I'd like to make sure you guys understand what's going on and how to play and how to make dudes, SO, we aren't gonna start until that :3 I'mma try and make a tutorial here on how to make a character, and by doing that, I'mma make my own character. This might be split into a few parts, depending on how busy I am (I'm going to see the Hobbit today and do some playtesting over at a friend's house in a bit) but I'll type up what I can as quickly as I can.
For this tutorial, I'll be making my own character, an Anumus Brawler, that I've been wanting to roll for a while. This means I'll be using a third party race and a more complex class, and each class and race has its own unique features, but I'll point out the things you should look out for.
So for my character (Let's name him Saul Bearman) I'll be using the animus page (
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/3rd-party-races/alluria-publishing/anumus) the Brawler page (
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/brawler) Obsidian portal to host my character sheet (
http://obsidianportal.com/), and my own IMAGINATION! As a note, just create a Pathfinder campaign for your account to use for anything. It's up to you to remember which character is which. I've named my everything-campaign 14 Megaton Nuclear Teapot, because I am odd.
First off, let's get everything out of the way towards setting Saul up. I go to New+ Character in Obsidian Portal, which brings me to the creating character sheet. As a note be careful about pressing backspace here. It'll bring you to the previous page and you'll erase everything. I usually use notepad to help pad my notes. His character name is Saul Bearman, his Slug is SaulBearman (this isn't really important), he is a player character so I check that, and his description is "I Like Bears". I generally use Pathdfinder Character Sheet, so let's click that one.
Now that we have the sheet all set up let's plug in the easy and role-playing stuff. I'm an Anumus, I'm male, I'm six years old (cause Anumus, most people will be older. It says recommended ages based on classes in the race page). My preferred class is Brawler, as stated earlier, and my size is "Medium", which can be found on the race page. Most races are medium. If you're small or large, you get bonuses to your ability stats. Next up, we got alignments: I'm not sure if you guys know the DnD alignment system, cause it's pretty well spread. I'll make my guy neutral good, because he's polite and friendly and likes helping people. Alignment is very important to your roleplaying and character, and if you go against alignment, it is liable to change. It's ESPECIALLY important for clerics, because if you break alignment you lose your clerical powers.
My deity is the God of Bear Puns, because I never do anything big with deities, so you can always make up your own. We're going to start at level 3, and we start with 5000 EXP. Let's ignore languages for right now, and everything else you can leave blank.
So, now we try and get our abilities scores, which involves dice, so break those out, I'll wait. Okay, good. So, we have 6 scores, and the way we get them is 4d6, then we subtract the lowest roll. We roll for all 6, and you get rerolls, but don't reroll TOO much, cause that's kinda lame if you're trying to minmax. So I went ahead and did that, and I got 16, 12, 16, 13, 13, and 12. So, with ability scores, you can put your points wherever you want. The way ability scores work is that for each even number above 10, your modifier goes up by 1. So if your strength is 12, all your rolls that rely on strength will be buffed by 1. Where your ability scores are put is determined by which class you are, because obviously having a super buff wizard is only good if you want to have lots of crazy fun.
Brawlers like to get into the middle of the action and be stronk, so for me dexterity, constitution, and strength are my big hitters, so I set up my scores accordingly. For clerics, as a note, your main thing will be wisdom, and rogues your main thing will be dexterity. Now, however, is a good time to look at racial traits, cause some racial traits change your ability scores. All Anumus get +2 strength, and as I am making a subset of bear, I'm getting -2 intelligence and +2 wisdom. It's always a good idea to read up on all your traits, and put them into the trait section of your character sheet. For example, I get +2 on perception checks. It's important to know that when I'm trying to perceive that a xenomorph is about to eat my face off.
Now we can look at languages. (
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/skills/linguistics) The rule with languages is, you start with what it tells you on your race page, but then for every modifier you have you can choose an additional language. For example, if your intelligence is 16, your mod is 3, so you can choose 3 languages. I'm dumb, so my score is 10 and my mod is 0, so I get no additional languages.
Now let's look at our hit die. You can find out what your hit die is by going to your class page. The way you calculate health can differ, but for this campaign, we'll go with it this way: You start with your full hit die at level 0, then for each level, you roll for it and add your constitution mod to each roll. For example, I have a hit die of 10. So I instantly start with 10 health. I also have a con mod of 3, so I roll 3 d10s, cause that's how many levels I have, then I add 9 to that total cause I'd add 3 twice, and that's my life total. So, I got 37. That's pretty above average
Saving Throws are simple: Take a look at the table in your class page. It has a section on the left for your saving throws. Just look at your level, which is 3, and boom, those are your saving throws. Basically when you need to do something to defend (i throw a cat at your face, reflex throw to dodge it) you'll roll for these.
Your Base Attack Bonus, or BAB, is there too. That's an overall flat buff to the rolls you make on "do I hit the guy I'm swinging my axe at" rolls. Just plug that into the "Attack Bonuses" section, and it'll calculate your attack bonus based on your other ability mods.
Now let's go for skills. You get skills to upgrade each level. Since I'm a brawler, I get 4 skills per rank, plus my int modifier, which is 0. So, if you were a smart brawler, with 18 int, you'd have a mod of 4, and you'd get 8 skills. But I get 4. So, since I'm level 3, right now I'mma get 12 skills.
FUN FACT about the skills: You have class skills, which is noted in the class page above the table. On your sheet, click the little box on the left of these skills (CS), because the first point you put into your class skills will count as 3 points. So, even your points out, but class skills count more early on. Also if you have things like Craft and Perform, you can choose anything. Like, craft (tables) or perform (intepretive dance). Literally anything. It might not come in handy but you can do it.
I gotta go to the Hobbit now, so when I come back I'll go over feats and equipment, then we're done! I'll also go over spells for the spellcasters, cause that can be really tricky. If there's any questions, lemme know.