Create Your Ultimate Fantasy Character

Image of one of my NPCs using D&D Beyond

You wake up. The room is dark and damp. Your eyes begin to adjust and you can see a faint light source coming through a set of bars. Your mind quickly assesses the situation coming to the realization that you are in some sort of cage, underground. While you seem to be able to process information quickly, you have no recollection or memory of anything before this. You move your way close to the bars and peer through them and spot a man lying on the ground, seemingly dead. His key ring is on the floor before him. You think you might be able to reach it with your foot. This is where your story begins. What do you do?

So, you’ve decided to give Dungeons and Dragons a chance but you don’t know where to start when making a character. You don’t know what the options are nor what any of them can do. You’re coming into this blind for the very first time and it seems a little daunting.

Before I even dive into any of the options and overwhelm you with choices, the first thing I always ask is… If you could be anything, what would it be? Think back to any movie or TV show, cartoon or anime, or even a book, comic or video game, where you thought, “Man, that would be so cool”. What would you like to be able to do?

If your answer to this is that you’re a massive Marvel fan and that your favourite character is Thor, I would quickly recommend an Aasimar as a possible race as they are the descendants of celestials or similarly powerful good creatures. When selecting a class, I would recommend either a Barbarian, Fighter or even a Paladin. I would ask you what kind of Thor you wanted to be; one who fights with pure rage, a combat specialist, or a holy warrior? When selecting your starting equipment we would make sure to add a mace.

If you’ve always wanted to be Legolas from Lord of the Rings, I would recommend an Elf Ranger and arm yourself with a bow. If you’re fascinated with magic and dragons, maybe a Dragonborn Sorcerer would suit your fancy. Be the dragon and blast your foes with fireballs. Maybe you’re really into heist films but want your character to have horns and red eyes, then a Rogue Tiefling is exactly what you need.

Before ever even looking at any of the options, you now have a general idea of the type of character you’ll play. As a first-time player, I also recommend using D&D Beyond to build your character. All you have to do is select the options you want and everything else is done for you. Nice and easy!

Choose Your Race

Dungeons & Dragons has their core set of races. But not every dungeon master will force you to stick with the core rules. Many will allow what we call homebrews, as in custom-made options. I for one never limit my players to anything, but it certainly makes it easier for a first-time player to stick to what’s already created for simplicity's sake. Let’s go over some of the core races.

Dwarf

Stout, gruff and bearded. These tough characters have been represented in various sources, including The Lord of the Rings.

Even the women often have beards.

Elf

Another race famously represented in The Lord of the Rings, elves have been depicted in even more materials. While they are not as tiny as Christmas elves, they are certainly not as tall as Legolas. Though they are all swift, agile and light on their feet.

Halfling

The curious and diminutive halflings are jovial in nature. Standing at about 3 feet tall, they can make for great bards or even cat burglars.

Human

Now for the weirdest race in all of Dungeons & Dragons, the human. These individuals are far too complex to explain in a brief note. Let’s just say it’s a good thing they’re not real!

Dragonborn

Humanoid descendants of powerful dragons are the largest and strongest of the races. Perfect for a warrior or barbarian, these proud individuals strive to be self-sufficient.

Gnome

Looking more like the traditional Christmas elf, these tiny creatures love to tinker, building all sorts of crazy contraptions. Most of all, gnomes love names, often giving themselves half a dozen or so.

Half-Elf

Half-elf and half-human, they are often shunned by both sides. Humans tend to see them as elves while elves consider them humans. What they’re like often depends on their upbringing and which race they grow up with.

Half-Orc

Orcs are one of the many evil monsters in D&D. These have been depicted in sources like The Lord of the Rings and World of Warcraft. Born of one orc parent and one human parent, these strong and scarred individuals are most often the subject of the harshest racism in the fantasy game.

Tiefling

Descendants of infernal beings, these are the evilest looking of all the characters who have become self-reliant and suspicious. Features often include horns, tails, claws, vampire-like teeth and/or crazy coloured eyes. They have features that represent their infernal lineage.

Bonus -> Aasimar

While not one of the core characters of the new 5th edition of the game I always like to throw in the Aasimar as the counterpart to the Tiefling. These are the descendants of celestial beings.

Choose Your Class

Your class is what determines the majority of your skills and abilities. What your character has been studying or working as. This is more than a profession for your character, it is a calling.

Eclectic players may find themselves learning more than one class in order to round out their characters. This is called multiclassing.

Barbarian

Fierce primitive warriors who use their rage in battle. Their anger fuels them, giving them uncanny reflexes, resilience and added strength so long as they maintain their frenzy.

Bard

Music is the most powerful form of magic according to the bard. These inspirational leaders are great support characters for their allies in battle and often use their musical talents to make extra coin.

Cleric

Healers of the divine. Bane of the undead. Masters of holy magic. Clerics use the power of prayer to heal their allies and cause vampires to recoil in fear.

Druid

Nature is the heart of the world and the druid is the shaman of the wild and the elemental forces. They are the embodiment of nature’s resilience, wielding the ability to shapeshift into animals or conjure the power of the elements.

Fighter

The masters of weapons and armours. No other class can stand toe-to-toe with the fighter when it comes to combat prowess. They are the soldiers, the bodyguards, the mercenaries and the arena combatants. There is no battle too perilous for these warriors.

Monk

Mind, body and spirit… the perfect balance. These martial arts experts harness the power of their own internal energy, known as Ki, and channel it into uncanny speed and strength in unarmed combat.

Paladin

A champion of the divine and protector of all things good, these righteous and holy warriors eradicate evil from the world. They are quite possibly the only reason the world hasn’t plunged into complete darkness.

Ranger

The hunter, the tracker, the ultimate survivor. Living off the land, the Ranger knows his way around the harshest wilderness. Mistreat an animal and you’ll have a deadly warrior with nature magic to content with.

Rogue

The assassin stalks its prey in the dead of night. The thief lurks in unseen places in search of the ultimate prize. With deadly precision and skill, the rogue strikes unnoticed from the shadows.

Sorcerer

Born out of pure magic, the sorcerer has the innate ability to cast magic. They have no need of spell books or ancient tomes, their very essence is infused with it.

Warlock

The warlock seeks knowledge and power. The desire for magic is so great, that they will stop at nothing to attain it, including making a bargain with an extraplanar entity. The secrets of the multiverse are theirs to discover.

Wizard

History is the teacher and the wizard is its student. You’ll find these scholars deep in the heart of their spell books and ancient tomes, or brewing new potions in their laboratories. The past holds hidden knowledge and unlocking them would provide even greater magic than currently available

Choose Your Abilities

Every character has a certain amount of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. Where your character excels and where your character is weak is up to you. There are 3 options for determining your Ability Scores.

The first option consists of rolling four 6-sided dice and adding together the 3 highest dice. The highest number that can be attained this way is 18. Alternatively, you could end up with a score of 3. An average normal character in D&D would have a score of 10 or 11 across the board. Anything higher is considered elite and anything lower is considered a disability. I would personally never allow any score below zero but some Dungeon Masters are strict and are stickers for the rules. To me, they are simply guidelines.

The second option is a point-buy system. All of your stats begin at 8. Each score has a predetermined cost for increasing it.

Image from https://www.dungeonsolvers.com/

With this option, the highest score attainable is 15 and the lowest is 8.

But, if you prefer not to take the time to figure out all of this, there is a third option, the simplest option. You have predetermined scores of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, to slot in wherever you want.

Once you have your scores, it is simply a matter of deciding which ability will be set with which score. Which abilities are most important for your character and which are the least important.

Strength

Muscles, muscles, muscles. This ability determines how much brute force your character has.

Dexterity

Reflex, agility and quickness. How spry is your character?

Constitution

This ability determines your health, toughness and endurance.

Intelligence

Is your character big-brained?

Wisdom

The wise see through deception and are more perceptive than most.

Charisma

The greater the charisma, the bigger the personality. The most attractive characters have the highest charisma.

Choose Your History

Now that you’ve chosen your nature, it’s time to choose your nurture. What type of upbringing did your character have? What’s their background, personalities, etc. The more backstory you have for your character, the easier it will be to play and make decisions in-game, based on who your character is.

By now, you should have a pretty decent understanding of who your character will be.

Choose Your Equipment

Now, it’s time to choose your starting equipment. Will you be wearing light amour for added agility and stealth or heavy armour for extra protection?

There are limitations to what you can choose based on your class but I’m always of the mind that if it works for your character and you have a good argument for it, exceptions can be made. This is always to your Dungeon Master’s discretion.

D&D Beyond

I highly recommend using D&D Beyond if you’re new to Dungeons and Dragons. It takes all of the heavy lifting and calculations out of building a character and does everything for you. It also only gives you the options available to your race and class so that you don’t have to do the research yourself to determine what you can and cannot do, or use.

D&D Beyond is built on the brand new 5e platform, the latest edition of dungeons & dragons. I myself have just switched over to this version for all my new campaigns, however, I do still have one campaign working on the old 3.5 edition. This I am slowly transferring over to 5e and have come up with an in-game reason for these changes to occur.

Have fun!

Now that your character has been created, you are now ready to adventure with your party. Happy playing!