Put Together a D&D Character
Let's jump through each of these categories and craft a character together. Feel free to craft your character alongside this blog if you'd like! Remember, the Basic Rules are free for everyone!
NOTE: Your level will be decided by your DM (Dungeon Master). More often than not, you'll be starting at level 1 but some DMs and Players prefer to start at a higher level and have access to more HP (Hit Points) and abilities.
Steps we'll be going through:
We're going to recreate our swift and silent elf ranger mentioned earlier. In order to do that, we'll select the Elf race. Each race is gifted with their own specific abilities.
Here's what the Elf race has to offer according to the Basic Rules:
- Darkvision allowing you to have "superior vision in dark and dim conditions".
- Keen Senses giving you "proficiency in the Perception skill".
- Fey Ancestry giving you "advantage on saving throws against being charmed and magic can't put you to sleep".
- Trance means you don't need sleep and will instead "meditate deeply, remaining semiconscious, for 4 hours a day".
- Ability Score Increase the Wisdom scores increases by 1!
The Wood Elf also grants you Mask of the Wild which allows you to "hide even when you are lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena."
Class
Next we're going to select the Ranger class. The Basic Rules suggest considering the "nature of your training that gave you your particular abilities."
Let's say that our Wood Elf Ranger is not alone in the wilderness. She has a tribe of other Wood Elves that she is bonded to. One evening, she awoke to find her mentor and leader of the group missing from their camp. Her tracking abilities revealed that a Griffon had snatched her mentor during his hunt. He always told her not to hunt alone—what was he thinking?!
Now that we've established a snippet of backstory, we can embellish the Ranger's stats with choices that tie abilities and narrative together.
1st Level Rangers features include Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer.
Features
1. Favored Enemy
Select a type of creature and whenever the Ranger tracks or attempts to recall knowledge about them, they'll gain advantage on their Survival checks. Since our Wood Elf Ranger is in the forest and will begin tracking down this Griffon let's select beasts as her favored enemy.
Aberrations, beasts, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, giants, monstrosities, oozes, plants, or undead.
Bonus: Favored Language
We are also given the option to select a language option that our Ranger understands. Let's select Sylvan as this is the language of faerie folk and elves. Being in the forest region, she's probably ran into these types of beings, otherwise known as the Fey.
2. Natural Explorer
Select a type of environment and the Ranger will have double proficiency when making an Intelligence or Wisdom check in the selected environment.
The Basic Rules also state that the Natural Explorer feature grants the following:
- "Difficult terrain doesn’t slow your group’s travel."
- "Your group can’t become lost except by magical means."
- "Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger."
- "If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace."
- "When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would."
- "While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area."
Our Wood Elf Ranger would certainly utilize the forest as her favored terrain.
List of Favored Terrain:
Arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark.
Check out the Ranger's level progression in the table below!
Class Skills
Our Wood Elf Ranger also receives proficiencies in 3 skills. Stealth, Survival, and Animal Handling seem like great options for her!
Abilities
Here is where we assemble our character's ability scores! We'll use the Standard Array option, but there are 3 methods to choose from.
- Standard Array assign each of these numbers (15, 14 ,13, 12, 10, 8) to your ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma).
- Point Buy spend points toward each stat. You have a pool of 27 points to spend! Choose wisely!
- Manual plug in every number individually. Most Players like to roll four 6-sided dice and record the highest of the three. This number will represent 1 of your 6 ability score numbers. Roll for the rest!
Within each class you'll find a quick build option that can help you distribute your ability score points. (The suggested stats for a Ranger is high Dexterity and Wisdom)
Description
Let's fill out a backstory and gain some abilities!
Background
The Basic Rules provide us with 6 backgrounds to choose from:
- Acolyte represents someone who has spent time in the temple performing rites. They're insightful and religious.
- Criminal represents someone who has spent time making contacts in underground and nefarious dealings. They're deceptive and stealthy.
- Folk Hero represents someone who has humble beginnings and is supported by their hometown—regarded as a champion by some. They're skilled in animal handling and survival.
- Noble represents someone who understands wealth, power, and privilege. They're skilled with history and persuasion.
- Sage represents someone who spent years learning lore, scouring over scrolls. They're skilled with arcana and history.
- Soldier represents someone who is familiar with war and trained with weapons, learning survival skills. They're athletic and intimidating.
Let's apply the folk hero background to our Wood Elf Ranger.
There's a section here called the Defining Event. This can be what triggered your humble beginnings to shift toward a greater destiny. There's a table you can roll on to decide or use it as inspiration and come up with your own Defining Event.
We'll cherry-pick our option and select: "I stood alone against a terrible monster" as the Defining Event. Perhaps when our Ranger searched for her mentor she came across something far worse than a Griffon. Something sinister...
Grants our character the following:
- Skill Proficiencies: Two skill proficiencies.
- Tool Proficiencies: One type of Artisan's Tool and Vehicles on land.
- Equipment: A set of Artisan's Tools, a shovel, an iron pot, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 10 gold pieces.
1. Let's select Sleight of Hand since our Ranger is swift and silent. We'll also select Nature because of course! She thrives in the forest!
2. Next we'll select the Cook's Utensils for her Artisan Tool. Let's say she loves providing scrumptious and hearty meals for her tribe.
Characteristics
Here we'll select a Personality Trait, an Ideal, a Bond, and a Flaw. As with most tables in D&D we can either roll on the table and let the dice choose our fate or simply use it as inspiration for our own creation. Let's go ahead and roll on these tables for our Wood Elf Ranger.
Personality Trait: Rolled a 2. "If someone is in trouble, I'm always ready to lend help."
Ideal: Rolled a 4. "Might. If I become strong, I can take what I want — what I deserve."
As you can see this ideal on the table represents an "evil" desire. Perhaps we can apply this to our Wood Elf Ranger as an underlying feature that bubbles to the surface every now and then. Perhaps one day she'll overcome this need.
Bond: Rolled a 1. "I have a family, but I have no idea where they are. One day, I hope to see them again."
Perhaps her mentor is actually a family member or perhaps her tribe adopted her after finding her in the forest alone—she hasn't seen her birth family for years.
Flaw: Rolled a 6. "I have trouble trusting in my allies."
Perhaps our Ranger has a hard time accepting new allies. This could also tie into her ideal—she needs to be the strongest among her allies, bringing out her competitive nature to the surface.
Other Characteristics
You can further flesh out your character by defining Physical Characteristics such as their hair, skin, eyes, height, weight, age, and gender.
Consider what organizations, allies, enemies, and other backstory elements might be swirling in your head. There is a lot of inspiration to be had in D&D's roll tables and even a Google Image search can spark ideas. Let your imagination soar beyond your expectation!
Equipment
Currency
Each character starts out with a set amount of Gold. D&D's currency runs on Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Electrum. Most of the time, you'll see Copper, Silver, and Gold referenced in games.
Armor
Our Ranger has the choice between scale mail or leather armor. According to the Armor Table, Leather will provide 11 + Dex modifier and Scale Mail will provide 14 + Dex Modifier for our Ranger's Armor Class (reminder, this determines if an enemy's attack hits you).
Scale Mail is more resilient but Leather is stealthier to maneuver in. Scale Mail causes those who wear it to have Disadvantage on their Stealth rolls.
We'll select the Leather Armor for our Ranger. She is swift and silent!
Weapons
We can choose between two shortswords or two simple melee weapons. Referencing the Weapons Table, we'll give our Ranger a Spear and a Dagger. Both of these weapons can also be thrown!
Adventuring Gear
We can choose between a dungeoneer's pack or an explorer's pack. The Equipment Pack page provides greater explanation for these elements.
- "Dungeoneer's Pack (12 gp) Includes a backpack, a crowbar, a hammer, 10 pitons, 10 torches, a tinderbox, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it."
- "Explorer's Pack (10 gp) Includes a backpack, a bedroll, a mess kit, a tinderbox, 10 torches, 10 days of rations, and a waterskin. The pack also has 50 feet of hempen rope strapped to the side of it."
The Explorer's Pack makes the most sense for our Wood Elf Ranger!
My Name Is...
Uncover a name for your character! There are plenty of name generators online to utilize as inspiration. You can find something on fantasynamegenerator.com or even babynames.com. Even with the generated results, you can shorten them or rearrange the letters until something just clicks.
D&D's Race pages also have a list of sample names. We'll select Vadania from the Female Adult Name option.
We're Done!
Congratulations on setting up your D&D character! If you wish to level up your character beyond 1st level make sure to check out their class's table. They'll continue to learn new skills, abilities, and spells!
Next Up: Level Up!
You can follow Simply DnD on Twitter: @SimplyDnD
Comments
Post a Comment