How to create a DnD character
How to create a character?
So to start, this is not a blog post on how to create a great character. It’s more of a mechanical how, to begin with, your first character and not to fall into many pits falls that new players do when creating their characters. For this guide, I will also be creating a character - Eric “The Lousy” Cleric
Character Ideas
So to start, let’s think about your character by asking and answering a couple of questions:
Do you see him more of a person smashing others with force or casting spells? Or something in between?
“Eric was always a strange child, poking bee hives since he was little… and not so little after a while… however he was always out of trouble, no one in the village understood how Eric didn’t got hurt by his own stupidity, one village elder thought and said to Martha, Eric mother, that probably Eric was a saint…”
Do you want him to be a good-willed character or a baddie? Or something in between?
Eric was a good soul, a bit slow, very trusting of others, yet he though some pranks and light heart mischief to the village gooses and putting dirt into drying pantaloons for the sakes of… well… only Eric knew…”
Is he tall or short? Brawny of Lean?
Eric was always a tall boy among his peers, but after some time poking the bee’s nests for honey, Eric also become rather big in size. After the rumors about his sainthood have spread, many villagers came to Eric offering food and desserts for him in exchange of a blessing.
What makes him unique? Looks, clothes, behavior, mannerisms, accent, etc.
After his childhood, his head started to go bald, but only in the middle, he started to wear a white robe, and a rope around his waist to hold his robe onto himself. He was strange to other people, instead of shaking a hand upon greeting Eric liked to hug each of the passing adventurer, bandit or well… that how he got captured many times by bandits..
Is there a theme for your character? A noble that raids tombs for fun - like Lara Croft, A wise old sage and wizard-like Gandalf, a mindless brute like Conan The Barbarian and so on.
Eric “The Lousy” Cleric follows the theme of a lovable, naive and goodhearted fool. However I want to put a little twist on this character, that will define Eric. Due to his naivete, he believes that he serves a Good and Righteous God, but what he fails to understand is that he serves a Devil, that appears to him as a benevolent God.
To start, this will be enough by getting a general direction where you want to go with your character.
Selecting a Race
There is plenty of races you can choose from Dungeons and Dragons, but what resonated most with you and the character ideas that you thought up during the stage of your character design. The most liked race will probably be going to the one that will fit your character, but keep in mind that the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master can have different ideas of what your character race is and what they do in the world. The best way is to spend some time reading about the races and understand their distinct traditions, mannerisms and so on so you could enhance your character, or find new exciting ways to justify your character if DM allows it.
For example, Eric The Lousy Cleric strikes me most like a typical human, maybe a tortle? But for simplicity's sake, I decide that Eric should be a variant human since having +1 to all his stats doesn’t seem to justify the behaviors that Eric displays from his backstory — and also getting a “Lucky” feat - sense for Eric weird lucky moments.
Selecting a Class
So Mr. Punch/Smash things or an intellectual spell caster? Neither? Okay... Maybe a cursed Warlock or a Fighter Eldritch Knight that serves a forgotten order? Think about the theme of your character and pick something that resonates with you. The following tip is only a small recommendation, but my suggested classes for the first time are in the range of - Fighter Champion, Rogue, Monk. They are easy to get, and they are not involved in the first-time play. However, if you want, choose what you wish to best and what fits you. Every class has a complex and more accessible class to play with (Example. Fighter Battlemaster and Fighter Champion). The reason I avoided casters for the first time was that they had way more mechanics than other classes. But with more interest in the class, you will get it in no time.
So I selected a Cleric for my character Eric, why? It rhymes with Cleric, and that shouldn’t be a good reason for you to play the class.
My goal for a Cleric was that this character should be a Good person in heart, maybe his mother and village folk wanted him to become an acolyte of the village, but his inherent flaws let him be tricked by an infernal deity to worship it.
Warlock could be a good option for this too, maybe the character would believe that he is a cleric, but in the end, I want this character to worship a deity/god that tricked him, and what is not most accurate in this situation as the Trickery Domain Subclass? Eric gets more and more abilities that leave him confused about why his God is not giving him the ability to heal others but to change his appearance? And maybe his all arc should be that using those abilities, he sinks more and more into vices that he enjoys so much and can’t resist them.
Selecting a Background
Folk Hero, Soldier, Criminal, or any other lets you pick an abstract type of history for your character and why he is the way it is. In this case, for Eric, I’m thinking of giving him a Folk Hero status. And of course, in the case of Eric, I will subvert the idea of the Folk hero.
So It says for the Folk Hero that he get an Animal Handling and Survival proficiencies, with one artisan tool and Land Vehicles.
Maybe Eric was always good with animals, felt some connection with them, Survival can also explain some of the ways that he got out of the tricky situations with the bandits. But what artisans tools should he have? I’m thinking about brewer’s supplies.
When the bandits captured him, he said that he could brew some ale, and that leads him into having a chance to brew some strong beer that the bandits were too eager to drink. The bandits passed out, and Eric, being a sturdy cleric, just left the captivity of the bandits by carousing out of bandit camp drunk and passing out in his village once again.
Now the land vehicle, for some reason, I imagine that Eric's companion is a sturdy donkey or even a shy bear that runs off in combat, but it depends on the DM to make it happen.
Defining Event - This background allows your character to think of things that set this character, in the case of Eric, let's say that his village saw a bear wandering through it, and then it was when a half-drunk Eric decided to shout at the incredibly shy bear. He ran away, that’s why he is so popular back in his village. If the creative juices are not flowing that much, you can pick off some that are already in the PhB. Now the following things that you need to choose are the Personality Trait, Ideal, Bond, and Flaw for your character. You can always invent your own, but for this part, we will choose already existing ones at Player’s Handbook on page 131.
Personality Trait - I get bored quickly. When am I going to get on with my destiny?
Ideal - Sincerity. There’s no good in pretending to be something I’m not.
Bond - I wish my childhood sweetheart had come with me to pursue my destiny.
Flaw - I have a weakness for the vices of the city, especially hard drinks.
Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws are great not only to understand your character but also give you ideas for writing some background and backstory for your character. On an excellent backstory we need to write a bit for your character background, why did he become a Folk Hero, a Soldier, etc.
Writing a bit for your Background
This part is one of the most important, in my opinion, besides the backstory. It can belong. It can be short, but if you try to write about your background, at least putting 300-400 words to it. If you are crazy about it, write a book on him if that makes you feel better. Still, the reason for writing a character's background is to understand for yourself what kind of character he is. What kind of relationships the character has or had? What motivates him to be an adventurer? And later on, create a backstory that made him go into this adventure.
Now, let us look at the Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws of Eric. We can see that he has some vices with drinking, maybe we can use this to our advantage to create a character that became his drinking buddy, maybe it was the Devil himself that leads him into worshiping him, due to his flaw. Either way, it’s a great NPC for your character to have around. Bond indicates a sweetheart that Eric left in his village, or for some reason, there was turbulence with the relationship. What if this sweetheart is under some threat or even is the danger herself? Now the Ideal and Personality, in my opinion, you need to role-play as you stated, at least some events change the character. The reason why we should pay extra attention to it’s that nobody enjoys a soft character that too flexible to grasp for others in what your character believes. Also, following these aspects protects the character not becoming something out of bounds of possibility(A Neutral Good Cleric into every single living creature murdering hobo). And when you got all of this part figured out - time to roll the dice and assign those precious attribute scores to your character.
Rolling the Stats and Assigning them
There are many ways to assign stats to your character from static array to rolling four-sided dice and taking your lowest number dice. The best way to understand what kind of stats you should be focusing on is to open up a player’s handbook and look for a quick build subsection in your class and put in at least a couple of decent stats into them. On the other hand, if you wish to play a funny character, you can focus somewhere else. For instance, Clerics needs to have high wisdom, but in the case of Eric The Lousy, I would put them somewhere else first to describe Eric's character. It’s not for optimal, and it’s more for roleplaying the situations that could occur. And I even try with this character to actively fail as much as I want with him to succeed.
It depends on you where are you planning into putting the points for your character, maybe for a start make a semi optimized character, not to be useless at combat if you’re still not the roleplayer of the year, or just a bit shy. But, take in fact, that most of the time it’s the interesting characters that drive the plot of the games.
Writing Character Backstory
Character backstory is an essential part of the character with which you are planning to play. Every good movie needs to have a well-written story to them, so as your character that you are going to play in DnD. If you already have written your character by the steps in this blog, you are probably close to finishing it. Another tip is to make it into a compelling story that you will tell others at the table.
It depends on you to make this character your own, maybe with some pointers from the DM to fit everything nicely into a campaign that he is running. So if you didn’t write the backstory for your character, do it now. Another way is to free-write about your character until you have at least a minimum of 500-1000 words to it. If you are feeling inspired, write some more and then edit what you wrote, making an exciting story as you can. Another way if you are struggling with ideas about a character is to write from another character’s perspective. Maybe it’s noble that your character met and left an impression or made him an enemy of yours. What does that character feel about you? For what actions in his past, this character is remembered?
Why does it matter? It matters because if you tell a story about why your character become this type of class, choose one or another proficiencies, languages, why does he have some high and low attributes. Writing this information will make you understand the character more. The backstory is also an ideal idea breeding ground for your Dungeon Master to make exciting character arcs for you. And is Background is the Same as the Backstory? Yes and no, Background, in my opinion, should focus on why does your character becomes an adventurer and what kind of ventures made him into an adventurer today. Now the backstory should focus on other characters that your creation has encountered, what notable things he did to those characters, or what tragic happened to him during the time before playing this character.
Conclusion
If you enjoyed this article and want to see more of Dungeon Goblin content, consider supporting us by making a direct donation through our blog or supporting us on Patreon. Dungeon Goblin is a new blog, and your support matters immensely to us. We want to you become one of the first Dungeon Goblin supporters and grow it into something amazing one day. Thank you for reading!
