STAGE · Creating your character
Custom classes
Available from the startDesign your own class from skills, health, attributes, advantages and disadvantages; the stronger it is, the more slowly it levels.
This page is further along your path. Read ahead if you’re curious; you can return when you reach this stage.
The parts of a custom class
| Part | Choice |
|---|---|
| Skills | 3 primary, 3 major, 6 minor; a skill can sit in only one tier |
| Health per level | 4 to 30, default 8 |
| Attributes | each starts at 50; move points between them, each staying within 10 to 75 |
| Advantages | up to seven |
| Disadvantages | up to seven |
| Name | your choice |
Attributes on the custom screen are a zero-sum budget: raising one lowers the pool, and the pool must balance before you continue.
The difficulty dagger
Every choice adds or subtracts difficulty points:
Health per level: +1 for each point above 8, −2 for each point below 8.
Each advantage adds its cost; each disadvantage subtracts its cost (tables below).
The total must be between −12 and +40. It sets your advancement multiplier:
advancement multiplier = 0.3 + 2.7 × (difficulty points + 12) ÷ 52
So a class at −12 has a multiplier of 0.3 (fast levelling), a class at the default 0 has about 0.92, and a class at +40 has 3.0 (slow levelling). Every skill improvement needs a number of uses proportional to this multiplier.
Advantages
| Advantage | Choice | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Acute Hearing | +1 | |
| Adrenaline Rush | +4 | |
| Athleticism | +4 | |
| Bonus to Hit | Animals / Daedra / Humanoids / Undead | +6 / +3 / +6 / +6 |
| Expertise In | a weapon group | +2 |
| Immunity | Disease, Fire, Frost, Magic, Paralysis, Poison or Shock | +10 |
| Increased Magery | spell points of 1×, 1.5×, 1.75×, 2× or 3× Intelligence | +2 / +4 / +6 / +8 / +10 |
| Rapid Healing | General / in darkness / in light | +4 / +3 / +2 |
| Regenerate Health | General / in darkness / in light / while immersed | +14 / +10 / +6 / +2 |
| Resistance | Disease, Fire, Frost, Magic, Paralysis, Poison or Shock | +5 |
| Spell Absorption | General / in darkness / in light | +14 / +12 / +8 |
What some of them do:
Acute Hearing: you hear enemies from farther away (1.25 times the distance).
Adrenaline Rush: +8 to hit while your health is below one part in 6 of your maximum (and enemies with it are harder to hit then).
Athleticism: jump speed +10%.
Expertise In: bonus damage and accuracy with that weapon group, worked out from your attributes. With 50 in every attribute it is about +4 to +5 damage and +10 to +11 to hit, depending on the weapon. It works for Hand-to-Hand too.
Resistance / Immunity: see the saving-throw table in Choosing a race. A class immunity adds 50 points to the save; a class resistance adds 25.
Increased Magery: raises your spell points above the custom default of half your Intelligence. Only one magery choice is allowed.
Disadvantages
| Disadvantage | Choice | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Critical Weakness | an effect | −14 |
| Damage | from holy places / from sunlight | −6 / −10 |
| Darkness-Powered Magery | lower magic in daylight / no magic in daylight | −7 / −10 |
| Forbidden Armour Type | leather / chain / plate | −1 / −2 / −5 |
| Forbidden Material | Iron −1, Daedric −2, Orcish −3, Adamantium −5, Ebony −5, Mithril −6, Silver −6, Dwarven −7, Elven −9, Steel −10 | as listed |
| Forbidden Shield Types | shield types | −1 |
| Forbidden Weaponry | a weapon group | −2 |
| Inability to Regen Spell Points | −14 | |
| Light-Powered Magery | lower magic in darkness / no magic in darkness | −10 / −14 |
| Low Tolerance | an effect | −5 |
| Phobia | Animals, Daedra, Humanoids or Undead | −4 |
Some picks block each other: you can't take the same choice twice, Bonus to Hit and Phobia against the same enemy group, Expertise In and Forbidden Weaponry for the same weapon, or an immunity and a resistance to the same effect.
Spells for custom classes
A custom class starts with spell points equal to half its Intelligence, raised by Increased Magery. If any magic school is among its primary or major skills, it starts with the Spellsword's starting spells; otherwise it starts with none.
Designing well
Take disadvantages you won't feel. A fighter who will wear leather and steel loses nothing by forbidding Daedric weapons it may never find; forbidding Steel, the most common good metal, is a real cost early on.
Check late consequences. Forbidden materials also rule out reward gear made of them later, such as seasonal event sets. Read a reward's material before you buy it.
Don't max difficulty for its own sake. A very strong class that levels at 3× takes far longer to reach the levels where the game's introduction questlines open.
Match your tiers to how you'll play. Your level rises from your primary and major skills (and your best minor), so put the skills you'll use constantly there.
Next
Sources & checked facts
src/systems/customClass.js:HP_MIN,HP_MAX,HP_DEFAULT,DIFFICULTY_MIN,DIFFICULTY_MAX,difficultyPoints,advancementMultiplier,FREE_EDIT_MIN,FREE_EDIT_MAX,STAT_DEFAULT,buildCustomCareer,customSpellSetIndexsrc/systems/specialAdvantages.js:DIFFICULTY(every cost),advDisAdjustment,ONLY_ONE_KEYS,MAX_ITEMS,cannotAdd,DEFAULT_MAGERY_BITSsrc/ui/chargen.js:_advListandadvAdd(seven per list),customDifficulty, the −12..40 gate, the zero-sum attribute pool (customSpendStat)src/combat/pcaao.js(forced on online):pcaaoAdrenalineRushToHit(below a sixth, +8 / +12 improved),pcaaoProficiencyModifiers(stat-driven expertise per weapon skill); offline equivalents insrc/combat/formulas.jssrc/characters/enemy/enemySounds.js:acuteHearingMultiplier;src/systems/skills.js:jumpSpeedMultipliersrc/systems/rest/rest.js:spellPointRecoveryRate(online rest restores spell points for every career)src/systems/spellcast.js:savingChanceResearch note:
handbook/research/C2.md
Facts used on this page
- Adrenaline Rush hit bonus: 8 to hit
src/combat/pcaao.js·pcaaoAdrenalineRushToHit - Adrenaline Rush health threshold divisor: 6
src/combat/pcaao.js·pcaaoAdrenalineRushToHit (threshold, source-regex)