Characters

Every creature on Tael is a character in its own story, and each character has various attributes and abilities that make it unique.

Attributes

Each character has a set of attributes with different values

Attribute		Description
Body	Strength	The Physical strength of a character. This value determines how much force a character can create through his body.
	Agility	The speed and dexterity of a character. This value determines how much control the character has over his body regarding fine and specific motions.
	Stamina	The physical limits of a character. This value determines how much the character's body can withstand under exhausting conditions.
Soul	Intelligence	The theoretical knowledge of a character. This value determines the character's knowledge of learnable topics like history or magic.
	Wisdom	The practical knowledge of a character. This value determines the character's understanding of the general workings of the world.
	Charisma	The social abilities of a character. This value determines how well this character can interact with other characters.

Potential and Capacity

Each Attribute is bound to a fixed potential and growth value, determining the rate of growth and upper possible limits of the values.

Potential

Potential determines the maximum value of its corresponding attribute. Body Potential is usually determined by a character's race, while the Soul Potential is usually determined by its background and heritage.

Growth

Growth determines how fast a character's attributes can grow over time. Just like Potential, its values are usually determined by the character's race for Body Growth and its race for Soul Growth.

Values and Calculations

Every stat can have a value between 0 and 100, though past 50 is usually only reachable under special conditions. When a creature is born, it starts off with 0 in every stat, which will linearly increase to its desired base values while reaching adulthood.

Base Values

Base values are set during a character's creation. A total of 60 points can be distributed between the six main attributes. However, a base value can not surpass 30, the potential of the character, and can not be negative.

Growth Values

Growth values are calculated by multiplying the character's level with his growth factor. The total will be added to the base value. The result of these two can not exceed the character's potential in that attribute.

Bonus Values

Bonus values are additional values that can be added on top of the base and growth value totals. The addition of the bonus values can exceed the character's potential in that attribute.

Value Meaning

The values represent the base modifier for that stat. The table below shows the Modifier for each value. A value of Zero for Attribute Checks means it will always automatically fail.

Stat Value	Modifier		Stat Value	Modifier		Stat Value	Modifier
0	-10 + Auto-Fail		10	1		70	11
1	-8		16	2		76	12
2	-7		22	3		82	13
3	-6		28	4		88	14
4	-5		34	5		94	15
5	-4		40	6		100	16
6	-3		46	7
7	-2		52	8
8	-1		58	9
9	0		64	10

Willpower

Willpower is a special Attribute that is always scaled off of your selected driving attribute during character creation. It is considered the attribute that drives your character forward and is seen as most important for him to improve. The Willpower Modifier scales the same as any other stat.

Hitpoints

Starting from level 1, a character starts with (8+Constitution Modifier) Hitpoints. With each level up they increase their maximum hitpoints by (3+Constitution Modifier). If their current hitpoints ever reach zero, they are considered dead, and unless revived shortly after, their soul will start leaving their body.

If they increase their Constitution Modifier later, the maximum hitpoints can be recalculated with the simple formula of ( (Current Level * ( 3 + Constitution Modifier) ) + 5 + Other Bonuses )

Defensive Value

Each Character has a certain defensive value (DV) that will determine how difficult it is to hit the character. The main source of DV is the armor the character is wearing but can be further improved by spells or passive effects.

Carrying Capacity

A Character can only lift so much before he becomes encumbered and must face additional handicaps.

Per default, a character can carry up to [15 + Strength Value] kilograms of luggage with them without any disadvantages.

Between the default load and double that, the character will become overloaded. An overloaded character has his movement speed reduced by 2 and his defensive value reduced by 3, if he is in dodging stance. Tanking stance will not suffer a penalty to DV when being overloaded.

When the carried load exceeds double the default load, the character will become heavily overloaded. Heavily overloaded characters have their movement speed set to 1 (unless it was already lower) and always have a fixed DV of 8, no matter their stance.

Sub-Attributes

Some Attributes combined result in a sub-attribute, whose total value is determined by the average of its corresponding main-attributes rounded up.

	Strength	Agility	Stamina	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Strength	Brute force	Martial Combat	Constitution	-	-	Intimidation
Agility		Initiative	Acrobatics	Precision	Dodging Stealth	Performing
Stamina			Endurance	Researching	Survival	-
Intelligence				Investigation	Magic Lore	Insight
Wisdom					Perception	Persuasion Deception
Charisma						Charm

Leveling

Adventure Experience

Whenever characters defeat a creature, complete a mission, or fulfill any other kind of deed, they gain Adventure Experience (AE). AE can be accumulated indefinitely and only be spent while sleeping. Characters can spend AE to gain the following benefits.

Character-Level

A Character can decide to spent his AE to level up. The cost of this will increase each time and is the primary way for characters to increase their power. When a Character levels up all of his attributes will increase by its growth value and he can choose one of his class-levels to increase as well. Additionally he can choose one Attribute to increase its Bonus Value by one. An overview of how much this costs will follow in the future.

Unique Traits

Main article: Adventure Traits

A unique trait is an ability, a passive feature, or even a skill a character can unlock for AE. The cost of this will increase rapidly after each purchase. While there are common traits, many traits have some special requirements which can be found in each trait's description.

Temporary Boosts

A Character can choose to buff one of his abilities until the next time he goes to sleep by his own will. This will increase the Value of the chosen attribute by either +10, +20 or +30, depending on the strength of the buff chosen. There can only ever be one temporary boost active on one character at any given time.

Campaign Achievements

An alternative way for characters to level up is by playing with campaign achievements. Whenever certain situations are resolved during a campaign, the game master can decide to grant the players a level-up or a trait of their choice. The players can then apply this during their next sleeping rest.

The Journey Beyond

Characters who have reached the maximum level of 30 can continue to increase their stats for a fixed amount of AE. These are called Beyond Levels and allow you to select one Attribute and increase its Bonus Value by 1. Your growth rates will not be applied, your maximum hitpoints will not improve, and you will not be able to increase your class level.

Characteristics

Every character also has some characteristics that determine its general morale and other abilities.

Alignment

Main article: Alignments

The Alignment of a Character determines its general decision-making.

Skills

Skills determine which main or sub-attributes are enhanced due to specific training or learning or even by natural inheritance. They can also show whether characters are knowledgeable about the use of certain items or schools of magic.

Being skilled in a sub-attribute means that the character will take the highest attribute as the value instead of the average of the two.

Handicaps

A handicap is the opposite of being skilled in something. being handicapped in a Sub-Attribute mean you will have to use the lower of the two values instead of the average.

Mastery

A character can master certain sub-attributes, making them extra knowledgeable or proficient in them. Mastery means the character can roll checks made for that sub-attribute twice and choose the better result.