The following sourcebooks may be used in any combination to build your character. All character options in each book are allowed, with the noted exceptions.

• Player’s Handbook
• Dungeon Master's Guide
• Volo's Guide to Monsters
• Xanathar's Guide to Everything
• Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
• Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
  • Custom Lineage is only allowed with Weaver review.

• Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
  • Battleragers are not restricted to dwarfs.
• Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica
• Eberron: Rising from the Last War
  • The Dragonmark races are only available in certain regions. More information to come - but if you want to use them now, talk with a Weaver.
• Explorer's Guide to Wildemount
• Mythic Odysseys of Theros
• Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
  • It is recommended to consult with Weavers on the origin of the included lineages.

• Ghost of Saltmarsh
• Princes of the Apocalypse
• Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

Broadly speaking, any character option in an adventure book published before July 20th, 2021 is approved. The only books listed here are ones where there are character options.

• Elemental Evil Player's Companion
• The Tortle Package
• One Grung Above
• Locathah Rising

All new characters begin at Level 1 with 0 experience points.

Use the standard array or point buy system to determine your starting ability scores.

For your first level and each level you gain after that, use the fixed hit point value for your class.

Use the options for starting gold and equipment for your class and background. Don't roll for wealth.

You may not choose any Evil alignment.

You may choose either Standard Human (+1 to all ability scores) or Variant Human (starting feat). Whenever you gain an Ability Score Improvement, you may instead choose to gain a feat.

You may choose to multiclass when your character gains new levels.

Although we are not in Faerun or the Forgotten Realms, the following restrictions are in place for these subclasses:

• Only elves and half-elves may take the Bladesinging School for Wizards.
• Only dwarves may take the Battlerager Path for Barbarians.
• Only players with the Knight or Knight of the Order backgrounds or members of a Knightly Order established in background or play can take the Purple Dragon Knight Archetype for Fighters.

By default, if you see a restriction in the class or subclass description, assume that it applies.

Choose your character's background feature and non-combat proficiencies with care. In Brightshore, what your character does outside of adventuring can have a large impact on their wealth and the well-being of the colony. For example, if you are proficient in smith’s tools, you can craft swords or armor, either to use or to sell to other players. If you know how to use mason’s tools, you can rebuild ruined houses or walls within the city itself. You can of course focus on combat proficiencies and backgrounds, but you will also have powerful options if you diversify into other rarely-taken proficiencies.

Instead of choosing from the Backgrounds available in the above sourcebooks, you could select one from the list below. These have been created by the DMs specifically for this campaign, and are subject to change.

• Brightshore Citizen (coming soon!)
• Vessari Refugee
• Prevalen Citizen

If you have any questions about how to adapt a background to Brightshore, please ask!

Your character will begin their first session as a new arrival to the land of Lorica, a continent that is just starting to be explored and colonized. When creating your character's backstory, you may want to consider where your character is coming from and why they would want to start a new life in Lorica. Some follow rumors of treasure, mystery, and excitement. Others come to leave behind a life of misery or regret. If you're not sure, leave it blank for now, and your DM will help you during your first session.

You are only really limited by your imagination, but here are some guidelines the Weavers would like you to follow:

• Extraplanar origins and travels are problematic as backstory. There are several reasons for this, but mainly the cosmology we have created opposes a good amount of what's in the Player's Handbook and other sources, and we want to to keep the setting and its characters focused on Brightshore first and foremost, rather than the worlds outside the material plane.
• If you create a new country for your character backstory, let the Weavers know so we can expand the world that shaped the characters before they made the crossing to Brightshore. Plus, other people might be interested in being from the very cool place you created.
• Remember that your character is starting at level 1. Lots of really great and heroic things can happen to a character before they get that first level, but becoming a truly powerful hero is part of the tale you're telling at the table. Be sure that your character has room to accomplish great deeds that won't be overshadowed by the stuff you did before you were level 1.
• If you are planning on playing a warforged, please work with a Weaver to assist in establishing your backstory. Warforged occupy a very particular niche in Brightshore's lore, and it will to your benefit to have that background available to you as you make your warforged.

In order to maintain a sense of permanence and persistence, changing characters attributes (outside of ability score improvements), feats, and other aspects of a character is not allowed in Brightshore. Changing cantrips is allowed as per the rules in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

However, once a character has been played at the table, you may alter anything about your character so long as it follows the rest of the rules for character creation. Perhaps your build isn't quite right, or maybe it didn't play quite like you expected it to at the table. But once you have started playing your second session, the character is considered locked to the world as is, and may not be changed.

A player may only have two active player characters at any one time. If you wish to create another character and already have two characters, one existing character must be retired.

The DMs of Brightshore have worked hard to craft an exciting world of adventure and mystery for our wonderful D&D community. A living, growing, evolving setting created by our community as a whole. And even though the DMs keep the lore and make sure it’s cohesive and sensible, we aren’t the only ones who can write it.

Do you want to create a new sect of worship focusing on a strange (or even heretical) aspect of one of the Four? Pitch your idea to a DM! We’ll help make your vision a part of worship at Brightshore!

Do you want to make some aesthetic tweaks to the origin of your character’s race? We love the idea of deepening the lore and history of our world!

The bottom line is that Brightshore was always meant to be a collaborative effort of our community, so feel free to reach out to the DM group with any of your ideas, no matter if it's a deity, an item, an adventure or any other ideas.

We can’t wait to work with you!

Pre-generated characters are available for you to use if you come to a session without creating a character.