Notes on Character Building for the Thaeron Farlands Campaign Setting

The Farlands is a federation made up of eleven territories under the rule of an alliance between the Five Trees of major (good) humanoid races and the Emaril, a union of three extended chromatic dragon families (gold, silver, and bronze). The binding force between these many and sometimes disparate parties is a treaty between the Emaril and the Holy Alliance, signed at the conclusion of the Bitter Wars, a thirty year-long devastating conflict between the good humanoid races and the evil humanoid races that ended 127 years ago.

A map of the Farlands is provided for reference. The territories lie mostly in a temperate climatic zone and contain a variety of landforms from rugged mountains and dense forests to steppes, plains, inland lakes, major river systems, and seacoasts.

Character Generation:

Use the 27 point build for ability scores, +1d4 added to one ability score, or roll 4d6 x6 discarding the lowest die for each roll and assign as desired. If rolling for scores, add one wild d6 to any one roll and discard the lowest two dice for that roll.

As an alternative to racial ability score bonuses, you can choose to have none and choose a racial feat instead (from XGE). This applies to the variant human, so that a human character so composed would have no ability score bonuses and two feats (choice from PHB).

You can choose to have a pivotal event for your character. This will be a DM randomly determined event in the character’s past that manifests as both a benefit and a limitation.

Non-caster classes gain a favored weapon. Add +1 to all attack rolls made with that weapon. Caster classes gain one favored spell. The effect for that spell is as if it were cast at one spell slot higher than is actually used to cast it. Bards, rogues, and monks can alternately gain a +1 luck bonus to all saving throws in lieu of the favored weapon or spell.  

Races allowed: PHB only; tieflings and drow will experience a number of barriers to free access of resources equivalent to the other races due to the history of the Farlands. However, I’m not excluding them from possible choices for characters. I am asking that if you choose one of these races we will need to discuss how to craft the character so that he/she fits into the schema of the campaign such that there won’t be outright conflict that will make play difficult.

Alignments allowed: No evil alignments, all others are allowed. It’s just not going to work with the nature of this campaign. Note that in 5E alignment is not a mechanic for classes/races per se, so how you PLAY your character will determine alignment more so than what alignment you choose for the character.

Deities allowed: All nonhuman deities as well as Norse, Celtic, and Egyptian. Thaeron culture is heavily Celtic, elvish, and dwarfish, with significant Norse and Egyptian migrant/geographic associate cultures. Barbarians of the Wyldlaern commonly worship four deities: Sun goddess Ahu (NG), Wind god Zyth (CG), Earth god Teket (LN), Water goddess Flyf (CN). Druids occasionally worship these deities in addition to others.

Classes allowed: All classes in the PHB and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (XGE). If you want to play a warlock you can but we’ll need to discuss origins and pacts. If you are considering playing a wild sorcerer, I have some modifications to wild surge for consideration. If you play a ranger, druid, or barbarian character, we’ll need to discuss background and factions.

Aside from the usual considerations and balancing classes across the party, here are some things that will be important in your considerations:

• Dreams/divinations will play a highly significant and central role.· Influence of and at higher levels travel to and from exigent planes of existence, most notably Feywild and Shadowfell, will play a central role in the campaign.
• Wilderness/untamed settings feature prominently. Culturally advanced cityscapes will be special features and not something characters visit regularly. Having some robust wilderness-enabled classes such as druid, ranger, barbarian, rogue scout, or nature attuned cleric/paladin will be extremely beneficial and fully supported. You may also want to consider giving a wilderness flavor to a traditionally non-outdoorsy class via genre, origin, background, specialization, spell choices, deity, or pact relationship.
• · Underdark access will be mosty limited and not a prominent feature.
• · Underground adventure will be an infrequent but significant feature.
• · Aerial travel and combat will be a significant feature, particularly at higher levels.
• · Humanoid racial and planar languages, as well as druidic, draconic, and thieves cant, will be significant features.
• · Magic will have a significant extra dimension via a “lost” or “dead” arcana/lore (no one practices this arcana in the present and finding resources to assist with understanding will be challenging). Access will be enhanced by virtue of the history, arcana, and religion skills, as well as connections with factions of divine and arcane power.
• · Deities will have important significance. It should be something you choose carefully and make an effort to roleplay actively. You should know the basic tenets of your beliefs, these should reflect in the way your character behaves, and you should be generally aware of what constitutes a nemesis for your beliefs. If you choose a cleric, monk, paladin, or warlock character, this fealty/belief will be a code for your character’s behavior and consequences, either good or bad, will result.
• · Magic will have a rather low volume but high relative power. Being able to cast spells is an exceptional ability. There will not be magic shops in every town or magic items on the open market in general. The magic you gain for the most part will be what your character and the party pay for in effort, intelligence, and usually blood, in most cases. However, this makes it much more of a source of power and influence, since few characters or NPCs will have much of it, and your ability to wield it to counter magical monsters will be precious indeed.
• · The economy is basically feudalistic, with high taxes on the impoverished common populace, very few select middle-class artisans or merchants, and very rare royalty/authority figures. Most folks with any wealth/influence at all are closely dependent for their status on royalty, clergy, academia, or a powerful faction (which may or may not be officially sanctioned).