Hi guys im new to LARP in general and have looked at the character creator for empire and am quite confused to say the least does any one have any tips on creating my first character for empire?
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Hi @tradarcherguy, welcome to the forums and to Empire!
Just to check, do you mean literally how to go through the character creator, or do you mean deciding on what you want your character to be/do?
Hi yes I need help with the character creator itself as itâs a little confusing
Okay, no worries! How far through the creation process are you? I.e. have you selected a nation yet, or got to the point of selecting skills?
Yes Iâm up to the skills page and so far have selected marksman fortitude
Okay, so is it other skills that youâre having trouble with, or the next sections? Before I risk waffling on about something that turns out to be irrelevant 
Both the skills tab also the personal resource section are whatâs giving me some trouble
So what youâve chosen so far leaves you with 3XP. With all the other skills, you have to buy the âbaseâ skill before you can buy further. Think of it like a skill tree. So if you want to buy magic, you first need to buy the base magician skill.
If you plan to be a fighter you might want to consider some âheroicâ skills - again, as with the above, you need to buy the âheroâ base skill first, as those skills require the expenditure of hero points (which is what buying the base hero skill gets you). You can see more on the hero skill options here https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Heroic_skills.
The best thing to do if youâre curious about what the different skills do is to click the â?â next to them, as this will take you to the relevant wiki page.
[Anything that you select that requires extra choices (such as artisan where you need to choose items, or a lore of magic where you get to choose rituals), these options will be available in the following section.]
For the personal resource section, you need to choose a territory where you will be based in your nation. Itâs a good idea to look at the wiki page for the territory youâre interested in as it should give you some OC information about anything relevant thatâs been happening there recently. Then you choose what kind of resource you want - for a summary of the different resources, you can check here https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Resource. Each personal resource will generate an income that youâll receive when you attend an event, what they produce is listed on the linked page above.
I hope thatâs somewhat helpful but not an overload of information. If not then feel free to ask more!
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Yep, well spotted - itâs because I was running through the creator on my account, and forgot it would include the 2 unspent XP from my current character! Have edited to correct.
Thanks for the info also one last question. Do you earn more skill points as you attend events / battles? Assuming you character didnât die
You gain 1xp for the 1st and 3rd events you attend in the year. No need to attend battles, and you gain these even if you die. If you die, any unspent xp you have saved up can be used on a new character.
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Incidentally, my favorite starting archer build is:
Marksman (4)
Hero Points(2)
Unstoppable or Relentless (2)
This gives you a good measure of personal survivability, since if youâre an archer, then most of the time what will get you is enemy archers. Being able to get back to your lines or just not bother your physic will save your bacon a lot more often than a minuteâs extra bleed time will. 
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Have you read the Empire wiki? It outlines a lot of the skills, resources and other options
Iâm also a new player. I like the archer build you posted, have you got any suggestions for other build types? How would you build a battlemage? Thanks!
So I can only speak with any experience on archery, as I keep not dying. I have no idea how well this build works in practice, but it feels like it would be a fun thing to do:
Magician (2)
Battlemage(2)
Extra Spell (shatter) (1)
Take a mana site as your personal resource.
For your last three points, either take
Extra Mana twice, or two ranks in your preferred ritual lore to give yourself some extra things to do off the battlefield.
What you do is you grab your wizard staff, find the biggest hardest looking orcs you can, and you break ALL THEIR THINGS.
If youâre willing to use your crystal mana, you can shatter 9 to 11 things in a battle, and make barbarians feel bad. You are a vulnerable target, but with a staff, and only needing to hit the enemyâs weapon, you have range. Plus your side will love you and keep picking you back up. Possibly while asking if you can do that again.
Corin⌠uh, thatâs my current character. I can vouch that it does indeed work pretty well.
For battlemage:
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Primarily a combat mage, or maybe with a little ritual lore. The Ritual Lore will give you something to do on the field between fights, and a reason to meet people. In fac,t theyâll come looking for you, likely shouting along the lines of âwe need a few more ranks inâŚâ
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Assuming combat build, primarily offensive or what? Offensive spells are nice, but boy can you blow through power in a hurry! Things like Mend and Heal are also nice, and could well give you some nice roleplaying moments, but could also make you feel like a support character (which could be what you want, but irks me slightly).
So Iâd advise taking Extra Mana and a couple of spells (Heal and Repel?), and leaving a character point spare. Youâll get another after the first event, and you can then see where you want to put it, with the option of a second rank in Extra Mana (which goes up by 1 every rankâŚ)
Remember you get Staff use, but you also get Rod use, so you could fight Rod and Buckler as well if you like.
For personal resource, some thoughts:
Mana Site: the obvious one, especially if you have some expensive spells to cast (Swift Heal, for example). Crystal Mana is good for that.
Farm: brings in the cash, spend it on Crystal Mana to taste, or whatever.
Herb Garden: Everyone wants herbs. As youâll often be standing at the back, it might be you carrying potions etc for your unit. Additionally, the Mageblood potion is a lovely one to have a few of in your pocket (restores 2 personal mana). You find an Apothecary, you sell them herbs, you get back Magebloods, couple of healing potions, bit of cash⌠can work well.
So I assume this all updates on the website after the events?
Once your character is made there is a Spend XP button on that page, clicking on that effectively takes you back into the same interface as the character creator and it will tell you how much XP you have to spend and let you spend it if you wish
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Battlemage builds are partly dependent on what gear you have/will be buying.
Your weapon options are staff, Rod and shield or Rod and buckler. Technically you can go ambidex and use a rod in one hand and a weapon in the other, but itâs not recommended unless you are very confident in your fighting ability, and even then youâll struggle in the battles if you run into a good fighter in any of the other styles.
Spell wise, you want to aim to eventually pick up heal, restore limb and an offensive spell at minimum. You donât need to start with them but if youâre serious about taking battle regularly Iâd recommend you get them eventually.
Realm lore is nice from a roleplay point of view and to give you things to do outside of battles, but will take points you could have otherwise spent on combat skills/spells so you need to decide how much of a trade off you want to make.
The first 5 points are not optional. You need mage + mage armour to be a battlemage, and you need at least one spell, so as Corin says youâll start like this.
Magician (2)
Battlemage(2)
Extra Spell (1)
Offensive spells the first point you really have any options.
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Repel and Entangle are 1 mana to cast and cannot be blocked. Downside is they do no damage directly.
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Shatter and Paralyse are the big offensive spells. Both will likely take your target out of the fight immediately. However they cost 2 mana to cast, paralyse can be blocked, and shatter only works if you hit the item.
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Weakness and Venom are more limited in their use, and while they have value later I wouldnât pick them as starting spells.
That leaves 3 xp, if youâre using a staff, or a rod/buckler. If you want a shield thatâs another 2 xp (but arguably itâs worth it for the increase in survivability) and if you really want to dual wield then ambidex is 1xp.
With whatâs left Iâd seriously suggest one of the two healing spells. Battlemages are not front line fighters so itâs likely that youâll spend some time in support and saving another characters life with a heal or restore limb is an excellent way to start rp with somebody. Not to mention there will be times when healing your own busted leg will save your life. I speak from significant experience here. 
Extra mana is amazing as a battlemage, once your manaâs gone youâre basically a light armour skirmisher so more mana is always good. Not to mention there are ways to regenerate personal mana when youâre not in a battlefield which can be handy if you have an afternoon skirmish or fighting tournament to dominate.
So - mage (2) + battlemage (2) + offensive spell (1) + heal spell (1) + extra mana (1) = 7 pts.
That last one could be saved so that you could buy a 2 pt skill after your first event, or used on any skill that you felt would round out the character, realm lore, Chirurgeon, more spells etc.
Alternatively if you want to really dedicate yourself to magical personal combat, spend the requisite 5 points for your first event. Then spend 2 pts on hero points and save the last. After your first event, buy unstoppable. This is not the most sensible build, but it is a lot of fun. 
Thanks (to everybody) for your in- depth answers. I particularly like the analyses of how to play each build.
How would you build a âpaladinâ type? Letâs assume I might be able to talk my spouse into allowing me heavy armour (riveted steel chainmail isnât THAT expensiveâŚ)
:)