Looking for a game!!!

[Lyconius]

I am still new to fantasy grounds. I am not too familiar with d&d and pathfinder. Truthfully I have only ever played marvel, and when I DID play D&D and Pathfinder, it was with a pre-built character. So I was wondering if anyone would be willing to take a noob in and show me the ropes. I have most of the pathfinder and D&D books, so that isnt a problem... just need help with the FG software and how to build characters.

[Lyconius]

And just to clarify, I am looking for ANY game, as long as someone is willing to teach me.

[Malkavian_Andi]

By "how to build characters", do you mean creating a character in FG that you already built offline, or do you mean the general rules for building a D&D/Pathfinder character?

[Draeus]

We run one off games on Saturdays that any experience level of player is welcome to play in. Most of the games are Savage Worlds at the moment until we get new GM's to join our little club.

The list of games can be found here: https://saturdaygamesclub.blogspot.co.uk/

Other details can be found here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/?id=982


Our Time zone is +0GMT so all game times are in that timezone.

We teach you everything you need to know :)

This saturdays games are Warhammer Quest - Savage style, Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek. See above links for more details regarding times and future games.

Hope this helps.

[Lyconius]

By "how to build characters", do you mean creating a character in FG that you already built offline, or do you mean the general rules for building a D&D/Pathfinder character?



both. How to create a character AND how to create one on FG. I have read the D&D and PF books, but its all super confusing to me.

[Malkavian_Andi]

I believe that. When I built my first D&D character (which was back when D&D 3.0 was just released), I had to work my way into the matter, too.

But once you get the hang of it, it's actually quite simple. Here's the basics for Pathfinder:

First thing to do is you need to decide what you want to play. This will tell you which ability scores you need most.
Which leads us to the first step. You have to create your ability scores. There are two ways to generate them: Rolling dice or spending build points. Most GMs prefer build points, because it lets all players start at the same level without anyone coming up with exceptionally lucky or unlucky rolls. You can find a genral description of the 6 ability scores in chapter 1 of the Core Rulebook. There, you can also find a table telling you point costs for generating your ability scores with build points.
The 6 ability scores are devided into 3 physical scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution) and 3 mental scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). To get an idea of what those scores represent, a score of 10 or 11 is about human average.
The physical scores are especially important for fighter-type characters, while spellcasters will need one of the mental scores to cast their spells. (the class descriptions tell you which score an individual class needs)

The next step is choosing your race. There are 7 races in the Core Rulebook: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-Elf, and Half-Orc. In chapter 2, you'll find descriptions of those races, as well as a box containing game mechanics. Each race modifies the ability scores you created as noted in that box.
(This is not the "ability modifier" noted on your character sheet. It modifies the "ability score". The "ability modifier" si calculated by referring to table 1-3 (Core Rulebook, p. 17).
Also, each race grants you a number of racial traits, which grant you special abilities. Finally, you gain your racial languages, as noted in your race's game mechanics box. If your Intelligence modifier is at least +1, you get a number of bonus languages equal to your Intelligence modifier, chosen from the languages noted as your race's possible bonus languages.

Next, you have to choose a class. There are some fighter-type classes (Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Rogue*), some spellcasting classes (Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard), and some that have a bit of both (Bard, Paladin, Ranger).
(* Technically, the rogue is a stealthy type, not someone who openly jumps into fights, but since that class has no spellcasting abilities, I listed the rogue as fighter-type.)
There are 4 things a class grants you: First, it determines your hit die. That's the kind of die you roll for additional hit points when leveling up. At first level, you gain maximum hit points. Also, each time you roll for hit points at a new level (or gain maximum hit points when creating your character), you had your Constitution modifier to your total.
Second, each class grants you a number of class skills and skill ranks. Mark all your class skills on your character sheet, then spend the skill ranks granted by your class. You cannot put more ranks in an individual skill than you have character levels (which is 1 at this point). Each class skill you put at least 1 rank in also grants you a +3 bonus on that skill.
Third, your class determines your base attack bonus and base save bonus, as noted in the class's table (those are all in chapter 3 of the Core Rulebook).
And lastly, your class grants you a number of class abilities (including weapon and armor proficiencies), which are detailed in the class's descriptive text. Spellcasting classes also grant a number of spells you can cast per day. Be sure to read the class's description on how gaining and casting spells works for that class.

Finally, you can choose a feat. These are special abilities that help you perform some tasks better than others. You can find a list of feats in chapter 5 of the Core Rulebook.

Of course, you don't want your character to run around naked. Depending on the campaign (or one-shot game) you're playing, you have a certain amount of gold to spend on purchases. The Core Rulebook grants an amount of gold based on your class, while Pathfinder Society for example grants every character 150 gold, regardless of class.
In chapter 6 of the Core Rulebook, you'll find tables of weapons, armor and adventuring gear.

The last step is deciding about what your character looks like, where he comes from, and what his personality is like. Also you'll have to choose an alignment, representing your character's general kind of moral code. In chapter 7 of the Core Rulebook, there are some good descriptions of the 9 alignments.


Ok, I know this is a lot, and I'm sure you still have lots of questions. Don't hesitate to ask them. I will answer them as well as I can, and I'm sure any of the other Pathfinder players here will be glad to help, too.

[Lyconius]

makes since.... guess i should read up more on the build points...

[JohnD]

One thing you can try is downloading the free demo of Hero Lab.

You won't be able to save your character, but it will help walk you through building starting PCs. Generally it checks for rule compliance and will give you a list of what is out of scope.

If you want to take a PC built in the demo and enter into FG, you can take screenshots of the "printed" character in HL and enter information into FG.

Your location is Arizona, so I guess that tells us a bit about your time zone... it would also help if you could give people an idea of what days/times you are available.

[Malkavian_Andi]

yep, those help create good, but balanced characters.
The best is to read about the character creation step by step. It won't make any sense just doing all the stuff at once without having understood it first. When you understand what you're doing, it's much more fun ;)
Also, I'd recommend actually building a character while you read about character creation, following the steps one after the other. It doesn't have to be a character you'll want to play afterwards, it just helps learning in a less theoretical way.

Building the character in FG is quite easy once you have created it on paper.
There's the main page, on which you fill in the ability scores, class level and hit points.
On the combat page, you fill in base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and armor bonuses. (like those gained from armor and shields)
The skills page works just like the skills section on the paper character sheet. But note that the +3 bonus for class skills is automatically added in, so you don't have to type that in.
On the abilities page, you fill in feats, racial abilities and class abilities. Feats can be inserted via drag & drop from the FG library section.
The inventory page lists your inventory, gold, and encubrance. Equipment, like feats, can also be inserted from the library section.You'll have to type in your light/medium/heavy load manually (Core Rulebook, chapter 7)
On the Notes page, there's some room for a description of your character, as well as alignment, deity, and languages.
Finally, on the Actions page, you can list your spells. Weapons will already be added when you add them to the inventory page.

In addition, there are online tools like Herolabs that help you create a character which you can export and convert to xml format (which is the format FG uses for characters).
I can't tell you anything about Herolabs, because I don't use it to create my characters, but there are some threads here about converting characters from Herolabs.

[G0rdo]

Are you playing the classic Warhammer Quest dungeon crawl board game with the Savage Worlds ruleset?!? How do you do the character sheets? They are very different...

Kind regards,
G0rdo