Character Creation¶
Blitz Eternal: Adventures Beyond the Mists — v0.4 Draft¶
This document covers how a Character is built. The first published release ships with pregenerated Characters and does not require any creation at the table, but the creation and advancement systems below are designed in full, and the pregens are built consistently against them.
Full mechanics for each Class live in their own files under classes/. This document is the overview and the shared framework.
The Layers¶
A Character is built from three light Layers at creation:
- Class governs combat: Command Capacity, personal die and Hit Range, the Reads or signature system, Detachment Limit, and Hit Points.
- Lineage is a mostly-flavor heritage layer.
- Virtues govern non-combat competence: four traits, each with its own tier on the Checks ladder.
After the three Layers, you finish a Character by choosing a starting Retinue and a starting Kit, then spending a small pool of Advancement Points on starting Specialties. Each step is covered in order below.
Weapon choice is a separate, lighter decision layered on top of Class: it never changes Hit Range, only damage dealt per Hit and a few positional or optional effects. See Weapons.
Guilds become available through play. A Guild is a group of people who share the same vocation, such as the Thief, Mage, Priest, Bard, Alchemist, Guardian, or Assassin. A Character begins Guildless and joins one later by spending Advancement Points, the way a newcomer through the mists slowly earns a place in Hynafol's institutions (see Advancement). Joining grants standing plus two things: the right to recruit a Retainer of that Guild's type into your Company, and a small, immediate Opening Ability. Guild is the non-combat identity and social layer; it never touches combat. See Guilds for each vocation.
Layer One: Class¶
There are eight Classes. Each defines what a Character does in combat: the dice they add to the shared Pool, the signature mechanic they run, and how large a Company they command. Pick the Class whose fantasy fits the Character you want to play.
A Class sets:
- Command Capacity. The Retainers led, as a starting value that rises automatically at fixed Levels. Starting: Chancellor 6, Errant 0, Knight 3, Ranger 2, Sage 2, Skirmisher 3, Squire 0, Witch 2. Maximums are per class; see Companies and Command, Part Two.
- Personal die and Hit Range. How many dice the Character adds to the Pool, and which faces hit. Every Class begins play with exactly 1 personal die. A second arrives automatically at the Level its own table names; the Errant and Chancellor are fixed at 1 for longer than the rest, and cap at 2 rather than 3.
- Signature. The Class's signature dice mechanic: what it does with the Pool that no other Class does. For most Classes this is the Combos it Reads (Pair, Triple, Straight, Set); four Classes instead run a standalone system in the same role (the Ranger's Focus, the Sage's Insight, the Squire's Favor, the Witch's Mana).
- Detachment Limit. How many Detachments may act in a turn. 2 by default.
- Hit Points. Set per Class before armor, not a flat number. Each Class file gives its own baseline.
- Speed. 5 for every Character as a universal baseline, unmodified by Class. Retainer baseline Speed sits at 4 (6 for a Blade), so an unarmored Character is a step faster than rank-and-file troops by default. Armor (see Weapons) is the thing that changes this, not Class.
The Eight Classes¶
| Class | Cmd. Cap. (start) | Signature | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chancellor | 6 | Set (Grand Muster) | The general who barely fights; four command effects and the whole army moving at once. |
| Errant | 0 | Pair, Triple | No company, ever; a Blitz chain that climbs until it busts. |
| Knight | 3 | Straight, Set (Level 5) | Formation and command; Oaths and Rally hold the line together. |
| Ranger | 2 | Focus | Patient scout and marksman; certainty earned by going unhit. |
| Sage | 2 | Insight; Predict Fate (no Combos) | Reads the dice before they fall and bends them; the party's foresight against a bad roll. |
| Skirmisher | 3 | Triple (Pierce, Level 5) | Scattered companies that never need to hold; strikes the exposed. |
| Squire | 0 | Favor | Attaches to others and gives; never fights for itself. |
| Witch | 2 | Mana | Channels an uncanny power banked from a circle's low dice; curses and battlefield control. |
Detailed mechanics, flavor, worked examples, and growth paths are in each Class file: Chancellor, Errant, Knight, Ranger, Sage, Skirmisher, Squire, and Witch.
Four Classes replace their Reads with a complete standalone signature system rather than reading Combos: the Ranger (Focus), the Sage (Insight and Predict Fate), the Squire (Favor, Stockpile, Bump), and the Witch (Mana and casting). This is treated as a full substitute, not a gap.
Designer's note
Each Class is built along two internal design spectrums: the pattern it reads in the shared Pool, and its relationship to the Company, which runs from Characters who fight almost entirely on their own dice to Characters who barely fight and instead command many Retainers. These are shorthand for how the roster stays distinct; players never touch them and simply choose a Class.
Layer Two: Lineage¶
A light heritage layer with four options: Human, Elven (includes Part-Elven), Dwarven (includes Part-Dwarven), and Half-Fae (further specified by one of six Heritage Courts).
Lineage carries deliberately narrow mechanical weight. Each of the four grants one narrative permission and one flat +1d6 on a specific category of Check, and nothing more. Lineage never touches Pool size, Hit Range, or Hit Points. Full text, including all six Heritage Courts and their twelve Court-gated Specialties, is in Lineage.
Layer Three: Virtues¶
Four Virtues cover everything a Check might ask of a Character outside combat: Might (force, endurance), Finesse (precision, stealth), Wits (knowledge, perception), Presence (social force, performance). Every Check rolls 3d6, always; a Virtue never changes how many dice are rolled, only what range they succeed on. See Core Rules, Part Seventeen, for the full Competence rule.
Each Virtue carries its own tier on the same ladder Checks and combat share: Untrained, Trained, Skilled, Elite, Renowned. At creation, assign the fixed array 2/1/1/0 freely across the four Virtues (2 and 1 map to Skilled and Trained; 0 is Untrained), so a starting Character is Skilled in one Virtue, Trained in two, and Untrained in the fourth. No point-buy, no math beyond placing four numbers.
A Skill (see Advancement) or a Guild's professional domain raises a single named task one tier above its governing Virtue. Everything else that Virtue touches stays at its base tier. This is the only way a tier moves; there is no other bonus to a Check's range.
Your Retinue¶
During character creation, choose your starting Retainers from the four basic roles (Archer, Blade, Halberdier, Shieldbearer; see Companies and Command, Part One), up to your Class's starting Command Capacity. Every starting Retainer begins at Bond 0. Naming them is free and always available; Bond itself is earned in play or bought later (see Companies and Command, Part Three).
A Retainer's role is not fixed for life. During downtime you may retrain a Retainer into a different role, on the same footing as reconfiguring a Kit or changing armor. Narrate the change however you like: the same soldier trained into a different kit, or a change of personnel with a new face and personality. Either reading is fine, and the choice is yours.
When your Command Capacity rises at a Level, you gain one new Retainer slot. That Retainer joins during your next period of downtime rather than mid-adventure. How they come to you, and why, is for you and your GM to decide; a short story for the arrival is welcome but never required.
Starting Kit and Starting Specialties¶
Every Character chooses a Kit (Weapon and Shield, Twin Blades, Polearm, Bow and Arrow, or Pike) at creation, free of cost. This is mandatory equipment, not a purchased option. See Kits.
In addition, every Character gets 3 Advancement Points to spend before the first session on their Class's Level 1 Starting Specialties menu, a short list specific to that Class rather than the whole Advancement list below. These menus live in each class file. The 3 points are the whole of a Character's starting Specialty budget; there is no separate free Specialty on top of them. Menu entries are priced on the standard Specialty tiers (Tier 1 costs 1, Tier 2 costs 2, Tier 3 costs 3; see Specialty cost tiers below), so how many Specialties a Level 1 Character walks away with depends on how the 3 points are spent: one Tier 3 pick, a Tier 2 plus a Tier 1, or three Tier 1s. Guild entry is never on this menu; a Character begins Guildless by design. This spend is a one-time creation choice, made before the Level ladder begins at Level 2.
Every Character begins play with exactly 1 personal die. No Class, and no starting choice, changes this. The second personal die arrives automatically at the Level a Class's own table names.
The first additional die a Character gains can be given the flavor of a bonded companion: a Guardian Spirit, Falconry, a Warhound, a Familiar, a Palfrey, or a Hunting Hound. See Bonded Companions.
Advancement¶
Adventures Beyond the Mists advances Characters through Levels.
How Levels Work¶
A Character reaches each new Level after earning 100 XP. The threshold is the same for every Level and every class: XP fills like a percentage bar from 0 to 100, and crossing 100 raises the Character one Level and resets the bar to 0. The 100-XP threshold is universal across all classes. What a Level grants is class-specific.
Each Level grants one of two things:
- Advancement Points, spent freely on the menu below.
- A fixed class benefit, which cannot be purchased and cannot be declined. It simply arrives. The two fixed benefits are an additional personal die and an increase to Command Capacity.
Personal dice and Command Capacity are never bought; they arrive on a fixed schedule. Advancement Points buy only genuine choices.
Designer's note
Personal dice and Command Capacity are kept off the purchasable menu on purpose. When raw power is bought with the same currency as Bond, Guild entry, and traits, prioritizing power is a dominant strategy and every other purchase becomes a deliberate sacrifice. Moving power onto a fixed schedule removes that competition entirely, so Advancement Points compete only against other genuine choices.
Example ladder (illustrative, not locked, and explicitly not identical for every class):
| Level | Grants |
|---|---|
| 1 | Starting kit. 1 personal die. |
| 2 | Advancement Points |
| 3 | An additional personal die |
| 4 | Advancement Points |
| 5 | +1 Command Capacity, plus the class's Level 5 signature unlock |
| 6 | Advancement Points (larger pool) |
| 7 | An additional personal die (3-die maximum reached) |
| 8 | Advancement Points |
| 9 | +1 Command Capacity (maximum reached) |
| 10 | Advancement Points |
Level 5 is a real milestone, not a coincidence. Four classes place their signature unlock there: the Knight's Set, the Skirmisher's Pierce, the Sage's Second Sight, and the Errant's Early Blitz. All four for the same underlying reason, that Level 5 is where each class's Pool first grows large enough for its signature mechanic to cross from mathematically present into reliably firing.
The 100-XP threshold is fixed. The earn rate is the GM's dial to turn: as a guideline, a typical session moves a Character 33 to 50 XP, roughly a third to a half of a Level, with the exact amount depending on what the party accomplishes. XP and Advancement Points remain separate currencies: XP fills the bar to the next Level, and the Level then grants either Advancement Points or a fixed class benefit.
What Advancement Points Buy¶
| Spend | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Raise a Retainer's Bond | Points equal to the new Bond level (1 to reach Bond 1, 2 to reach Bond 2, 3 to reach Bond 3, 4 to reach Bond 4) | Each increase also grants one pick from the Retainer growth menu. The same track as organic in-play Bond growth; either path, or both, can raise the same Retainer. See Companies and Command, Part Three. |
| Gain a Skill | 2 | Raises one named task one tier above its governing Virtue (see Layer Three: Virtues). Example: Finesse Trained plus a Lockpicking Skill picks locks at Skilled, while everything else Finesse governs stays at Trained. |
| Gain a Specialty | 1, 2, or 3, by tier | A Class-specific or universal feature. The price is set by the Specialty's tier, not a flat cost: Tier 1 (minor or non-combat) costs 1, Tier 2 (standard combat) costs 2, Tier 3 (build-defining) costs 3. See Specialty cost tiers below, and each class file's Appendix and Level 1 menu. |
| Join a Guild | 3 | Standing and a foothold in one Guild (Thief, Mage, Priest, Bard, Alchemist, Guardians, or Assassin). Grants two things: the universal Retainer perk (recruit a Retainer of that Guild's type into the Company, within existing Command Capacity; see Companies and Command, Part Five), and that Guild's personal Opening Ability, small and immediate (see that Guild's page under Characters, Specialties). Larger Guild abilities (The Priest's Hand, or the Mage Guild's seven-Component Ritual system, for instance) are bought afterward as Specialties, once the Character has standing. |
| Gain Fluid Footwork | 3 | Universal, open to any Character regardless of Class. Splits a Move around an Action instead of the default Move-then-Act order (some movement before the Action, the rest after). Grants no additional movement. See Universal Specialties. |
| Gain Held Breath | 2 | Universal. Once per Combat, decline to bank a hit this turn and instead save it, adding it to a future roll's total. See Core Rules, Part Eighteen. |
| Gain Empty Hand | 2 | Universal, and a smaller version of the Squire's native trait. If a Character's very first roll of a turn produces zero hits, a small consolation is granted rather than nothing. See Core Rules, Part Eighteen. |
| Gain a Court Specialty | 1 or 2 | Half-Fae only, and gated to the Character's own Heritage Court. Twelve exist, two per Court. See Lineage. |
Specialty cost tiers. A Specialty's price is set by what it does, on a three-tier scale rather than a single flat cost. Tier 1 (1 point) is a minor or non-combat edge: an exploration, social, or narrow always-on convenience that does not touch combat math. Tier 2 (2 points) is a standard combat Specialty: a repeatable combat effect such as a once-per-combat extra die, a Condition removal, a reactive negation, +2 Hit Points, or a positional tool. This is the workhorse tier, where most Specialties sit. Tier 3 (3 points) is build-defining: an effect that reshapes how the Character plays or delivers an outsized, recurring payoff, such as preventing a Fall or a signature economy shift. The anchors already fixed elsewhere agree with this scale: Guild entry is 3, a Skill is 2, a Court Specialty is 1 or 2. These three tiers are the canonical scale for pricing any Specialty in the game.
A Character's personal dice come only from their class Level ladder, and are capped at 3. Nothing bought, found, or worn adds a personal die: not a Kit, not a Named Weapon or other relic, not an Oath. A Knight's Oath sharpens an existing die rather than adding one (see Knight); a found Named Weapon carries a signature property instead of a die (see Weapons). This keeps Pool size a pure function of Class and Level, the one lever the progression schedule controls. The cap controls the outcome, not the pace of earning XP.
A Character begins Guildless. Joining a Guild is earned in play, the way a newcomer through the mists would slowly find footing in Hynafol's institutions, not something checked off at the character sheet on day one. This does not leave early Characters without in-fight survival: the Knight's Rally carries that weight as base Class kit, defensive universal Specialties like Borrowed Strength are open to any Character, and the six-Lives system absorbs the risk of going without a healer. The Priest's Hand is a strong option, not a required one.
Each Guild's starter perk is the same rule across all seven: access to that Guild's Retainer type. Each Guild Retainer's stat line and perk live on that Guild's own Specialty page under Characters, Specialties; Companies and Command, Part Five, carries the shared rules and the stat-line mapping.
Universal Specialties¶
Distinct from both a Class's own Growth Potential list and the Starting Specialty menu above: a small, growing set of Specialties any Character can buy through ordinary Advancement regardless of Class (currently just Fluid Footwork). See Universal Specialties.
Roadmap¶
- V1 (first release). Pregenerated Characters, no creation required, built as instances of these eight Classes. Advancement is fully designed and applies the moment a table carries these Characters into ongoing play; it simply is not exercised by the pregens themselves.
- V1.5. Class selection with a default Company and gear.
- V2. Full rolled Character tables per Class, Lineages, and Vows.
Sequenced for later releases¶
- Vows. A personal, ongoing reason the mists called this Character, distinct from the Knight's Oaths.
- Characters-within-Class. A larger rolled roster in the Mythic Bastionland style, roughly 15 to 30 per Class, each a flavored instance (title, verse, Property, and hooks) of its Class.
Changelog
- 2026-08-09: Renamed the Virtue competence tier Expert to Elite, as part of unifying the combat Hit Range and Check competence tiers into one shared ladder (Untrained, Trained, Skilled, Elite, Renowned).
- 2026-08-09: Restructured to a creation-first flow: Your Retinue and Starting Kit and Starting Specialties now sit after the three Layers and before Advancement, and Universal Specialties folds under Advancement. Moved designer rationale into collapsed Designer's note blocks and pushed internal status, rename history, and playtest tracking off the page. Cut the stale per-class Level table frictions block (recorded in design notes and finalized in open-questions). Removed the internal design-file references from the body.
- 2026-08-09: Rewrote the Guild intro (earned in play; seven vocations including Assassin) and removed the retired First Level Tactic note. Renamed the Split Cap mechanic to Detachment Limit on this page. Clarified the Signature bullet as the Class's signature dice mechanic. Removed the Hit Point baselines table, which each Class file now carries. Alphabetized the Class listings (Chancellor through Witch) and turned Class and document references into links. Added Assassin to the Join a Guild vocation list.
- 2026-08-09: Renamed the three character Axes to Layers throughout (The Layers; Layer One: Class, Layer Two: Lineage, Layer Three: Virtues), aligning with the "layer" language already used for Lineage and Guild. Reworded the two internal design-space uses of "axis" to "spectrums" and "lever."
- 2026-08-09: Reframed V1 from a quickstart to the first published release. The creation and advancement systems are designed in full rather than deferred; the roadmap now reads as publishing order, not a cap on design scope. Bumped the page to v0.4.
- 2026-08-06: Corrected the Guild Retainer reference from six to seven, and repointed it to the per-Guild Specialty pages, where each Retainer's stat line and perk now live (companies-and-command, Part Five keeps the shared rules and stat-line mapping).
- 2026-08-06: Removed the Named Weapon from the Advancement Points menu and struck the purchasable personal die. Personal dice now come only from the class Level ladder; a found Named Weapon carries a signature property instead of a die (see weapons.md). Retuned the die-cap and pricing-anchor language to match.
- 2026-08-05: Guild mechanics were split into per-Guild Specialty pages under Characters, Specialties; the Join a Guild entry now points there for each Guild's Opening Ability.
- 2026-08-05: The Specialty cost tiers here are now the canonical, player-facing definition. The internal pricing audit moved to the design folder and is no longer referenced from this page.
- 2026-08-04: Swapped the deprecated Warden for the Sage across the roster tables and notes.
- 2026-08-03: Added to the v0.3 playtest site.