A Guide to Character Creation

For the Pathfinder RPG 1st Edition

By Lokotor

Introduction: This guide aims to teach the basics of character creation to new players and
will present an easy to follow ten step visual guide to completing the process. The guide will
walk new players through the steps needed to make a level 1 character for Pathfinder 1E. The
steps involved are applicable to any character, so you should have no difficulty following along
regardless of the class or race of your character.

Step 0: You can download an Editable PDF version of the default Character Sheet Here

I suggest you come up with a concept for your character at this point. Discuss with your play
group and see what everyone’s interests are. Does anyone have any preferences or taboos? Is
your GM instituting any house rules? What do you see your character doing? Using a bow? A
spear? Casting spells? Worshipping a god? Being a Ninja / Lumberjack dual wielding shields
named Abraham Lincoln? This will help you make some choices later on, but you don’t have to
have anything finalized here. Just a loose idea.
Step 1, Choose a Class: We will start by choosing a class that interests us.

You can find a list of all the classes and their descriptions on either d20pfsrd.com where they
are listed on the home page
or ArchivesofNethys.com , where they can be found by navigating the sidebar to the class page.

This guide will primarily use Archives of Nethys as the reference source for character creation
leading forward however.

You should choose a class based on your interests and/or by talking to the other players in your
group to see what would be the best fit in your party.

When creating a diverse, functional adventuring party you want to have a few bases covered.
Some of those bases are having a party member who fills one of these four categories: Magic
Caster, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage, & Skill Checks. You can make a character that
checks off multiple boxes, and there are other roles you can fill as well. But these are basics to
consider.

You can find out more about a class by reading its respective blurb. This is a paragraph or so at
the very beginning of a class’s entry in the rulebooks, or at the top of the class’s details page on
one of the websites I mentioned earlier.
After perusing the class details and selecting a class that sounds interesting to you based on it’s
role and description, go ahead and fill in the class and the number of levels you have in that
class on your sheet. In our case we have chosen to make a level 1 Cleric.

Now that we have chosen a class, we will move onto the next step.

Step 2, Abilities: Our next step will be to get our ability scores set up. There are a few
different methods that are used to accomplish this process. Some games will have players roll
dice to determine their stats and your Game Master (GM) will explain how they want to go about
this process. The most common method however, is called a “Point Buy” and is what we will be
using in this guide.

A point buy system creates a fair, level playing ground for all players. Nobody accidentally gets
the short end of the stick because they rolled poorly for their stats. In order to create a character
with a point buy you start out with each ability score at 10. From there you can increase or
decrease your abilities to a maximum of 18 and a minimum of 7.

This table details the value or number of points that a given ability score will cost you.
Typically games are run with a 20 “point” buy, meaning that you have 20 points to spend on your
stats. So if you have one ability score set to 16 then you have used up half of your points.
Notably, by decreasing an ability you can gain additional points.

In order to successfully accomplish this step of character creation you must determine what
ability scores your character’s class uses. This can be done by examining the class description
page and looking for keywords: Str(ength), Dex(terity), Con(stitution), Int(elligence), Wis(dom), &
Cha(risma)

To make things easy for you, a typical 20 point buy looks like this: 16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8.
Distributed among your abilities as you see fit.
By reading the Cleric’s details we can see that their spellcasting is tied to their Wisdom score,
and that their Channel Energy ability is tied to their Charisma score.

In addition to those ability scores which are directly related to your class you must also consider
if your character is going to make use of any of the other ability scores irrespective of your
class’s needs.

Strength is used primarily for physical attacks, such as sword swings.

Dexterity is primarily used for making ranged attacks, and to determine how nimble your
character is, impacting several skills, like acrobatics, as well as your character’s defenses, reflex
saving throws, and initiative score.

Constitution determines your character’s Health Points (HP) and impacts your fortitude saving
throw.

Intelligence will grant you additional skill points, as well as helping you make knowledge skill
checks.

Wisdom determines your character’s alertness, empathy, and will saving throw.
Charisma is your force of personality, how charming and persuasive you are and comes into
play with skills such as diplomacy.

Let’s get to it already!

For my cleric I want to be able to cast spells, and use my class abilities, but I also want to be
able to contribute in combat, so I’ll have to spread my points out a bit more than I might if I were
focusing on only one or two ability scores.

You can see I have also filled in the column labeled “Ability Modifier.” This number is calculated
by subtracting 10 from the ability score, and then dividing the number by two, rounding down.

Ex: 14 - 10 = 4. 4/2 = 2

Ex: 13 - 10 = 3. 3/2 = 1.5 1.5 rounded down = 1

This means that it is generally better to have an even number when purchasing abilities during
your point buy.

Step 3, Race: Now that we’ve picked a class and set up our ability scores, we will pick a
race.

Similar to how we selected a class earlier there are many races available. You should ask your
GM what races are allowed in the game. They may exclude some for thematic reasons, or
balancing reasons.
For this guide we will look at only the “Core Races”

Each race has a short description of it on this page.

After reading the descriptions I have decided to look a little closer at Human and Elf since they
sound Interesting. Elves offer a lot of interesting and thematic abilities that might be fun to
roleplay, and Humans are so versatile. It’s a hard choice, but I end up deciding to play a human
after reading the longer descriptions.

Now that I’ve picked a race I’m ready to get back to the character sheet. After clicking on the
race’s page you’ll see that there is a large amount of information, but the only part we are
concerned with at this time are the “Racial Traits” entries.

Looking at the Racial Traits I can see that they offer a variety of benefits and sometimes
drawbacks, such as a Dwarf getting -2 Charisma and a slower movement speed.
First thing to do now is add in any racial bonuses to my Ability Scores. A Human gets +2 to any
one ability score. I’m going to choose Strength, so I can do more damage with my weapon.

By adding +2 to my Strength the ability goes up to 16 and because of that the “Ability Modifier”
column must also increase by 1. Meaning I have a +3 Modifier now.

Now we can add the other Racial Traits.

Our size is “Medium”, our base speed is 30 feet (measured in 5 foot “squares”), and all
characters speak “Common” by default, regardless of race. Some races gain bonus languages,
such as Elves, who gain Elven (go figure) for free.
There are also two other Racial Traits (“Skilled” and “Bonus Feat”). We will deal with them a little
later on.

You will see a section labeled “Alternative Racial Traits” on this page as well. We won’t be
dealing with it in this guide, but they are additional ways to customize your character based on
their background and are useful to more advanced players. For now let’s just get through the
basics though.

Step 4, Class Basics: Now that we have our Abilities and Race and we’ve applied most
of the modifications it brings we can move on to getting things a little more filled in.

Looking at our Class Details we can see a few entries noting things like Alignment, Class Skills,
HD, and etc. and there is a somewhat substantial table filled with information.

First up we will note that our class has an Alignment Restriction. Not all classes do, some are
specific, like a paladin, and others are more general, like a cleric. That’s something we will have
to consider a little later on.
Next up we have HD (Hit Dice). This determines the amount of Hit Points you get each level.
Some GMs will have you roll the die, others will tell you to take average or max each level, and
more. You’ll have to ask your GM how they want to handle it. At level 1 however you always
take maximum. For our cleric this means 8HP + our Con Mod (+2), totaling 10HP. We will note
this in the “HP Total” box.

Next up we have a list of “Class Skills” these are skills which we have additional expertise in
compared to some of our peers.
By choosing to put a skill point or “Rank” into one of these skills we get an additional bonus to
our attempts to use that skill of +3. We will note these skills by checking the boxes next to them.
We also can see that we get 2+Int Mod Skill Points (or Ranks) per level. This means our cleric
actually loses out due to his -1 Int mod and only gets 1 Skill Point per level. However the
Human’s “Skilled” Trait grants +1 skill point per level, meaning we have 2 skill points to
distribute.

When distributing Ranks you may have no more than your level in any one skill. So at level 1 we
can only put 1 rank in any given skill, even though we have two to place this level.
Skill Points can be placed into any skill, even ones which are not Class Skills. We merely get an
extra bonus for placing them into Class Skills.

I have chosen to place my two Ranks into Knowledge: Religion and Diplomacy

As you can see, the Total is the listed Ability Modifier + the number of Ranks + any
miscellaneous bonuses. I have then added +3 if the skill was a class skill. In this case, both
were.

The +3 Class Skill Bonus does not need to be listed in the Misc. Mod. Column. Checking the
box next to the skill is sufficient.
You may proceed to fill in the relevant ability bonus for each skill, however it is likely to be more
convenient to simply refer to the Ability Score section of the sheet as needed for these
“Untrained” skills as there are no other bonuses to worry about adding.

Next we are going to move onto our Initiative. This is merely our Dexterity Modifier. There are
some Feats and abilities that will give various bonuses, but by default you’re just adding your
Dex Mod.

The last step in this section is to determine your Favored Class Bonus (FCB) this is a small
boon you gain for each level (including first) that you take in a specific class. This bonus can be
either: +1 HP, +1 Skill Point, or a special ability based on your race. If a special race option is
available it will be listed at the bottom of your Class Details Page.
I’m going to choose +1 Hit Point, since I want to be sure I’m tough enough for melee combat. Be
sure to note this on your sheet somewhere, such as Special Abilities. Note that you can change
your choice each level, so next level you might choose to gain +1 Skill Point if you were so
inclined.

Step 5, The Table: Now that we’ve gotten some of the basics filled in, we are going to
move onto the core of character creation and maintenance. “The Table”

Since we are making a level one character we will follow the table’s first level row and start filling
in the information.
First up there is the Base Attack Bonus (BAB) this is a number which we add to the d20 roll
when we make an attack, usually combined with an ability modifier, such as Str for melee
attacks. A Cleric has +0 at level one, so no bonus for us yet.

Next up are our Class’s Base Saving Throw Modifiers. The Table gives the “Base Save” and
then we add our Constitution Modifier to our Fort Save, our Dex Mod to our Ref Save and our
Wis Mod to our Will Save. At this point you may have some other bonuses from a Race or other
source, which you can add in as well if appropriate, but generally at level 1 you’ll be all set with
the base and the ability. If you have a penalty to one of your Ability scores you will reduce your
total.
At this point we have a few other areas we can fill in with the information we’ve input so far.

Combat Maneuver Bonus (CMB) and Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD)

CMB is your BAB + your Str Mod + any Miscellaneous bonuses, such as a -1 penalty for being a
Small Sized race, such as a Halfling.

CMD is BAB + Str Mod + Dex Mod + any Miscellaneous bonuses, such as a -1 penalty for being
a Small Sized race, such as a Halfling.

Ok! We’re all set here, now we can move onto the next Column in the Table, “Special.” This
Column tells us all the special abilities, powers, and other Class Features that we gain access to
at this level.

In order to know what these Class Features do we have to read about them. The descriptions
for these abilities can be found just below the Table of each class. There are some additional
pieces of information listed here as well, and we will get to those in the upcoming sections. For
now focus on only the entries listed on The Table.

Our Cleric gains an Aura, the ability to Channel Energy, Spells, and a Domain Power.

Aura and Channel Energy are fairly straight forward. They are detailed and described right there
and we can easily take some shorthand notes and list them on our Sheet’s “Special Abilities”
section.
Our other Class Features however require us to make some more choices.

Domain requires us to pick a Deity to worship. Other classes have similar abilities at this point
which require further investigation. For example, Wizards must choose a School of Magic,
Sorcerers gain a Bloodline, Rangers gain a Favored Enemy, and many other classes have
similar choices to make at this stage.

It would be exhaustive to detail every choice or option in this guide, but generally just above the
class’s entry there are tabs available to view and learn about these different choices. Below I
have illustrated a few.
A cleric has two choices to make at this stage. A Deity, and two Domains related to that Deity.

You may find it easier to choose them in the reverse order, picking two domains that interest you
and then attempting to find a deity whom you can worship that offers those domains, however it
can be done in either way. To make things simpler for this guide we will choose a Deity first.

To find a Deity you must navigate to the “Deities” page. For this guide we will only be looking at
the “Core Deities” (Those presented in the Core Rule Book.)
At this point we also will have to choose an Alignment.

Alignment isn’t as much a mechanical aspect as it is a roleplaying aspect. It’s supposed to be a

guideline on your character's personality. How would they act in certain situations or what is
their general attitude/moral compass like.

In general all players in a given group should be within one step of each other on the Good-Evil
axis. Either all players must be Good or Neutral or Evil or Neutral. Having both Good and Evil
characters at the same time will almost never end well and is not advised.

Be sure to talk about this ahead of time with your GM and the other players. Typically most
games are geared towards Good Aligned characters.

You can find out more information about the specifics on each alignment component Here

Back to the character creation though, several classes have a section on their Class Details
page which specifies that they must have a certain alignment, alignment component, or range of
alignments.

For example, Barbarians must be Chaotic, Paladins must be both Lawful and Good, Monks
must be Lawful, and Clerics must be “within one step” of their god. This means that if you chose
a Lawful Good (LG) god, you would have to be either, Lawful Good, Neutral Good, or Lawful
Neutral, no more than one step away on either the Law-Chaos or Good-Evil axis.
After looking through the Gods and seeing what they can offer and reading about what the
Alignments mean, I have decided to be a Neutral Good Follower of Sarenrae, since I think it fits
what I am interested in doing well.

Now I can list these two choices on my sheet, in the top most area.

Now that I have picked a Deity I can return to the Domains section of the Table that I left off on.

Seeing that Sarenrae offers Five Domains to choose from, as well as several “subdomains”
which are merely a more specific subset of a Domain that can be chosen for flavor purposes,
much like how a wizard can choose a Subschool of magic. This is just another way to customize
my character to my interests.

After reading through the Domains that my Deity offers and thinking about what sounds like a
good fit for me I have chosen to take the Healing and Sun Domains.
On the Right hand side of the second page is a section which you can use to specify these
choices.

Additionally, you may find it helpful to notate what your abilities do in the Special Abilities
Section, like we did for our other Class Features.

Now that we’ve finished entering the abilities we gain this level from the Table, we can move
onto the other things listed on the Class Features Page.

Step 6, Spells: The next Class Feature we will look at in the character creation process is
Spellcasting. If your character does not gain spellcasting at this level, or at all, then you may
skip to Step 7.

You can see on the Table that at each level you gain access to a certain number of spells per
day, as well as sometimes a limited number of spells known which appears as a separate table
for classes such as Sorcerer for example.
If you have a limited number of spells Known you should note this on the second page of your
character sheet in the appropriate box for the related Spell level.

Spells per day are listed on your character’s primary class Table.

For a Cleric these are listed as X+1, but for most classes they are simply a single number, which
is the number of spells of that level you are able to cast in a day.

The “+1” on the cleric Table is described in the Domains entry in the Class Features.

It is a special, extra spell per day which must be a spell granted by your Deity’s Domain.
In our case this means we can prepare either Cure light Wounds or Endure Elements with this
bonus “slot”

In Pathfinder there are two types of magic, Divine and Arcane. Arcane Magic generally means
no armor. Otherwise it’s mostly flavor.

There are also two types of spellcasting, Prepared and Spontaneous.

Prepared magic means you generally know a large number of spells and pick from among them
a certain number to prepare and use each day.

Spontaneous casting means you generally know fewer spells, but you can cast any of the ones
you know whenever you want, up to the maximum number per day, without any advanced
planning.

Most spells don't make an attack roll, they essentially just auto hit.

A spell with an attack roll will call out that they have one in the spell’s description. Usually this is
a ranged touch attack. BAB + Dex + misc modifiers

Spells that allow a save will also call out that fact in the description, stating what save is made.
The Save DC is 10 + Spell level + casting stat modifier.

I have been avoiding a Class Feature of Clerics and many other classes up till now. Orsions,
Cantrips, 0th lvl spells, whatever your class may call them. Essentially these are “free” spells,
meaning that when you cast them they are not “used up” as it were. And you can cast them
again. Otherwise they are just like any other spell though.

There is a list of all spells available to your class sorted by level, with short descriptions
available for ease of use, but you will want to read a spell’s complete description by clicking on it
as well.
On the default character sheet there is only a microscopic space available for each spell, so you
may find it difficult to take any notes about what the spells you have available do, but do your
best to list what spells you have prepared on the sheet.
You may find it beneficial to either have a separate document with your spells, or to prepare
flash cards with notes for your convenience.

The boxes above the spells can be used to mark how many spells you have cast or not cast in a
day.
As you can see, we have also filled in the Spell DC information, along with the Spells per Day
and a list of the Spells that we Prepared today.

You will also see that I have marked a “Bonus Spell” while also listing the cleric’s 1+1 spells per
day from the Table.

This Bonus spell is calculated based on the character’s casting ability modifier and the table
below, per the Spells entry on the Class Features page.

Because our Cleric’s Wis Mod is +3 she gains 1 bonus first, second, and third level spell.

However, even though we are granted a bonus spell, we still can only cast spells of first level,
per our class’s table, essentially making the second and third level bonus spells irrelevant until
we progress in level and unlock higher level spellcasting.
If your class has a “-” on their Table then they cannot cast spells of that level, even with Bonus
spells. However, if your class has a “0” on the table, as a Paladin or Ranger does at level 4,
then you could use a bonus spell in that case.

For now though, just know that you can only use your bonus spells with your first level spell
slots.

As you can see from our example Cleric, I have prepared three different 0lvl spells, and, while I
have three spell slots for first level spells (including a Domain slot) I have listed one spell
multiple times, rather than selecting three different spells.

This is because of the way Prepared magic is performed in Pathfinder. As a prepared caster,
once you use a spell it’s gone until you prepare it again. This means if i wanted to cast the same
spell multiple times in one day I would have to prepare in multiple times, using multiple Spell
Slots, as I have done with Divine Favor.

Spellcasting is a bit complicated for beginners, but your GM will be able to help you figure it out,
and it’s not as complicated as it looks first coming into it.

Step 7, Gear

Starting Wealth is generally determined either by rolling the dice listed on your Class Details
page, taking the average listed, or everyone gets 150g. This is generally your GM’s discretion,
but option 3 is the most popular.

You should look at your character’s Class Features to determine what kinds of Weapons and
Armor you are capable of using.

In the Cleric’s case this is all Simple Weapons, Medium Armor, Shields, and their Deity's
Weapon of Choice. (found on the Deity page)
Some considerations regarding Weapons and Armor

When considering a weapon you should look at the weapon’s damage Dice but also its critical
range and multiplier to find a good fit. Don’t be afraid to choose something based on flavor/role
play though as there aren’t many ways to “choose wrong”

When considering armor you want to wear the heaviest armor you can while still maintaining
your maximum Dexterity bonus.

You can Find Weapons, Shields, and Armor in the Equipment section.
For our cleric I have chosen Sarenrae’s Favored Weapon, the Scimitar (15g), a Heavy Wooden
Shield (7g), and an Armored Coat (50g) using up about half of my 150 starting Gold.

Next up I enter the items onto the sheet. As a Cleric we don’t have to worry about spell failure
chance, but we do have to contend with Armor Check Penalties. The armor and shield we
chose will give us -4 to all of our Strength and Dexterity based skills. We weren’t very good at
them to begin with, but now we’re pretty terrible.

I have also noted that my Armor has a special ability, allowing it to be put on quickly.

You will also want to update your Character’s Speed if your armor reduces it while worn.

Weapons are entered on the first page, along with our AC calculations.

A Weapon’s Attack bonus is your BAB + the appropriate Attribute Modifier, typically Str for
Melee and Dex for Ranged.

A Melee Weapon generally adds Str Mod to Damage as well. Two-Handed Weapons add 1.5x
Str Mod, as do One-Handed Weapons when wielded with Two Hands. Every Weapon has a
damage Type, typically Slashing, Piercing, or Bludgeoning & sometimes multiple. This is usually
entered as S/P/B in the “Type” box, using whichever is appropriate for your weapon.

AC is calculated by totalling the labeled boxes. Touch AC is 10 + Dex Mod + Deflection

Flat Foot AC is your Normal AC - Dex Mod.

Section 8, Feats

Feats are the non-class abilities your character gains as they adventure. These can be things
which increase your combat ability, give you bonuses to skill checks, alter your spells, and more.

They are broken down into several different categories: Combat, General, Metamagic,
Teamwork, etc…

You generally can choose any feat you want every odd level, including first level. Some classes,
such as Fighter, grant bonus Feats. Sometimes these Bonus Feats are restricted to a category,
like a Fighter only being able to choose from among Combat Feats with the Bonus Feat, or a
Monk who can only pick from a certain list, or Humans who can pick any one feat because of
Race.

Picking feats is largely about adapting your character to a specific play style. Maybe you want
your character to be a Crossbow user and choose Rapid Reload so you can shoot faster, or
perhaps you’re a daring and nimble duelist and select Dodge. Whatever you have in mind there
is likely a way to accomplish it with the right feats.

You can see a brief description of what each feat does and if it has any prerequisites on this
page, and you can find out more details by clicking on the Feat in question.

You may find a “Feat Tree” helpful in planning out your character for later levels. Being able to
see that the “Precise Shot” Feat is a prerequisite for many other feats may incentivise you to
choose it early for example. Here is a great web tool to see what feats connect to each other.
Just search a feat and see where it goes!

Once you have selected the feats which interest you, enter them in the “Feats” section of the
Character Sheet. You may find it helpful to take some notes here as well.

Here I have chosen to focus my efforts on increasing my ability to take and to heal damage.

Later on in the game if my GM allows I may retrain these Feat choices if it turns out that I don’t
like them, am not making use of them, or simply want to go a different route. It costs Gold and
time, but don’t feel trapped by these choices, they can be changed later on if you aren’t happy
with them. You don’t have to be stuck with them forever.

Section 9, Traits

Didn’t we already do this? Unfortunately Racial Traits and “Traits” are just unhappy name
sharing cousins. It gets even worse though, there are also “Race Traits” which are different from
Racial Traits.

Traits are an additional way to customize your character. Think of them somewhat like mini
Feats, but their purpose is generally tied more closely to your character’s back story rather than
to your longer goals for them.
Most GMs allow two Traits at first level, with no more than one Trait from any given category
(much like feats there are categories for Traits, such as Combat, Race, Equipment, etc.)

Many GMs restrict players to Trait categories with the “Basic” tagline. Be sure to ask.

Traits generally can be entered in the Feats section of the Character Sheet, and should be
Noted as Traits. Again, some notes about their effects may be useful.
Section 10, Character Details

And with that we’re all done. Now all you have left to do is fill in your character’s details. What
do they look like? Where are they from? Do they have friends, relatives, children, lovers, etc?
What are their goals? Do they have any fears or quirks?

This is your creative chance to shine. Give your GM a backstory that can get you both excited
about your character!

Good Luck!

Also, Here is the complete Character Sheet for the Guide Character if you were interested.