Step 1: Pick a Race. One of my favorite elements of 13th Age is what they do with the Dark Elves/Drow in the 13th Age Bestiary, so that's what we are going to go with. Races in 13th Age get a +2 to one of two pre-selected ability scores, and a racial power--in the case of Dark Elves a +2 to either Dex or Cha, and the "Cruel" power, which lets you impose ongoing damage (5xLevel) on a natural even attack roll once per battle.
Step 2: Pick a Class. Torn between the Sorcerer and the Rogue. If I could use the multi-classing rules, I might do both, but that's in the expansion 13 True Ways, and so out. I think I'll go with Rogue, only because I usually play spellcasters (when I get to play) and so I want to go against type. Because I am playing Rogue, I will retroactively assign my racial bonus to Dex.
Step 3: Generate Ability Scores. The game has two options here--4d6 drop lowest and point buy--that are each endorsed by one of the designers. Point buy is boring, so let's roll:
- 17, 6, 13, 10, 14, 12
Not that great, but no big deal. Applying them to the Attributes leads to:
- STR: 6 (-2), CON: 10 (0), DEX: 19 (+4), INT: 13 (+1), WIS: 12 (+1), CHA: 14 (+2)
Here, I am doing a little bit of min-maxing, as I know my attacks (both melee and ranged) key of Dex, so my low Strength is basically irrelevant (except for my Physical Defense--see below). I know, I know--I'm that guy.
Step 4: Combat Stats. There are essentially all class-based. First, the basic melee and ranged attacks are Dex bonus plus level, and damage of WEAPON plus Dex. Speaking of WEAPON, I'm going to use the one-handed weapon, so the right choice is a Light Weapon for 1d8+4 damage, and then a throwing dagger (because of a Rogue Power I am picking, see below) 1d4+4 ranged damage. I also get a +2 to either Dex or Cha, but since you can't put the bonus into the attribute you added the racial bonus, my Cha is bumped to 16. My AC is 12 plus level (1) plus the middle bonus for Dex/Con/Wis, which for me is Wis (+1), for a total of 14. Physical Defense is 12 plus level plus the middle of the physical stats, for a total of 13. Mental Defense is 10 plus level plus the middle of the mental stats, which totals 12.
Hit Points are (6+Con) times 3, for a total of 18. I get eight recoveries, and the Recoveries are (at 1st level) 1d8.
Step 5: Class Features, Talents, and Powers. Rogues get three class features--Momentum, Sneak Attack, and Trap Sense. Momentum is a mechanic that powers some of the Rogue powers, and is basically an on/off switch--if you make a successful attack, you gain Momentum, if you are hit with an attack, you lose Momentum. Sneak Attack is what you expect, although it only works for melee attacks (unlike 5e). And Trap Sense is Trap Sense.
All classes in 13th Age get three class-specific Talents from a list of a half-dozen or so. The star among Rogue Talents IMO is Shadow Walk--use you Move Action at the beginning of the turn, make a Charisma check against the highest Mental Defense of your opponents, and if you succeed you disappear; on your next turn, your Move action lets you appear anywhere you want, and your attack on that turn does double damage. That's great, especially because if you blow your Charisma check, you still have your Standard Action to attack or do something useful. I'm also going to take Improved Sneak Attack, which upgrades the damage die on Sneak Attack by one step (i.e. for 1st level, from 1d4 to 1d6). That's a little boring, but there is a Feat I want to take that goes with that. For my third talent, I'm going to go with Murderous, which increases the Crit Range from 20 only to 18-20 if the target is Staggered (i.e. below half HP). I'm thinking this character is going to be some sort of assassin, so that works.
I also get four Rogue powers. Flying Blade gives you a 50% chance to apply your Sneak Attack damage to targets you hit by throwing daggers, which is situational but kinda nice. Roll with It allows you to spend Momentum to halve the damage you take on an attack, and since you are going to lose that Momentum anyway as a result of the attack there's no real downside here. Tumbling Strike lets you do the 5e Rogue Cunning Action cheese of walking up to the enemy, making an attack, and walk away without being hit, though it's not as good as the 5e version because you have to make a disengage check (albeit with a +5 bonus) to get away. For the last one, I went back-and-forth for a bit, and decided to go with Sure Cut, that basically lets you do Sneak Attack damage on a missed attack. Meh.
Finally, I get one Feat. Feats in 13th Age are mostly "plug ins" to other abilities that upgrade them, and I am going to use the Feat on Improved Sneak Attack. Now, once per "day" (which, in 13th Age terms, is usually four battles/one game session) I can use Sneak Attack on any target, even if it is not engaged with an ally. This seems useful in combination with my Shadow Walk to target a boss-type monster that happens to be by him/her/itself.
Step 6: One Unique Thing. One Unique Things are some dimension of your character that is truly unique in the world, limited only by the fact that it cannot grant game mechanics bonuses. It's a chance to really express a creative idea for the character. For some reason the title "Constant Gardener" has been on the brain for a while. In addition, one of the ways 13th Age presents the Dark Elves is as the folks the Elf Queen and the rest of Elfdom don't really want to talk about but absolutely make use of when things get dicey. So I am going to go with "the only member of both the Royal Gardening Guild and the Royal Assassins Corps." Under 13th Age rules, by picking this One Unique Thing, the Elf Queen's Court now has a Royal Gardening Guild and a Royal Assassins Corps.
Step 7: Icon Relationships. Each character gets three points to distribute among the 13 Icons--the major movers and shakers of the world. You can put more than one point into a particular Icon, and you have to decide if the relationship is Positive, Conflicted, or Negative. At the beginning of each session, the player or GM rolls to see if the particular relationship will impact the story, and then the GM decides how.
The Elf Queen is a no-brainer, based on my One Unique Thing. I'm going to put 2 points there, and go with Conflicted--I'm "on the payroll," but seen as a loose cannon. For the other point, I'll go with negative 1 to the Prince of Shadows--professional rivalry with other assassins.
Step 8: Backgrounds. Backgrounds take the place of Skills in 13th Age--instead of "Stealth," "Lockpicking," etc., you have more a profession or experience like "Thief" that applies to all checks in which being a former professional thief are helpful. You get eight total points to distribute to Backgrounds.
Two of these are obvious as a result of my One Unique Thing--"Royal Gardening Guild" and "Royal Assassins Corps." I am going to put 3 in each of those--assassin-ing pays the bills, but I am also really passionate about gardening, you guys (and, being a master gardener is going to give me information about different sorts of plants, how small villages operate, etc., so it's also useful). For the last two points, I'm going to go with "Reluctant Courtier"--I know my way around the Elf Queen's Court, but I don't have to like it very much.
Step 9: Final Details and Name. I'm terrible at coming up with fantasy names, especially elf names, so I am going to go to the random fantasy name generator. Looking through my random choices, I like "Omdrail Phrendun." "Omdrail the Gardener, who also kills people." Yes, that works.
Hair and eyes are easy--silver hair and black eyes, the standard dark elf look.
And there you have it--Omdrail Phrendun (I'm going to go with "Phren-doon" on the pronunciation of the last name), the Dark Elf Rogue, and the first character of the series. The character sheet can be found here. One of the things that is so great about 13th Age is that you almost have to intentionally try to make a boring character. Between Backgrounds and Icons and One Unique Things, if you just work through the process you will come up with something cool. I also think 13th Age classes are more interesting than 5e classes. It looks like I'm firing up a 13th Age campaign (in person!) and I can't wait.
Step 5: Class Features, Talents, and Powers. Rogues get three class features--Momentum, Sneak Attack, and Trap Sense. Momentum is a mechanic that powers some of the Rogue powers, and is basically an on/off switch--if you make a successful attack, you gain Momentum, if you are hit with an attack, you lose Momentum. Sneak Attack is what you expect, although it only works for melee attacks (unlike 5e). And Trap Sense is Trap Sense.
All classes in 13th Age get three class-specific Talents from a list of a half-dozen or so. The star among Rogue Talents IMO is Shadow Walk--use you Move Action at the beginning of the turn, make a Charisma check against the highest Mental Defense of your opponents, and if you succeed you disappear; on your next turn, your Move action lets you appear anywhere you want, and your attack on that turn does double damage. That's great, especially because if you blow your Charisma check, you still have your Standard Action to attack or do something useful. I'm also going to take Improved Sneak Attack, which upgrades the damage die on Sneak Attack by one step (i.e. for 1st level, from 1d4 to 1d6). That's a little boring, but there is a Feat I want to take that goes with that. For my third talent, I'm going to go with Murderous, which increases the Crit Range from 20 only to 18-20 if the target is Staggered (i.e. below half HP). I'm thinking this character is going to be some sort of assassin, so that works.
I also get four Rogue powers. Flying Blade gives you a 50% chance to apply your Sneak Attack damage to targets you hit by throwing daggers, which is situational but kinda nice. Roll with It allows you to spend Momentum to halve the damage you take on an attack, and since you are going to lose that Momentum anyway as a result of the attack there's no real downside here. Tumbling Strike lets you do the 5e Rogue Cunning Action cheese of walking up to the enemy, making an attack, and walk away without being hit, though it's not as good as the 5e version because you have to make a disengage check (albeit with a +5 bonus) to get away. For the last one, I went back-and-forth for a bit, and decided to go with Sure Cut, that basically lets you do Sneak Attack damage on a missed attack. Meh.
Finally, I get one Feat. Feats in 13th Age are mostly "plug ins" to other abilities that upgrade them, and I am going to use the Feat on Improved Sneak Attack. Now, once per "day" (which, in 13th Age terms, is usually four battles/one game session) I can use Sneak Attack on any target, even if it is not engaged with an ally. This seems useful in combination with my Shadow Walk to target a boss-type monster that happens to be by him/her/itself.
Step 6: One Unique Thing. One Unique Things are some dimension of your character that is truly unique in the world, limited only by the fact that it cannot grant game mechanics bonuses. It's a chance to really express a creative idea for the character. For some reason the title "Constant Gardener" has been on the brain for a while. In addition, one of the ways 13th Age presents the Dark Elves is as the folks the Elf Queen and the rest of Elfdom don't really want to talk about but absolutely make use of when things get dicey. So I am going to go with "the only member of both the Royal Gardening Guild and the Royal Assassins Corps." Under 13th Age rules, by picking this One Unique Thing, the Elf Queen's Court now has a Royal Gardening Guild and a Royal Assassins Corps.
Step 7: Icon Relationships. Each character gets three points to distribute among the 13 Icons--the major movers and shakers of the world. You can put more than one point into a particular Icon, and you have to decide if the relationship is Positive, Conflicted, or Negative. At the beginning of each session, the player or GM rolls to see if the particular relationship will impact the story, and then the GM decides how.
The Elf Queen is a no-brainer, based on my One Unique Thing. I'm going to put 2 points there, and go with Conflicted--I'm "on the payroll," but seen as a loose cannon. For the other point, I'll go with negative 1 to the Prince of Shadows--professional rivalry with other assassins.
Step 8: Backgrounds. Backgrounds take the place of Skills in 13th Age--instead of "Stealth," "Lockpicking," etc., you have more a profession or experience like "Thief" that applies to all checks in which being a former professional thief are helpful. You get eight total points to distribute to Backgrounds.
Two of these are obvious as a result of my One Unique Thing--"Royal Gardening Guild" and "Royal Assassins Corps." I am going to put 3 in each of those--assassin-ing pays the bills, but I am also really passionate about gardening, you guys (and, being a master gardener is going to give me information about different sorts of plants, how small villages operate, etc., so it's also useful). For the last two points, I'm going to go with "Reluctant Courtier"--I know my way around the Elf Queen's Court, but I don't have to like it very much.
Step 9: Final Details and Name. I'm terrible at coming up with fantasy names, especially elf names, so I am going to go to the random fantasy name generator. Looking through my random choices, I like "Omdrail Phrendun." "Omdrail the Gardener, who also kills people." Yes, that works.
Hair and eyes are easy--silver hair and black eyes, the standard dark elf look.
And there you have it--Omdrail Phrendun (I'm going to go with "Phren-doon" on the pronunciation of the last name), the Dark Elf Rogue, and the first character of the series. The character sheet can be found here. One of the things that is so great about 13th Age is that you almost have to intentionally try to make a boring character. Between Backgrounds and Icons and One Unique Things, if you just work through the process you will come up with something cool. I also think 13th Age classes are more interesting than 5e classes. It looks like I'm firing up a 13th Age campaign (in person!) and I can't wait.
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