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Excellent. Have you decided on a race and sex? About how old would your character be?

Male Elf, 18ish?

Okay. As an elf, you'll get a +1 to Dexterity and a -1 to Constitution. Around 18ish, for an elf, is about 105 years old.

So his new ability scores will be:

STR 9, DEX 14, CON 8, INT 11, WIS 10, CHA 12

Next is his hit points. I'm assuming you know what hit points are, but if I'm wrong, let me know and I'll explain them. At level 5 you'll have 4d6+6 HP. You can roll this at Invisible Castle and post the results here.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4703818/ 16 hit points. Yep I know what they are

Great. Next up are your thief skill points.

You can read about them in more detail in the Player's Handbook, but basically your thief skills allow you to do...you know...thiefy stuff. They are done with percentages. The higher the percentage, the more likely you'll succeed when you perform a skill.

Thief skills are Pick Pockets, Open Locks, Find and Remove Traps, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Detect Noise, Climb Walls and Read Languages.

Your base percentages are as follows:

Pick Pockets: 25%
Open Locks: 5%
Find/Remove Traps: 5%
Move Silently: 25%
Hide in Shadows: 20%
Detect Noise: 20%
Climb Walls: 70%
Read Languages: 0%

As you are level 5, you get 180 points to distribute among these scores. However, no score can go higher than 95%. Every time you level up, you'll get more 30 more points. Where you spend your skill points will determine what areas your thief will be good at, and which he will be bad at.

If you have any questions, let me know. Post your final scores when you have finished distributing the 180 points.

Pick Pockets: 25%+ 25
Open Locks: 5%+45
Find/Remove Traps: 5% + 45
Move Silently: 25% +25
Hide in Shadows: 20% +30
Detect Noise: 20% +10
Climb Walls: 70%
Read Languages: 0% +10

Okay, it seems that total comes to 190, which is 10 points too many. Can you subtract 10 points from one of those?

Hi spyguy. Welcome to the game. I hope you have fun.

Welcome from me, too.

Thanks guys. I'll take 10 off detect noise

Okay, that brings it up to:

Pick Pockets: 50%
Open Locks: 50%
Find/Remove Traps: 50%
Move Silently: 50%
Hide in Shadows: 50%
Detect Noise: 20%
Climb Walls: 70%
Read Languages: 10%

Next up is weapon proficiencies. You get 3 weapon proficiency slots and earn a new one every 4 levels (so next one will be at level 8). A WP slot can be spent on learning how to use a weapon or in a specific fighting style. If you attempt to fight with a weapon you are not proficient in, you suffer a -3 to hit.

Thieves are somewhat limited in their weapon selection. They are only allowed to use the following weapons: belaying pin, club, cutlass, dagger, dart, hand crossbow, knife, lasso, main-gauche, short bow, sling, broad sword, long sword, rapier, sabre, short sword, and staff.

As you are new, my advice to you would be to spend a slot on a melee weapon (that is, a weapon used in close hand-to-hand fighting) and a projectile weapon (for long ranged attacks). I should also point out that because your character is an elf, he gets an ability called 'elven grace.' It means that, as an elf, he gets a +1 to hit when using any kind of one-handed sword or any kind of bow.

You may also want to spend a WP slot on a fighting style. As a thief, you are only allowed to learn one, ever. So if you do choose one, choose carefully. Here are the fighting styles available.

Single Weapon Style - If you spend a WP to learn this, you become better at fighting with a single weapon (no shield or second weapon in your free hand). This means you get a +1 to armor class (defense), which means it is like fighting with a shield but without having to actually carry one.

Two-Hander Style - If you spend a WP to learn this, you become better at fighting with a weapon that uses two hands to fight. This lowers your weapon speed by 3 points, meaning you can attack faster. However, the only two-handed weapon a thief can use is a staff, so unless you learn to use a staff, this one is useless.

Weapon and Shield Style - Thieves are not allowed to learn this one, so I won't even bother with it.

Two Weapon Style - If you spend a WP to learn this, you become better at dual-wielding, that is, fighting with two weapons at once. Under normal circumstances, fighting this way makes you suffer a -2 penalty to hit with the primary weapon and a -4 penalty to hit to fight with the secondary weapon. If you buy this ability, the penalties shrink to 0 for the primary weapon and -2 for the secondary weapon.

Bow/Crossbow Style - If you spend a WP to learn this, you become better at using a bow or crossbow. This allows you to do two things. First, you get a +2 to hit if your target is at point blank range (that is, between 6 and 60 feet). Second, if you have an arrow already nocked and drawn or a bolt loaded and cocked, and your target is in sight, you can fire at the beginning of the round before anyone else goes.

Now then, as you have three WP slots, you may wish to spend one on a melee weapon, one on a projectile weapon and one on a fighting style. Or not. It's up to you, really. Spend them however you like. Remember, you can only learn one fighting style ever, though.

Let's go dagger, short bow and bow style

Done. Next up are non-weapon proficiencies.

You start with 6 NWP slots and you get a new one every 4 levels (so next one at 8th level). These are your non-combat skills, basically. There are quite a few to choose from.

Note that next to each NWP is a number. That is how many slots it costs to buy. Also note that the NWPs are divided into groups (General, Priest, Rogue, Warrior and Wizard). Any NWP found in the General or Rogue groups you can buy at cost. However, if you want to buy a skill found in the Priest, Warrior or Wizard group, it costs 1 additional slot. So for instance, Reading/Writing would cost you 2 slots instead of 1 and Herbalism would cost 3 instead of 2.

The descriptions of most of these NWP, including what they actually do, can be found in the Player's Handbook--but not all. If there are any you are interested in but want to know more about, just ask, and I can provide a description.

Once you spend your 6 slots, you can also take 2 languages for free. I assume you'll want Elven and Common (the basic human language), but if not, let me know.

GENERAL
Acting 1
Alertness 1
Agriculture 1
Animal Handling 1
Animal Training 1
Artistic Ability 1
Begging 1
Blacksmithing 1
Boating 2
Boatwright 1
Brewing 1
Carpentry 1
Cartography 1
Chanting 1
Cheesemaking 1
Clothesmaking, Crude 1
Cobbling 1
Cooking 1
Craft Instrument 2
Crowd Working 1
Dancing 1
Danger Sense 2
Direction Sense 1
Distance Sense 1
Drinking 1
Eating 1
Etiquette 1
Fire-Building 1
Fishing 1
Foraging 1
Fortune Telling 2
Fungi Recognition 1
Gaming 1
Heraldry 1
Hiding 2
Languages, Modern 1
Leather Working 1
Looting 1
Mining 2
Musical Instrument 1
Observation 1
Persuasion 1
Poetry 1
Pottery 1
Riding, Airborne 2
Riding, Land-based 1
Riding, Sea-based 2
Rope Use 1
Seamanship 1
Seamstress/Tailor 1
Sign Language 1
Signaling 1
Singing 1
Smelting 1
Sound Analysis 1
Stonemasonry 1
Swimming 1
Voice Mimicry 2
Weather Sense 1
Weaving 1
Whistling/Humming 1
Winemaking 1

PRIEST
Ancient History 1
Astrology 2
Bookbinding 1
Bureaucracy 2
Diagnostics 1
Engineering 2
Healing 2
Herbalism 2
Languages, Ancient 1
Law 1
Local History 1
Navigation 1
Oratory 1
Reading/Writing 1
Religion 1
Spellcraft 1
Veterinary Healing 1

ROGUE
Ancient History 1
Animal Noise 1
Appraising 1
Bartering 1
Begging 1
Blind-Fighting 2
Bureaucracy 2
Camouflage 1
Close-quarters Fighting 2
Disguise 1
Endurance 2
Fast-Talking 1
Forgery 1
Gem Cutting 2
Herbalism 2
Hunting 1
Information Gathering 1
Intimidation 1
Juggling 1
Jumping 1
Local History 1
Locksmithing 1
Navigation 1
Pest Control 1
Reading Lips 2
Set Snares 1
Survival 2
Tightrope Walking 1
Tracking 2
Trailing 1
Trail Signs 1
Tumbling 1
Ventriloquism 1

WARRIOR
Animal Lore 1
Animal Rending 1
Armorer 2
Armorer, Crude 1
Blind-Fighting 2
Bowyer/Fletcher 1
Bowyer/Fletcher, Crude 1
Camouflage 1
Charioteering 1
Close-quarters Fighting 2
Endurance 2
Hunting 1
Intimidation 1
Jousting 1
Law 1
Light Sleeping 1
Mountaineering 1
Natural Fighting 2
Navigation 1
Oratory 1
Running 1
Set Snares 1
Spelunking 1
Survival 2
Tracking 2
Trail Marking 1
Trail Signs 1
Weaponsmithing 3
Weaponsmithing, Crude 1
Wild Fighting 2

WIZARD
Ancient History 1
Astrology 2
Bookbinding 1
Engineering 2
Future History 1
Gem Cutting 2
Glassblowing 1
Herbalism 2
Languages, Ancient 1
Navigation 1
Reading/Writing 1
Religion 1
Spellcraft 1

I'll take reading/writing, Jumping, Animal training, animal handling, disguise and fast-talk. Yes, common and elven please

For Animal Training, which animal do you want to be able to train?