Starting A New Character
When you create a new character, you will start out with a set amount of Aptitude Points which you may freely distribute across the six Aptitudes. How many Aptitude Points you start with is listed below:
- An eleven-year-old first-year student at Penwick starts with 36 Aptitude Points
- A fifteen-year-old fifth-year student at Penwick starts with 46 Aptitude Points. This is 6 points fewer than a first year who makes it to fifth year.
- A seventeen or eighteen-year-old freshman starting at Sigerth in their first year starts with 58 Aptitude Points.
- An adult character starting outside of the school system (not a Professor) starts with 58 Aptitude Points.
Supposing you start as a first-year character and divide all 36 AP equally, you'd have 6 AP in each aptitude, which translates into your character being a fully functional, but generally unskilled person. Your character will gain additional Aptitude Points annually (upon graduation in July) ,which you can distribute how you want, thereby increasing their Aptitude scores each year.
The range of Aptitude Points is 0 to 16. This means you may allot 0 Aptitude Points to
some Aptitudes. However, not all Aptitudes are eligible for this. Physique, for example, determines a character's health, and a character with zero health would be dead or unconscious. The following Aptitudes may have 0 AP allotted to them, but you should be aware that choosing to assign 0 AP to an Aptitude means that your character is relying
entirely on luck in that area.
- Physique may not be 0, as this would mean your character is dead or unconscious.
- Intelligence may not be 0, as this would mean your character is utterly oblivious to their surroundings and would likely be walking into walls.
- Charisma may be 0. You are allowed to lack any sense of social grace.
- Spirit may be 0, but your mind will likely shatter at the slightest setback.
- Agility may be 0. If you want to have the reflexes of a brick, we'll let you, but you are going to get hit by stuff. A lot.
- Sorcery may not be 0 as this would mean you are a squib or a muggle.
Aptitude Point Distribution Limitations
When you create a new character, you will get a number of Aptitude Points to start with. You may then distribute these AP freely (with some minor limitations) across the various Aptitudes. These limitations are as follows:
- A first-year Penwick student may have no more than 8 AP in any given Aptitude.
- A second-year Penwick student may have no more than 10 AP in any given Aptitude.
- A third-year Penwick student or higher may have no more than 13 AP in any given Aptitude.
- Adult character may have no more than 13 AP in any given Aptitude.
- Only characters who have taken cap-breaking abilities may have more than 13 AP (up to 16) in a given Aptitude.
All characters from third-year on are unrestrained to go up to 13 AP in any aptitude. A character can only reach 14, 15 or 16 AP in a given Aptitude by taking a special ability that allows them to break this cap. Regular characters without special abilities are hard-capped to a maximum of 13 Aptitude Points in any given Aptitude.
Because you are unrestrained in your allotment of Aptitude Points from third year on out, you are able to play a student character who is prodigiously good in a particular Aptitude (like being highly intelligent, or highly charismatic). However, the cost you pay for doing so is that you will be massively lacking AP in other areas.
Earning More Aptitude Points
Each year, as your character graduates into their next year at Penwick or simply exists for another year as an adult, you will gain additional Aptitude Points.
The progression table for
Penwick Students can be seen below:
| Year |
Apt. Points |
Apt. Cap |
Annual Gain |
| 1 |
36 |
8 |
+4 |
| 2 |
40 |
10 |
+4 |
| 3 |
44 |
13 |
+4 |
| 4 |
48 |
13 |
+4 |
| 5 |
52 (46 if starting here) |
13 |
+4 |
| 6 |
56 (50 if started in fifth year) |
13 |
+4 |
| 7 |
60 (54 if started in fifth year) |
13 |
+4 |
| Upon graduating |
64 (58 if started in fifth year) |
13 |
- |
Adult characters, whether they attend Sigerth or not, start with 58AP and gain
+3AP annually (on July 1st) until the hard cap of 96AP is reached.
If you do not have any cap-breaking abilities and can only invest 13 AP in each Aptitude, your adult character will be soft-locked when they reach 78 Aptitude Points, as there won't be any aptitudes left to invest in. This means that your annual +3AP will be discarded until you take a cap-breaking ability.
The progression for
Adult Professors is the same as any adult, with one difference. You gain +3AP per year like every other adult character, but Adult Professors start with 70AP from the get-go. If a veteran character who already has more than 70AP becomes a Professor, they simply keep however many AP they already have.
Closing Remarks
The Aptitude Points for each character can be viewed on their profile and even on their mini-profile with every post they make. As an anti-cheating measure, you cannot change or edit your Aptitude Points directly yourself. Instead, you must specify at character creation how you wish to distribute your starting AP, and a moderator will assign and allocate these to your in-character account.
When you earn new Aptitude Points after character creation, you will have to submit an application to claim them. When the application has been processed by staff, your character's profile will be updated to reflect the requested change.
