Roleplaying character creation

Choosing a Primary Profession
The most important decision you make will be what your primary profession is. This choice cannot be changed later. More information on each profession can be found on the profession page.

Some major considerations when choosing your primary class are:
 * The class's primary attribute
 * The class's armor
 * The Runes you will want
 * The class's look and emotes
 * Dances

See Primary profession guide for more info.

Choosing Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall
This will have an effect on the starting location as well as appearance of your character. Note that Assassins and Ritualists can only start in Factions, and Paragons and Dervishes can only start in Nightfall. In Prophecies, you have the option to earn a large number of your skills via quests rather than needing to spend skill points to purchase them. The downside is that many view both the skill quests and the lower experience rewards as a grind process to develop your characters. Also with the introduction of heroes in Nightfall another feature should be considered. Starting with a character in Nightfall gives you acces to heroes early in the game. Starting with other chapters would not give you the ability to recruit heroes until you've reached a certain point in the game. In addition many heroes will have low levels compared to your level.

The advantages and disadvantages of the campaigns in short: Prophecies + Cheap skills (free but through questing) + A good campaign to begin with(keeps the new professions of other chapters "new") + A good chapter for learning the game, you don't reach level 20 until much later so it gives you the time to learn how to play with certain tactics. - You cannot really choose which skills to learn, you'll just learn them as the quests provide them. - When already familiar with the game the lower experience rewards can be annoying to keep you from leveling up quickly. - Elite skills are not available till much later in the game. Factions + Gives access to the Assassins and Ritualists professions. + Big rewards from questing allow you to buy skills and level up quickly. + Earlier access to other chapters. - Buying skills can become quite expensive. - Due to reaching level 20 early in the game, you could sometimes get in over your head as a beginner, since people expect a high level player to act as such. (At least to the hardcore players who will refer to you as "noob". Don't be bothered by this, the game is meant for fun.) Nightfall + Gives access to the Dervish and Paragorn professions. + Gives early access to heroes. + Many elite skills are easily obtainable at an early stage of the game. (Factions also provides elite skills quite early, but the bulk of them comes much later) +/- Is mix between Prophecies and Factions considering gaining experience; faster then Prophecies, slower then Factions. Also the time it takes before acces to other chapters is about in the middle. - Buying skills can become very expensive, also the quest rewards aren't that big so you'll have to keep an eye on your gold pile. - Armor is more customizable, however the costs of getting the armor you like can be much higher, especially when playing with the new professions. For a beginner it might not be affordable, again the lower quests rewards are an issue here. Currently, the campaigns are linked via Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center and Kamadan, so you also have the option to start in one, then switch to another once the linking city is reached.

Choosing Appearance
The appearance of your character has no statistical influence on the game. Keep in mind that you cannot change your appearance once you've finished character creation other than having the ability to buy armors that look different and dying them different colors. If you're interested in how your character may look in some of the different armor types available to your profession, you can check out the PvP character creation and experiment a bit.

North America and Europe

 * Maximum length 19 characters.
 * Must have at least 1 space in the name (not beginning or end)
 * Must have at least 3 characters (also implied by the previous rule)

Japan
Players may choose via a drop down menu whether the name is going to consist of only English letters, or a mix of Japanese and English characters.

Names of purely English characters follow the same rule as North America. Names of Japanese and English characters have to meet the following rules:
 * Maximum character limit is 16 (Japanese characters each count for 2).
 * Must use a minimum of 4 characters.
 * Must use at least 1 Japanese character.
 * Must not contain spaces
 * Must use only Japanese characters and English letters.

Taiwan
Players may choose via a drop down menu whether the name is going to consist of only English letters, or a mix of Chinese and English characters.

Names of purely English characters follow the same rule as North America. Names of mixed characters have to meet the following rules:
 * Maximum character limit is 16 (Chinese characters each count for 2).
 * Must use at least 3 characters.
 * Must use at least 1 Chinese character.
 * Must not contain any spaces
 * Must use only Chinese characters and English letters.
 * (use of English characters is not required)

(Pet names must be in English)

Caution
Players who create characters with obscene names (as defined by the EULA and decided on by the game's administrators) often find their characters deleted, or have their accounts simply banned for a time. Names can be changed; however, not all players who use a bad name get the option of renaming it, so choose carefully if you plan to invest a lot of time in your character. If you're having trouble coming up with a name, there are many fantasy name generators available; a Google search should give you plenty of results.
 * Obscene names will be changed but the old name will be seen in your "Customized for (character name)" messages, such as on your character armor or weapons. That's another reason to use time to choose a name you won't regret.