Character development in Shadowbane is quite the complex system. I've tried to make the builder emulate it as closely as possible - and there are some bits that aren't immediately obvious.

The first thing you will do when entering the builder is to choose your race/class/profession combo. Now, in the actual game, you will only choose your race and class initially, and when you reach 10th level, you will have to hunt down your chosen profession's trainer to promote. In the builder, however, I chose to make you make this choice up front - it reduces the amount of data I have to load up, and I figure, you're going to know what you plan to be profession-wise anyhow.

Some professions are gender specific - Huntress and Fury are female-only, for example - so in-game, make sure you choose the correct gender for your target profession.

Once you make your choice, the page will refresh and present you with the main builder page. Here you'll have several things you can modify.

Level: The builder allows levelling up to 60 (the current softcap). Leveling past the softcap gives you no measurable benefits, so I limited the builder to the softcap. When you change your level (either by using the arrow buttons, or by typing a value in the field and tabbing/clicking out of the field), your Attribute Points and Practice Points are recalculated, and your available skills will update. If you level below the point that a Discipline is available, that Discipline will be removed from your list and any points spent on skills you acquired from that Discipline will be recovered. See below for more on Disciplines.

Starting Points: Every character starts with 30 Starting Points. Different races have different Starting Point costs - from 0 to 20 - and these points will be automatically deducted in the builder. Starting Points can be spent to increase your starting stats (the top row of stats) and to add Traits. You can increase your Starting Point pool by buying a starting stat down - each stat can be bought down a maximum of five points. You can increase a starting stat up to the maximim value displayed (the third row of stats). Some Traits will modify stat maximums.

As you modify your starting stats - the first row of stats - you'll see the second row of stats adjust as well. There are two sets because there are two different pools of points with which to adjust your stats, and because some Traits have minimum stat values as requirements, which are based on the starting stats.

Traits are bought through using Starting Points only. Each Trait has a listed cost in the builder. See "Traits" below.

In-game, any Starting Points you have left over will be carried over once you save your character. They will be in your Attribute Point pool (seen when looking at your stats window). In the builder, however, you can spend them at any time, so you can level up, play with stats and Traits, and see how they affect things.

Attribute Points: You accumulate Attribute Points as you level up. Each rank grants a different amount of points per level, decreasing as you go up in rank (a rank being 10 levels). You may spend Attribute Points using the second row of stats.

You cannot decrease stats in the second row below the value listed in the first row - all you can do while levelling is add. You can, however, un-spend Attribute Points by reducing any second row stat field. You can increase stats up to the maximum value displayed (the third row of stats).

Stats and Skills: As you increase your stats (both using Starting and Attribute Points), you'll see occasional one-point jumps in your skills. Each skill is tied to a certain combination of stats - melee skills to STR and/or DEX, focus skills to SPI, and all skills to INT. Depending on the skill and what stats it is tied to, adding points to these stats in various amounts will net you increases in your skills.

These stat relationships also determine what your starting skills will be at 1st level.

(Note: the formulas I have in the builder may not be 100% accurate. If not, they're pretty good approximations of the results you'll see in-game. Further testing is underway on this part.)

Runestones: Each character can have a maximum of ten Runestones. Three of these are taken by your race, class, and profession Runestones. (In-game, you won't see the third until you reach 10th, but you'll be using it in time, so I set it aside in the builder.)

Every Trait and every Discipline takes a Runestone slot. Therefore, be careful on how many Traits you take when starting in-game - you may well use up all your Runestone slots and not leave any free for Disciplines.

In the builder, to remove a Trait or Discipline, simply choose it in the list and click the "Remove this Runestone" link.

Traits: Traits (some of which are also called Talents) can be purchased with Starting Points. Some Traits modify skill values; some modify stat values, and/or maximum stat values. Some have race and/or class restrictions, and some have minimum stat restrictions - the builder will not allow you to purchase any Trait that you do not qualify for. Some Traits are "free" for some races - and if you are that race, the builder will not allow you to purchase these Traits, as in-game, you'll get the benefits for free without having to take the Trait and use up a Runestone slot. (See below for more on Runestones.)

Traits that modify skills will either increase your skill percentage if you already have that skill, or grant you access to that skill with an initial skill value of zero ("Proficient with" Traits). (There are a couple of traits that both grant a skill *and* give it a boost, but these are the exception to the rule.) This is a good way for characters to get access to skills they normally would not have access to.

If you remove a Trait that, from the bonuses acquired from that Trait, allowed you to qualify for another Trait which you also purchased, the builder will detect this and remove the second Trait. In other words, you cannot buy one Trait to qualify for another Trait, then remove the first Trait.

Each Trait has the Starting Point cost listed next to the name - if you do not have enough Starting Points available, the builder will not allow you to purchase that Trait. To add a Trait, have it selected in the Trait pull-down menu and click the "Add this Trait" link. If you qualify for the Trait, the builder will add it; if you do not, you'll be told why.

Keep in mind that Talents and Traits can, in-game, ONLY be acquired during the character creation process. Once you create your character and step foot in the world of your choosing - the moment has passed.

Disciplines: Disciplines are ways for a character to get more abilities/skills as it progresses in its career. Each character can have up to three Disciplines. The first Discipline can be acquired at 10th level (Rank 1) - the second, 20th level (Rank 2) - the third, 30th level (Rank 3).

Disciplines and their use involve a balancing act - you both have to keep enough Runestone slots free (see below), Disciplines have profession restrictions, and the skills that Disciplines make available require Practice Points (see below) to train them. The builder will only list the Disciplines that you qualify for. A character with three Disciplines will have several more skills available to it - but the same amount of Practice Points will now have that many more skills to be spread around with. "Jack of all trades, master of none."

To add a Discipline in the builder, select it in the Discipline pull-down menu and click the "Add this Discipline" link.

As you choose your Disciplines, the builder will treat them as if you chose them in the proper order - the first one you choose will have its effects applies when you level to 10th., the second at 20th, the third at 30th. Leveling up and down past these levels, you'll see your discipline-granted skills appear and disappear, but any Practice Points you spend on them will be retained (see "Skills" below).

Skills: The "meat and potatoes" of the character development system, and of the builder.

As you level up, you will accumulate Practice Points, also called "pracs". In the builder, you'll see three fields in the Skill block: Your total pracs accumulated, the number of pracs you've spent, and the number still available.

On the initial builder page, where you chose what race/class/profession to use, each race, class and profession has value in brackets next to it. These values represent the number of pracs you will get for that choice. From 1st to 10th, you will accumulate pracs equal to the race and class values listed. At 10th, you'll get the profession value added onto that as well. For example, a human (2) fighter (2) templar (7) will accumulate 4 pracs per level through 10th, and 11 points per level thereafter.

Something to note as you spend pracs and level up and down - the builder is designed to keep track of *what* skills you spend pracs on, *how many* pracs you spend on them, and *when* (i.e. what level) you spend them. If you spend a point on Sword at, say, 5th level, and then level down to 4th - the point in Sword will vanish. But - if you level back UP to 5th - it will reappear. The builder knows that you spent one point on Sword at 5th level - and will not display that below 5th level.

If you level to a high point and spend a lot of points, then level back down and start spending points there that, in essense, you spent already at the higher level - the builder will detect this and apply the spent points to the lower level and remove them from the higher level.

This is all done to better simulate the actual process of levelling and spending your points in-game. You can, if you choose, level straight up to 50th and spend all your points - but you miss out on the ability to plan your character from 1st through 49th.

If you choose a Trait that grants a skill that you spend points on, and then remove that Trait - all the points you spent on that skill will be recovered.

To spend pracs on a skill, simply click the arrows that surround the prac-count field for that skill, or type in a value and tab/click out of the field. The builder will detect if you have enough pracs to spend and alert you if you try and go over your current limit.

There are four types of skills, and each one operates a bit differently than the next:

Melee Skills: Spending points on these skills will increase the percentage value. Below the skill name, you will see a row of numbers - these denote what percentage values are required to get access to this Melee power. As you increase your skill percentage to these points, the number in question will change from grey to red, and the description will appear below the row of numbers.

The higher your Melee skill percentage, the better you will be wielding a weapon of that type.

There are also Melee "Mastery" skills. These skills are ways to further specialize in a weapon type. They become available to some professions when you reach a certain level (depending on the profession), and reach 80% in the parent Melee skill. There are Mastery skills for each Melee skill - "Sword Mastery" and "Great Sword Mastery" for "Sword", etc. These Mastery skills work just like other Melee skills - train them up to receive new Melee powers. However, where "Sword" affects your ability with both one-handed and two-handed swords, there are seperate Mastery skills for one-handed/two-handed weapons. Some Mastery skills are singular though, i.e. "Dagger Mastery" as there are no two-handed daggers.

When you reach the required level and parent Melee skill percentage to be able to train a Mastery skill, a skill block for that Mastery skill will appear in the builder, much like skills acquired when reaching 10th level, or when choosing a discipline. Since they are partially level-based, if you level back down below the minimum level, or level down to a point where the parent Melee skill's percentage is lower, the Mastery skill will vanish - but if you level back up again, it'll reappear with all trains you've put into it (up to that level) showing up again.

Armor Skills: Spending points on these skills simply increases the percentage value, nothing more. The higher your armor skills, the better your defense will be in-game while wearing armor that falls within this armor category (light, medium, heavy).

Focus Skills: Focus (Magic) skills work a bit differently. You still train the main Focus skill the same way as any other skill, and the percentage value will increase. However, a Focus skill is more like a "school" of magic. It's the parent skill for several individual spells (or "powers").

Focus Powers are trained individually - you'll find a field with left/right arrows on each Power. The list of Focus Powers are listed in the order you will gain access to them. Each Focus Power has a minimum level requirement, and some have a minimum parent Focus skill percentage requirement and/or are dependent on another Focus Power being trained to a certain amount. You cannot train a Focus Skill until you meet these requirements - if you do not, and attempt to train the Focus Power, you will be alerted to what those requirements are.

Focus Powers do not have a percentage value - they simply train one notch per prac spent on them. You can hover over each asterisk to see what the different levels of that Focus Power do. Usually they are small increases in effectiveness. From what I can gather, Focus powers can be trained up forty points worth, and no more.

If you reduce the parent Focus skill's percentage below the minimum for a Focus Power, any pracs spent on that Focus power will be recovered and the Focus Power's prac count zeroed out.

Some Focus powers are untrainable - for example, "Lore of the Ancients", a mage item identification spell. Once you have access to this spell in-game, you cannot train it - as it requires no training. The builder will reflect this by labeling the power "Untrainable" and not present you with training options for that power.

There is a fourth type of skill, which I have yet to properly categorize, and these are class- and profession-specific skills. For instance, Rogues get "Hide", Barbarians get "Battle Rage", that sort of thing. I've got to do more research on how these skills and powers relate to each other before I attempt to roll them into the builder.

--Samurai Cat!
--Staff, SB Catacombs