Character creation for The Fool's Postern

More info soon to come, but characters will start at level 8. All alignments are welcome in the Order. All content in the 5e Player's Handbook and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is welcome. If you want to use something from another book, let me know and I'm sure we can accommodate it; those are just the books that I'm most familiar with.

Note that I currently own and share both of those books with the Roll20 game, so you can access them (albeit not in the most readable form) via Roll20. The big advantage of owning the books on Roll20 is that their content is integrated with their character creation tool, known as the Charactermancer. I would strongly encourage everyone to use this -- not only does it make leveling up much simpler, it also integrates all of your character's abilities with the combat system basically out-of-the-box. This will make combat and other mechanical systems function a lot more smoothly.

As noted on the faction info page for the Order of the Timeless Peace, agents are organized into working units called pools. All of the player characters will belong to the same pool, although they may not always all be assigned to go on a particular mission together. This keeps things modular and lets the game continue even amidst variable player attendance.

Rolling for stats

We'll be rolling for our stats, but with some slight changes to the default procedure. You should roll for your character's stats using the built-in stat roller in Roll20. There are a few additional rules:

You can always re-roll.
You can only use your most recent set of rolls.
Any of the 6 numbers can be used for any stat.

The goal here is that everyone ends up with a set of stats they're happy with, but with a little more variety than one usually gets when using the standard array or point buy. As a point of random interest, this actually mirrors the way stat rolling is done in the absolute classic of a PC game, Baldur's Gate.

Summary and technical details

Characters start at level 8.
Material from Player's Handbook and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is all game, Xanthar's Guide to Everything is probably fine, too, but let me know if you plan to use this so I can add it to our Roll20. Unearthed Arcana can be dicier -- most of it is probably okay, but check with the DM first.
Members of the Order of the Timeless Peace are paid a salary for their bravery, one large enough that, in theory, the temptation to take a bribe is... at the least, reduced. Furthermore, members also have access to the Order's vault of artifacts and magical weaponry. Though the ability to borrow freely from this vault is limited by the bounds of discretion, most agents are fortunate enough to have a favored magical item or two. Characters start play with:
- 500 + (1d10 x 25) gp
- Two uncommon magic items or one rare magic item
- Normal starting equipment for character's backgorund and class.
- A portal key that allows instantaneous travel to the Outlands from Sigil. These keys are extremely precious items, as most residents of Sigil cannot freely come and go. All agents' keys are protected by a 7th-level Glpyh of Warding that teleports the key back to headquarters if it is stolen without the agent noticing. Losing one's portal key to theft or other such legerdemain is considered embarassing and carries with it a censure when one finally finds their way back to Sigil (obviously, by some other means than the key), but is ultimately forgiven without serious penalty. On the other hand, intentionally selling or giving the key to another individual is punishable by death. A key of this sort sells for well over 30,000 gp on the black market, but few agents have ever dared to try, and none have survived.
Agents of the order receive a salary of 30 gp per month, enough to live a modest lifestyle in Sigil.
We are using feats and variant races where applicable, no need to obtain permission for these.
All alignments are welcome in the Order. A chaotic evil agent is more likely to have ulterior motives, while a lawful good agent is more likely to have moral reservations about burning down a village that has become compromised by a mind-flayer from the Great Beyond. Everyone has a role to play.

Other character creation details

In addition to obvious details (like your character's general backstory), I would also encourage everyone to think about answers to the following questions:

The Order has strict membership requirements, and most characters did not join the Order until they were at least level 5. What was your character doing before they joined the Order?
What brought your character to Sigil and/or why did they join the Order?
What does your character do in their down time?
What parts of Sigil does your character frequent? (Not expecting everyone to be experts in Sigil -- I'm looking for answers like "taverns" or "libraries". Answers don't need to be specific places in the setting, although they can be.)
What is one thing your character likes?
What is one thing your character dislikes?
Who or what does your character care about most?

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