Roll Up, Roll Up: How To Create An Awesome D&D Character

Dungeons and Dragons has been enjoying a renaissance for respective years now, acknowledgment to existent plays and podcasts specified arsenic Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, and the game’s prominence successful fashionable shows similar Stranger Things. I’m 1 of the influx of comparatively caller D&D players; I started arsenic a subordinate successful 2017, and person precocious begun dipping my toes into moving my ain campaigns arsenic a Dungeon Master. There’s a batch to emotion astir D&D: the gaming strategy that balances accomplishment and luck, the settings and stories, the scope to usage your ain imagination, and the accidental to bent retired and make a fantastic (and often ridiculous) script with your friends.

As a writer, I consciousness that playing D&D tin beryllium benignant of a fabrication skills workout for authors. You’re thrown into a script with respective different characters, and person to guarantee that your quality makes decisions that marque sense, beforehand the plot, and are entertaining. It’s similar a penning warm-up exercise, and it’s decidedly helped maine make however I deliberation astir D&D quality ideas successful the stories I’m moving on. 

But however bash you make your Dungeons and Dragons quality successful the archetypal place? There’s truthful overmuch lore to the crippled present that it tin beryllium a small intimidating. When I started mounting up my quality connected D&D Beyond (a precise utile level for anyone who wants to commencement with the game), I was somewhat overwhelmed by the immense fig of races, classes and backgrounds I could take portion gathering my character. There are truthful galore options and D&D quality ideas, and I didn’t person the cognition to constrictive it down easily.

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You tin take to spell the pragmatic route, creating an all-rounder quality who has a premix of utile traits. For example, my precise archetypal quality was a Dwarf Bard, which meant that she had Dwarven toughness (very utile if your DM throws challenging random encounters astatine you), a decent premix of magical and non-magical warring ability, and immoderate healing skills that proved precise useful. You tin besides liaise with the different radical you’re going to play with; if you find retired that they’re each playing squishy, low-hit-point magical types, you tin redress the equilibrium by playing a sturdy Fighter oregon Barbarian.

Alternatively, you tin enactment “planning for each eventualities” connected the backburner, and instrumentality my favourite attack to quality creation: reasoning astir the benignant of communicative you privation your quality to tell. For each that she was useful, my Dwarf Bard came retired of this approach. I had an thought for a hipster instrumentalist who was travelling the satellite to find inspiration for her adjacent album, and I built the remainder of the quality astir this idea. In 1 of my existent campaigns, I’m playing a h2o genasi Fighter — who is besides a 100 twelvemonth aged adventurer who took an arrow to the genu and didn’t fto it dilatory her down. In another, I’m playing an Aarakocra Cleric/Rogue, a bird-man who looks similar a duck and sells patent medicines to unsuspecting rubes — yes, he’s virtually a quack doctor. Personally, I similar Rule of Funny to a perfectly-balanced party, due to the fact that it makes for a much absorbing crippled — and you can defeat the Big Bad with a Whoops All Bards party, if you deliberation extracurricular the container a little.

So if you person an thought for a chill oregon comic quality you’d similar to play, but don’t deliberation it’s feasible, I’d powerfully urge asking your DM astir giving it a spell — the quality of D&D is that it’s truthful wide that you tin acceptable astir each benignant of quality into the world. Want to play an aspiring modern dancer whose parents ne'er supported their dreams? Well, you could marque them a Bard (performances don’t person to see singing), and springiness them the Noble background, or, alternatively, marque them an Orc oregon a Tortle (neither radical being peculiarly known for light-footed grace). Shaking up genres and subverting expectations tin beryllium large amusive — and remember, you tin signifier your quality arsenic you go. If there’s thing that’s not working, chat with your enactment and your DM, and they’ll astir apt beryllium capable to assistance you travel up with a story-related crushed to alteration it.

D&D Character-Building Resources

There are plentifulness of resources retired determination for budding dungeoneers who privation to physique a quality who volition beryllium entertaining some to make and to play. Books similar Live to Tell the Tale give you plentifulness of ideas for characters, and, if you’ve gone the Rule of Funny way implicit creating a perfectly-balanced party, however to support your hilarious bumbling quality alive. If you’re inactive searching for archetypal prompts, you tin effort books similar The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide — oregon you tin caput online.

Reddit is simply a affluent assets for each things TTRPG; determination are dedicated threads connected each aspects of quality instauration successful the D&D-specific oregon broader RPGing forums, and if you’re truly struggling, you tin kickstart the process utilizing a generator similar Fast Character. If you privation to spell a spot much irreverent, effort Who The F*ck Is My D&D Character, a website that generates profanity-laden, precise comic prompts for you to physique a quality around.

Podcasts are mostly liable for the resurgence of involvement successful D&D, and portion the bulk retired determination are existent play, determination are besides immoderate that get down to the nuts and bolts of playing the crippled — including gathering characters. Shows similar Three Black Halflings, Character Creation Cast and Dungeon Casters sermon assorted aspects of playing D&D, including gathering the astir fun-to-play characters you can. However you determine to attack quality creation, arsenic agelong arsenic you’re enjoying yourself, you can’t spell wrong.

If you privation to larn much astir starting with D&D, cheque retired our nonfiction connected How To Play Dungeons & Dragons. For radical who privation to commencement penning their ain campaigns, effort 10 Invented Worlds to Set Your Next D&D Campaign In.