Have a seat and take out you dice, for today we will discuss the creation of your first D&D 3.5 character.
Here I will go quickly through the steps of creating your very first character, so I will not go into detail about races, classes, feats and skills etc. That is something I have planned for later.
So now you have gotten the first preparations out of the way. You have found a group and talked to the DM to check if he or she has any house rules that you need to consider. The thing you need to do now is to create you character. Mr. K usually does this at the very first session so that he can answer any questions that the player has. Ask your DM if he/she has any preferences one way or the other to if you should make your character at home or at the first session.
The next thing you'll need is the character sheet and a Players Handbook.
The Players Handbook, or PHB, contains everything you need to know to create and play a character in D&D 3.5. It contains the basic races, classes, skills, feats, spells, equipment and rules. For the beginner this is the only book you will need.
Character Creation: Part 1 - Tossing the dice.
Before you start thinking about your characters details you have to roll the dice to decide the Ability Scores, basic statistics (stats for short), of your character.
You do this with four 6-sided dice (4d6). You roll them, then remove the lowest die, add up the three others and write down the number on a piece of paper. This you need to do 6 times.
These numbers will represent your character's:
10-11 represents an absolutely average score, the every day person's ability. Everything under means that that score is below average, and everything over 10 is above average (or super human if you will) abilities. The average non-player-character has scores at 10-11, but the average player-character has an average score of 12-13.
When you have written down all the scores, take a look at table 1-1 at page 8 in the PHB. Go down the list and look at the number of your scores and at the modifier assigned to them. This number is basically the score minus 10, divided by 2, rounded down. This is a good rule to remember if you do not have the book handy to check the table. Check now, before you choose race and class, if you need to re roll your stats. You must re roll your stats if the sum of your modifiers are 0 or less, or if your highest score is 13 or less (PHB p.8 "rerolling").
Page 8 and 9 also describes and explains all the ability scores. Read through this so you understand the mechanic of the Ability Score.
Character Creation: Part 2 - Choosing Race and Class.
Choosing your Race:
Chapter 2, starting at page 11, contains all the information for choosing a race. The following races are in the PHB 3.5:
Here I will go quickly through the steps of creating your very first character, so I will not go into detail about races, classes, feats and skills etc. That is something I have planned for later.
So now you have gotten the first preparations out of the way. You have found a group and talked to the DM to check if he or she has any house rules that you need to consider. The thing you need to do now is to create you character. Mr. K usually does this at the very first session so that he can answer any questions that the player has. Ask your DM if he/she has any preferences one way or the other to if you should make your character at home or at the first session.
The Players Handbook, or PHB, contains everything you need to know to create and play a character in D&D 3.5. It contains the basic races, classes, skills, feats, spells, equipment and rules. For the beginner this is the only book you will need.
Character Creation: Part 1 - Tossing the dice.
Before you start thinking about your characters details you have to roll the dice to decide the Ability Scores, basic statistics (stats for short), of your character.
You do this with four 6-sided dice (4d6). You roll them, then remove the lowest die, add up the three others and write down the number on a piece of paper. This you need to do 6 times.
These numbers will represent your character's:
- Strength (STR)
- Dexterity (DEX)
- Constitution (CON)
- Intelligence (INT)
- Wisdom (WIS)
- and Charisma (CHA).
10-11 represents an absolutely average score, the every day person's ability. Everything under means that that score is below average, and everything over 10 is above average (or super human if you will) abilities. The average non-player-character has scores at 10-11, but the average player-character has an average score of 12-13.
When you have written down all the scores, take a look at table 1-1 at page 8 in the PHB. Go down the list and look at the number of your scores and at the modifier assigned to them. This number is basically the score minus 10, divided by 2, rounded down. This is a good rule to remember if you do not have the book handy to check the table. Check now, before you choose race and class, if you need to re roll your stats. You must re roll your stats if the sum of your modifiers are 0 or less, or if your highest score is 13 or less (PHB p.8 "rerolling").
Page 8 and 9 also describes and explains all the ability scores. Read through this so you understand the mechanic of the Ability Score.
Character Creation: Part 2 - Choosing Race and Class.
Choosing your Race:
Chapter 2, starting at page 11, contains all the information for choosing a race. The following races are in the PHB 3.5:
- Humans
- Dwarf
- Elf
- Gnome
- Half-Elf
- Half-Orc
- Halfling
The different races has their strengths and weaknesses as summed up at the end of the description of each race and in table 2-1 at page 12 in PHB. Read through each of them and pay attention to what is said about each. Also look at what is the Favoured Class. This is the class that is most preferred, or most common, among members of said race. If you fancy one of the races above the others you can choose that one now, or wait until you have checked out the classes and get a better picture of your character.
Choosing your Class:
Chapter 3, starting at page 21 of the PHB, holds everything you need to choose a class. Every class is explained with stats and equipment recomended. You should read page 21 to 24 to get to know each of the posts that make up the class descriptions before you go looking at the classes themself.
The following classes are listed in the PHB 3.5:
What you should do now is think throught the role you want your character to play. A barbarian, for an example, can be the first into battle, hitting everything around him in a blind rage, or he can be a more tactical close combat fighter that uses the adrenalin build in his body to deal increased damage to his foe. Whatever role your character assumes should dictate what numbers go where.
If you want your character to be quick into battle you should make sure your Constitution score get one of your high rolls. This is because Constitution decides how many hits you can take before you pass out from bloodloss or the like.
Likewise is Strength usefull to anyone that would like to do a lot of damage with melee weapons.
Dexterity is usefull if you want to be agile and move quickly or do acrobatic stunts.
Wisdom is important for a lot of skills pertaining to knowledge and learning. It is also important when you get attacked mentally because it decides how strong a will you have.
Intelligence is important to those that want to learn a lot of skills.
Charisma is the most important skill for divine spell casters and for all those that want to manipulate others in some way. If you are charismatic you are more likelly to be able to get others to see what you want them to see.
Character Creation: Part 9 - Filling in the Character Sheet.
Character Creation: Part 10 - Fleshing out the Details
Choosing your Class:
Chapter 3, starting at page 21 of the PHB, holds everything you need to choose a class. Every class is explained with stats and equipment recomended. You should read page 21 to 24 to get to know each of the posts that make up the class descriptions before you go looking at the classes themself.
The following classes are listed in the PHB 3.5:
- Barbarian (bbn)
- Bard (brd)
- Cleric (clr)
- Druid (drd)
- Fighter (ftr)
- Monk (mnk)
- Paladin (pal)
- Ranger (rgr)
- Rogue (rog)
- Sorcerer (sor)
- Wizard (wiz)
You can again seperate them into the following categories from what their strenghts are:
- Arcane: Bards, Sorcerers and Wizards
- Divine: Cleric, Paladin and Druids
- Melee: Fighters, Monks, Clerics, Paladins and Barbarians
- Ranged: Rangers, Druids and Bards
- Stealthy/Tricksters: Rogues and Bards
If you are getting an image of what you would like your character to be then start reading about the class you like. If not, then skim through the descriptions of the different classes and find one you like.
Character Creation: Part 3 - Assigning and Adjusting Ability Scores.
Now that you have chosen a class and race, you can assign the numbers you rolled in Part 1. First of all you need to take a look at the section "Game Rule Information / Abilities" under you class in chapter 3. There it will say what Ability Scores are most important for your character.
Let's look at the Barbarian as an example:
"Abilities: Strength is important for barbarians because of its role in combat, and seceral barbarian class skills are based on strength. Dexterity is also useful to barbarians, especially those that wear light armor. Wisdom is also important for several of the barbarians class skills. A high Constitution score lets a varvarian rage longer (and live longer, because it gives him more hit points)." PHB p. 24I have highlighted the Ability Scores that are the most important to the barbarian: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdowm and Constitution.
What you should do now is think throught the role you want your character to play. A barbarian, for an example, can be the first into battle, hitting everything around him in a blind rage, or he can be a more tactical close combat fighter that uses the adrenalin build in his body to deal increased damage to his foe. Whatever role your character assumes should dictate what numbers go where.
If you want your character to be quick into battle you should make sure your Constitution score get one of your high rolls. This is because Constitution decides how many hits you can take before you pass out from bloodloss or the like.
Likewise is Strength usefull to anyone that would like to do a lot of damage with melee weapons.
Dexterity is usefull if you want to be agile and move quickly or do acrobatic stunts.
Wisdom is important for a lot of skills pertaining to knowledge and learning. It is also important when you get attacked mentally because it decides how strong a will you have.
Intelligence is important to those that want to learn a lot of skills.
Charisma is the most important skill for divine spell casters and for all those that want to manipulate others in some way. If you are charismatic you are more likelly to be able to get others to see what you want them to see.
When you have found the abilities that are important to your class, assign the different rolls to the different Ability Scores. When you have done that you add or subtract the correct numbers according to the race you have chosen and write them on your character sheet. Then you add the modifiers and voila!
COMING UP IN SOON:
Character Creation: Part 4 - Recording Racial and Class Features
Character Creation: Part 5 - Selecting Skills
Character Creation: Part 6 - Selecting Feats
Character Creation: Part 7 - Describing Your Character
Character Creation: Part 8 - Selecting Equipment
Character Creation: Part 9 - Filling in the Character Sheet.
Character Creation: Part 10 - Fleshing out the Details
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