Basics/Getting Started

Welcome!
This page is intended to help you get aquainted with the Old Ontearis Campaign Setting. For the most part, the gameplay and character creation in the Old Ontearis Campaign follow standard Pathfinder Rules, however, there are a few changes and this page will help point them out!

What System Does This Campaign Use?
The Old Ontearis uses the Patherfinder System! We will being using Pathfinder rules, classes, etc., so please bookmark the Pathfinder SRD for quick reference during character creation and the game!

The biggest differences between standard Pathfinder games and the Old Ontearis Campaign are the use of unique Races, Languages, Countries, Religions, and traits.

What Things Do I Need to Do Differently to Create My Character?
When creating a character, you will do a few things differently than when creating a normal Pathfinder character, but for the most part, character creation will be the same.

1. Choosing a Race
The fist thing you will want to do when creating your character will be to choose the Race of your character. For the Old Ontearis Campaign, you will be using only the Races found on the Playable Races page on this site, or Races that are approved by your GM. When you choose a Race, it will give you special benefits and drawbacks and will also determine which Racial Languages you know.

2. Choosing a Country
For this campaign, you will need to choose a home country. In the Old Ontearis Campaign Setting, there are a wide variety of countries from which you can choose that all have their own unique flair. You may wish to choose a country based on their alignment, political structure, economic structure, or life style of its inhabitants (think about how these factors fit into your character's back story!) Regardless of why you choose your particular home country, it will impart a few important attributes to your charater.

First of all, each country has an official langage. If this langauge is different from your Racial Language, you will add this language to your list of automatic languages and it will be the one you are most familiar with.

In addition to an official language, each country also has a set of two unique Traits which bestow special bonuses on the character based on experience and upbrining in that particular country. Each player will choose just ONE of these traits to apply to their character (once this trait is chosen, it cannot be changed). These Country Traits can be found in the description of each country or on the County Trait Quick View page.

3. Choosing a Religion
Unlike some settings in which religion plays a minor role, religion is very important to the game play of the Old Ontearis Setting. The Gods of Ayloria are very active, if only indirectly, and will often send signs to guide or mislead characters during the campaign. Choosing a religion, pantheon , and patron God or Goddess not only affects your stats, but may also affect what kind of in game help you will recieve from the Divine (as some Gods are more involved with Mortal affairs and consistant with their help than others.) Each character will choose one Religion to follow and one Patron God (if their choosen religion has more than one) to worship. Each God has two Traits attatched to them and the player may choose just ONE of the traits to apply to their character and level up over time (although it is possible to switch between these Religion Traits if the player halves the religious experience they have gained, minimum of 1). These Religion Traits can be found in the discription of each God or on the Religious Trait Quick View page.

Each God has an alignment and particular feeling towards Mortals, other Gods, and behaviors. Characters should be aware of their patron God's attitudes towards the world and act accordingly. If a character's behavior is out line with their diety, their religious experience will be halved (to a minumum of 1) and they will have choose a new patron God or seek repentance. One other thing to be mindful of when it comes to Religion in this setting, is that each God is associated with an animal, sacred object, or symbol. Gods will often uses these messengers as a means to communicate with characters (for example, the Goddess Sieei is associated with Geckos, seeing one in an odd location or doing something strange may indicate that Sieei would like your attention for some reason.) Be on the lookout for the God's animals, sacred objects, and symbols during the campaign! These symbols and messengers can be found in the discription of each God or on the Religious Symbol Quick View page.

4. Choose Two More Traits
In addition to the Country Trait and the Religious Trait, players may choose TWO more Traits from the standard Pathfinder categories of Combat, Faith , Magic , Social , or Equipment found on the Traits page of the Pathfinder SRD . You may only chose ONE Trait from each category. These traits have been earned by your character from past experiences and are intended to help flesh out your character's back story, therefore do not choose traits that are totally inconsistant with the character you intend to play (for example, a deeply devout character would not take an atheist trait, unless he converted in the past, or a character who grew up in a remote location would not take a trait that involved dodging through large crouds as a child.)

Language System
Conversing with NPCs will work slightly differently in this Campaign Setting than in normal settings. It seems like in most campaigns, all NPCs know Common, however, in the Old Ontearis system, NPCs will only know Common if they are from siginificant towns or areas with well established, international trade routes. In addition, on Ontearis, Common is not actually a complete language but a Pidgin Language used in international trade, therefore, expressing complex ideas in Common will be difficult.

You will be able to get the most meaningful information out of NPCs if you speak their Country Language, and almost as much if you speak their Sub-Racial Language. Communication becomes more difficult if you try to communicate via an NPC's Racial language, and very difficult if you only have Common in common. Therefore, it is benificial to a player and a party to know a wide variety of languages.

Magic System
The magic system in the Old Ontearis Campaign Setting will also be a little different. Players will still adhere to the normal Pathfinder Spell Level guidelines when determining how many of each level spell their character may learn each level. However, unlike most settings, the player will be able to use any of the spells they have learned any number of times that day. The catch will be that if a character over uses their magic, they could suffer any number of adverse effects ranging from fatigue and illness early on to insanity, physical deformity, and even death if persistantly misused over time, or grossly misused in a single event.

The symtoms of Magic Abuse will very depending on the type of magic being employed and the extent of the damage will be determined based on a number of factors including a character's Constituion, Willpower, Intelligence, and other similar characteristics, and also by the power and quantity of spells used. Magic Abuse symptoms can accumulate over time weaking the Magic User's resistance and making it easier to "Overdose." Rest and in some cases, magic "detox", are required to safely practice magic in the future.

In order to make magic use the uncertain and inherently risky practice that it should be, the GM will not disclose the full mechanics of the Old Ontearis Magic System to the players. Safe to say, it will be difficult to do too much permenent magic damage to one's self at lower level (unless you go crazy on your own or have a death wish) and Magic Users should use the first few levels to get to know the symptoms of Magic Abuse and their limitations.