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.

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 75 points can be distributed between the six main attributes. However, during character creation, a base value can not surpass 30 and can not be negative.

Growth Values

Growth values are calculated by multiplying the character's level with his growth factor, which is determined by the characters race. The total will be added to the base value. At character creation, you can allocate two additional growth points.

Bonus Values

Bonus values are additional values that can be added on top of the base and growth value totals. These can come from multiple sources, including: Character level ups, Class passive boni, temporary buffs, item effects, etc.

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. All Checks made for an attribute or sub-attribute are usually rolled with a d20, unless mentioned otherwise.

Stat Value	Modifier		Stat Value	Modifier		Stat Value	Modifier
0	-10 + Auto-Fail		10	0		55	11
1	-9		14	1		60	12
2	-8		18	2		65	13
3	-7		22	3		70	14
4	-6		26	4		75	15
5	-5		30	5		80	16
6	-4		34	6		85	17
7	-3		38	7		90	18
8	-2		42	8		95	19
9	-1		46	9		100	20
			50	10

During Combat

During combat, hit-checks that rolled a 1 are considered a critical fail and the attack will always miss, even the Modifiers would have been enough to hit the target anyways. At the same time, when a 20 is rolled, the attack is considered a critical success and will always hit the target. If the Modifier on top of the 20 is also enough to beat the DV of the target, every attack-roll dice can be rolled twice and the results be added together, for statistically double damage. (If players prefer to use less dice, they can also simply double the result with each dice once, however which type of calculation will be used should be clarified before the first set of dice is rolled, preferably before the start of the campaign). Resist checks can be critical, however they will not alter the effect other than guarantee the hit or miss disregarding any modifiers.

During Exploration / Roleplay

Just like during combat, skill-checks can critically succeed or fail. However, whether they would hit or miss the skill-check after adding the modifiers will not change the outcome.

Willpower

Willpower is a special Attribute that is always equal to 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. While not wearing armor, the DV of a character is 10 in Dodging stance or 8 in Tanking stance.

Movement Capabilities

Main article: General Movement

The basic Movement of a character is usually determined by his race and is measured in meters per turn, meaning a character with a movement speed of 8 can move 8 meters (tiles) per turn during combat. Based on this, other movement options can be calculated.

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. When tanking, the character's DV will be increased by 1 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 when dodging, or a total increase of 3 DV when tanking.

Sub-Attributes

Main article: Sub-Attributes Some Attributes combined result in a Sub-Attribute, whose total value is determined by the sum of its corresponding main attributes. For example: A Character with a Strength Modifier of -1 and a Charisma Modifier of +4 will have an Intimidation Modifier of +3. If the Character is skilled in the Sub-Attribute, it would be a +8, and if he were handicapped, it would be a -2.

	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. The character level is capped at level 30, and can only further improved by "The Journey Beyond" Traits after that.

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.

Soulcards

Main article: Soulcards

The selection of Soulcards of a Character determines its general decision-making.

Skills

Skills determine which main or sub-attributes are enhanced due to specific training, learning, or 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 twice as the value instead of the sum of the two.

Skills can come from various sources, for example: Racial features, class features, Adventure Traits.

Handicaps

A handicap is the opposite of being skilled in something. being handicapped in a Sub-Attribute means you must use the lower of the two Main-Values twice.

Handicaps can come from various sources, for example: Racial features, Character creation.

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. It is not necessary to be skilled in a sub-attribute in order to gain mastery in it.

Mastery in a skill can come from various sources, for example: Racial features, class features, roleplaying (For example: rehearsing a performance allows you to gain Mastery for that performance for the next week)