The Gallimaufry's Character Templates Page

The Gallimaufry's Guide to
Character Creation and Development
Written and compiled by Confucius
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CONTENTS

Character Creation
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When starting out a new character in Asheron's Call, you are given a staggering number of choices to make. Not knowing your choices can lead to the creation of a "gimp" -- a character with less-than-useful skills and stats that are not optimized for the character type you are playing. While many people think you should just experiment with whatever sounds good and not worry about creating a combination that's not very powerful, this almost always means that character will eventually be abandoned, and this can be frustrating. Knowing how to create an effective character ahead of time can rob you of the thrill (and heartbreak) of discovery, so use this information at your own discretion.

Heritage
There are three types of races in Asheron's Call. Their only difference between them is which skills they start out with for free; also, some magical items found throughout the game can require the player to be a certain race to activate.

Aluvian - The battle-hardened Caucasoid race.
- Starts with Dagger, Jump, Loyalty, Magic Defense, and Run.
- Select Aluvian if you plan to create a Dagger character.
Gharu'ndim - The scholarly Congoid race.
- Starts with Item Tinkering, Jump, Loyalty, Magic Defense, Run, and Staff.
- Select Gharu'ndim if you plan to create a Staff character or trade mule.
Sho - The disciplined Mongoloid race.
- Starts with Jump, Loyalty, Magic Defense, Run, and Unarmed Combat.
- Select Sho if you plan to create an Unarmed fighter.
Viamontian - The warlike Latin race.
- Starts with Jump, Magic Defense, Run, and Armor Tinkering trained; Loyalty specialized.
- Select Viamontian if you plan to create a tinker mule, or you just want a blue character. Not having a racial weapon is a disadvantage, however.

Gender, Appearance, and Clothing
Gender and appearance are completely aesthetic in Asheron's Call, and don't affect gameplay at all. The Appearance generation process allows thousands of possible combinations, letting you create a truly unique looking character. Don't spend much time picking your clothing, as armour and robes cover it up and no one will ever really see it.

Character Class/Profession
There are several character templates built in to Asheron's Call. Do not use any of them. Though they have been updated recently and are a lot more useful than they used to be, there's still no advantage to picking a pre-formed template. Pick "Custom Character" no matter what character you are going to create. Trust me on this.

Attributes
Your attributes are the base numbers off which all your skills and stats are calculated. Starting out with the right Attribute values depending on the character you create means your character will be as powerful as possible in later levels. When you create your character, all your Attributes start at 10 and you can raise any of them to 100, but you can only spend 270 attribute points total.

Once your character is created, you can raise your Attributes with the Experience Points (XP) you earn. There is also a recently-added quest that lets you alter you starting Attributes 10 points every two weeks (raising one 10 and lowering another 10 at the same time), which has helped many older characters become less gimped, but also benefits new characters who may need high Endurance in the beginning, and can transfer those points to something else later in life. (No attribute may drop below 10 or go above 100 though.)

Strength - Used for power and carrying. The higher your strength, the more you can carry. Most melee attack skills are based partially on Strength. Also used to calculate your Natural Resistance to war and drain spells.
Endurance - Used for health points (HP) and stamina. Also used to calculate your Natural Resistance to war and drain spells, as well as the Armor Tinkering skill.
Coordination - Used in skills relying on accuracy and delicacy.
Quickness - Used in skills requiring speed.
Focus - Used in skills requiring mental concentration, as well as all magic schools.
Self - Used in all magic schools and personality skills, as well as determines your mana points (MP).

Skills
All of your skills are calculated directly from your Attributes, and are what define your character's abilities. As a Custom Character, you are only restricted by the Skills that your race gets for free. Otherwise, you are free to combine Skills to taste, but many are not very useful (see the Skills section below for details on Skill types, usefulness, and cost). During character creation, you have 50 Skill Points (SP) to spend as you wish... it may seem like a lot, but they go fast. As you level, you will accumulate SP (see next part) and you may train new skills at any time as long as you have the required number of SP to spend. Recently, a quest was added to let characters level 30 and up untrain, unspecialize, and specialize skills after character creation, but characters are limited to 64 total SP in specialized skills.

Untrained Skills - These are Skills that your character either can't use, or can't use very well. Any Untrained Skill that's at 0 means you can't use it at all, unless you train it later. If it has a number greater than 0, you can use that skill, but you can't put XP into it to raise it unless you train it later. Untrained skills will still go up when you raise the Attributes they're calculated from.
Trained Skills - Anything that you have "trained" can be used, and you can put the XP you earn while fighting into any trained or specialized skill you wish at any time, to raise them further.
Specialized Skills - Specializing a skill means you use up more SP, but you get a +5 bonus to that Skill from the beginning, plus it takes less XP to raise it as your character progresses. Any skill by which you will be identifying your character should probably be specialized. See the Skills chart below for more information. Specialization is not possible for all skills.

Name and Starting Location
Your name is unique on the server you have chosen, and can basically be anything. There are optional guidelines, but no restrictions (except maximum length and obscene words or phrases) and no one will force you to rename yourself like in EverQuest (however, if your name is determined to be obscene or objectionable, they may delete you and won't let you rename, so beware -- the enforcement of this has been quite lax lately, however). Your starting location is entirely arbitrary too, as each starting point has newbie quests, information, and resources.

Accumulating Skill Points
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The following is a chart that details each level at which you get a Skill Point (SP) during your character's life. Knowing this chart is essential to planning your character's development with maximum effectiveness. Early on, you will be getting a new SP every level, and you may be tempted to spend them on superfluous or otherwise unneeded skills. Later on, however, the SP become more and more sparse, as levels become harder and harder to achieve. With the recent changes to skill training and specialization, you are able to untrain or (un)specialize unwanted skills through a quest, but you must wait two weeks every time you either unspecialize, untrain, or specialize a skill before doing so again.

One skill point earned at level: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 140, 150, 160, 180, 200, 225, 250, 275

Additionally, there are two more skill points available in the game that are available through quests:

At level 35, you gain access to the Marescent Plateau on Marae Lassel Island. On the plateau there's a quest where you can kill a creature named Aun Ralirea and take his amulet to the leader of the Hea Tumeroks in Ahurenga for a free Skill Point.

At level 125, you gain access to the Insatiable Vault on the Isle of Ruin (only available if you have the Throne of Destiny expansion). Two Insatiable Eaters at the bottom of the dungeon drop a jaw on their corpse, which can be used to instigate a long quest that spans the Halaetan Islands, the reward for which is anothe Skill Point.

Skills and Their Usefulness
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Asheron's Call has many interesting skills that a character can start with or gain during development. Since character development is relatively unrestricted, the possible variety of characters is practically endless. Unfortunately, the reality is that while some skills are very interesting and useful, others are almost worthless. This is a chart of each skill a character can acquire, the cost to train and specialize it, and its usefulness.

Skills indicated with a degree symbol (°) are only able to be specialized via the Augmentation Quests, which require experience (anywhere from 500 million to 4 billion) instead of Skill Points to use, and are only available past level 125.

Skill Name	Cost (Train/Spec.)	Usage	Usefulness	Specialize?	Notes
Alchemy	6 / 4	Make potions used to increase the power of various things, create dyes, and other various potions.	Medium	Yes, if a mule	Give this skill to a secondary character who's devoted to alchemy.
Arcane Lore	4 / 2	Overcomes "difficulty" ratings on magical items so you can activate their magic.	High	Optional (it's cheap)	Essential for using magic items and jewelry.
Armor Tinkering	4* / °	Allows characters to increase armor level and damage resistances of loot-generated armor.	High	Maybe°, if a mule	Allows modification of certain properties of armor, as well as the imbuing of armor with +1 defense bonuses (melee, magic, or missile). *Free for Viamontians.
Assess Creature	4 / 2	Effectively appraise the level and stats of creatures.	Low	No	Use an internet Bestiary or Decal plugin instead.
Assess Person	2* / 2	Effectively appraise the level and stats of other players and NPCs.	Low	Maybe, if PK	Only useful for Player Killing (PK). *Free for Aluvians.
Axe	6 / 6	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding axes.	Medium	Yes	Somewhat expensive skill with not enough high-level content.
Bow	8 / 8	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding bows.	Very High	Yes	Extremely high and fast ranged damage.
Cooking	4 / 4	Combine ingredients to create various foodstuffs, as well as curing and dyeing items.	Medium	Yes, if a mule	Useful for dyeing clothes and armour, but food is mostly worthless and cumbersome. Good skill for a trademule.
Creature Enchantment	8 / 8	Enchant players and creatures with magic that boosts or inhibits their skills and stats.	Very High	No (debatable)	Great for buffing. Decreasing stats and power of enemies can be very useful, though Life Magic's debuffs are more effective.
Crossbow	6 / 6	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding crossbows.	High	Yes	Heavier and slower than bows, but more powerful (and costs fewer SP).
Dagger	4* / 4	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding daggers and knives.	Low	Yes	Once the most powerful melee class with its triple-striking bandit-hilted daggers, Dagger has been left behind with recent tinkering and imbuing changes.
Deception	4 / 2	Overcomes other players' Assess Player skill to keep your stats hidden from view.	Very Low	No (optional for PK)	Only slightly useful for Player Killer (PK) characters; useless for everyone else.
Fletching	4 / 4	Create and modify ammunition used for Bows and Crossbows.	Essential (for archers only)	No	Useless unless you have an archer. Can be very helpful for fletching arrows and quarrels on the fly, reducing burden and making ammunition nearly limitless.
Healing	6 / 4	Enables the use healing kits to instantly restore HP.	Very High	No (debatable)	Essential for non-magic users, enables you to regain HP during battle very quickly.
Item Enchantment	8 / 8	Enchant items, weapons, and armour with magic that boosts or inhibits their various base stats, and use portal magic.	Essential	No	99.9% of the AC community has this, because of its portal magic, and the ability to temporarily make weapons and armour much, much stronger.
Item Tinkering	2* / °	Increase/decrease the value and weight of loot-generated items, armor, and weapons.	Low	No	Allows modification of certain general properties of loot-generated items (armor, weapons, clothing, etc.). *Free for Gharu'ndim
Jump	Free / 4	Increases distance and height that a player can jump.	Low	No	Some important quests require long or precise jumps, though rarely (if ever) is a high jumping skill required.
Leadership	4 / 2	Increases XP gained from vassals.	Low	No	Gaining 7-8 direct vassals gains the same leadership bonus as training Leadership. Good skill for trademules being pushed up in level with XP from vassals.
Life Magic	12 / 8	Enchant or affect players and creatures with magic that boosts, inhibits, increases, or drains their life forces and natural defenses.	Very High	Optional (Yes if a mage)	The ability to buff yourself and debuff/drain creatures makes this unbelievably useful. Plus, Life Magic is the only thing that can reduce damage taken from War Magic.
Lockpicking	6 / 4	Enables the use of lockpicks to unlock locked doors and chests, as well as tools used to carve keys and (dis)assemble keyrings.	Medium	No	Extremely useful for doors and chests that have no key; also can carve keys and assemble keyrings that can't be gotten any other way.
Loyalty	Free / 2*	Increases XP given to patrons and monarch.	Low	No	Useful for helping to push up your direct patron's level. *Free (specialized) for Viamontians.
Mace	6 / 6	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding maces.	Medium	Yes	Decent damage and cost, but lacking content.
Magic Defense	Free / 12	Increases the chance that a negative magic spell will be resisted.	Very High	Optional (it's ridiculously expensive)	Extremely useful when it works; if it doesn't, you take full damage.
Magic Item Tinkering	4 / °	Allows a character to alter the magical properties of items, weapons, and armor.	Medium	No	Allows modification of certain properties of magical items, as well as the imbuing of weapons and magic casters with Armor Rending, Critical Strike, or Crushing Blow.
Mana Conversion	6 / 6	Randomly decreases the amount of MP a spell burns when cast.	Essential	No (debatable)	It pays for itself when you're casting level V or VI spells and only burning 5 or 6 MP instead of 50 or 60.
Melee Defense	10 / 10	Increases the player's chances of evading melee attacks.	Very High	Yes	Allows a character to evade melee-based attacks, though shields and Life Magic can make it less necessary.
Missile Defense	6 / 6	Increases the player's chances of evading missile attacks.	Low	No	Not many things use missile attacks (and those who do are difficult to evade anyway), but some magical items can have a base missile defense requirement to activate.
Run	Free / 4	Increases the speed at which a player runs.	High	No	If you can't beat it, you can outrun it (usually). Run speed eventually caps out, so specialization is useless.
Salvaging	Free / °	Increases the amount of material recovered from salvaging attempts (using an Ust).	High	Optional	Salvaging allows a character to destroy loot-generated items and recover their inherent materials, for use on other items. The higher the Salvaging skill, the more material is recovered in each attempt.
Spear	4 / 4	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding spears.	Low	Yes	Not a lot of high-level spear content.
Staff	4* / 4	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding staffs.	Medium	Yes	Decent damage and a cheap skill. *Free for Gharu'ndim.
Sword	8 / 8	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding swords.	Very High	Yes	Though it's really expensive, the damage over time is the highest amongst melee-based weapons.
Thrown Weapons	6 / 6	Increases ability and effectiveness when throwing missile objects.	Low	Yes	Improved slowly but steadily over countless months. The only missile-based weapon class that allows use of a shield.
Unarmed Combat	6* / 6	Increases ability and effectiveness when wielding unarmed weapons or no weapon.	High	Yes	Fast, powerful attacks and all 7 damage types available. Before the days of Bandit Hilts and weapon tinkering, Unarmed (UA) characters ruled the roost. *Free for Sho.
War Magic	16 / 12	Enables a player to cast highly effective damage spells.	Very High	Yes	Obscenely expensive but massively powerful skill, especially when combined with life magic.
Weapon Tinkering	4 / °	Allows character to increase/decrease speed, base damage, and modifiers on weapons.	High	Yes°, if a mule	Allows modification of certain properties of weapons, as well as the imbuing of weapons and magic casters with resistance rending (fire, slash, etc.).