91. Transition 2

The two men looked at each other and Joe was still smiling. "So, what is your plan to make you character even more over powered than before?"

"I am not going to make it more OP I am going to use my great rolls and knowledge to balance out an elf."

"An elf, huh. Okay then lets see it."

"First off I have one quick question."

"Go ahead."

"Well, I know that Alan always played and wrote in a mix of 3 and 3.5, is that what we are going to be playing in?"

"Yes. This world is based on his world and that is what he wrote. Does it make that big of a difference?"

"Well, the biggest things is that some race changes are different based on edition as well as skills. The later versions cut the skills way back so that it would be easier to play for the video game generation."

"And you don't like it?"

"I will say that it is a double edged sword. It reduces character creation and individually but it also makes it easier on the players and the DM in that there are a lot few checks to make and one skill will cover a lot of different checks. Perception was a great example."

"I see. It took the place of several skills and made it one check. That makes sense. But we are going with the version that Alan wrote."

"Okay then. That means as an elf I get a two to dexterity and I lose two to constitution. So, I will drop my eighteen into dexterity and push it to twenty and my twenty into constitution and put it at eighteen. Then I will put the seventeen into wisdom and then add my 4th and 8th level ability point to that and gives me a nineteen with the possibility of putting it at twenty soon." Joe scribbled everything out on the scrap paper to make sure that he liked what he saw.

"Okay that was pretty good. You did not try and push it to twenty two so that you could keep the extra health. As a ranger and outdoors man that it a great choice. Especially since you said that you are going archer."

"Yeah, that is the gest of it. That leaves me with four since you use comeliness." Joe started back on the scrap paper and then made his final decision. He put the numbers on the character sheet and locked them in.

Strength 14 (+2)

Dexterity 20 (+5)

Constitution (+4)

Intelligence 16 (+3)

Wisdom 19 (+4)

Charisma 12 (+1)

Comeliness 14 (+2)

"That looks pretty good to me."

"Joe, given the rolls I am a little surprised that you did not put your higher roll into comeliness."

"If I was a bard, mage or rogue that would have happened but as a ranger I do not really care about the looks as bad as most people. Plus I am a fourteen on a scale of 1-10 that makes me pretty damn sexy in my opinion."

"But your charisma is a little low. Does that not happen you handle animals?"

"To an extent it could but Alan and I always played that charisma might get you close to the animal but your wisdom and compassion is what let you bond with the animal. Being nice is great but being wise and knowing how to empathize with the animal and its situation are way more important."

"There is something to be said about that. If I am not mistake Alan has a pretty well trained pet in this world and his handle animal is almost nothing so that makes sense." Two six sided die appeared on the table. "Let's figure out your height."

"Damn it you are going to use the standard table out of the book aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

Joe was not happy since most of the time they added a little bit to the height of the elves so that they were closer to humans but the book never did that and he could not ever remember Alan specifically stating that they were taller. He rolled the die and came out with a seven which made him exactly five foot tall. He was a lot shorter than he originally imagined but there was nothing to do about it now. He rolled to his weight multiplier and ended up with a weight of 106 pounds. "Can we round to 110 at least?"

"I will give you 110."

"Thanks." With that Joe pulled up his character sheet and started looking over the skill and saw that all of his ability modifiers were already in place and that his bonus class and cross class points were in place as well. There was also a tracker on the side of his vision that told him how many points he had left. And given that he was tied with a bard and just under a rogue in skill points with his higher intelligence he was way up there on skill points. He drank half a pot of coffee that the elder being provided and smoke several cigarettes before he was finally done.

"That was a lot harder than I remember but honestly it has been a long time since I was a player and really rolled up a character the right way instead of making it up as I went along. Now we move on to feats. This should be a lot quicker since almost all of the feats that I will be taking are going to be archer related."

True to his word the feat went a lot faster and given the extra feat he traded for ability points he had every archer feat that he could currently take as well as quick draw and dodge which he took with almost every character that he had ever played. "System can you bring up a rendering of my character so that I can see it and then we can change the appearance of it to fit what I want. I know I can't change height or weight but his hair and eyes and things like that."

Suddenly a life size version of the elf that he had rolled was floating in front of him. First thing that he did was darken the skin to a ruddy tan since he had spent all of his life in the woods. Then he made his eyes so dark green that they were almost brown but not quite. Then after some internal debate he made his hair a mix of brown and green so that he could hide better in the forest. If it was a real character and not who he was going to become he would have went with his standard golden eyes and silver hear or something along those lines.

Joe was about to hit the accept button that the system had put in place for him when with one last item popped into his head. He lifted up the loin cloth that was on the front of the body and frowned. "I don't care if I am a small elf this is unacceptable." He reached out and made a few physical adjustments to the body and then he finally checked everything one last time. He nodded his chin and saw that this was a body that he could spend the rest of his life in. He hit accept and a light flashed and it showed that the body was locked in. It popped out of sight and he looked over his character sheet again.

Now it was time to start on his equipment. Pulled up the physical copy of the Player's Handbook and started looking over a few things. He made sure that everything was the way that he remembered and the armor stat and dexterity bonus were what they were supposed to be before he moved on.

After some last minute verifications he pulled up the condensed equipment guide that the system provided so that he did not have to look around much. "Okay, I am going to take the studded leather and the composite long bow to match my strength. Let's go ahead and roll the magical stats on the armor."

Joe looked over the list so that he could make sure and concentrate on the numbers that he wanted to keep the item in budget as well as provide him with what he wanted. Once that was done he started rolling. The buff that he was given was in full effect and he ended up with the magical studded leather that he wanted. It was not only great protection but it also had the mid level boosts to both his hide and move silently. In the woods this was his biggest asset as he would be working alone most of the time.

Joe rolled for the bow and smiled as he again got the roll that he wanted. He ended up with a giant's bane bow of distance that doubled the range of his weapon. This was perfect for him. But after the magic weapon and armor he had used two-thirds of the coin that he got from the system. He had to make a few more choices and he had to make smart ones.

After a few seconds thought he started with rings and quickly found two that he wanted. They were expensive but they were worth it in the long run. One would be a huge boost to his hide ability and one would give him a rogue's advantage in a fight with a mage. With evasion he would not have to be near as afraid of a mage as he would have been. With that and his bow of distance he could handle most mages.

Joe looked at the coin counter in the corner of his vision and saw that he was down to his last 15,000 coins so he could get one medium item or a couple of minor ones. Given the level that he was going to start at he thought the a medium item would be best and went to the wonderous item section. He quickly picked the bracers that would boost his armor and figured that he would take the rest of his money into the world with him.

"Okay, that should do it for me. Now I need to get my companion."