Step 2 Creating a Character

ABCs of Character Building

Selecting the world your character was born into is just the first step to making a character in the Nebula. The three aspects from the Pathfinder 2.0 Remaster that fuse together to form a character's mechanical identity are Ancestry, Background and Class. These things help facilitate roleplaying and also eke out their lived experience before they turned to a life of adventuring. Links to the Archive of Nethys will be provided, an entirely free resource which will help facilitate learning the rules and referencing them to create a smoother experience during gameplay.

Ancestry

Your character’s ancestry determines which people they call their own, whether it’s diverse and ambitious humans, insular but vivacious elves, traditionalist and family-focused dwarves, or any of the other folk who call Golarion home. A character’s ancestry and their experiences prior to their life as an adventurer—represented by a background—might be key parts of their identity, shape how they see the world, and help them find their place in it. -Pathfinder 2nd Edition Core Rulebook, page 33.

The culmination of genetics, magical pedigree and spirtual inheritance is encompassed by the concept of Ancestry. More than just race or speciation, it is the intersection your ancestry (magical, biological, metaphysical) and your character. As such it can provide benefits to your character through magical boons, privaleges provided by social construction and unique aspects of your anatomy (tails, wings, claws, organs). There is no particular restriction on ancestry throughout the different loci of Nebula with few exceptions- that the people of Arboryn tend to be under 120 years old and that diversity in The Fold tends to be lower on average (both due to centuries of isolation).

Here is a link to the complete list of ancestries on the Archive of Nethys (note that there are marked legacy and remastered portions of the site, it is hard to deviate to the legacy portion on accident but we are looking for the remastered rules). Click here for the complete list of ancestries.  

Heritage

  Encompassing a secondary aspect of Ancestry, heritage engrosses much of the mechanical aspects of a character's ancestry. Often an ancestry will manifest as feline claws, diabolical wings or a magical lineage- but these aspects do not manifest in a practical form in every member of it's species. Heritage will unlock strong claws in catfolk, or highlight a Pixie's Grig heritage allowing them to use leap great heights. Many ancestry feats, are tied to your heritage- so if there is a particular feat that lines up to your character fantasy be sure to check your heritage aligns with it. Standard heritages vary from versatile heritages in that they are limited to the ancestry they are associated with. One can only have one heritage, whether it comes from their ancestry or a versatile source like Nephilum or Dhampir.
 

The peoples of Golarion are many, and they have a long history of intermingling. The inevitable offspring of these mixed unions share physiological features with both their parents, manifesting as a specific heritage. The most common of these by far are the half-elf and half-orc human ancestries. Some individuals, however, are born under far stranger circumstances, such as a monstrous, undead, or extraplanar parent, a powerful curse, or an incursion of extraplanar energies. As these circumstances aren't unique to a single ancestry, these heritages—called versatile heritages—are likewise shared by many ancestries. -Pathfinder Second Edition, Advanced Player's Guide pg. 28

  Versatile Heritages are a cornerstone feature of the Pathfinder 2e system that enables hundreds of variations of the ancestries in a mix and match sort of style- with very little restrictions. Some logical inconsistencies may exist when mixing a Leshy with a Demonic Nephilum heritage- but this could provide a very interesting story.

Here is a link to the complete list of heritages on the Archive of Nethys (note that there are marked legacy and remastered portions of the site, it is hard to deviate to the legacy portion on accident but we are looking for the remastered rules) Complete list of versatile heritages

Background

That changed when his father was taken away, charged with heresy by the church of Abadar. The charges were too spurious to stick, and while his father escaped excommunication, the damage had been done—his father's business fell to pieces. Shocked, dismayed, and convinced that his father was innocent, Ezren abandoned his future and spent his adult life trying to repair his father's ruined reputation. So when Ezren finally uncovered irrefutable proof of his father's guilt, and he realized he'd wasted his life on a lie, he turned his evidence over to the church and said goodbye to his home, his family, and his life. - Ezren, Chapter 4 Iconic Characters, Pathfinder NPC Codex page 296

  Backgrounds are the best representation of your life before you chose adventuring. It is your education, occuptation, familial ties or societal status. People are complicated things and can rarely have their lives summarized in a neat little descripter, but there is often a background that best represents what kind of life your character comes from. A background provides ability boosts, skill training, lore skill training and often a skill feat as part of the life lessons it teaches. Consult the description of your locus and determine what kind of background might fit (or stand out) among the rest of the people in your realm or read a little analysis here for some background distributions among the loci.

Here is a link to all of the backgrounds on Archives of Nethys, it is a plentiful list you may need to select the "Load More" button at the bottom to find what you prefer. Click here for the list of backgrounds..

Classes

Pillars of the system, class is very core to how Pathfinder 2nd edition works. Classes determine a majority of the abilities and ability progression of a character advancing their ability to adventure further. Each class provides a methodology that tackles adventuring from a unique angle, and provides it's own peek into a genre of fantasy.

An adventurer starts their journey at level 1 and as they gain experience points they gain levels and achieve new feats of power tied to their skill, class and ancestry. The entire shape of character could very well be defined by their class and it's features, were it not for roleplaying.

Multiclassing and Archetypes

To gain another class's features or to gain niche features a character can invest in an archetype (Click here to view all of the archetypes.). Instead of choosing from the list of available class feat options- a character can select an archetype feat. This is a bit different than other table top roleplaying games, that typically divert your character's power into a different direction. Feats, particularly archetype feats widen the possible tactical options a character can perform instead of making their current choices and tactics stronger.

Once you have decided the your character's class, background and ancestry, you can go on to the next step of integrating your backstory