Begin your adventure by thinking about the kind of character you want to play. Do you want to try a wily wizard, a burly barbarian, a tricksy rogue, or some original idea you’ve come up with yourself? The Savage Worlds rules allow you to create most anything.
For the world of Savage Pathfinder, take a close look at the Class Edges. These special abilities form the foundation of the typical player character types found in Golarion. Keep these in mind as you follow the rest of these steps so you can build toward those if you want to play a traditional Pathfinder-style hero.
“Ranks” reflect a character’s competence and experience. They provide balance between players and grant access to more powerful abilities as one “Advances.” A character begins at Novice Rank and works upward from there. Advances are given out after one or more game sessions.
Only player characters use Ranks—Game Master-controlled characters and creatures don't.
Advances Rank
0-3 Novice
4-7 Seasoned
8-11 Veteran
12-15 Heroic
16+ Legendary
If the Game Master wants to start a game with more experienced characters, or you're making a replacement for a fallen hero, you should still make a Novice starting profile and Advance it from there. This ensures characters are balanced just as if they had gained experience normally.
Additional goods, equipment, or other assets must be determined by the Game Master. As a quick rule of thumb, Seasoned heroes have 10,000 gold pieces worth of goods and magic items, Veteran characters get 40,000, Heroic 150,000, and Legendary 500,000.
Different playable ancestries, along with abilities that reflect the most common or iconic virtues and drawbacks of each.
Hindrances are flaws, drawbacks, or dark secrets drawn from a character’s backstory. They provide up to 4 additional “Hindrance points” you can use to enhance your hero during character creation.
Taking Hindrances not only helps you define and roleplay your hero, but also allows you to increase his attribute or skill points, take Edges, or have additional gold to buy better adventuring gear.
A Major Hindrance is worth 2 Hindrance points, and a Minor is worth 1. A hero could thus take two Major Hindrances, four Minor, or any combination that adds up to 4 character points. (You can take more Hindrances if you want but the maximum benefit is 4 points!)
For 2 Hindrance points you can:
Raise an attribute one die type, or
Choose an Edge
For 1 Hindrance point you can:
Gain another skill point, or
Start play with an additional 600 gold pieces.
Characters are defined by attributes and skills, collectively called “Traits.” Attributes and skills are ranked by die types, typically from d4 to d12, with d6 being the average for adult humans. Higher is better!
Attributes typically govern how fast your skills can increase, and are used for passive effects such as resisting spells or recovering from injuries.
Every character starts with a d4 in each of five attributes: Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, and Vigor.
You then have 5 character points to increase your character's attributes. Raising a d4 to a d6, for example, costs 1 point.
Attribute Limit: No attribute may be raised above a d12 unless an ancestral ability or Edge says otherwise. Each increase beyond a d12 adds a +1 modifier. Increasing a d12 Strength two steps or “die types,” for example, gives your hero a Strength score of d12+2.
Skills are learned abilities such as firing weapons, hand-to-hand combat, scientific knowledge, professional aptitudes, and so on.
Skills in Savage Pathfinder are very broad to keep the action simple and straightforward. The Shooting skill, for example, covers all types of bows and crossbows. The Athletics skill covers thrown weapons, as well as grappling, swimming, and climbing. Detailed customization comes in the form of Edges.
Core Skills: Five skills are marked with a red star: Athletics, Common Knowledge, Notice, Persuasion, and Stealth. These are “innate” abilities most adult adventurers have. Unless an ancestral ability, Edge, or Hindrance says otherwise, your character starts with a d4 in each of these five core skills.
Buying Skills: After core skills are assigned, you have 12 additional character points to raise core skills or buy and raise new skills as you see fit.
Each die type costs 1 point (starting at d4) as long as the skill is less than the attribute it’s linked to (listed beside the skill in parentheses). If the skill would exceed the linked attribute, the cost becomes 2 points per die type.
Languages: Your character starts with Common and knows additional languages equal to half her Smarts die type. Typical choices are listed with each ancestry.
Skill Limit: Skills may not be increased above d12 during character creation unless the character’s ancestry starts with the skill at d6. If the skill starts with a d6, increase her maximum to d12+1 . Elves start with a d6 in Notice, for example, which means their Notice skill may be increased to d12+1.
Your character sheet contains a few other statistics you need to fill in, described below.
Pace is how fast your character moves in tactical situations like combat. Standard Pace is 6, which means six tabletop inches per game round. Each inch is two yards (six feet) in the real world. See Movement.
Parry is equal to 2 plus half your character’s Fighting die type (a total of 2 if a character doesn’t have Fighting), plus any bonuses for shields or certain weapons. This is the Target Number (TN) to hit your hero in hand-to-hand combat.
For Fighting skills higher than d12, such as d12+1 , add half the fixed modifier, rounded down. For instance, Fighting d12+1 grants a Parry of 8, while Fighting d12+2 results in a Parry of 9.
Size: A hero’s default Size is 0 unless altered by ancestral abilities, Edges, or Hindrances. It cannot be less than -1 or more than +3.
Toughness is your hero’s damage threshold. Damage rolls that equal or exceed this number cause harm. Toughness is 2 plus half your hero’s Vigor, plus Armor (use the armor worn on his torso). Vigor over a d12 is calculated just like Parry, above.
Attributes and skills are a character’s basic statistics, but what really makes individuals different are their Edges.
In Pathfinder for Savage Worlds, every character starts with a free Class Edge. The character must qualify for the Edge as usual. (If a player doesn’t want to take a Class Edge, she may take a free Background or Professional Edge she qualifies for instead.)
Characters get additional Edges by taking Hindrances, from ancestral abilities (such as Humans’ Adaptability), or Advances once play begins.
Player characters have 300 gold pieces (or “gp”) to purchase any of the weapons, armor, and adventuring gear.
This might represent everything the character owns or it may represent only “adventuring” gear, with the hero’s more mundane belongings stored at a home or elsewhere.
Finish your new hero by filling in any additional history or background you see fit. Ask yourself why she’s where she is and what her goals are. Where does she live? Does she have any close friends or family who might be relevant to the game? Why did she join the Pathfinders?
Or just start playing and fill in these details as they become important and you walk around in her shoes a bit.
You might also want to talk to the other players. Maybe your characters know each other right from the start. Or you might collectively decide to optimize your group a bit and ensure you’ve got a good assortment of skills and abilities. If so, make sure you’re playing what you want to play. There’s no point in being the party’s healer if that’s not a role you care to play.
The conflict between Good and Evil is a core theme of any Savage Pathfinder game. Typically, heroes fight for Good, but not always. Your character's basic Alignment is usually Good or Neutral.
Alignments in Savage Pathfinder indicate the general moral compass of a person, creature or organization. Where alignment is listed, it is a tool for the Game Master to identify the broad outlook of that entity, and how it may interact with others, including the adventurers. When choosing an alignment for your character, you decide what ethical path he will follow, guided by the Edges and Hindrances you chose to define him. Unless your GM specifically agrees, you cannot choose Evil as your hero's alignment.
Some character concepts require choosing a deity or “Domain” that governs powers and certain abilities. Likewise, the player’s choice of Hindrances can involve a Deity or a cause, such as Vow or Code of Honor. Deities have a listed alignment, either Good, Neutral, or Evil to indicate the general philosophy of the deity and her followers. Of course, adherents to a particular faith might not necessarily share the same outlook as the deity's alignment. Terrible deeds might be perpetrated in the name of a good or merciful god. You can find more information on Domains and deities.