Topic: Dungeons and Dragons,
Character Creation
This week, in route to our eventual short D&D Adventure,
we create a Character for my mom. She chose some interesting options for
her character, which I'm proud to see, so lets find out what kind of character
she created.
Tutorial:
Before you begin, you will want the following: · Dice of various types, Ideally 4 D6 Dice
· Character sheet
· Scratch paper
· Player’s Handbook, or Rule Book PDF via D&D Website
· Pencil and Eraser
How to Build a character.
- Choose a Race
- Choose a Class
- Determine Ability Scores
- Flesh out your Character’s Story and Personality
- Choose Equipment
1) Race & Class
Typically decided on your own, not absolutely necessary for
it to make sense, so long as it makes sense to you at the end of the day.
Keep in mind that Some classes give special abilities, added
Ability scores, and even special interactions.
Choosing a Race is Very Important.
If you Race is what you are, then Class is what you’re a
professional in.
Be certain that your concept for your character is solid and
well understood, as it will help figure out how to fill in your character sheet
and how to score stuff
2) Ability Scores
Key scores that outline your character
Average score is 10.
Above is better than others, below is weaker than others
- Strength – Running, Jumping, Punching things in the face
- Dexterity – Agility, Grace, balance, efficient in movement
- Constitution – Health, Pain thresh-hold
- Intelligence – Recalling information
- Wisdom – Perception, aware of your surroundings, common-sense
- Charisma – Self-confidence, personality around others
Take 4 D6 dice, roll and lowest score gets removed. The added number is an ability Score. Repeat for total of 6 times, then place as
you wish in your character’s ability scores
Alternatively, you can use a “Standard Array” if you just
want to get in to the action. Thus no
rolling, but more standardized numbers, ie: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, & 8
Each Ability Score is really just a modifier at the end of
the day. As an example, lets say you
needed to swing a sword, and you have a strength score of 15, then you get a +2
to your roll. This mean that what ever
to score, you get a +2 to that roll, regardless what you rolled. So if you rolled a 14, it becomes a 16
because your modifier is +2.
You’ll keep track of this as well with your character sheet
3) Features, Proficiencies, and Filling in your Sheet
With your character’s race and class in place, you can start
filling in some more of your character sheet.
Under “Features & Traits” we can start adding any features of your
race and class. Some Races & classes
will give you additional Ability Scores, while others will give you special
Features for your race. Best to write
them all down, if it you don’t understand them just yet.
You can add your character’s speed as well, IE smaller
character take longer to walk places naturally, while taller characters take
less time.
As well, you can calculate your Hit Points. This is different for each class, so
reference the Player’s Handbook as necessary.
- Hit Dice: If you have a moment to rest, this can be rolled to see how much health you gain back
- Hit Points (Starter): Differs, but is the basic starting hit points.
- His Points (Later Levels): This is how you determine what additional hit points you’ll get.
Proficiency
Every class has a Proficiency Bonus at certain levels. Think improvement in skills. These can be added to your classes weapon
bonuses, depending on what weapons or armor you might be proficient in. Every class is different in what kind of
weapons they’re proficient in.
Saving Throws
These are basically your defense against things, IE:
Dodging, Resisting Spells, Overcoming certain situations. Based on the thing happening to you, it’s how
you determine if you get hurt by it or not.
Every class has two Ability Scores that they can add their Proficiency
bonus to.
Skills
Every Class has a list of skills that they can be good at
naturally. You can pick two to start
with, which would reflect your character.
These will act similar to your saving throws: you can add your
proficiency modifier to your Ability modifier when using these skills. You may get more skills later on as you level
up, but you can also get some from your Background.
Background
This provides some additional skills, proficiencies, features,
and even some starter equipment based off who you are before you started
adventuring. Typically, these reflect
your status before you were adventuring, like being a Noble would mean you
might know an additional language, have a degree of nobility when you walk
around, even some nicer clothes and money to start off with. This will vary depending on the background.
Along with backgrounds, they give you a sort of outline for
your character as well. These include Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and
Flaws. Think of them as quick little
Roleplaying ideas/flair. There are some
already offered in the handbook, and you can even roll for them, but you can
also make up your own. These are meant
to be guides for how you interact with the world and how to Roleplay in
general. Not hard and fast rules, but
options.
Alignments
As previously mentioned, your Alignment can be a quick way
you look at the world or how you’re looked at.
Some groups treat this as gospel while others are more relaxed about it.
Passive Wisdom (Perception)
Consider this like your natural ability to know what’s going
on around you. IE: Someone whose
sleathed, pick-pocketing you, traps, and so forth. Basically your ability to know what’s
happening around you.10 + Perception Skill Modifier.
Inspiration
This an optional rule that can be used by your Dungeon
Master. Ideally, for good roleplay or
good actions, you can get an additional modifier point for your next roll. You can’t pre-load it with numbers, but your
DM will decide if it’s useful or not.
Initiative
This Score help you to figure out who goes first in a fight
or battle. Ideally, this decides to
order in which you do stuff in, but atleast who will start first. Typically, this is just your Dexterity
Modifier, but you may have special
abilities or items that change it later on.Dexterity Modifier + Bonuses from Feats/Abilities
4) Equipment & Attacks
For your basic or starter selection of equipment, you get
two different options. The first is a
basic starter set, which lets you choose between some basic items that you
might have on you. Or, you can roll for
your starter wealth, which is decided by your class. You can do both if you want, or one or
another, depending on your Dungeon Master.
If you choose the basic start options, you can always talk to your
Dungeon Master as well if you need to change anything. IE, if you’re a gnome, you might not be able
to wield a large sword, so you might choose a half or short sword instead.
Armor Class:
Based on the type of Armor you wear will decide what a
monster needs to roll to hit you.
Typically, when playing, you’ll be given the option to dodge an attack
with a saving throw; if you fail that, then it depend on your armor whether you
take damage or not when getting hit.
Higher score, more difficult it is to hurt you, but some armors aren’t
ideal for some classes. If you’re not
proficient in that armor class, you may end up with a negative modifier or
unable to cast spells.
Based on your armor type + Dexterity modifier, determines
your armor class, and thus, what kind of roll someone must do in order to do
damage.
Weapons:
These come in various flavors and have rules for each of
their damage type. Typically, the bigger
the weapon, the bigger the dice you need to roll to figure out how much damage
they can do. They’re broken up to a few
different types, include Simple Melee, Simple Ranged, Martial Melee, and
Martial Ranged weapons. Think Simple as
anyone could use these, verses Martial which requires some level of skill to
use. Melee require strength to use,
while Ranged uses Dexterity.
Your attacks will take in to effect with your Proficiency
Bonus, your Ability Bonus, and any additional bonuses you might have. A fighter for example, might have a
proficiency in swords and have a fighting style the focuses on swords. So he would add his Proficiency Bonus, his
Strength modifier, and his feature bonus for his fighting style.
5) Additional Attacks
If you’re a spell caster, or a class with additional
abilities, you may be able to learn a spell when starting out.
Mom's Character Sheet
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