Welcome to the AVA system! Here, I'll be showing you how to build a character using the AVA system, our resident game mechanic, step by step. If you need more help on the AVA system rules themselves, or just want to explore options not strictly discussed here, please visit the AVA System section.
Step 1: Choosing a Race (Optional)
Your first step is to decide if you want a racial package. Racial packages are what gives each species a racial identity; they make every elf a little bit alike, but also make them a little different from every dwarf. If you're playing a human, you can skip to Step 2; otherwise, read on.
You will find racial packages detailed in the Races section of the Minionz Encyclopedia. Once you decide on a race you like, you've got to be able to play them; think of it like buying candy; you have to have enough money to buy the candy you want. We don't use gold in character generation though; instead, our currency comes in ability slots.
For every two character points (you start play with 30 character points), you put in an attribute (there are six attributes in total; Attack, Defense, Endurance, Magic, Resistance, and Swiftness), you get an extra ability slot, but not all abilities are the same. There are a grand total of 7 ability slot types tied to the six attributes, and you need two points in the right kind of attribute to buy the right kind of ability as follows;
Attack: Physical Attacks
Defense: Physical Defenses
Endurance: No ability slot type; see Calculating Hit Points, below
Magic: Magical Attacks, Utility Powers
Resistance: Magical Healing Abilities, Magical Resistances
Swiftness: Movement Modes
Every race except for humans has its own required abilities, and in order to play the race, you have to have an ability slot open of the right kind for each required ability. For example, if a race's required abilities are Silence, Stealth (both magical attacks), and Shadow Jump (a movement mode), you need to automatically take 6 character points out of 30 (leaving you with 24/30) to put 4 points in Magic and 2 points in Swiftness.
A lot of races also have attribute adjustments. If you see that you get a bonus to an attribute, use the extra points toward buying required abilities first. If you have a penalty from attribute adjustments (ex; -2 Magic), you need to subtract points from your starting 30 character points to make up for this. Let's assume the above race with Silence, Stealth, and Shadow Jump as required abilities has an attribute adjustment of +2 Magic, -2 Attack. You'll only need to put 2 extra points in Magic now because the others are covered by the bonus, but you have to put 2 points in Attack to make up for the loss, so you're still at 24 points out of 30 when all is said and done.
Finally, a lot of races have in-built weaknesses. Weaknesses are described in detail below, but all you really need to know right now is that a weakness gives you extra character points and tells you exactly where to put some of them.
Using the above racial package, you should have the following attributes;
Attack 0, Defense 0, Endurance 0, Magic 4, Resistance 0, Swiftness 2
The following abilities; Silence, Stealth, Shadow Jump
And 24 points left over to spend on the next step.
Step 2: Choosing an Ability Path (Optional)
Now that you've got the bare minimum to play your chosen race (assuming you're not a human, which automatically starts off with 30 character points), you need to take whatever points you have left and put them into your six attributes. Remember, every two points in an attribute gives you an ability of the appropriate type, so if you're wanting to take an ability path (see Encyclopedia), you need to plan ahead a little bit at 1st level. Let's say you want to be one of those Assassin/Ninja archetypes. Why not? You've already got Silence and Stealth off the bat for the above race. The Assassin ability path requires that you take, in order, Silence, Stealth, a weapon-based physical attack (2 points in Attack), Poison Attack (2 points in Magic), and Death Attack (2 points in Magic). The Ninja ability path requires that you take, in order, Silence, Stealth, Awareness (2 points in Magic), Shuriken or Claw (2 points in Attack), and Ninjitsu (2 points in Attack).
Remember, you have Silence and Stealth already, and both Shuriken and Claw qualify as weapon-based physical attacks. Let's say you choose Shuriken, so you have to put 2 points in Attack, making your current attributes;
Attack 2, Defense 0, Endurance 0, Magic 4, Resistance 0, Swiftness 2
But you still need Poison Attack (2 points in Magic), Death Attack (2 more points in Magic), Awareness (2 more points in Magic), and Ninjitsu (2 points in Attack) to pull off both of these paths. That's a total of 8 more points (6 in Magic and 2 in Attack), so with these added in, your attributes will be;
Attack 4, Defense 0, Endurance 0, Magic 10, Resistance 0, Swiftness 2
The following abilities; Silence, Stealth, Shadow Jump, Awareness, Shuriken, Poison Attack, Death Attack, and Ninjitsu.
And 14 points left over to spend on the next step.
Step 3: Assigning Remaining Points/Choosing Additional Abilities
You've chosen a race. You've chosen your ability paths. Now you're an awesome ninja killer of doom, but there's still some things missing. With your current attributes, you can fight ok, use your few magical attacks like nobody's business, and have a slight bonus on Swiftness checks at the beginning of the fight, but let's say you'd like to use those remaining points to be able to defend yourself better, and make you better at everything else you can already do.
So let's divide 14 by 6; you get 2 more points in each score, and then two more left over. We'll put the remaining two points in Defense and Resistance, your two neglected scores, and you'll end up with the following attributes;
Attack 6, Defense 3, Endurance 2, Magic 12, Resistance 3, Swiftness 4
You know your current abilities from above, but now you have 1 Attack slot open, 1 Defense slot open, 1 Magic slot open, 1 Resistance slot open, and 1 Swiftness slot open. Why not choose Club for your additional physical attack (you can surprise opponents with it using Stealth, which you're already good at), Light Armor for your additional physical defense (every little bit helps, and Light Armor doesn't reduce your attacks because it's light weight), Enhance Armor for your extra utility power (your armor needs all the help it can get), Absorb Magic for your magical resistance (you've seen to physical defense, but don't neglect magical!), and Burrow for your additional movement mode (easy to break in when you can tunnel through the ground). So now you know what your attributes are, and what your abilities are, but what about those hit points?
Step 4: Calculating Hit Points
Defense and Resistance are great for negating damage altogether, but if they fail, your hit points are the only thing that makes the difference between the taste of victory and a near- future internment at the local cemetery. To calculate hit points, you take the number of points you currently have in Endurance (in your case, 2) and you double them. You'll have 4 hit points using this sample character. As you gain levels, you'll get more hit points, but your storyteller will calculate that for you.
Step 5: Choosing Weaknesses (Optional)
You've chosen your race and ability path, assigned all the remaining character points, chosen the rest of your abilities, and calculated hit points. You're technically done, but there is another option if you choose it. Weaknesses are the exact opposites of abilities.
Abilities use up character points and make your character more powerful.
Weaknesses grant you character points and make your character less powerful.
You can have up to three non-racial weaknesses at the beginning of play; getting a weakness later on requires working it out with your storyteller. If your race has a weakness, this will be covered in the racial package, along with the mechanical implications of the weakness and how you should distribute the points it gives you.
What we'll be covering here is a non-racial weakness; a disability that you choose as a player to give you bonus points but isn't normally a part of your race.
In this case, we'll say you chose Flashbacks (see Encyclopedia); why not? When you're a ninja killer, you see some ugly things. Now you have to decide how bad you want your weakness to be; the worse it is, the more points you get (3 for minor severity, 5 for moderate severity, and 7 for severe severity), but it also hampers your character more. Typically, I suggest going the middle route with Moderate severity; moderate weaknesses can be tough, but not so tough that you can't play your character well, and 5 points makes any build a little bit better.
Let's say, because you're not so keen on having only 4 hit points, you put the extra points from your Weakness in Endurance, so now you have an Endurance of 7, and 7 x 2 = 14, so you have 14 hit points.
Put it all together, and viola! Sample character. Thanks for reading!
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