21 docs tagged with "character"

Ability Scores: Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma

You’ll record the main details of your character on a character sheet. Throughout this chapter, we use the term “character sheet” to mean whatever you use to track your character’s details, whether it’s a printed character sheet, a digital character sheet, or plain paper. Choose whichever style of sheet works for you, and then embark on creating a character!

Here are the steps to make a character; each step is explored in detail:

Ability Scores: Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence

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While going on adventures, your character gains experience, represented by Experience Points (XP). A character who reaches a specified Experience Point total advances in capability. This advancement is called gaining a level. The Character Advancement table lists the XP you need to advance to a level and the Proficiency Bonus for a character of that level. When your XP total equals or exceeds a number in the Experience Points column, you reach the corresponding level.

Multiclassing allows you to gain levels in multiple classes. With this rule, you have the option of gaining a level in a new class whenever you advance in level instead of gaining a level in your current class. Doing so lets you mix the abilities of those classes to realize a character concept that might not be reflected in a single class.

Properties

Your character’s background is a collection of characteristics that represent the place and occupation that were most formative before your character embarked on a life of adventure.

When you choose your character’s species, you determine whether your character is a human or a member of a fantastical species, such as dragonborn or gnome. The peoples of the multiverse hail from different worlds and include many kinds of sapient life forms. A player character’s species is the set of game traits that an adventurer gains from being one of those life forms. Some species can trace their origin to a single world, plane of existence, or god, while other species first appeared in multiple realms at once. Whatever a species’ genesis, its members have spread across the multiverse and contribute to many different cultures. Members of most species live for about 80 years, with exceptions noted in the text about the species in “Character Origins.” Regardless of life span, members of all species reach physical maturity at about the same age. Your character can be any age that isn’t beyond their species’ normal life span.

Ability Scores: Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom

Ability Scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution

Your GM might start your group’s characters at a level higher than 1. It is particularly recommended to start at level 3 if your group is composed of seasoned D&D players.

Properties

When you make your character, you can roll once on the Trinkets table to gain a Tiny trinket, a simple item lightly touched by mystery. The GM might also use this table. It can help stock a room in a dungeon or fill a creature’s pockets.