I know John (Harliquinn) and Josh (SamhainIA) have covered this fairly well, but having taught quite a few people to build characters I also know that sometimes even the fairly detailed procedure that they have already used can be confusing, so. . .
Step 1: Envision your character!
From what you've said, you want to play a Human Coryani Illiirite Battle Priest who focuses more on the protection aspect rather than offence. You want to be a healer, protector, but also one who can swing swords while he burns away strain.
Step 2: Choose your archetype
You have chosen the Divine Archetype, which grants you immediate access to Divine Spell Casting, the most common form of magical healing. Furthermore, you have already chosen your patron deity as Illiir, which specifies what you get in this archetype:
Skills: Arcanum (Cants), Knowledge (Religion), your Deities chosen Skill (for Illiir, this is Mettle), and any one Combat Skill and one Social Skill Talents: Armour Proficiency (Any armour with the name "Lorica" in it), Weapon Training (Gladius), Divine Spell Casting, Prestidigitation.
Step 3: Determining your attribute scores
If you want to be a Battle Priest, you are going to have to focus on a few things. Prowess is needed for any weapon attack rolls or spell attack rolls that does not require targeting a Discipline Defence, so you want to get that high. Your Gladius uses Might for its damage, so that is also one you want to keep an eye out for. Quickness and Vigour are both good, but you can probably afford to be a bit skimpier here, but you still want to get them as high as possible.
When it comes to the 'mental skills', Charisma is where you want to be! Insight is also useful for Avoidance, but for you Resolve and Logic are probably going to be stats that you can keep pretty low. As such, I'd recommend the following:
Stat - Score/d#/Passive Mi - 5/d8/3 Pr - 6/d8/3 Qu - 5/d8/3 Vi - 4/d8/2
Ch - 6/d8/3 In - 4/d8/2 Lo - 3/d6/2 Re - 4/d8/2
This gives you a fairly balanced set of scores, allowing you maximum utility.
Step 4: Determine your Hero's Race
Well, this one is easy as you already decided to play a Human. As a Human, you gain the following traits:
Attribute: +1 to Any attribute of your choice (I'd personally go Prowess). Skills: Select any 2 Skill from any two different categories (ie: Combat, Social, Lore) Talents: You gain two additional talents Other: You are trained in your native language, and you gain a +1 to any defence of your choice. I'd personally choose Avoidance.
With this information, you have the following things:
Skills: Arcanum (Cants), Knowledge (Religion), your Deities chosen Skill (for Illiir, this is Mettle), and any one Combat Skill and one Social Skill. Additionally, any 2 skills from different categories of skills. Talents: Armour Proficiency (Any armour with the name "Lorica" in it), Weapon Training (Gladius), Divine Spell Casting, Prestidigitation, TALENT FROM HUMAN, TALENT FROM HUMAN.
Step 5: Choose your Home Nation.
Again, this was chosen (by my read) as being the Coryani Empire. As such, you may select 2 of the following skills to add to your list:
Appraise, Artisan (Blacksmithing), Deceit, Etiquette, Tracking, Wilderness Lore.
Of these, for what you are looking at, Wilderness Lore (as you are a traveler) and Etiquette (as you are a priest and therefore a 'learned class') would personally be my choices.
Additionally, you learn your Native Language is Low Coryani, and you are considered to be literate in that language.
Step 6: Choose your Background Profession.
So, you want to be a Priest? Well welcome to the club! You have chosen "Initiate of the Gods (Illiir). With this Background, you gain the following things:
Attributes: Your Logic (being the lowest between Lo and Ch) gains a +1. SKills: You gain another rank in Arcanum (Cants), another in Knowledge (Religion) and any one Combat Skill. Talents: You gain Weapon Training (Gladius) again, which will upgrade your Weapon Training to Weapon Mastery T.1. Gear and money: You will gain a suit of Lorica armour, a gladius, a common (wooden) holy symbol of Illiir (or a Mother Church rubrick), a Prayer Book, and a Traveller's Kit, as well as 3d6+Charisma die in Silver coins.
If you take my advice from Race, You will now have the following traits:
Stat - Score/d#/Passive Mi - 5/d8/3 Pr - 7/d10/3 (from Human race) Qu - 5/d8/3 Vi - 4/d8/2
Ch - 6/d8/3 In - 4/d8/2 Lo - 4/d8/2 (from Background) Re - 4/d8/2
Skills: Arcanum (Cants)x2, Knowledge (Religion)x2, Mettle, and any one Combat Skill (x2) and one Social Skill. Additionally, any 2 skills from different categories of skills. Additionally, you'd have Etiquette and Wilderness Lore (again, if you take my advice). Talents: Armour Proficiency (Any armour with the name "Lorica" in it), Weapon Training (Gladius), Divine Spell Casting, Prestidigitation, Weapon Mastery (Gladius), TALENT FROM HUMAN, TALENT FROM HUMAN.
Step 7: Train your Heroes Skills
Okay, as it stands, you have the following Skills:
Arcanum (Cants)x2, Knowledge (Religion)x2, Mettle, Etiquette, Wilderness Lore, and any one Combat Skill (x2) and one Social Skill. Additionally, any 2 skills from different categories of skills.
First, let's decide what to do with the skills you haven't chosen yet. Personally, I'd put the Combat Skills into Melee (Balanced) for your sword, and your one Social Skill into Persuasion because being persuasive is ALWAYS a good thing. You now have the ability to put 2 skills in 2 categories, so I'd put those into your Melee (Balanced) and Arcanum (Cants) as those are your primary 'offensive' skills. To that end you have:
Arcanum (Cants) +3 Melee (Balanced) +3 Mettle +1 Knowledge (Religion) +1 Wilderness Lore +1 Persuasion +1 Etiquette +1
You now gain an additional number of Skill points = 3+Passive Re+Passive Lo = 7. You cannot boost anything above +4 in this stage, and unless you REALLY need a skill it is a waste to buy 2 pts at a time (as they cost 3 ranks to raise 2, but you can train at +1 for one of these 7 points). Personally, I'd look into training Acrobatics (you chose this one on your sheet for the talent), Battle (for leadership), Empathy, and Perception as they are all VERY useful skills at +1 each, and spend the remaining three on Arcanum, Melee, and Persuasion. This would give you:
Arcanum (Cants) +4 Melee (Balanced) +4 Battle +1 Mettle +1 Knowledge (Religion) +1 Wilderness Lore +1 Persuasion +2 Etiquette +1 Perception +1 Acrobatics+1 Empathy +1
Step 8: Choose a Flaw
You've already chosen Flaw: Phobia (Spirits) to gain the additional talent, which means you now have the following talents:
Talents: Armour Proficiency (Any armour with the name "Lorica" in it), Weapon Training (Gladius), Divine Spell Casting, Prestidigitation, Weapon Mastery (Gladius), TALENT FROM HUMAN, TALENT FROM HUMAN, TALENT FROM FLAW.
Step 9: Choose your Talents
So, in addition to the talents just listed, you gain TWO MORE talents at this step. To that end, you have a whopping FIVE more talents that you can choose!!!
1) Acrobatics (from what you've already chosen) 2) Leadership 3) Heirloom (Exceptional Lorica Segmentata) 4) Spell Focus (Diminish Fatigue) 5) [[Insert another choice here]]
I know you wanted Born Leader, but personally I'd wait to get that until later.
Spells:
Well, you've already chosen Benedictions as your Primary (may I suggest Castigate as your 3rd Primary tradition spell as you gain 3 and have only chosen 2). I do like the Illiirite and Deity spells though, but ultimately the traditions you choose is up to you.
Conclusions:
With this build, we will have gotten you Basic Defences of Avoidance/Fortitude/Discipline of 19/17/17, which is modified to 18/17/17 with the 1 Bulk from the Exceptional Armour.
Make sense?
_________________ Cody Bergman Legends of Arcanis Campaign Staff Initial Author Contact/Adventure Vetting
Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Divine Holy Judge of Nier Ruma val'Vasik, Martial Crusader and Master of the Spear Jorma Osterman, Arcane Coryani Battlemage
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