Character Creation

Building a character in ØMEN: After Dragons follows a fixed order, because each step depends on the ones before it. You choose a race, decide how to set your starting attribute bonuses, pick a class and a background or profession, spend your initial pool of specialization points, and finally derive your Health and Will Points. When all of that is done, your character enters play at Level 1.

The Creation Sequence

1. Choose a Race (and a sub-race where one applies). Your race sets your starting attribute dice, your Level 1 bonus caps, your Point-Buy pool, your speed, your racial abilities, and your starting languages.
2. Determine your starting attribute bonuses. There are two methods, and the choice is yours:
   • Rolling - roll each racial bonus die, apply the listed modifier, and the result is your starting bonus (capped at the Level 1 cap).
   • Point-Buy - spend your race's Point-Buy pool, paying 1 point per +1 bonus, distributed freely across the five attributes up to each attribute's Level 1 cap.
3. Choose a Class. Your class defines your two Core Attributes, your starting class dice (which override the default dice for the attributes the class dictates), your innate skills, your starting equipment choices, and - for casters - one innate spell school.
4. Choose a Background or Profession. This is free at character creation. If you choose a Profession, it also serves as your Background. Otherwise, pick from the Background list.
5. Spend 30 initial Specialization Points (SP). Standard SP costs apply, including the core-attribute discount from your class. A typical Level 1 spend covers one to three starting abilities or spells, a skill rank or two, a bonus nudge on a weak attribute, or points banked toward Level 2 gates.
6. Derive your HP and WP from the formulas, after all bonus adjustments are final.

Your character begins play at Level 1.

Step 1 in Depth: Choosing a Race

Your race is the foundation everything else rests on. It sets your starting attribute dice, your Level 1 bonus caps (every cap becomes 20 from Level 2 on), your Point-Buy pool, your Speed, your racial abilities, and your starting languages. Where a race carries sub-races or heritages - the Dragonkin's seven bloodlines, for instance - you settle that choice here as well. Browse the full rosters in the Races section before you commit: the differences in caps and innate abilities shape which classes a race naturally supports.

Step 2 in Depth: Rolling vs. Point-Buy

Both methods are offered at creation. Point-Buy is separate from the SP economy - it is its own pool, spent only during creation. Whichever method you pick, you still receive the full 30 initial SP afterward.

Rolling

Roll each racial bonus die in turn and apply its modifier (for example, D4+1 means roll a d4 and add 1). The result becomes your starting bonus for that attribute, capped at the Level 1 cap shown in your racial table.

• The ceiling is high. A racial D6+1 on STR with a cap of 7 can roll the full +7; a poor roll might net only +2.
• There is no compensation for bad rolls - you live with the variance.
• Races with free bonus-up triggers (such as Elves and Tanian Humans) pair well with rolling, since their later additions sidestep the cap-on-roll truncation.

Point-Buy

Distribute your race's Point-Buy pool freely across the five attributes, paying 1 point per +1 bonus, up to each attribute's Level 1 cap.

• There is zero variance - your allocation is guaranteed.
• The pool is genuinely separate from SP, so you still receive the full 30 initial SP.
• Point-Buy bypasses the "cost equals current bonus" SP escalation during creation, which makes it the optimizer's choice for min-maxed builds.

The choice is more stylistic than mechanical. Rolled characters trend slightly stronger on average but carry meaningful variance; Point-Buy characters are consistently a touch weaker in peak stats but trade that for a guaranteed spread.

Step 3 in Depth: Choosing a Class

Your class is the single biggest mechanical choice you make. Every class provides:

• Two Core Attributes, which are cheaper to raise (see Attributes & Dice).
• Starting Class Dice, which override the default dice progression at Level 1. These are the dice you actually use in play - racial bonus dice are only used to set your starting bonuses when rolling.
• Innate Skills, which you know automatically, gain at +1 level at creation, and can advance for 5 SP less per rank.
• An Innate Spell School (casters only), which follows the same innate discount.
• Starting Equipment, including weapon and armor choices that grant innate training in those categories.
• A Dice Progression path of forced and free die-ups across Levels 2 through 10.

Step 4 in Depth: Background or Profession

At creation you choose either a Background or a Profession, and either choice is free. If you pick a Profession, it also counts as your Background. A character may have at most one Profession.

After character creation, adopting a Profession costs 30 SP, and requires finding the tools of the trade in the world.

A note on the common phrase "gain a level in [skill]": this grants the skill at level 1. If the skill is already innate, it bumps from level 1 to level 2. Unless the text explicitly says "as innate," the skill is not made innate - it is simply granted at level 1.

Step 5 in Depth: Spending Your First 30 SP

Your initial 30 SP are spent at standard costs, with your class's core-attribute discount already in effect (see Specialization Points for the full price list). This pool is separate from Point-Buy - it is the same currency you will earn every session thereafter.

There is no single correct spend, but most Level 1 characters cover some mix of:

• One to three starting abilities or spells (5-16 SP each) - your opening signature moves.
• A skill rank or two (5-11 SP each), often on an innate skill where the first rank is free.
• A nudge on a weak, non-core attribute, or a cheap bump on a core one.
• A weapon or armor training tier beyond what your starting equipment grants innately.
• Points banked toward the Level 2 gate rather than spent now.

Casters tend to sink more of the 30 into spells than martial classes do. Spend with your first few sessions in mind - SP is fungible, and an unspent point is never wasted.

Step 6 in Depth: Health and Will Points

Derive your two pools last, once every bonus is final. In both formulas "die" means the die size as a number - a D6 counts as 6, a D8 as 8 (see Attributes & Dice for the full treatment):

• Health Points: HP = (4 × level) + (RES die × RES bonus).
• Will Points: WP = (4 × level) + (INT die × INT bonus) + (2 × FCS bonus).

At Level 1 that comes to 4 + (RES die × RES bonus) for HP and 4 + (INT die × INT bonus) + (2 × FCS bonus) for WP. Both pools grow by 4 at every level-up, and again whenever the governing die steps up or its bonus rises - so the attributes you favored in Step 5 quietly set the size of your reserves.

With HP and WP recorded, your character is complete and enters play at Level 1.