Welcome, brave adventurers, to the Protectorate of the Sacred Cross! As you prepare to embark on a journey through the diverse and majestic realms of Nordeligne, here are the guidelines to create your characters who will traverse these ancient lands, uncover hidden secrets, and protect the realm from the shadows that lurk beyond.

Character Morality and Alignment
This campaign celebrates the deeds of heroes who rise above their flaws to perform acts of courage, wisdom, and compassion. Characters should not be evil, overly cynical, or prone to senseless violence. While complexity and moral ambiguity can add depth, your characters should ultimately be driven by a sense of duty, honor, or a desire to make the world a better place.

Ability Scores
Roll four six-sided dice (4d6) for each of the six ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma), discarding the lowest die roll for each set. This method ensures your characters begin their journey with heroic potential.

Backstory and Integration
Your character’s backstory, background, and personal bonds are crucial in weaving your story into the tapestry of Nordeligne. Discuss your ideas with the Dungeon Master (DM) to ensure they align with the world’s lore, politics, and societies. The DM can provide insights into how your character’s past might intersect with the ongoing saga of the Protectorate of the Sacred Cross.

Classes and Abilities
Use the base classes from the Player's Handbook to guide your character’s path. Should you wish to explore other classes from additional sources, please consult with the DM to ensure they fit within the campaign’s narrative and mechanics.

Spells, feats, and traits from expansions beyond the Player's Handbook require DM approval. This ensures that all abilities harmonize with the campaign’s balance and thematic elements.

Races of the Realm
Characters may be of races found in the Player's Handbook and Volo's Guide to Monsters, with the notable exclusions of Firbolgs, Kenku, Lizardfolk, Triton. And no Tortles. This choice reflects the unique demographic tapestry of Nordeligne and its surrounding territories.

This campaign makes use of the variant encumbrance rules. Players will need to track the weight of the equipment they carry, including treasure.

Carrying Capacity

• A character's carrying capacity is determined by their Strength score. Under the variant rules, a character can carry a weight in pounds up to 15 times their Strength score without being encumbered.
• If a character carries weight in excess of 5 times their Strength score, they become encumbered, which imposes a penalty of -10 feet to their movement speed.
• If a character carries weight in excess of 10 times their Strength score, they become heavily encumbered, which imposes a penalty of -20 feet to their movement speed, and they have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.

Pushing, Dragging, and Lifting
Beyond carrying, a character can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to 30 times their Strength score. However, while doing so, their speed drops to 5 feet.

In our campaign, we introduce a nuanced approach to hit points, dividing them into two distinct components: Stamina and Health. This system aims to add depth to combat and recovery, reflecting both the physical and the more abstract aspects of battle endurance and injury. This variant healing system aims to enhance the realism and strategic aspects of combat and recovery in our campaign. It encourages thoughtful engagement with the game's mechanics, placing a little more focus on role-playing than just roll-spamming through the story.

Understanding Stamina and Health
Stamina represents half of your character's hit points. It reflects not just physical endurance but also combat awareness, balance, readiness to react, heroic luck, and the remarkable ability of heroes to turn what could have been a lethal blow into a mere graze or close miss. Stamina is the first line of defense against the rigors of combat.

Health also represents half of your character's hit points. This portion is indicative of actual physical harm—wounds, cuts, bruises, and other tangible damage your character sustains. Once your Stamina is depleted, any further damage directly affects your Health, representing serious physical injury.

Damage and Recovery

• Damage Application: When you take damage, it is first subtracted from your Stamina. Only when your Stamina is completely depleted does damage begin to subtract from your Health, reflecting actual physical injuries.
• Short Rests: Rejuvenating Stamina. A Short Rest is at least 1 hour of light activity. During this time, you can spend one or more Hit Dice to regain Stamina. Roll each Hit Die and add your Constitution modifier to it, restoring that much Stamina. You can choose to spend additional Hit Dice after each roll. Remember, healing from a Short Rest applies ONLY to Stamina, not Health.
• Long Rests: Restoring Balance. A Long Rest requires at least 8 hours of downtime, with at least 6 hours of sleep. Upon completion, you regain all lost Stamina. You also recover spent Hit Dice, up to half of your total number (minimum of one die).

Using a Healer’s Kit during a Long Rest allows you to regain Health equal to half your character level (rounded down, minimum of 1). This action represents the effective use of bandages, splints, and healing salves to treat physical injuries. This Health recovery can only be done once per Long Rest.

Magical Healing: Spells and magical effects that restore hit points ONLY heal Health, not Stamina, emphasizing their role in treating physical injuries rather than restoring overall vitality.

Additional Notes
A character cannot benefit from more than one Long Rest within a 24-hour period and must have at least 1 Health at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.