EDRulebook: 6 Creating A Character

5. RECORD RACIAL ABILITIES

Your character may have abilities specific to his or her race, such as a special type of vision or a unique attack capability. These abilities appear in the Racial Abilities Table below, followed by detailed explanations of each in alphabetical order. Record these racial abilities and other race modifications on the Character Record Sheet.

RACIAL ABILITIES TABLE

Race	Abilities
Dwarf	Heat Sight (to 250 yards)
Elf	Low-Light Vision
Human	Versatility Talent
Obsidiman	Increased Wound Threshold of +3, Minimum Strength Value of 15, Natural Armor (add +3 to Physical Armor Rating)
Ork	Low-Light Vision
Troll	Heat Sight, Minimum Strength Value of 11, Minimum Toughness Value of 11
T'skrang	Tail Attack
Windling	Astral Sensitive Sight, Flight, Increased Physical Defense of +2, Maximum Strength Attribute Value of 11

AstralSensitive Sight

The character can sense changes in astral space. Astral-sensitive sight is an act of magical Perception, translating sensory information into visual cues. The character does not use his or her physical eyes for astral-sensitive sight; a blind windling could still "see" astrally. Sensing in this way requires a little effort. A character gets a bonus action to use astral-sensitive sight by making a Perception Test (see Making Tests in the Game Concepts section). The character "sees" the astral imprint of every object within his field of vision, to a range of 10 yards, with a Spell Defense less than or equal to the Perception Test result. If the player makes a Perception Test with a result of the minimum possible for his character, the character suffers Strain. The Strain causes 1 point of damage. The character continues to see the astral imprint of other characters and objects as long as they stay within range. If the character looks somewhere else, or if additional characters and objects enter into astral-sight range, the character must make a new Perception Test to see the new astral imprints.

Flight

Windlings fly at a movement rate based on their Dexterity Attribute Value plus 2. For example, a windling with a Dexterity of 13 uses a flying movement rate based on a Dexterity of 15.

Heat Sight

A character with heat sight can see heat sources. Temperature differences translate into colors; for example, slight differences in temperature register as a dull red. As the temperature difference between an object or person and the background increases, the temperature differences register in spectrum order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Extreme temperature differences register as white.

The same object reflects a different color/heat intensity against different background temperatures. A human lying in a summer meadow might appear as a slightly brighter spot of red in a crimson field. If standing in a snowdrift, the same person would appear as a brighter, more visible yellow-orange.

Increased Physical Defense

Their small size increases the Physical Defense of windlings by +2.

Increased Wound Threshold

Increase the Wound Threshold of obsidimen by +3 to represent their inherent resistance to damage.

Low-Light Vision

Low-light vision allows a character to see at much lower light levels than humans. For a character with low-light vision, a single torch easily illuminates a 100-by-100-foot meeting hall. Starlight provides plenty of light on a clear night, and even on a night shrouded by thick cloud cover the character can see as well as a human sees at dusk. Characters with low-light vision are no more susceptible to flash-blindness than humans.

Maximum Strength

Their size limits windlings to a maximum (unmodified) Strength Attribute of 11. This means all windlings have a maximum Strength Attribute Value, modified for race, of 7.

Minimum Strength

Obsidimen and trolls have minimum Strength Attribute Values. Obsidimen must have an (unmodified) Strength Attribute Value of at least 15. Trolls must have an (unmodified) Strength Attribute Value of at least 11. Both races gain Strength modifiers based on race.

Minimum Toughness

Trolls have a minimum (unmodified) Toughness Attribute of 11. To be a troll, a character must have an initial Toughness Attribute Value of at least 11. Trolls gain a Toughness modifier based on race.

Natural Armor

Obsidimen have very tough skin which serves as natural armor. The Physical Armor Rating of obsidiman skin is 3. Obsidimen can also wear other types of living armor (see Goods and Services) that add to the obsidiman's natural Armor Rating.

[Tail Attack]

Tail Attack

The t'skrang can attack opponents using their tails. The character uses either his Unarmed Combat talent (or skill) or his Dexterity step to make the Attack Test for using his tail. Make a Damage Test using the character's Strength step plus 3 steps. For example, a t'skrang character with Strength Step 5 has Damage Step 8 for a tail attack.

Versatility

Humans have a special racial talent called Versatility. This talent allows them to learn talents from Disciplines other than their own. Only humans may have the Versatility talent. All human characters have the Versatility talent available at First Circle. Human characters who start out with no ranks in Versatility have it at Rank 0, and may purchase ranks for it later. This is an exception to the rules in the Assign Talent Ranks section, below.

Jill checks the Racial Abilities Table and sees that she has already accounted for two of the windling's race-based abilities, Maximum Strength and Increased Physical Defense. She writes the remaining two abilities, Astral- Sensitive Sight and Flight, on the Racial Abilities line at the top of her Character Record Sheet. She is glad that she decided to give her character an above-average Perception Attribute Value--it will come in handy for the Perception-based Astral-Sensitive Sight ability.

6. ASSIGN TALENT RANKS

Characters in the world of Earthdawn possess a number of magical abilities called talents. The talents available to your character are listed with the Discipline you chose for him or her. Talents are rated by rank. The higher the rank, the more skill your character has in that talent. Talent ranks add steps to the step number of one of your character's Attributes to generate the step number of the talent. For example, a character with a Dexterity Attribute Value of 13 has a Dexterity Step of 6. If that character also has 2 ranks in the Melee Weapons talent, he uses Step 8 when performing an action with that talent (Step 6 + 2 steps). The Step/Action Dice Table, p. 50, shows that the player rolls 2D6 Action dice when the character uses the Melee Weapons talent. The Talents section describes all the talents and which Attribute relates to each.

Players have a total of 8 Rank Points to assign to the talents with which their characters will begin the game. Each point assigned to a talent gives a character one rank in that talent. You may assign 1, 2, or 3 Rank Points to a talent for a maximum starting Rank of 3. You may only choose talents listed under the First Circle of your character's Discipline. Record the talents you choose on the Character Record Sheet, adding the specific information for each talent provided in the Talents section. Do not record a Rank 0 talent on your character sheet; no such thing exists. If your character has no ranks in a talent, he does not have that talent.

As mentioned above, the only time the rule against Rank 0 talents does not apply is with human characters. Humans automatically possess Versatility at Rank 0. If you assign additional ranks to your human character's Versatility talent, you may acquire First Circle talents for your character from any of the Disciplines. You may choose a number of talents from other Disciplines equal to your character's Versatility Rank. Talents gained through Versatility at character creation have a maximum Rank of 3. These talents must be gained using the initial 8 Rank Points each player has available to assign talents to his or her character. Only beginning human characters, through the Versatility talent, may choose talents from Disciplines other than their own.

As you will discover by reading the Building Your Legend section, a character who uses Versatility to learn many talents from other Disciplines will advance through the Circles of his Discipline very slowly. Players with human characters should take this into consideration when choosing their character's talents.

Magicians

Four of the Disciplines allow characters to be magicians, characters capable of casting spells. In order to cast spells, magician characters need the Spellcasting, Thread Weaving, and Spell Matrix talents. See the Talents section for descriptions of these talents. Note that the Spell Matrix talent often appears twice in the list of available talents in the Discipline description: characters can have multiple Spell Matrices active at one time. Each matrix requires a separate Spell Matrix talent that must be acquired individually and assigned Rank Points individually. The rank of a Spell Matrix equals the maximum-Circle spell that that matrix can hold. For more information on spell matrices, spellcasting, and spells, see the chapters on Workings of Magic and Spell Magic.

Characters capable of casting spells must also choose their starting spells at this time. Spellcasting characters may acquire spells using a number of Rank Points equal to their Perception step. For example, a character with a Perception Step of 4 has 4 Rank Points to acquire spells. A character with a Perception Step of 7 has 7 Rank Points to acquire spells. You may only choose from those spells listed for your character's Discipline in the Spell Magic section. When selecting your character's starting spells, you must choose from Circle 1 and Circle 2 spells. Circle 1 spells cost 1 point to acquire and Circle 2 spells cost 2 points to acquire. Note that because the character is only First Circle, he can only cast Circle 1 spells. The character may know Circle 2 spells or have them in his grimoire, but he cannot cast them.

Spell descriptions appear in the Spell Magic section.

Jill feels as if her windling Beastmaster is finally beginning to take shape. She looks at the Beastmaster Discipline description and sees that a First Circle Beastmaster can have six talents. Because she wants her character to be well rounded, Jill gives her windling all six. She assigns 1 Rank Point each to Animal Bond, Dominate Beast, Karma Ritual, and Unarmed Combat. She assigns 2 Rank Points to Claw Shape and Tracking, for a total of 8 Rank Points. By giving her character Rank 2 Claw Shape and Tracking, Jill gives the windling an offensive advantage and makes better use of a valuable skill. Rank 1 in the Karma Ritual talent allows her to make her Karma ritual every day.
In order to fill in the information for using the talents on the Character Record Sheet, Jill reviews the introduction to the Talents section and the descriptions of each of the talents she chose for her character.

7. ASSIGN SKILL RANKS

Your character has lived in the world of Earthdawn all his life. He should know more about the world than you do as a player, and so starting characters receive two ranks of Knowledge Skills. These represent areas of study with which your character is familiar. Choose one or two Knowledge Skills for your character from the list in the Skills section or consult with your gamemaster to choose others. If you choose two, each is Rank 1. If you choose only one, assign it Rank 2. Ranks in Knowledge Skills add to your character's Perception step to determine the skill step number. In addition, all characters begin the game with a Rank 1 Artisan Skill and a Rank 1 Language Skill.

Artisan Skills

As the influence of the Horrors grew, the people of Barsaive learned that those corrupted by the Horrors could not maintain the level of discipline needed to perform precise, detailed work. Because artisans and craftsmen were among those capable of such a level of discipline, some people began to learn and practice art and craft skills in order to demonstrate that they had not been corrupted by the Horrors. Though performing these artisan skills did not actually protect against the Horrors, it did provide clear, visible proof of those who were corrupted and those who were not. Most people pursued fine arts, but many began to practice performing arts as well, including acting, singing, dancing, and storytelling.

This practice spread throughout Barsaive and much of the Theran Empire. By the time the Horrors reached their full influence and the kaers and citadels began to close, nearly all the people of Barsaive had learned an art or craft. Adepts, whose extensive use of magic made them extremely powerful (and therefore threatening), took special care to become proficient at and to constantly practice an art.

Characters in Earthdawn begin the game with one rank in one Artisan Skill of their choice. Each of the Disciplines available lists a number of Artisan Skills common to Adepts of that Discipline. For example, many magicians learn the art of robe embroidery as part of their Adept training. They decorate their robes by embroidering intricate sigils and designs, finishing one pattern, carefully picking out the stitches of an existing design, and beginning a new pattern in its place, in a cycle that continues throughout the magician's life.

Choose one of the Artisan Skills from the list provided in your character's Discipline or work with your gamemaster to create one of your own, and assign it a Rank of 1. See the Skills section for more information.

Language Skills

Characters begin the game with speaking knowledge of two languages. Every character speaks the language of his race, and some may also speak one of several dialects branching from the main language.

Because Dwarven is the universal language of Barsaive, all characters also speak that tongue. Dwarf characters speak Dwarven and the language of another race of your choice. For game purposes, assume that characters speak the "root language" of their race, rather than one of the dialects. The racial languages of Barsaive are Dwarven, Elvish (Sperethiel), Human, Obsidiman, Ork, Troll, T'skrang, and Windling.

Language is a natural ability, rather than a talent or skill, and so has no rank.

Characters also begin the game with the ability to read and write Dwarven. They automatically receive the Read/Write Languages Skill at Rank 1. Players who want to give their characters additional ranks in this skill may apply their available Knowledge skill ranks (see above) to Read/Write Languages to a maximum of Rank 3. For example, rather than choosing one or two Knowledge Skills from the Skills section, a player may simply assign both available Knowledge Skill ranks to Read/Write Languages, giving that skill a Rank of 3.

This is getting tougher. Now Jill gets to use her imagination to decide her windling's interests. Easy one first--as a windling, Jill's character speaks Dwarven and Windling, and she decides to leave the character's Read/Write Languages Skill at the initial Rank of 1. Jill gives the windling the Artisan Skill of Storytelling. The windling can amuse others, make a point, encourage confidences, and pass the time using this skill. Her character's ability to spin a cohesive tale and illustrate it dramatically with gestures also serves to prove that the windling remains untouched by the Horrors.
Jill wants her character to have two Rank 1 Knowledge Skills. She chooses Obsidiman Lore and Creature Lore, the first because you never know when you might need to find one, and the second as a natural extension of the windling's Discipline.