With the Promethium System, you will craft a character who is represented by ability scores, traits, skills, and talents. Before you begin rolling ability scores or selecting skills, think of the type of character you want to create. Regardless of what race and class you select, the personality of your character is what will set them apart. The Promethium System allows you to deeply customize every race and class with the robust skill system, so who your character is makes all the difference.
All characters are composed of the same basic building blocks. These values and statistics will help you resolve actions and understand your character’s capabilities.
Species. Creation is filled with intelligent life. Your Species will dictate most of your initial characteristics, including your ability scores and traits. There are three categories of species: Mortal, Arcane, and Eldritch.
Background. Some settings are exclusively one species. In such a case, a background represents the character’s origin and upbringing. Backgrounds may modify your initial traits and ability scores, but these are still determined by your species.
Class. This is a descriptor of your learned abilities and skills. There are generally three categories of classes: Vocations, Augmentations, and Ancestries. Your class will determine your initial Skill Points to spend on Skill Bonuses and talents.
Temperament. Your Temperament is a descriptor of your personality and your behavior. Are you more rational or more emotional?
Ability Scores. Your species will determine what you roll for each of your nine ability scores. In most cases you will not start with a Corruption Score, but it is possible.
Guard. Guard is the VS others must beat to hit you in combat, and for most creatures is 15. Your species, class, or talents might give you bonuses to Guard.
Armor Rank. You have an Armor Rank if you are wearing armor. When you suffer damage from an attack, you ignore an amount for each attack up to your Armor Rank, and the damage you subtract is dealt to your armor’s Durability.
Durability. This is the amount of superficial damage you can sustain before you begin taking life-threatening damage. You take damage first to your Durability, then Health.
Health. Once your Durability is exhausted, you can sustain this much damage before you die. Health recovers slowly.
Vigor. Determined by your species and class, you will consume Vigor temporarily to use physical combat abilities, such as dodging attacks or using techniques.
Mana. Determined by your species and class, Mana is temporarily consumed when you activate magical or supernatural abilities and recovers slowly.
Resistance. When you need to overcome some effect, you are entitled to a Resistance check under one of your ability scores. When you are called upon to roll Resistance, you will always get to add any global Resistance Bonus Dice, plus any dice from the specific ability score under which the effect you are trying to resist falls.
Actions. This is the number of actions you can take on your turn. You begin with 2 Actions, and can gain more through talents and abilities.
Size. This is your general size category and may impact your Guard, movement speed, and other values.
Movement. You can move 8 feet per point of your Speed Score in a minute, or 2 feet per point of your Speed Score per turn.
Skills. A skill is an action roll against an area of knowledge. You might gain bonus dice by spending skill points on one specialized area, such as swords under Light Weapons or treatment under Medicine.
As a 1st-level character, you may only purchase Rank 1 skill bonuses and talents. You cannot save up or retain any of your skill points to spend later. Your initial skill points must all be spent on skills and talents before you play.
Talents. Most of your extraordinary capabilities will be in the form of talents. These are single bonuses or special abilities. You can gain talents from your starting class or purchase them with skill points from Skill Trees or general talents.
Character creation can be broken down into six discrete steps. First: select your background or race. Second: roll your ability scores. Third: select your class. Fourth: spend your skill points. Fifth: calculate your final traits. Sixth: fill in miscellaneous information, such as your equipment and techniques.
As you advance by earning experience points, you will gain levels and accomplish Deeds, which earn additional skill points to spend upgrading your skill trees or purchasing talents.
While character creation is a simple and straightforward process, it can take time given the number of options available to you. In addition to choosing a race and a class, you get to tailor your character’s capabilities through skills and talents, which can be a time-consuming yet rewarding process.
As we can all probably attest, our culture and upbringing have a significant impact on our development and person. Your race or background will dictate what dice and how many you roll for ability scores, as well as your starting traits, such as Health, Durability, Vigor, and Mana.
Your species and background will dictate what you roll for ability scores. There are nine ability scores in the Promethium System: Strength (STR), Agility (AGI), Stamina (STA), Speed (SPD), Soul (SOL), Empathy (EMP), Memory (MEM), Reason (RSN), and Resolve (RSL). Corruption (COR) is an optional disability score.
When you are rolling your ability scores, if you roll maximum value on one or more of your dice, you are entitled to roll one more dice of that same type and add it on. This is called a Critical Ability Score.
For example, if you were rolling 3d8 for your Strength Score and rolled 8, 4, and 3, you would roll an additional 1d8 and add it to your totals. Similarly, if you rolled 8, 8, and 2, you would still only roll 1d8 as your critical ability score.
An ability score of 15 or higher will give you bonus dice to roll on action checks and Resistance checks related to that ability score. Many traits are derived directly from your ability scores as well.
Your character class represents a suite of training and abilities. Each class provides a selection of initial talents, elite skill trees, a set number of skill points, and equipment. While you cannot change your initial class, you might learn talents and skill trees from other classes as you advance in levels, provided you have the opportunity. Classes are either vocational, augmentation, or ancestral depending on the types of characteristics and requirements.
In addition to the talents made available to you from your class, you will also have an amount of skill points to spend on purchasing skills and talents from your class’s elite skill trees, the universal core skill trees, and general talents. Core skill trees include combat skills, academic skills, and practical skills. All characters may upgrade their core skills through skill points.
As a 1st-level character, you may only purchase Rank 1 skill bonuses and talents. You cannot save up or retain any of your skill points to spend later; your initial skill points must all be spent on skills and talents before you play.
Traits refer to your derived values: Health, Durability, Vigor, and Mana. Your race, class, and skills will all affect your ability scores and traits. Many skill trees and talents have the option to increase an ability score, Health, Durability, Vigor, Mana, or number of actions through skill points as well. Once you have your final ability scores, calculate your final traits.
Your starting class will provide you a suite of equipment and currency — important things for an adventurer. You may also have acquired extraordinary abilities from your class, skill, and talent collection. Be sure to record these as they will certainly come in handy.