D&D: Building Hero Characters – A Guide
Don’t be intimidated as you build your first character in Dungeons and Dragons. Character building may seem very time-consuming and complicated, especially at the beginning, but over time it will become easier for you – I promise! We have summarized the most important points in a guide for you to take you through character creation step by step.
Every D&D character is built on the six basic attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Where the strengths and weaknesses of your hero lie, you can assign yourself based on points. Very few heroes are equally well positioned in all six areas. Most of the time, D&D characters have two or even three stats that they excel at and at least one stat that sucks (that’s called the dump stat, the garbage value). 10 is always the default value for value distribution; any value below is considered below average, any value above is above average.
There are several ways to generate a character’s stats. At the end you add the bonuses that you receive from your people to these values.
- Roll the dice: The absolute standard in Dungeons and Dragons is rolling stats. Typically, you roll 4d6 six times in a row, always removing the smallest die result. So you get six results, which you can then assign to the respective values. For example, you roll your four six-sided dice 4, 2, 6, and 4 again. You remove the 2, giving a result of 14. This is your first value. You repeat this process five more times.
- Standard Array: If rolling the dice is too risky for you, you can also clarify with your game master whether you can play with the standard array. This gives you six fixed numbers, which you can then assign to your base values. In 5e these are: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8. The standard array has the advantage of being relatively balanced. You may not have an abnormally high value, but you are not really bad anywhere either. And with a 14 and a 15 almost every class can be played well.
- Point Buy: A third, quite prominent way to generate your character values is the so-called point buy. As the name suggests, you “buy” points with it in order to generate the values according to your taste. The typical rules are as follows:
- Each value starts with 8, less is not possible.
- You have 27 points available to increase your 6 stats.
- An increase to 15 is the maximum you can achieve.
- The cost of your stats increases based on the stat you raise them to. The following list shows this for you:
8 costs 0 points
9 costs 1 point
10 costs 2 points
11 costs 3 points
12 costs 4 points
13 costs 5 points
14 costs 7 points
15 costs 9 points
After generating your character stats, you must decide which class you want to play with. While you can set this up ahead of time, because you can theoretically play whatever you want with any roll of the dice, but min-maxers will raise a threatening finger here: Not every class gets along equally well with two or even just one high value. Paladins, for example, would like to have three high stats at once, as would monks. Rogues, on the other hand, get by with only one high value, which they place on dexterity.
You can choose from:
- Combat Classes: Barbarian, fighter, monk, scoundrel
- Caster Classes: Bard, Druid, Cleric, Warlock, Mage, Sorcerer
- Hybrid Classes: Artificer, Paladin, Ranger
Depending on which class you choose, you assign your values to the appropriate attributes. Just follow the links at the class names to find out which strengths and weaknesses each class has and which attributes they urgently need. Your class also determines what saving throws you’re proficient with.
The right people
But that’s not all! Once you’ve distributed the stats and chosen your class, you still have to decide which race you want to play with! The list is almost endless. There are all the usual suspects from the fantasy world, such as dwarves, elves or gnomes, as well as numerous exotic ones such as Tabaxi, Kenku and Triton. Each of these races not only offers a unique look, but also special race bonuses such as flight speed, underwater breathing, dark vision, certain resistances, climbing speed and, and, and.
In addition, in the classic rules, there is also the increase of one or two certain values, which ensure that not every race-class combination performs equally well. Among other things, the Goliath brings with it an increase in the values Strength and Constitution. This makes it great for any character who just wants to hit hard – but not so much for caster classes.
Custom lineage
You can avoid this restriction if you use the so-called Custom lineage– Rule plays. Translated, the term roughly means “Custom Lineage” and as is so often the case in D&D, the name is law and already tells you what you’re dealing with. Instead of choosing one of the pre-made races, you craft your own character by following a few simple rules:
- creature type: Your creature type is set to humanoid. However, you are free to decide which visual features your character has.
- Size: Decide if you want to be small or medium.
- Speed: Your default speed is 30 feet/ 9 meters.
- Attribute increase: Increases an attribute score of your choice by 2 points.
- Talent: You get a talent that your character is qualified for.
- Variable trait: Choose between Darkvision or a skill (like Intimidate or Acrobatics).
- Language: You are proficient in common language and a language of your choice.
Reference-www.buffed.de