Your character needs to have a reason to work with and stick together with the party. There is nothing wrong with “loner” characters, but they will not fit this campaign. Likewise, if you want a rivalry or fight with another player character, please discuss it with them ahead of time (and give me a heads-up too).

Cauldron is somewhat parochial: if you want to play something unusual (anthropomorphic toad, carrion crawler, evil necromancer, etc), let me know. It's probably fine, but I need to figure out how to make it work.

If anyone has been reading up online, I'm planning to run this around Tier 3. If that doesn't make sense, ignore it.

You get max HP at first level.

Shackled City has a number of traits you can select from at character creation. If you would like you can pick from this list.

Blank, form-fillable character sheet

Pick one of the following sets, and assign them to the six ability scores:

• 13, 12, 12, 18, 10, 9
• 8, 15, 14, 16, 11, 11
• 12, 13, 14, 12, 15, 10

You can roll 4d6-drop-lowest if you prefer.

Alignment is a tag, not a character trait. Write down anything you feel like, and then play your character however you want. If you write down anything other than neutral and your class doesn't require it, think about why (“great-great-great-great-grampa was an angel, so I'm 'good,' ” etc.)

• Anything from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, with the logo, is fine, except Eberron and Unearthed Arcana (which is mostly fine, but ask).
• Flaws and traits are ok (limit 2 each).
• Anything from 3.0 which has not been updated is probably fine, but check how it gets updated.
• If you use psionics, incarnum, or anything from the Book of Magic or Book of Nine Swords, you need to know how it works.

These are negotiable, but are not available by default.

• Leadership
• Accelerated casting classes (Ur-Priest, Beholder Mage, etc)
• Iajitsu Focus
• Taint

The entire System Reference document is available, nicely organzed and hyperlinked, at http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm.

You were raised in the hobgoblin warrens and have refined several talents and tricks valuable to survival.

Benefit: Further, in other cities, you have a knack for living in cramped quarters. You gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Move Silently checks made in a confined space. Growing up the tiny quarters of the warren has also gifted you with several tricks you can use to ensure survival. You gain a +2 bonus on Initiative checks while squeezing. You are also adept at fighting in confined areas, such as narrow hallways or crowded common rooms. Enemies cannot gain cover from you if they are in your reach; you can thus attack someone around a corner without penalty. A creature with total cover from you still receives all benefits of his cover.