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Actually, this is 2 examples rolled into one. We will walk through the process, creating 2 characters. One will be a “fighter” type character named Alice, and the other a “mage” named Bob. ¹⁾

You can create any type of character you can imagine. You just have to tweak the balance of attribute points until they make sense for that character. Want an acrobat? - Boost Agility. How about an acrobat who can read people and make them like her? - Boost Agility, Perception, and Charisma.

When you are thinking about this character design, you may also want to look at how attributes influence skills. If you want the character to have a certain skill set, check which attributes those skill are based on.

Give each character a total 60 points distributed across the attributes, in whatever fashion we wish. No need to roll dice or anything. As long as the total adds to 60, it's all good.

Don't forget; Strength influences your armor options (you have to be strong to wear full steel armor. See armor for Minimum Strength rating for each armor type). Constitution determines Hit Points. (HP = 2 x Constitution). Agility is important for combat. Many weapons skills are based on Agility.

And 2 more rules:

• No attribute may be less than 1
• Magery must not exceed Reason + Knowledge

OK so here is Alice. The height, weight, gender, etc. don't matter for statistics; they are just to give you a good feel for the character. Although the GM may take them into consideration for certain scenarios (like whether you can fit through a narrow tunnel, etc)

And here's Bob.

Let's compare Alice & Bob - they are optimized very differently

As you can see, their attributes are very different. Alice is pretty strong and tough. Her 20 HP comes from the standard Hit Points calculation. (HP = 2 x Constitution)

Alice's main optimization is for Agility. Most weapons skills are based on Agility or Strength, so Alice has a good foundation to build on for weapons skills. Agility is also the basis for Defense. (Defense = Agility + Armour + Helm + Shield)

Still, Alice is fairly well balanced. She's no dummy, and has decent perception and charisma too.

On the other hand, Bob is pretty weak. He is optimized for magic use by loading up his Magery attribute to 14. This gives him 42 Magic Points. (MP = 3 x Magery) Bob is hoping to learn some killer attack spells to wreak havoc on his enemies, instead of messing around with swords.

Bob also has to ensure that his Reason and Knowledge are fairly decent because Magery cannot exceed Reason + Knowledge. As Bob progresses, he may want to increase his Magery even more. If he wants to exceed 16, he will also need to increase his Knowledge or Reason as well.

One potential issue for Bob is that his strength of 5 will limit his armour use. He is too weak to walk around in plate mail. But for now, leather armour will suffice, and he can always decide later to upgrade this strength when he gets some XP. On the other hand, he might learn some cool defense spells instead.

• Hit Points = 2 x Constitution
• Most weapons skills are based on Agility or Strength
• Defense = Agility + Armour + Shield
• Magic Points = 3 x Magery
• Magery cannot exceed Reason + Knowledge

OK let's go shopping! Usually, the GM will allow you to do some shopping before, or at the beginning of an adventure. Presumably, there is a nearby town which you can purchase weapons etc.

the Goldensword system is compatible with any alternative economic systems a GM may fancy to create, but a basic default system is provided, complete with ye olde general store. (Go there to window shop for a sec, then come back here.)

We have given both characters a basic $100 adventurers starter kit consisting of basic leather armor, a small wooden shield, and a hunting knife. This really is the bare minimum for survival. Now Alice and Bob both have hunting knives, but knife skill defaults to Agility, so Alice gets knife skill 12, and Bob gets knife skill 8.

Depending on how much money you start out with, you may want better weapons and armor, but it is typically fairly easy to upgrade after an adventure, once you find some treasure (in fact, there's a good chance some enemy will attack you soon, and assuming you survive, you may take THEIR weapons & armor). Note however, that some of the better armor types are quite heavy and have a minimum Strength requirement.

Our GM has given us the minimal 20 XP for Initial skill upgrades. Even that small amount is going to make a big difference though if we spend it wisely.

The standard hunting knife has a default skill level = AGILITY, so Alice starts out with Knife Skill = 12. Not bad, but she chooses to spend her 20 initial XP on upgrading that skill. At 10XP/level, she is able to upgrade to Knife Skill = 14.

Bob decides to spend his XP on Spells. Spells are learned and upgraded at a cost of 1XP per Spell Difficulty. Bob reckons that some healing spells are a fine idea, and with a stroke of luck, the prerequisites work out nicely so that Bob is able to purchase “Heal Injury” and all of the necessary prerequisite spells.

next: character progression