Creating a Professionless Character

With the change to professionless/classless character creation I also think it best to re-order the process of character creation just a bit to acknowledge the impact of race and culture on a character's skills and abilities. Therefore when creating a new character the process shall be:

1. Choose the Character's Race and Culture - The character's race will determin a number of favored skills and abilities. Most characters will also adopt the culture(s) commonly associated with their race and this will strongly impact the starting skill ranks the character has. Both have a huge impact on character development and it is not chance that causes most Brie males to become sailors or most of the Tarn to develope their skills as fighters.

2. Choose the Character's Favored Skills - All characters begin with the General Skill Category and the Physical Skill Category as favored skill categories. The Brawl and Crossbow skills (and Firearms skills if present in the campaign) are also favored skills for all characters. All characters may then choose one Skill Category as well as four additional individual skills. These skills (all of the skills in the chosen category as well as the four individual skills) are thereafter considered favored skills for the character.

Beginning at first level, and then every fifth level thereafter (5th, 10th, etc.), all characters gain a +10 to any skill of their choice. No skill can have more than a +30 bonus from this ability.

This is the essence of the "Professionless" varient and, combined with the Arcane Adept, Arcane Dabbler, Divine Grace, Favored Skill and Favored Skill Category talents in the New/Revised Talents area of this World Guide, gives players the ability to create the characters they want to play, rather than just taking a class close to what they want to play. (These talents are also provided below for quick reference.)

3. Generate your Character's Statistics - This may be done in exactly the same maner as noted in the HARP rulebook. I choose to start with 550 + 5d10 points to be distributed amongst the character's stats.

4. Buy the Character's Skills, Talents & Stat Increases - This also may be done in exactly the same manner as noted in the HARP rulebook. In the Other House Rules area of this World Guide I mention that I prefer the option discussed in the HARP Forums whereby a character earns Development Points instead of experience points. I will use this method as described under the Experience Points entry.

Starting characters begin with 80 DP + their Bonus DP from Stats that they may spend to buy Skills, Talents & Stat Increases. No more than 40 of these points may be spent on Talents and/or Stat increases at 1st level (30 per level thereafter). As usual under the HARP rules characters begin play with 20 free ranks that may be distributed amongst any of their favored skills, subject to the maximum of 6 ranks at first level.

The Bonus DP from Stats Chart is reprinted below for your convenience...

Stat	Bonus DPs
56-65	1
66-75	2
76-85	3
86-95	4
96-101	5
102-103	6
104	7
105	8

The following talents may be used to gain improved access to additional skills when developing "Professionless" Characters:

Arcane Adept
This talent represents a character's initial familiarization with the principals of spellcasting. Arcane Adepts have a deeper understanding and much broader familiarization with the art of spellcasting than those who only dabble in the art.
The character gains access to the spells listed in one Major Spell Sphere of choice as well as the spells within the Universal Sphere. The character may learn these spells as favored skills. Any other spell may also be learned by the character but these spells are not considered favored skills (and the character must somehow find a teacher or other resource to assist him in learning the spell).
Prerequisites: The character must have have the Mystic Arts as a favored category, must have the Sense Magic talent and must meet the requirements (if any) listed under the Major Spell Sphere that they are gaining access to. [See the Arcane Spell Casting and Divine Spell Casting areas of this World Guide for for descriptions of the various Arcane Spheres.]
Special: Any character who purchases this talent automatically gains the Tap Personal Mana talent as described in the College of Magic. They also gain two Spell Focus Style talents of choice. Note that this talent gives access to learn the character's first Major Spell Sphere. After learning their first Major Spell Sphere additional Major or Minor Spell Spheres may be learned using the Favored Sphere (Major/Minor) talent(s) at those talents' lower DP costs.
Cost: 30

Arcane Dabbler
This talent represents a character's initial familiarization with the principals of spellcasting within the narrow confines of their chosen specialty.
The character gains access to the spells listed in one Minor Spell Sphere of choice and may learn these spells as favored skills. The character also gains access to and may learn any spells from the Universal Sphere but these spells are not considered favored skills unless the character buys the Arcane Dabbler or Favored Sphere (Minor) talent specifically for the Minor Spell Sphere - Universal.
Prerequisites: The character must have at least one rank in PP Development and must meet the requirements (if any) listed under the Minor Spell Sphere that they are gaining access to. [See the Arcane Spell Casting and Divine Spell Casting areas of this World Guide for for descriptions of the various Arcane Spheres.]
Special: Any character who purchases this talent automatically gains the Tap Personal Mana talent as described in the College of Magic. They also gain two Spell Focus Style talents of choice. Note that this talent gives access to learn the character's first Minor Spell Sphere. After learning their first Minor Spell Sphere additional Minor Spell Spheres may be learned using the Favored Sphere (Minor) talent at that talent's lower DP cost.
Cost: 15

Divine Grace
This talent represents the favor that a particilar deity holds for the character. Typically this is a result of the character's time spent studying the proper worship of the deity and serving the deity. In return the deity grants the character the ability to draw mana from their divine patron and learn the spells sacred to the deity's worship. Each deity has their own list of spells and this talent allows the character to learn and cast only those spells specific to their god's worship. See Divine Spell Casting for a list of the gods, more information on their proper worship and the lists of spells they grant knowledge of to their faithful.
Prerequisites: None per se although the character must meet any requirements mentioned for priests of their chosen god.
Special: Any character who purchases this talent automatically gains the Tap Granted Mana talent as described in the College of Magic. They also gain two Spell Focus Style talents that fit their religion. Note that this talent does not allow the character to gain access to any of the Arcane Spell Spheres through the use of the Favored Sphere (Major/Minor) talent(s) - and indeed many deities frown upon their worshippers seeking knowledge outside of that specifically noted as sacred to their worship. Possession of this talent is no indication of any particular knowledge or facility with the manipulation of magic and indeed many priests are completely ignorant of the arcane forces they are 'manipulating'. Their focus is upon the proper performance of the prayers and rituals they have been taught with the sure knowledge that if they perform correctly their god will bless them with a particular outcome.
Cost: 20

Favored Skill
The character chooses any one skill. That skill is hereafter considered a favored skill for that character.
Special: A character may buy this talent multiple times. Each time this talent is chosen a different skill is added to the character’s list of favored skills.
Cost: 15 DP

Favored Skill Category
The character chooses any one skill category. The skills within that category are hereafter considered favored skills for that character.
Special: A character may buy this talent multiple times. Each time this talent is chosen a different skill category is added to the favored skill categories for that character, however each time a character chooses this talent the DP cost to purchase this talent doubles. I.e., 30 DP for the first category, 60 DP for the second, 120 for the third, etc. Favored Skill Categories gained as part of a character's Racial Talents do count as Favored Skill Categories gained through this talent and the cost of additional Favored Skill Categories are increased accordingly.
Cost: 30 DP+ (varies)

Favored Sphere (Major)
The character gains access to the spells listed in one Major Spell Sphere of choice and may learn these spells as favored skills.
Prerequisites: The character must have favored access to one Major Spell Sphere and must meet the requirements (if any) listed under the new Major Spell Sphere that they are gaining access to.
Cost: 15

Favored Sphere (Minor)
The character gains access to the spells listed in one Minor Spell Sphere of choice and may learn these spells as favored skills.
Prerequisites: The character must have favored access to one Minor or Major Spell Sphere and must meet the requirements (if any) listed under the new Minor Spell Sphere that they are gaining access to.
Cost: 10

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