Character Creation Process

Creating a new Character in Candle'Bre is pretty simple and straightforward, but there are two ways one can go about it. Check with your DM to see which approach he or she will be using. Both approaches will be outlined below.   Before we get to that though, it's worth mentioning right out the gate that Candle'Bre is on the "Straight Ten Silver System" where money is concerned, so:

• 10 Copper = 1 Silver
• 10 Silver = 1 Gold
• 10 Gold = 1 Platinum

And that's it. There is no electrum, and platinum is almost never seen so mostly it's copper and silver. When shopping for equipment in the D&D Player's Handbook (which I reused because why reinvent that wheel?) just be sure to mentally swap in "sp" where you see "gp" and "cp" where you see "sp." Stuff that only costs copper in the D&D Player's Handbook still costs copper, but...close enough for government work.  

The Character Funnel

TTo generate a “Level 0” character for the Character Funnel, simply assign a score of 11 for every stat as a starting point, which makes you ever so slightly above a Commoner as outlined in the 5th edition rules (which has stats of 10 across the board).   At the DM’s option, players can make a total of four 1:1 trades, moving numbers around a bit in a bid to get higher scores in certain stats that are important to them and the characters they’re trying to build.   Then apply racial bonuses and allow each character to choose a starting Feat. For each character, the controlling player should jot down an “aspirational class,” so Character 1 wants to be a fighter, Character 2 wants to be an Artificer, and so on.   Each level 0 character will begin the game with 4 Hit Points and 5 Body Points (so 9hp total). On graduation to First level, each surviving character will add a number of hit points equal to their maximum, depending on which die they roll (so no need to roll, if you’d normally roll a d8 for your first level hit points, you just get 8, added to the 9 you began with at level 0).   If you’re playing a character who aspires to be a Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, or Rogue, you may start the game with the simple weapon of your choice (which you are assumed to have proficiency in) or a suit of Gambeson. Aspiring Martial characters also get free proficiency with "Weapons of Opportunity" and may make normal attacks with even the unlikeliest of weapons (a cast iron skillet, chair or table leg, etc.). This will require the DM to do some thinking on his feet, but in general, a weapon of opportunity should have an iMod of 6 and do no more than d4 damage (d4+1 in the case of the cast iron skillet). This base damage is improved 1 step if the character has learned the "Scrappy" fighting style which we'll talk about next.   Aspiring Martial characters may choose to forego a starting feat and take the Scrappy" fighting style in its place, gaining an additional +1 AP they may spend immediately or save for later. Details on the Scrappy fighting style are located in the Core Rules, page. 284.   Note that although your Level 0 characters may have proficiency in various things, they don't yet have a proficiency bonus to add to their rolls. That won't come until they hit Level 1, but at least they're not rolling at Disadvantage or with a reduced die!   If you’re playing a character who aspires to become one of the spellcasting classes, then you will get some extra boons, but at a cost. The cost is that the die used in melee is reduced to a d16 (and you can start the game with a Quarter staff or a dagger, your choice). The upshot is that you’ll begin with some spell points and your spell casting die is every bit as good as the real adventurers (a d20)!   You’ll start with half the number of spell points that a true, first level member of that class would:

• Level 0 Artificer: 5
• Level 0 Bard: 6
• Level 0 Cleric: 6
• Level 0 Ranger: 3
• Level 0 Warlock: 3
• Level 0 Wizard: 8

  Such characters begin the game knowing two cantrips (no more than one can be damage dealing – the other has to be a utility cantrip).   Using magic at level 0 is extremely dangerous since you won't have great stats yet, and you don't have a profiency modifier to add to your roll, so you can easily blow yourself up, suffer misfire effects or generate Sin tokens (clerics) or Debt tokens (warlock) which will start you off “in the hole” when you graduate to first level so proceed with caution!   Note to that spell burn IS absolutely possible, so if a Level 0 spell caster really, desperately needs to attempt to cast another spell, he or she can always trade HP or ability points (temporarily lost) for more spell points.   This approach creates a perfectly playable, but also completely unremarkable character and that’s perfect, because Candle’Bre represents a marked departure from 5th Edition on this front. It also sets the stage for an evening of wild and unpredictable game play your players wont soon forget! Players will want to generate a total of three “level 0” characters for use in the funnel because it’s almost a given that some (and perhaps many) will die.   If a player ends up with more than one surviving character, he or she picks one to become the main character and the other goes on the backburner and can be used as a replacement in the event that the main character dies later, or brought on as a Henchmen at some point.   Note that if you have a player who aspires to be a Warlock, you should absolutely role play the Patron Bond ritual…during the course of the adventure, the aspiring Warlock finds what he or she needs to complete the ritual (see Warlock’s Handbook for particulars), and then, at the end of the adventure, that’s the big payoff for the aspiring Warlock.   The actual bonding. The pact (probably performed while the other survivors of the harrowing adventuring are celebrating their victory).   Starting the campaign in this way does a couple of things: First, it underscores just how deadly Candle’Bre is, and second, it forces players who may be more familiar with the 5th edition mindset to break habits and change their way of thinking about the game.   They simply have no choice. They’re going to have to get creative, be scrappy and do a lot of running away if they even want to survive, which makes it very good training.   In any case, those characters who survive the funnel will have earned enough experience to graduate to “Level 1” of the class they aspire to be.   So, to summarize: 11's everywhere, four 1:1 trades, 1 AP to be either assigned to a skill or weapon if you're aspiring to be a martial class (two cantrips if you're aspiring to be a spell caster).   Everybody gets 9hp total. Pick your race or ethnicity from the Playable Races (which will further modify your base stats), starting feat if you get one, and you're off to the races! (Note that you can also use Flaws if your DM allows that).   It's worth mentioning that you can probably fiddle with your stats sufficiently to come away with one Spirit Point, which could mean the difference between life and death for a Level 0 Townie. See Spirit Points for full details on how this new mechanic works).   If your DM is feeling generous, you might have 2d6 copper coins or so, and maybe even 1 mundane item of your choice that means something to you (could be a wheel of cheese, a pet chicken, a cast iron frying pan that your grandmother gave you - whatever). Townies wing it. That's how they roll.   Remember - this world was designed around the Hero's Journey. By definition, that means you do not start out as heroes. You start out as townies who are in over their collective heads, which leads you to becoming scrappy adventurers, which puts you on the path to becoming heroes.   In the Candle'Bre universe, that journey is at least half of the story (with the rest being what you actually DO when you become the heroes you were meant to be). That's where the magic is.  

What About Background?

Nope. If you're using the Character Funnel method, background isn't a thing. You're just a townie with a random skill, but don't worry, your DM will structure the game so that you get a couple of additional AP's (Ability Points) you can use to buy skills to make up for the couple that you missed out on by not starting with a background, so you'll wind up in about the same place!   The only way that background factors into the Character Funnel equation is this: Whatever class you want your character to be, he or she should be doing something along those lines as a townie. So if you want to be a Cleric or Paladin, your townie is a cloistered monk assigned to the shrine in the hamlet you live in.   If you want to be a ranger, then your character is maybe one of the town huntsmen who goes out in search of deer or rabbits to help keep the village fed.   If you want to be a wizard, then maybe you're studying under a wizard in town but you've only just started and you don't even have a spell book yet (maybe you have a pamphlet with instructions for casting a single cantrip).   Aspiring warlocks will have heard stories of the Patron they want to serve and may even know how to make initial contact (though learning this could just as easily be woven into the fabric of the first adventure), and so on. So your characters are "behaving like" the classes they aspire to be, if that makes sense.  

Rolling For Discovery

  For the duration of this adventure, allow your players to “roll for discovery” as they try out different skills. This is an alternate rule to use in the place of first level characters of a given class starting with the same fixed subset of skills. Simply note the total number of skills a first level character of their desired class should have and let them try different things as the adventure unfolds.   They’ll roll everything at Disadvantage with one caveat: If either of their die rolls is a 20, give them proficiency in the skill they were rolling for. Doing it this way, you may wind up with a Fighter who has proficiency in Arcana or Religion, or other unusual combinations and is a cool way to build more variation into each class.   Characters who gain proficiency in a skill during this adventure still don’t add a proficiency modifier to checks made with that skill (they don’t have anything to add), but at least they’re not rolling that skill at disadvantage…At the end of the adventure, when they gain first level, just let them pick their remaining skills from the standard array for their class and you’re all set.    

Okay, What About Hit Points?

Hit Points work a bit differently in Candle'Bre and if you're using the Character Funnel, there's no need to roll - everybody starts with 4 Hit Points and 5 "Body Points" for a total of 9.   Body Points are either your first, or your last hit points, depending on how you look at it. They're the only ones you start with at Level 0, so in that sense, they're your first, but as you gain actual hit points that stack on top of these, Body Points are the last ones you lose.   The only difference between Body Points and Hit Points is that it takes 10x the healing resources to fix a point of Body Damage. Each Body Point you lose represents a serious freaking wound. It would probably be worth a quick trip to the article on Healing In Candle'Bre so you understand how that piece of the puzzle works.   Oh, and remember back in the old days of D&D when you didn't die at 0 hit points? Yeah, that's a thing in Candle'Bre too. You don't die until you reach -10, but going to 0 or below does give you +1 level of exhaustion so be freaking careful about healing your buddies in battle, because the 0 HP yo-yo can kill you too...not that you'll have to worry about that at Level 0, but...just sayin'.   Anyway, yes, you have Body Points at Level 0, which work like Hit Points but when you start losing them, you'll be a while recovering.   And that's the Character Funnel. Now let's talk about...  

Generating A First Level Character

  This works just like the Character Funnel approach. Same process, but instead of generating three townies, you're just generating a single character. Same baseline stats, add your race/ethnicy and the bonuses that gives. Add Flaws if your DM is using them. Spend your starting APs and grab a Feat if you get one, pick your class, generate starting money or take one of the "starting kits" and you're almost there.   Then, just give yourself max HP at first level, plus your five Body Points and you're ready to start adventuring.   Final note, and this certainly won't impact you direct, but is something to bear in mind for later on. I have re-worked the level progression so that the max level in Candle'Bre is 14, not 20. That's because 99% of campaigns, in my experience, never actually get to Level 20, and I wanted to focus more on the "Golden Age of Adventure" which usually starts around level 3 and goes to 12-14.   Plus, the way D&D structured their level ups, some of the levels were kinda sparse in terms of what you got - here, with all 20 levels of advancement smooshed (your technical term for the day) into just 14, you're getting good, notable power-ups at every level, and pound for pound, you'll find that a Candle'Bre character of any given level can probably kick the crap out of a regular D&D character of the same level, so...yeah.   **Update as of 8/30/2024: I just made a custom Candle'Bre character sheet! Okay - to be precise, I made the version 1.0 Candle'Bre character sheet which was functional but looked like the south end of a northbound horse. Jennifer fixed that and kept the functionality but added the pretty.   They're available for free over on the Patreon page. Just sign up for the free tier there and you'll have access!