Hello my fellow dungeon crawlers; welcome back! This week, we will dive into creating a character for your first adventure! If this is your first time creating a character for Dungeons & Dragons, you can find character sheets on the D&D website found here.
Step One: Rolling for your character
To start, grab four d6 dice and roll all of them at once. Each time you roll, you will take the highest three numbers and add them together. Repeat this six times. You must write down the six numbers you get from your rolls, as you will use them later.
Step Two: Choose your Race and Class
There are many resources that can help you choose a race and class. The Players Handbook has the basic races and classes you can pick from. Since then, many new resource books have become available with new race and class options. Once you choose your race and character, write all the features and descriptions down on your sheet in the ‘Other proficiencies/ languages’ and the features and trait boxes.
Step Three: Placing numbers in ability scores
Ability scores are the basis of your character in D&D. These are strength, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, constitution, and charisma. With the numbers you got from step one, place those numbers from best to worst in each box. (Most classes tell you which numbers to put where).
Some classes give you extra points toward your abilities, so add those in before you get your modifier. To determine the modifier for these scores, you will subtract ten and divide by two to get a +/- number. The boxes that you will be using in this step are shown below.
Step Four: Saving throws, Skills, and Proficiency bonus
Once you have gotten your ability score modifier, you will place the corresponding numbers in the saving throw and skills box. At this point, you will also add your proficiency bonus on your sheet. This bonus is given to you in your class level-up chart.
Once you have that bonus, you will add that modifier to the skills/saving throws that you are proficient in. Again, your class and race will tell you what you are proficient with. Make sure you bubble in the skills and saving throws you are proficient in. The boxes below show where you place those numbers.
Step Five: Armor Class, Hitpoints, and Initiative
These next few steps are important for your character during combat. Your armor class is determined by your class. Most classes will tell you how to calculate it. But if your class doesn’t, you will use it based on the armor you wear. For example, if you wear light armor, it's 11 plus your dexterity modifier.
Your armor class is used in combat to see if you got hit by an attack, while your hit points help you see your health in the game. These are determined again by your class. It will tell you what you roll for hit dice. At the first level, it is usually a number determined by class plus your constitution modifier.
You will roll to gain more hit points each time you level up. Lastly, initiative tells you where your place is in combat. Your dexterity modifier determines this, and you add that to your d20 roll.
Step Six: Choose equipment
This next step is again important for combat. Here you choose what weapon you yield in battle. Most of the time, you start out with the basic weapons your class gives you at the start of the game, and you will be proficient in using them.
To determine an attack bonus, you will use modifiers based on the weapon type; melee weapons use strength, and ranged/finesse weapons use dexterity. Since you will be proficient in using the weapon, you will also add your proficiency modifier to your attack bonus.
For damage your weapon yields, you roll a die based on your weapon and add your attack bonus to that roll. Also, make sure to write down other equipment you have in the box below that keeps track of what your character has on them. Below shows where you will put your weapon attack bonus and damage.
Step Seven: Describe and pick a background for your character
This final step is all up to you. It is time to bring your character to life. You will describe their appearance, create a backstory, and choose a background from resource books. Again most of the classes will recommend a background for you, but you can choose any background that fits your character best.
You should now be able to complete your character. Now you can start playing with friends and have all the resources you need to start a campaign! I’ll see you all here next week!
Happy Rolling!
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