How Caelius was Made

 

Three Big Choices

Creating a character in Pathfinder is a series of choices. It can be complex. If you want to start with anything other than a 1st level character, it can take a while.As my players have said multiple times, the choices can be overwhelming, especially if you open the flood gates and allow all supplements.

The first three choices to make are Ancestry, Background, and Class. Each determines the bonuses you get for your starting Abilities, starting languages, skills, HP, and feats.

Choosing Human provides Caelius 8 HP, Medium size, a Speed of 25 feet, 2 free Ability Boosts, and the Common language with 1 + Intelligence modifier additional languages. All abilities (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma) start at 10. The ability aoosts give +2 to an ability. I set Caelius's Dexterity and Charisma to 12.

Next up, I chose Ward as his background. Every background gives you a choice between two abilities to boost and then one free boost that can be used on any other ability including the one that wasn't chosen. Ward gives a boost to Constitution or Charisma. I place a +2 in Charisma and in Dexterity again. He is now at 14 Dexterity and 14 Charisma. He also becomes trained in the Performance and Genealogy Lore skills, and receives the Fascinating Performance skill feat. 

I knew I wanted to make a Bard from the start. The key ability of the Bard is Charisma so his Charisma is now a 16. He receives 8 + Constitution modifier in HP. 

Set Abilities and Choose Skills 

The next step is adding four ability boosts to any four abilities. I chose to add +2 to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. I'll boost Constitution later.

At first level all skills start at Trained which gives a +2 to the skill and you get to add your level to it. I chose Acrobatics, Deception, Diplomacy, Society, and Stealth. Bard gives Caelius Occultism and Performance trained by default. So I get to choose one more skill because my background also gives Performance. I put it in Survival to represent all the "on-the-job" training he did to keep everyone alive and on the move. Each skill starts at +3 (Trained + 1 level) + Ability modifier. 

Heritage

There are a lot of heritages to choose from nowadays. I want to stick to the core book as much as possible so that leaves me with Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Skilled Heritage, or Versatile Heritage. I pick up versatile heritage because I know Caelius isn't half-anything, and he doesn't need another skill. Typically people go for non-skill feats when taking versatile heritage, but Bon Mot falls into the direction I want. Adding +5 movement, +2 initiative, or +1 HP isn't a big priority for me. 

Feats, Feats Everywhere

I've already picked up one feat from my heritage. Next I get an Ancestry Feat, which I chose Natural Ambition which gives me a class feat. Caelius is a support character. So, I pick up Hymn of Healing so he can do some healing in a pinch.

He also has the Fascinating Performance feat from his background and the Lingering Composition feat from his chosen muse, Maestro.

D20 Legacy

Paizo has improved upon its game with 2nd edition. The designers, developers, writers have engineered a game that is tight mechanically. It's character creation sets it a part from modern day D&D and OSR. It's built as a character creation machine. The number of feats alone make it possible to create most anything you desire and have it mechanically supported. This won't appeal to everyone. It does a great job of what it sets out to do for those that want that complexity and mechanical support.