Wizard
Human	15 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6
Dwarf	40 years	+3d6	+5d6	+7d6
Elf	110 years	+4d6	+6d6	+10d6
Gnome	40 years	+4d6	+6d6	+9d6
Half-elf	20 years	+1d6	+2d6	+3d6
Half-orc	14 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6
Halfling	20 years	+2d4	+3d6	+4d6

With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his mental ability scores increase (see Table 7–2). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.When a character reaches venerable age, secretly roll his maximum age (on Table 7–2) and record the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his maximum age dies of old age sometime during the following year.

The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections, or violence before getting to venerable age.

Table 7-2: Aging Effects

Race	Middle Age¹	Old²	Venerable³	Maximum Age
Human	35 years	53 years	70 years	70 + 2d20 years
Dwarf	125 years	188 years	250 years	250 + 2d% years
Elf	175 years	263 years	350 years	350 + 4d% years
Gnome	100 years	150 years	200 years	200 + 3d% years
Half-elf	62 years	93 years	125 years	125 + 3d20 years
Half-orc	30 years	45 years	60 years	60 + 2d10 years
Halfling	50 years	75 years	100 years	100 + 5d20 years

1 At middle age, -1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha
2 At old age, -2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha
3 at venerable age, -3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha

Height and Weight

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 169
To determine a character’s height, roll the modifier dice indicated on Table 7–3 and add the result, in inches, to the base height for your character’s race and gender. To determine a character’s weight, multiply the result of the modifier dice by the weight multiplier and add the result to the base weight for your character’s race and gender.

Table 7-3: random Height and Weight

Race	Base Height	Base Weight	Modifier	Weight Multiplier
Human, male	4 ft. 10 in.	120 lbs.	2d10	× 5 lbs.
Human, female	4 ft. 5 in.	85 lbs.	2d10	× 5 lbs.
Dwarf, male	3 ft. 9 in.	150 lbs.	2d4	× 7 lbs.
Dwarf, female	3 ft. 7 in.	120 lbs.	2d4	× 7 lbs.
Elf, male	5 ft. 4 in.	100 lbs.	2d8	× 3 lbs.
Elf, female	5 ft. 4 in.	90 lbs.	2d6	× 3 lbs.
Gnome, male	3 ft. 0 in.	35 lbs.	2d4	x 1 lb.
Gnome, female	2 ft. 10 in.	30 lbs.	2d4	× 1 lb.
Half-elf, male	5 ft. 2 in.	110 lbs.	2d8	× 5 lbs.
Half-elf, female	5 ft. 0 in.	90 lbs.	2d8	× 5 lbs.
Half-orc, male	4 ft. 10 in.	150 lbs.	2d12	× 7 lbs.
Half-orc, female	4 ft. 5 in.	110 lbs.	2d12	× 7 lbs.
Halfling, male,	2 ft. 8 in.	30 lbs.	2d4	× 1 lb.
Halfling, female	2 ft. 6 in.	25 lbs.	2d4	× 1 lb.