This step-by-step example illustrates the process of creating a Pathfinder character.

Steps 1 and 2

Adam is making his first Pathfinder character. After talking about it with the rest of the group, he’s decided to make a dwarf druid. After jotting down a few ideas, he begins by writing down a +0 for each attribute modifier.

Step 3

Adam looks up the dwarf entry in Chapter 2. He records the attribute boosts to his Constitution and Wisdom modifiers (bringing both up to +1). He also applies the attribute flaw to his Charisma, dropping it to –1. For his free attribute boost, he chooses Dexterity to boost his defenses, raising it to +1 as well. He also records the 10 Hit Points the ancestry gives him. Next, he returns to his character sheet to record the size, Speed, language, and darkvision ability he gets from being a dwarf. Finally, he decides on a heritage, writing “rock dwarf” next to dwarf, and he picks an ancestry feat, deciding on Rock Runner, to show his character’s strong connection to stone.

Step 4

Looking through the backgrounds, Adam likes the idea of a solitary dwarven druid, and the nomad background makes for a good choice. For the first attribute boost granted by the background, Adam chooses Wisdom, and for the free attribute boost, he chooses Constitution, taking both up to +2. On the second page, he writes “Assurance (Survival)” in the Skill Feats area, on the Background line. Finally, returning to the first page, he writes “cave” next to the first Lore skill entry and checks the box under the “T” for that skill and Survival.

Step 5

Adam writes “druid” on the class line of his character sheet and fills in the number 1 in the level box. The druid class grants an attribute boost to its key attribute, which is Wisdom, so Adam’s character has his Wisdom raised to +3.

Step 6

Adam applies four more attribute boosts to determine his starting attribute modifiers. After giving it some thought, he applies them to Wisdom (raising it to +4), since that’s the most important attribute modifier for his class, and to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution (raising them to +1, +2, and +3, respectively) to make him better in combat. He then writes his final attribute modifiers down on his character sheet.

Step 7

As Adam applies his class, he has a number of things to figure out. First, he starts by recording all of his initial proficiencies, marking the appropriate boxes in the Armor Class, Saving Throws, Weapon Proficiencies, Spell Attack Modifier, and Spell DC areas of his sheet. Turning to skills, he marks Nature as trained and notes that once he picks his druid order, he’ll become trained in another skill determined by that order. He then gets to choose two more skills (if he had a higher Intelligence, he would have gotten more). He decides on Athletics and Medicine, marking both of them as trained. Next, he adds the 8 Hit Points from the druid class and his Constitution modifier of +3 to the 10 Hit Points from his dwarf ancestry for an impressive 21 total Hit Points.

Moving on to class features, Adam chooses the Animal Empathy feat from voice of nature and marks that and the Shield Block feat in the bonus feats area. He makes note of the anathema for being a druid and records Wildsong in his language section. Next, he looks through the druid orders and decides upon the untamed order, which gives him his final trained skill (Intimidation), the ability to cast untamed shift, and the Untamed Form feat, which lets him cast a focus spell to turn into an animal. He writes these spells in the focus spell area of his character sheet. Because he has two focus spells, he notes that he has 2 Focus Points to use to cast these spells.

Finally, a druid can cast a limited number of primal spells. Although he can change them every morning, Adam is curious, and he turns to Chapter 7: Spells to decide what spells he might cast. He jots down five cantrips and two 1st-rank spells and marks them as prepared.

Step 8

Next up, Adam turns to Chapter 6: Equipment. He’s trained in medium armor and chooses hide armor. For weapons, he decides on a spear, but he buys two just in case he wants to throw the first one. He writes all of these on the front of his character sheet. Adam lists the spear under both melee Strikes and ranged Strikes, and he also writes the claws he gains from untamed shift under his melee Strikes, because he’s sure that he’ll be casting that spell a lot. He records the rest of his gear in the Inventory section on the second page, along with any currency left over after buying his starting gear.

Step 9

Adam records all of the attribute modifiers for Perception, saving throws, Strikes, and skills. He then puts a “+3” in the box marked Prof to indicate his proficiency bonus for each statistic he’s trained in (1 for his level, plus 2 for being trained) and “+5” in any that he is an expert. Then, he adds up his modifiers for each statistic.

Step 10

Finally, Adam fills out the final details of his character, calculating his AC and Bulk limits. Last but not least, he fills in some last-minute information about his character and decides on a name. Gar the dwarf druid is ready for his first adventure!