After a 15 year hiatus from tabletop roleplaying games my best friend suggested we get the band back together for a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I leapt at the opportunity, and not just because he bought me a Players’ Handbook and some shiny new dice. I am excited to try a new edition of the game and much like I want my daughter to exceed me in intelligence, social grace and hustle, so too do I want my new D&D character to surpass those who come before.
For those who are unfamiliar, Dungeons & Dragons is a roleplaying game where you create a fantasy character and take them on adventures with a group of other characters. One player, the Dungeon Master runs the game. They tell the story, plan the dungeons, play the non-player characters and set the stage for the heroes. During each session your character gains experience, growing in skill and accumulating wealth. Campaigns can stretch for days, to months or years. If your character dies, you need to find someone in the world with enough power to resurrect them or roll a new character.
There are many different types of roleplaying games set in different genres. Shadowrun takes place in a dystopic future where corporations rule the world. Star Wars has several games set in a galaxy far, far away. The Dresden Files takes place in the current day. Whatever version of the past, present or future you wish to explore, there is probably a game set there.
I’ve played many characters in many game systems. When I look back I see some striking similarities across them. They are almost all sarcastic and prone to general hijinks. They essentially take my initial dice rolls and infuse them with a nutty Tom essence that leaves the other players refreshed. I love cracking jokes and stirring the pot, but I believe I am capable of more. I wanted to take this opportunity to see if I could craft a truly interesting character and release him into the Sword Coast.
Before I considered races, classes and alignments I tried to think of a good story. What was going to define my character? I toyed with a few different ideas and landed on personal loss. I wanted to have a tragic backstory that could push my character to adventure as a means to either grow or strike down his enemies.
From that conceit, I started playing with more detailed backgrounds. I thought about a merchant whose store was stolen and destroyed, forcing him to adventure to earn resources to rebuild. Or maybe an apprentice craftsman who is betrayed by his master and cast out. Maybe I lost a loved one and had to pick up a sword in vengeance. Or maybe heroes stole an artifact from my family crypt and I swore an oath to get it back. Wherever I landed, that loss was going to light the fire that forged my character.
When it came time to actually make the character, I started flipping through the D&D fifth edition Player’s Handbook. I missed the last edition entirely, and some things had changed. I missed the fourth edition of D&D entirely, but from what I’ve read, it seems like I would have enjoyed it.
The first thing you do when creating a character is determine their starting attributes. In D&D there are six core stats that determine what your character can do: strength, dexterity, constitution, wisdom, intelligence and charisma. Basically, the higher your score is in one of your attributes, the better you are doing things tied to that attribute. If you want to be a mighty warrior doing lots of damage, you better have a high strength. If you want to be a renowned wizard melting foes on the field of batter, you need a high intelligence.
The handbook gives you three different ways to determine your starting scores. You can roll for it, throwing four six-sided dice (D6) and discarding the lowest number. There is a basic set of mathematically average stats you can take, or there is a system where you buy points. As the attribute gets higher it gets more expensive, forcing you to spend less in other areas. That warrior can have the max 18 strength, but he’s going to have a charisma of 7 – meaning most people are going to loath interacting with him.
As a purist, I threw dice. I left my character’s abilities in the hands of fate and it turns out she is a cruel mistress. From low to high my rolls were: 7, 10, 11, 11, 12 and 13. My DM said I could fall back on the default stats, but I declined. Now my character was also going to have a chip on their shoulder from people believing they were too weak to change their lot in life.
With (terrible) attributes locked in, it was time to choose a race and class. Since the last time I’ve played there are some new options to explore. Choosing a race helps forge an identity for your character. There are a number to choose from, from your basic human (good at everything) to dwarves (sturdy and hard to kill) to half-breeds, including Dragonborn, Tieflings and Half-Orcs. Your race will give you parameters for what your character looks like and each race also provides boosts to different ability scores.
While I was imagining the possibilities of Dragonborn, Tieflings and Warlocks, I thought more on my character’s background and decided that he should be someone who didn’t really belong. Based on my backstory, I felt my racial options were narrowed down to Half-Elf and Dragonborn.
Half-Elves are generally shunned by both humans and elves for their mixed heritage. Dragonborn are an exotic race and are extremely loyal to their clan. I decided on the Dragonborn for two reasons: I have played half-elves before and dragons are cool. After a quick check to make sure no one else in the party was leaning towards a dragonborn, after all it would be silly to have half our party made up of this rare race, I put a ring on it.
Next it was time to choose a class. Your class determines what you can do. It largely dictates whether you slash at monsters with an axe, launch fireballs, disable traps or heal your allies. Generally speaking, an ideal party of four would have a warrior to draw enemies ire, an offensive spellcaster to melt foes, a rogue to disable traps and a healer to keep everyone alive.
Checking with my other party members, we had a rogue, so cross that one off the list. I usually lean towards offensive magic users. Wizards study magic and learn spells. They can learn basically any spell and have a wide range of options to solve problems. Sorcerers develop magic as an inert art. They learn less spells but cast more than their counterparts. A new class in fifth edition is the warlock – someone who made a deal with an extraplanar force to gain magical power.
I liked the idea of making a deal with a devil (or some kind of extraplanar entity, perhaps the great old one?) to gain power. It gave my vision focus. My Dragonborn warlock is an extremely proud young man. He is of a noble family that has fallen into disrepute. He is loyal to his clan, but embarrassed that they fell so low. He has resolved to restore his clan to its rightful place, so he set out to gain power and influence however he could.
The next step in building a character is determining their personality and background. You start with the basics – name, sex height and weight. Then you make a big decision. You determine your alignment. The Player’s Handbook defines your alignment as a combination of two factors: morality (good, neutral or evil) and attitudes towards society and order (lawful, chaotic or neutral). This determines whether your character is a hero or a heel. Most of my past characters have been chaotic good – lovable goofballs who flaunt law to accomplish the greater good.
For this new character, I wanted to have more of an edge. Most Dragonborn take a strong stance towards good or evil. I decided to remain neutral. My pact with my patron (still undetermined as of this writing) has shown me that life is rarely so binary. I decided to be lawful, because according to the Player’s Handbook lawful neutral characters tend to act in accordance with tradition and personal codes.
Next, and this is where I believe the fifth edition really stands out, you define a number of traits specific to your character. You choose two personality traits, one ideal, one bond and one flaw that help flesh out your backstory. You also choose a background that customizes your skills and starting equipment to your background.
With a general idea of my character already mapped out, I chose the following:
- Personality Trait: I’ve enjoyed fine food and high society. Rough living grates on me.
- Personality Trait: My enemies will get what they deserve.
- Idea: Power – I will regain my clan’s place in society.
- Bond: A lost love. My clan did not have enough stature to marry my human love, so she instead married into another noble family.
- Flaw: I have no regard for those who are beneath me.
- Background: Noble – I start with a little extra money and people are inclined to think the best of me.
And with that, Drachedanion Nadarr is ready to set off on his first adventure. He owes a dwarf a favor, so he has agreed to accompany a caravan. It’s a menial task but a debt must be repaid.
His companions include a dwarven rogue with no regard for dwarven hierarchy (very uncommon) a druid with no healing skill (that’s like a wizard who doesn’t cast spells) and a half-orc monk who will probably never prove to be an asset to the party. For the first time in our D&D lives we are playing a premade adventure. Will it have the same random wackiness of our homebrewed campaigns? Will the professional level of polish diminish our enjoyment? Will I be able to suppress my natural Tomness and craft a thoughtful and serious character?
I’ll keep you updated right here on Outside is Overrated!
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Great article! D&D is something I’ve never played before, but have always wanted to try, thanks for the great article!