With my class selected, I then jump back to picking my character’s race. Time to backtrack in the Player’s Handbook.
#5E CHARACTER BUILDER ALL CONTENT FREE HOW TO#
With your decision, the Player’s Handbook offers suggestions on how to best build your chosen class which then leads into picking your character’s race. It’s the thematic crunch that dictates what your D&D character can do. To me, a character’s class is a blank canvas to add the racial line work and background color to. I immediately get an idea as to what they are capable of as a blank slate. Which is why I like starting with my character’s class. This also means I can optimize, even just a little, which race I select later as each race gives additional ability score bonuses. Knowing immediately which scores are the most beneficial for their class means I can make sure my character won’t be inept or incapable. There are exceptions, but generally speaking, the bulk of your proficiencies are set by your class.Īdditionally, this gives me a chance to look at how I want to place my ability scores. Your starting skill, weapon, armor, and tool proficiencies are all determined by your class. Starting here gives you the freedom to look into the future of your campaign and how you want to build your character from the first session. From the simplicity of the axe-swinging Barbarian to the complex spell-weaving of the Wizard, you have a myriad of choices before you. There are many classes to choose from in 5e. Now, I’m not advocating power gaming or min-maxing, ideologies that tend to perceive Dungeons & Dragons as a game to be beaten rather than a story to be shared, but I do prefer to play capable heroes. Additionally, selecting a class before your character’s race helps in optimization. Sure, the mechanics of the different 5e races are thematic, but I typically play my character’s class over their race. However, for me, race impacts who my character is.
This makes perfect sense if you have a strong theme chosen or want to play a specific D&D race. The 5th Edition Player’s Handbook suggests you start by picking a race. So, here’s where things get wonky and where my method takes a left turn. What inciting incident forced them into a life of adventure? What are their likes, their dislikes? Who are their friends and enemies? What can they do and how do they know how to do that? These questions are the foundation for my D&D characters and influence how I build them. Do I want to be a swashbuckling pirate who was on both the right and wrong side of a mutiny and left for dead? Do I want to play the half-air elemental searching for his djinni father as well as his lost fiancé? Do I want to play the berserker so I can hit things really, really hard? I like to know who my D&D characters are before I start baking in their mechanics because, more often than not, their personality and behaviors will influence damn near everything once I start building them. The first thing I do is brainstorm the type of character I want to play. However, I’ve found what works best for me and I wanted to share my step-by-step process of building a 5th edition character. What is a good character to play? What skills do I get? What classes and races are there? I’ve seen a multitude of guides, walkthroughs, and other methods to character creation and they’re all valid in their own ways.
The 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons has been around for quite some time, now, but I still see people who struggle with the technical aspects of making their characters.