When setting up a new character...

[ColeTheo]

Is there a rule to what you can use as a portrait? Assume I was making a homebrew skeleton character, could I take a picture online of a skeleton, copy the face into the portraits and use that? Or am I required to use the portraits that are sold on FG?

Also how many special abilities am I allowed to have at level 1? I looked it up and no matter what I searched I couldn't find a straight answer. Thanks!

[Moon Wizard]

Any graphic file can be placed in the portraits folder on the FG data directory to be used within FG. Any picture larger than 72x72 will be scaled down, so you can save bandwidth by scaling down images used.

Your question on special abilities is completely dependent on the game system you are playing. Since you posted in the main Tavern forum, I'm not sure which game system you are playing. For any D&D version or Pathfinder, special abilities are determined by your class and level.

Regards,
JPG

[ColeTheo]

Okay, so let's assume one character is a fighter and one character is a paladin, how many special abilities can I pick from both the race and the class itself? Also I'm on 5e.

[Zacchaeus]

Hi, ColeTheo and welcome to the community.

When you create a character in 5e you get all of the special abilities of the race at level one and all of the special abilities of the class that you get at level one. As you progress in levels more special abilities (or traits) become available at particular levels. At certain points in all of the classes you can select what's known as an archetype and you can only select one of those. For the fighter for example you gate to choose the Champion, Battle Master or Eldritch Knight. Each of these archetypes will give you further special abilities at certain levels.

You might find some of the information here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?27296-Guides-videos-and-other-helpful-information) useful.

[ColeTheo]

Okay so I'm trying to make a skeleton character from an Unearthed Arcana guide, seen here https://m.imgur.com/a/U1rZW, it doesn't show any level up moves, or am I missing something?

[Mellock]

https://www.5esrd.com/classes/fighter
1st level fighter gains Fighting Style (pick one from the list), and Second Wind

https://www.5esrd.com/classes/paladin
1st level paladin: just add Divine Sense and Lay on Hands.

Look at the race entry to see what you get for a race on first level as well.

[Zacchaeus]

Okay so I'm trying to make a skeleton character from an Unearthed Arcana guide, seen here https://m.imgur.com/a/U1rZW, it doesn't show any level up moves, or am I missing something?

The skeleton is a race so you get everything that is noted there at first level (Ability Score, Bloodless, Bone Pile, Bone to Pick).

You then add in your class (Fighter or Paladin - although I don't quite get a Skeleton Paladin). As Mellock says you get whatever the first level abilities for that class are.

[Mellock]

Woops, missed the post about the skeleton from unearthed arcana for some reason.

Yes, a lot of things from your race don't keep adding up level by level like the stuff for your class does. You just get Darkvision, for instance, at level 1 and that's that for the rest of your career. For your skeleton, you just add the traits for awakened undead, and then add to that all the ones for its subrace (skeleton) it has: Ability score increase, Dead Immortality, Past Life, Undead, Darkvision Language thingie, and then add on everything for the skeleton: another Ability Score increase, bloodless, bone pile, etc.

Mostly, the stuff you need to check when you level up is what you get for your class.

[Griogre]

Just in case you don't know, I'll go ahead and mention that stuff from Unearth Arcana is experimental, and some DMs might not allow it so you should check with the DM before assuming you can play with that stuff in a game.