Character Creation

Character Creation in Chaos Immemorial is based on a number of different role-playing game systems, in particular Dungeons & Dragons and SPECIAL.

Race
The first thing to be determined during the character creation process is the character's race. These, and the character's gender, determine the starting statistics of the character as well as the character's magical abilities. Non-sapient (and hence, non-playable) races are known as creatures.

Race-specific features are listed below.

Cutie Mark (Pony or Zebra races)
For characters of any of the Pony or Zebra races, a Cutie Mark can be chosen (those without cutie marks are known as blank flanks, and may receive a cutie mark at some point during the story). Cutie Marks determine which abilities the player receives bonuses in, and the Cutie Mark Critical ability.

Statistics
The statistics are the basic building blocks of characters in Chaos Immemorial, from where all other values come. At first level, the character has 6 points to spread between the statistics in addition to the 12 points that are assigned based on race and gender (as seen in the table below). No statistic may be higher than 6 until level 10, with the limit increased by 2 every tenth level following (8 at level 20, 10 at level 30, etc). 1 extra points is gained every second level.

Derived Attributes
Derived attributes are attributes which are directly influenced by the character's statistics and play an integral part in the game. They are Health Points, Initiative, and the Defences: Physical Defence, Mental Defence and Dodge. The derived attributes are determined in different ways: Derived attributes are also affected by various traits and abilities.
 * Health Points are equal to 15 plus the character's Endurance
 * Initiative is equal to the character's Dexterity.
 * Physical Defence is equal to 10 plus the higher of the character's Strength or Endurance
 * Mental Defence is equal to 10 plus the higher of the character's Wisdom or Charisma
 * Dodge is equal to 10 plus the higher of the character's Dexterity or Intelligence

Traits
Traits are selected at initial character creation and remain unchanged for the rest of the game, with a few special exceptions. Positive and negative traits exist, and if a positive trait is taken, a negative trait or multiple negative traits equal to the point value of the positive trait must be taken.

Abilities
Abilities determine your character's success at any activity, and are sorted into four categories: Physical, Mental, Social and Magical. Each ability has a value which is added to any d20 rolls to use the ability, which is equal to it's determining statistic plus any extra points added through the character creation and progression processes. Some abilities are only available to certain races.

During initial character creation, six abilities are chosen to be the character's specialised abilities, which can then have 12 points distributed amongst them (with each requiring at least one point). For Pony characters, these skills should reflect the character's Cutie Mark. Every level, one additional point can be added to these abilities and every fifth level, a new specialised ability can be chosen.

There are also abilities known as special abilities; unlike other abilities which can be used regardless of if they are specialised or not, special abilities can only be used if they are specialised.