My Steps For making a Dungeons and Dragons character:

Ok so most, if not all, of you reading this have made dozens if not hundreds of DnD characters.  But I thought I would outline my process for making a new Dungeons and Dragons character.

These steps apply pretty much to any version of DnD, and I’ve been playing since 1982.

Fist I start with the concept.  No matter what character I am going to play or which version of DnD I am going to play in, I start with the concept.  What is this character going to do?  What is his or her purpose.  Don’t confuse this with background.  Background involves many more details.  This is concept.  Am I making a sneaky type, a nature-loving type, a magic user, a street brawler, or something more concrete like air magic specialist or dagger throwing street comedian.

I usually then pick a name.  I like to brainstorm names.  I like to pick names that appeal to me, and I try to keep them relatively generic as to race.  Though usually the concept gives me some inclination as to the race I want to play.

Which brings me to race.  I pick my race based around the concept.  And usually I do one of two things – either I choose a race I haven’t played in a while or I pick a race that isn’t optimized for that concept.  Why?  Because I enjoy the challenge of taking races on a new spin.

I may spend a lot of time making this decision.  I usually re-read a lot of source material on the subject.  At heart I’m an optimizing fool, so when it comes to choosing a race I find a balance between concept and functionality.  I like to find that one race that fits the concept and can be optimized in a strange new way so that it works and is interesting to play.   No I haven’t played a dwarf fighter in a very long time.

Ok, so now I have a concept, a race, and a name.  Here is where I get my hands dirty.  I pick a class.  This isn’t as simple as just picking any old class to play.  No this means poring over the PHB and other source material for hours until I find the perfect mesh of optimization and concept.  I should mention that by now I usually have some ideas of background hooks in mind but those are still flexible.

I build out two or three characters to at least level 15, switching out different classes and trying multi-class builds.  This is really the process I enjoy the most.  The goal is not necessarily to have the most powerful character in the party, but rather to have a character that is surprisingly powerful within his or her niche, i.e. being sneaky or throwing daggers while being funny.  This is why the concept is so important.  It drives not only the crunch but also the fluff.  How I am going to play this character, the things I will actually say and do at the table.

The reason I go through all this trouble at this point is the be sure that the concept is playable.  An air magic specialist may sound cool, but it may not be effective for the party if the only time the character is useful is to help fly to a new location or levitate something.  If during combat and most skill challenges all I have to say it “pass” then the character won’t be fun for me or the rest of the party.

On the other hand the reason I push to find a concept is to also clearly define the things the character won’t do.  If it isn’t a melee fighter then I can ignore the feats and abilities that focus on melee fighting.

After looking though the various builds I finally pick a class.

So now I have a race, a name, and a class.  Due to my test builds I probably also have a set of ability scores, powers, feats, and equipment already done as well.

So, it may appear that I am done.  Wrong!  Now I get to do the other fun part.  I write the background.  I know how I am going to spend most of my time at the table during the game – the things I will do and the thing I won’t do.  But I still don’t know this character.  I still understand it.  So I begin the background.

Typically I start with the name, and I go through family relationships.  If I don’t have a lot of information about the campaign, then I make up a town to go with the character, organizations he or she is affiliated with or opposed to.  I try to be as specific as possible when doing this, using specific names of individual NPC’s that the DM can choose to use or ignore.

Often I will make stat blocks for these NPC’s (if they are allies) or make suggestions as to level – anything to save the DM time and effort.  Very often during this process I will ask the DM for specific information that the character should know and then incorporate it into his or her background.

At the end of the process I usually have a character sheet and 3-5 pages of useful information that I can bring to the table.  I already know where I am going and what I am doing during the first few sessions.

And then what happens?  The idiot across the table kicks in the door, tripping the trap that kills us all in the first 5 minutes!

And then I play the drunk dwarf fighter I whip up in 5 minutes.

Until next time – have fun!

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