Creating a Character

I got the game installed and decided to make a character or two.  I was going to meet up with my friend the next night and I wanted to have my character ready ahead of time instead of doing it right before meeting.  Especially since it had been a while since I had played.  I wanted to get into Amia and at least look around a little bit before appearing wide-eyed and completely green the first night we were meeting.

Having played first edition pencil and paper AD&D twenty-some-odd years ago I am pretty familiar with the basics of things.  I know the races and classes.  Having picked up the core (and a few peripheral) 3e books (for gaming reference and some minor fan fic writing) I was familiar with most of those rules.  I wasn't expecting to be surprised by much, but I went to the Amia site to research.  If there were any changes to the basic game mechanics I figured it'd be good to know.

I had already read the Rules and FAQ, but I went over them again.  That lead me to the Creating Your Character topic on the forum.

Wow.  The subraces have changed since I was last playing.  I don't know if that is a new mechanic for NWN specially coded for Amia, or if that is a mechanic coded for NWN through community content that was incorporated into the final patch (1.69).  Either way, the choices are cool and my head is already swimming with possibilities.  (In fact, my main character has already had the pleasure of adventuring with a faerie-looking character I shall assume is a Feytouched since I see no other subrace in the list that would fit.  And while soloing I also ran across a goblin character who was intent of following me around - until the server crashed.)

I also learned that Amia has a level cap of 30.  I found that interesting since I knew the level cap for NWN (after the expansions) was 40, but it didn't bother me in any negative way.  I haven't seen a definite reason for it given on the forum, but I haven't searched for one either.  I'm sure somewhere it's told why 30 was chosen instead of 40.  I'm also pretty sure I can take a good guess at why.  Characters at level 30 are already pretty darn powerful.  To maintain a world for characters even more powerful would be a pain.  It would have to first be balanced.  But for a role-play server it would also seem rather silly to have those epic, super-powerful creatures and monsters running around outside cities on a relatively small island nation.

I followed that up by checking out the adjusted game mechanics used in Amia.  There wasn't much there that meant anything to me yet.  The XP and gold seemed pretty basic and what I would expect in a perpetual world.  The subrace section was a good read with some additional information but only managed to convince me that my first character wasn't going to be anything out of the ordinary in the way of race.  The portal rod section was interesting, but didn't mean a lot to me since I hadn't even been in the world yet.

The other sections there were hit or miss for me.  Some apply to my planned character, most don't.  And until I really get into the game world and gain a few levels I really don't need to know them.   But I still at least skimmed them to keep something in the back of my mind for future reference.

Next I check out the Deity system.  I find it interesting that there are bonuses offered in game for having a deity.  From my understanding of the Forgotten Realms, it is pretty much a given that everyone has a deity they pray to and consider their main deity.  And there are any number of other deities a person may pray to given certain circumstances.  Circumstances that their main deity might not cover specifically where another deity does.  For example, a farmer may have a main deity that he prays to about his crops and to have good weather for growing.  But then when it's time to travel to market he might make a special prayer to a deity who specializes in traveling.

Regardless, I find the information there interesting.  Looking back at it again now, I don't even recall seeing (or at least paying attention to) the information about the deity rings.  My character has a deity (through the second option of entering the name on creation, not the first of praying at an idol) but doesn't have a ring.  I currently have no idea where they are, how you get one, or what they do.  I'll make another entry about that when and if I ever get one.

I take a quick look at the Classes page.  A quick glance doesn't show anything that will pertain to my first, very vanilla character.  I make a mental note to look there for each character made/planned so I know if there will be any changes I need to be aware of.

The same thing goes for the Feats page.  There is nothing there pertaining to the plans for this first character so I give it a quick look and move on.

There are a few other pages I look at that don't really have anything to do with character creation.  Because they don't I'll bring them up another time.  For the most part I see there are lots and lots of options and changes to the base game rules depending on the choices made.

For not having played the game in a couple years I decided K.I.S.S. is best.  I Keep It Simple, Stupid and fall back on the character I had been planning on pretty much all along.  The same basic character I used on each new server I went to back in the day.  I know the character, the character is pretty vanilla and easy to build and I can learn the basics of the world without having a complicated character to deal with.

Beside, if I decide I want or need to change this character build it seems I just need some Dream Coins.  I still have no idea how I get them, where I get them or if they're even good for anything beside character rebuilds.  But that's something I still need to learn and write about another time.

I start up the game, sign on the server and create my character.  But what I learn then will need to be the next entry.