Character Creation - Part 1

First you will want to get your Character Sheets. These can be printed off from the internet or found in the back of the Player's Handbook. There should be three pages to fill out. How much you depend on these pages depends on the character you make and choices you make. The most important pages is the first page, which is what we are going to start with.

This is what the first pages looks like, as you can see there are many different sections to fill out. We are going to start at the very top. Working from left to right, we start with a Character Name. This can be anything you want. If you have a hard time finding the perfect name you can skip it and come back to it. They do have name generators for certain characters. Once you pick your class and race you can put that into a name generator and it will give you some ideas on a good name.

The next question is Class and Level. Level is easy everyone starts at level one. Class is a little different. We encourage you, especially if you're new, to pick something you're comfortable with. The class you pick tells you what abilities you will have, a Cleric can use magic while a Barbarian is a fighter. As you read the descriptions of each class you should get an idea for what their nature is and which you would be more comfortable playing.

Barbarian

A fierce warrior of primitive background who can enter a battle rage.

Bard

An inspiring magician whose power echoes the music of creation.

Cleric

A priestly champion who wields divine magic in service of a higher power.

Druid

A priest of the Old Faith, wielding the powers of nature - moonlight and plant growth, fire and lightning - and adopting animal form.

Fighter

A master of martial combat, skilled with a variety of weapons and armor.

Monk

A master of martial arts, harnessing the power of the body in pursuit of physical and spiritual perfection.

Paladin

A holy warrior bound to a sacred oath

Ranger

A warrior who uses martial prowess and nature magic to combat threats on the edges of civilization.

Rogue

A scoundrel who uses stealth and trickery to overcome obstacles and enemies.

Sorcerer

A spellcaster who draws on inherent magic from a gift or bloodline.

Warlock

A wielder of magic that is derived from a bargain with an extraplanar entity.

Wizard

A scholarly magic user capable of manipulating the structures of reality.

(All information taken from the Dungeons and Dragons Player Handbook)

Next is the Race selection. This is what kind of creature you're going to play or you can choose to be human. The races of D&D are Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Human, Dragonborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Ore, or Tiefling. Each race has it's own good qualities that will help you in the game. You will need to read up on each race to find their advantages.

Now some people prefer to know their attributes before they pick their race and class. That is perfectly fine, it's a safer approach so to speak because you will pick your class and race based on the roles you make. (This will become clearer when we talk about attributes later). Certain things make certain classes better, example when your character is strength based it is better to have high strength. This works if you don't care what class you play; if you do it is better to pick your class and then pick the attributes you need to make that class the best it can be.

Once you have chosen your race and class read the pages dedicated to them in the Player's Handbook, it will help you fill in the blanks of your character sheet.

Next is background and Alignment. In the Player's Handbook they list the background you can come from. You want to think about the life you want to give your character. You can pick which ever one you want just keep in mind the story you're telling through your character and think of their background story. No matter what you pick your background will give you more "experience" this means it can give you proficiency in certain areas. You will want to keep this in mind when building your character. (Background options are: Acolyte, Charlatan, Criminal, Entertainer, Folk Hero, Guild Artisan, Hermit, Noble, Outlander, Sage, Sailor, Soldier or Urchin.)

Alignment is like morals, is your character good, evil or somewhere in between. You can read in the Player's Handbook more about the Alignments and pick which suits your character best. Or you can wait to fill out your character sheet more and see if you lean more towards one alignment or another. (The Player Handbook also gives suggestions base on your race.)

The next column is Player Name and Experience points. Player name is your name, Experience points stays blank for now and will change as you play the game. The last columns are only on certain pages so if you don't have them don't worry about it. If you do you can fill them in or you can just leave them blank.

This is an example we created. WE picked a Cleric Half-Elf. Once we plugged that into a name generator it came up with the name Janlynn Littlecastle. Since most Elves are Chaotic Good we picked that as our Alignment and we choose a Noble as her background. (This is the example we will be using from now on.)

Next week we are going to be talking about the abilities or stats of a character and how to figure them out.