Choose a Class
Once you have decided on a character concept, you will likely have a good idea of the types of things you want your character to do during gameplay. Choosing your character’s class is the most important factor in bringing those ideas to life. Every adventurer has a character class that dictates the majority of the mechanical abilities you have access to. It can be helpful to think of a character’s class like their job, with each type covering a different set of skills and responsibilities.
Your character class gives you class features at 1st level as described in each class features table (see “Character Classes” later in this chapter) and lists other features you gain access to as your character gains adventuring experience and levels up. Your choice of character class also dictates your proficiencies, which is a game term describing what kinds of equipment you are trained to use (like armor, weapons, or tools) and what kind of challenges you are best equipped to handle (namely skills and saves).
Choosing your character class can also help you make other decisions in the following steps. For example, each class has a “Build Suggestions” section, that recommends what ability scores (described in Step 3) work best with your class abilities.
Classes
Under Construction
Level
Characters start at 1st level and can advance up to 20th level by gaining experience (XP) during their adventures. By default, PCs start with 0 XP.
Hit Points and Hit Dice
Your class determines the size of your Hit Dice, which is in turn used to calculate your hit points. Your hit-point total represents your character’s life force. Classes with bigger Hit Dice—like a d10—are more likely to survive a few hits in combat than a class with smaller Hit Dice—like a d6.
At 1st level your character starts with a hit-point total equal to the highest number on their Hit Dice, plus their CON modifier. So, a 1st-level fighter (d10 Hit Die) with a CON +3 would start with a hit-point total of 13.
About Those Dice
The Core Fantasy Roleplaying system uses polyhedral dice to resolve actions. These dice are abbreviated in game text, so a four-sided die is a d4, a six-sided die is a d6, and so on for d8, d10, d12, and d10. Percentile dice rolls are rolled with two dice and abbreviated d%.
Proficiency Bonus
As your character advances in levels, they become generally better at what they are trained to do—a concept which is represented by the Proficiency Bonus (PB). While the PB advances at the same rate for every class, it is included in each class progression table to make it easier for you to track.
As your character advances in levels, they become generally better at what they are trained to do—a concept which is represented by the Proficiency Bonus (PB). While the PB advances at the same rate for every class, it is included in each class progression table to make it easier for you to track.
Gaining Levels
Characters start at 1st level and can advance up to 20th level by gaining experience (XP) during their adventures. By default, PCs start with 0 XP. It is up to the GM to reward XP at the end of each game session or—if using the milestone system—to alert the players when their characters have accrued enough experience to gain a new level. Each method is described in more detail in the following sections.
Gaining Hit Points
When a PC gains a new level, they gain access to the benefits listed in their Class Advancement table and they also gain 1 Hit Die and more hit points. To calculate these new hit points, roll the new Hit Die, add your CON modifier to the roll, and add the total to your total hit points. If you don’t want to roll, you can choose to just use the average Hit Die value (listed in each class description), plus your CON modifer.
Player Advice: If you get to increase your CON score as part of leveling up—like choosing to increase CON as an Improvement option—make sure to increase your CON score before you calculate your new hit points.
Level Methods
There are two methods of tracking when PCs level up. The GM decides which method they want to use.
Tracking XP
The first method for leveling characters is tracking Experience Points (XP). The Level Advancement table details the amount of XP you need to advance to new levels.
Level Advancement
| Level | XP |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 300 |
| 3 | 2,700 |
| 4 | 6,500 |
| 5 | 11,000 |
| 6 | 14,500 |
| 7 | 23,000 |
| 8 | 34,000 |
| 9 | 48,000 |
| 10 | 64,000 |
| 11 | 85,000 |
| 12 | 100,00 |
| 13 | 120,000 |
| 14 | 140,000 |
| 15 | 165,000 |
| 16 | 195,000 |
| 17 | 225,000 |
| 18 | 265,000 |
| 19 | 305,000 |
| 20 | 355,000 |
Tracking Milestones
The second method for leveling characters is tracking milestones. When using milestones, players do not receive individual XP amounts. Instead, they level up upon achieving certain narrative goals established by the GM. The milestone method is ideal for faster paced games or player groups that are focused on storytelling (as opposed to tactical combat or dungeon delving).
As a general rule, 1st-level PCs should hit level-up milestones after a single game session, 2nd level PCs should hit level-up milestones after two game sessions, 3rd level PCs should hit level-up milestones after three game sessions, and approximately every three sessions thereafter. A GM may speed up or slow down milestone advancement at their discretion, as suits their game.