¶ Gender
Players select whether their characters are male or female. This makes no mechanical difference to the character, but as Narfell is a roleplaying server, it does have the potential to effect how you interact with others, and how they interact with you. Consider whether your character's goals are shaped by their gender, either positively or negatively. Consider how your character fits into the world. And make your decision, knowing that there is no wrong or right choice, simply whichever feels right to you.
¶ Race
Narfell provides access to all of the races available in the base game as well as subraces specific to the server. For more information, see the Races entry in this wiki. In short, your race has effects on both roleplay and mechanics, as each race has different allies and enemies, different bonuses and negatives. Some Prestige Classes are racially restricted, whilst other classes are mechanically difficult to play with certain races, such as it being a rare half-orc who becomes a paladin, sorceror, bard, or wizard due to game mechanics.
¶ Portrait
Your portrait will be available to players unless you take on a wildshape or polymorph. This portrait paints detail on your character in a greater depth than what character customizations can provide. If you download custom portraits, they will not be visible.
The portrait you choose can communicate how you see your character to others: are they ugly or beautiful? Are they young or old? How do they like to dress? This can affect how others interact with you, so choose carefully.
If you're unsure, don't be afraid to take the silhouette picture, and leave yourself a mystery!
¶ Class
Your class dictates what abilities that you have available to you as a character and, more importantly, how those abilities tie to who your character is and what lays in their past.
Neverwinter Nights provides classes with the base game. You can learn more about those here.
Narfell takes these classes a bit further, adding some features and painting how they fit into the campaign setting. You can learn about all of this at classes.
¶ Alignment
¶ Moral Dimension (Good and Evil)
- "Good" implies altruism, respect for life, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings. Good characters make personal sacrifices to help others and to protect innocent life. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of self.
- "Evil" implies hurting, oppressing, and killing innocents. Some evil creatures simply have no compassion for others and kill without qualms if doing so is convenient or profitable. Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or out of duty to some evil deity or master.
- "Moral neutrality" can represent several different positions.
¶ Ethical Dimension (Law vs Chaos)
- "Law" implies duty, honor, honesty, trustworthiness, tradition, obedience to authority, and reliability. On the downside this can lead to close-mindedness and an inability to adapt. Those who consciously promote lawfulness see lawful behavior creating a society in which people can depend on each other and make the right decisions in full confidence that others will act as they should. Correct means will lead to desirable ends.
- "Law" does not intrinsically mean legal behavior; "lawful" and "law-abiding" are distinct concepts. ("Lawful" implies "law-abiding" only after a character accepts the authority of those who made the laws.)
- "Law" embraces hierarchy and stability, and emphasizes responsibility to the group/society.
- "Chaos" implies individuality, freedom, flexibility, adaptability, and openness to new ideas. On the downside, this can lead to recklessness, resentment toward authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Those who promote chaotic behavior see personal freedom allowing people to express themselves fully and letting society benefit from the potential that its individuals have within them. The ends justify the means.
- "Chaos" does not intrinsically mean random actions, nor does it intrinsically mean breaking rules for the sake of breaking rules.
- "Chaos" rejects hierarchy, instead promoting either egalitarianism or anarchy depending on the presence or absence of concern for others. Chaos also rejects stability in favour of constant change, being about novelty and "innovation".
¶ Character Restrictions
- Barbarians may not be Lawful
- Bards may not be lawful
- Clerics should be a valid alignment for their deity
- Druids must be neutral in at least one Dimension
- Monks must be Lawful
- Paladins must be Lawful Good
If in doubt - why not pick True Neutral, and see where your story takes you?
Narfell has age restrictions that apply to player characters. You cannot play a character that is under the age of majority (i.e. 18 years for humans, and the equivalent for other races).
¶ Abilities
The six abilities include the physical — strength, dexterity, and constitution — as well as the mental — intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. These abilities have an immense impact on the capabilities of a character, particularly at the lower levels where training has the least effect. For example, at level 1, a skill can be influenced by as much as +4 through training (in the form of skill ranks), and as much as +5 from the associated ability.
- Strength is important for Fighters, Barbarians and anyone hitting things with other things
- Dexterity is important for Sneaks, and ranged specialists (and Finesse fighters)
- Constitution is important for everyone
- Intelligence is important for Wizards, and people who like skills or languages
- Wisdom is important for Clerics, Paladins, Rangers and Monks
- Charisma is important for Sorcerors and Bards
¶ Packages
These are pre-selected skill/feat packages that the game thinks you may like. Use if you like, but I would not recommend it since several of the default selected skills are not used in Narfell.
¶ Customize
¶ Appearance
- Please aim for a 'realistic' appearance without crazy hair of skin color
- The Horned Head options for Halfelf/Human are not allowed
¶ Deity, Description, Voice Set
- Deity can be set in the lobby with the Spiritual Advisor.
- Clerics must have Valid Deity/Alignment/Domains (Check Here)
- Description Dialog Text can be minimal since your Description can be updated later In Game with the !description command.
- Voice Set may sound as you wish.
¶ Name
Names should reflect upon a fantasy setting and strive to be as original as possible. The usage of “trademarked” names such as Gandalf, Drizzt, etc, that have appeared in works of fiction may not be permitted as the community feels that it is disrespectful to the creators and the spirit of their work, as the portrayal of such characters is subjective. Names with symbols such as =, &, $, etc, “leet-speak” (e.g. G4M3R), or obscenities are unacceptable and DM action will be taken against players found with such names. This is done to preserve the roleplaying atmosphere of the game.
If you have run out of creative juice and turn your nose up at NWN’s name generator, there are articles and name generators on the web to help you out!
http://web.archive.org/web/20120622005201/http://wiki.narfell.us:80/Character_Creation
¶ Backstory
We love it when players build a backstory for their characters and award experience points when they do so. If you like writing backstories for your characters, be sure to post one in the Historical Archives.