Character Creation

[Jes]

This topic contains rules you must know regarding character creation.

• Available and Restricted Characters and Races
• Naming your character
• Drow slaves
• Drow Nobility
• Drow Powers
• Your Character's Biography

[Jes]

Available and Restricted Characters and Races

To keep the game world sensible, we restrict the backgrounds and race of Player Characters to an extent. This means if you wish to play something outside the liberal Amian norm, you must send a request to the DMs first. This includes not only racial lineage, but also unreasonable qualities such as The Sexiest Man Alive, The Best Friend of Lord Bane, Elminster's Brother, or Mrs. Bionic.

• The following races can be played freely:
  
  • All the races and subraces available via the Amia Subrace System, including:
  • Tiefling, Aasimar
  • Kobold^a, Goblin^a
  • Genasi Races (earth, air, fire, water)
  • Orog^a, Ogrillion^a, Hobgoblin^a, Orc^a
  • Lightfoot Halfling, Strongheart Halfling, Ghostwise Halfling
  • Half-drow
  • Moon Elf, Sun Elf, Wild Elf, Wood Elf, Drow, Feytouched
  • Shield Dwarf, Gold Dwarf, Duergar^a
  • All basic NWN races.
• Full-Blooded Dragons, Full Undead, Half-Fiends, Half-Celestials, and Full-Blooded Fey have been deemed to be categorically open for requests by a slim majority. They require requests of the highest caliber and are to be held to rather high standards. These fall under "Complicated" requests in our Request system.
• All other special character races not listed above (or below) will be handled as "Medium" requests in our Request system, unless the Team determines otherwise for specific uncommonly requested races that don't happen to be listed here. Examples: Fey'ri, Nobles, Gnolls, Kenkus, Avariel, Half-Dragons, etc.
  • The following special characters will not be permitted: Magical Beasts, Aberrations, Animals, Elementals, Full-Blooded Celestials, and Full-Blooded Fiends.. While it is not against any ruling to make a request for permission to play said race, a majority approval is required for the acceptance of the request. Since the majority of current DM's deny it on the basis of its nature, it should be expected that every subrace request that falls into these areas will be categorically denied. A player is still welcome to make these requests in an effort to persuade the staff, but should do so being well-prepared for outright denial.
• NOTE: All characters need to be adults. This is 18 years old for humanoid races (or older, depending on the race's adult age, according to the age table here). Humans and half-orcs must be age 18, regardless of what it says on the table. Exceptions to this require a request.
• When in doubt, ask a DM.
• This information is for OOC use, when planning a new character you wish to play.
• View this page for more information about our Easy, Medium, and Complicated Request system.
• If you would like to submit a request for a special character, as explained above, visit this forum to do so.

^aThese monster races are restricted to non-Good alignments only, unless you submit a special request.



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Special Characters

On Amia, you may make a Special Character Request in order to play a character that has a race that is not freely playable. The above guidelines for allowed special races are not all-inclusive, but give a good idea of what you may expect. If you wish to make a special character request, post in this forum.


Rules & Guidelines

• Your special character will not have any special powers, be they racial or class-based, beyond what is normally allowed of pnp spells on Amia. Telepathy is not permitted between players in any way. (Pseudodragons and other summons your character may have which normally would only communicate telepathically can communicate normally through speech on Amia.)
• If it is not a scripted race in our system (like the request-only Half-Dragon or Avariel are scripted), then the the race will not be scripted with special stats, abilities, spells, etc (as in, it won't be like the supported races in our Race System). It will NOT have any increased ability modifiers, or skills, or anything along those lines. It will in fact have nothing other than the special bonuses granted by the base NWN race you choose to use, such as elf, or human. You can request additional powers and abilities (like skin changers or spell widgets or properties on items), but these will cost DCs and will be applied to the balance of any items in question as normal.
• The character should not be created until after you are officially approved to play it. If it is created in advance, STOP playing it.
• Approval is based on 3 main factors:
  1. The appropriateness of the request/race, as determined by the DM Team.
  2. The player who is making the request. This is to say, your history on the server and the quality of your roleplay is strongly considered - more so for the more Complicated requests.
  3. The quality of the submission, meaning how well thought out the character is, how much knowledge the player seems to have regarding the traits of the race/request, and how well you flesh out for us the history, personality, and details of the request.
• Requests should keep in mind that a special character request is NOT supposed to be about having a "cool subrace". Rather, it's about making a "cool character", for whom perhaps a special subrace is required or appropriate, to enhance that character. You are not requesting to play a Half-Devil, you are requesting to play a character, who happens to be a Half-Devil. If it seems the character is built around the race, not the race chosen to suit the character, there's a good chance the request will be denied.
• Homebrew lore created by players has to be vetted by the DM team to ensure the lore does not conflict with any pre-existing canon. Things which definitely need to be submitted include, but are not limited to, the creation of completely new cultures, new lands, and new races. The use of existing canon cultures, lands, and races with minor tweaks or twists are usually alright.
• Special characters which have been approved, but which do not actively portray the character/race/lore which was approved will be removed from the player if the player continues to play the character against what was approved even after DMs' formal attempts to correct them. There will only be one chance to correct per the DMs guidance after a formal warning, regardless of whether you are a new player or not, or if the character was made before or after this rule update. This is to ensure that server lore remains consistent with regard to our special race characters, and will be reserved for the most severe cases in need of lore correction.
• The Specially requested PC must not be your first PC on Amia
• You must be active on the server for at least two months before your request will be considered. This is so the team can get to know your playstyle.
  • Exceptions to the above two rules can be made under these qualifications: The request is thorough and shows in-depth research regarding the race, Forgotten Realms v3.5, and Amia, and has an extensive backstory that fits with our server and indicates that you have gone above and beyond to learn about the server's lore via the forums and other players.

[Jes]

Naming Your Character

Amia is a roleplay server, and roleplay depends on a good atmosphere. For this reason, we present a few rules and guidelines for making a good/proper character name.

As a rule of the thumb a name should be a name: not a title, a description, a random noun etc. The text hovering above your character's head is an OOC thing anyway, and your character may call him- or herself anything he/she likes. The actual name of your character should fulfill the following criteria, however:

• Proper names only, using proper capitalisation and minimal punctuation limited to apostrophes and dashes.
• No famous names from literature, movies, PC games or any other source. If a DM spots the name as being a copyright infringment, as in being exactly like a name such as "Gollum", "Pippi Longstocking", or "Darth Maul", it will be changed.
• No names of famous people in the real world, living or dead. No George Bushes, Clint Eastwoods, Margaret Thatchers, Conan O'Briens, Adolf Hitlers, or any other famous figure from wherever you may be from. This includes questionable variations of famous names, like "Hesus Christus" or "Haddam Sussein".
• No titles, such as "King Philip" or "Son of Ilmater". Pretty much anything that describes things you cannot know about a person by just looking at them (job, education, demeanor, status) is unnecessary and may result in metagaming, and is thus not allowed. The suffixes given to faction members (for example the Cordor Guards) are an exception to this rule, but the title will not describe a rank, however, just the faction you are part of. Names should mislead people OOC on purpose.
• Adjectives and nouns are to be used with extreme moderation, preferably only when suitable for the race in question. Names like "Lovely Honeypie" are not good names. Name can not be made of only adjectives either.
• Names are not meant to shock or irritate people. You will be asked to change your name if anybody takes offense of it.

The DMs can force you to change your name if they feel your name is not a valid one. Any player who has their name changed and feels their name does not violate any of these conditions is welcome to submit a complaint to the staff and a request to have the name reinstated. A staff vote will then determine if the name is in accordance with the guidelines. Remember that you may always ask the DMs if in doubt.

NOTE! Quote marks (IE "Name" ) bug tell-sending from the player list and look funky in the database, which isn't nice. If you use a nickname, please use apostrophes instead of quotes. IE, 'Name'.

[Jes]

Drow Slaves

If you wish to play a drow slave, PM a DM with your slave character's name and other vital information.

Because drow slaves may be played by minors, this is a general reminder about our rules on torture and sexual RP.

These rules apply both to characters created as slaves and characters caught by drow. If your existing character ends up as a drow slave, send us a PM about it so the DMs overseeing the area are aware.

[Jes]

Drow Nobility Status

Unless requested otherwise, your Drow PC is automatically considered of Noble Standing. A noble of any other race requires a request.

This means that in a Drow-dominated area such as Nec'Perya and some parts of L'Obsul:

• Drow NPCs will bow to your PC where applicable.
  Your PC can join one Noble House.
  Your PC is entitled to any benefit Nobility receives under the settlement's current management and laws.
  Your PC may be eligible to request enhancements to standard drow abilities available on Amia, with appropriate RP.

However:

1. Your PC can't be a Noble from a lore-established Drow House without an approved request. For example, your PC can't be a Noble of House Baenre without the DM team's approval.
2. The influence of your PC's Nobility may not be recognized in the world outside of specific drow houses/areas. Exceptions to this may occur on a case by case basis, but don't expect all L'Obsul citizens to bow to you, for example.
3. The server rule of command over NPCs still applies: you may write posts about issuing instructions to NPCs and may do so in-game as well, but it's the DM team's prerogative to dictate NPC response. Remember that NPCs are not mindless: they will respond, but not always in the way you want them to.
4. Ruling for Drow Houses is the same as our Faction guidelines: you require at least 4 PCs who are regularly active for a period of time (usually at least 6 months before faction areas/widgets/bindpoints/forums/etc. will be considered). These PCs cannot be alternate characters of players already in the House. You can also only have 1 PC in any Drow house at any one time.

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If you want a Commoner Drow PC:

• If your PC was a commoner at creation but has since joined a Noble House, they are now considered a Noble (or affiliated with Nobles) by the NPC playerbase. This still applies even if your PC is not currently in an active house. However, the PC will NOT be eligible for enhancements to standard drow abilities available on Amia.
  
  Commoner Drow PCs require a request, because of the impact this may have on the NPC/PC populace. They will treat commoner PCs very differently than Noble PCs. You can submit a special character request for a commoner drow or any other standing that doesn't come automatically on Amia here.

[Jes]

Drow Powers

Players of all drow characters (noble, commoner, UD, or Surface drow) may obtain items for those characters which emulate drow racial spell-like abilities. Faerie Fire, Dancing Lights, and Darkness are given at character creation now, no formal request is needed. Levitation requires proof of having learned that ability, however, and must be formally requested; it costs 10 DCs.

Underdark-based drow nobles*, due to their noble bloodline and close proximity to faerzress-infused environments, may be able to further enhance their innate spell-like abilities. This may include gaining more uses per day of existing abilities like Faerie Fire or Darkness, or developing new ways to use those powers they already have access to. These can be gained through the normal DC item request method.

Those who have further enhanced their innate drow powers will lose the use of those enhancements if they transition from being Underdark-based to Surface-based, and will not be refunded the cost of the DCs spent on said enhancements.

All drow nobles are able to use detect good as a spell-like ability 1x/day (PnP rules apply).



*Surface-based drow, whether noble-born or not, are not able to further enhance their innate drow powers.

[Jes]

Your Character's Biography

If you're playing a character that is not "normal" (such as monster races or the universal subraces like tiefling, genasi, or aasimar), you have to have some kind of indication of your race in your biography (otherwise called just "bio" or description) so that people can react to it appropriately, especially if it isn't immediately clear by looking what your character is. It doesn't have to explicitly state what your heritage is, but there should be at least a small amount of description to indicate that you are not fully human/elven/etc. If it is blatantly obvious what you are (like you have a static goblin skin, for example) then you don't have to do this.

This goes for Dragon Disciple and Pale Master, too. You cannot hide those classes. If your class description states that there is a change to your appearance, you have to acknowledge that in your bio so others can react to it appropriately.

For Dragon Disciple: please put in your bio what type of dragon you are. Sometimes you can't tell the difference between white dragon wings and silver dragon wings, so put it in your bio so that others (including other disciples) can react appropriately to your character. A metallic dragon disciple needs to know if they need to feel that rage for being near your chromatic, for example. If you are not a metallic (gold, silver, copper, brass, bronze) or a chromatic (red, blue, green, white, black) then you can use a bit of nuance in your description of what kind of dragon you are. Be reasonable about it or you may be asked to change it.