Genuine Gwyn

(In this example blog post created for D&D Beyond, I walk readers through the basic process of creating a D&D character using D&D Beyond’s tools, with descriptions on how to choose race, class, and background.)

Do you want to play Dungeons and Dragons, but don’t know how to build a character you would enjoy playing? In this post, you will learn the basics of developing a character that you love. From race, to class, to backstory, you can learn how to harness the power of D&D Beyond to create a showstopping, shadowy, or shining character!

Is your character a hardworking human, an ethereal elf, or a down-to-earth dwarf? There are many different options for the races you can play in D&D. Here’s a quick list of the basic races:

• Dragonborn
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Gnome
• Half-elf
• Halfling
• Half Orc
• Human
• Tiefling

There are many other options that you can use, both in separate books, or homebrew, but these are the main classes that are available in the Players Handbook. The type of character you play influences which class you would best be suited for. The suggestion is that if you want to use magic, play an elf or a tiefling. If you want your character to swing swords or a battle axe, the Dragonborn, dwarf, or half-orc might be a good choice for you. If you want a mixture of each, humans, half-elves, halflings, and gnomes are all excellent choices. Again, these are merely suggestions based on the benefits you gain naturally from your chosen race. Feel free to go wild with character design!

There are three main types of classes you can choose for your character, a full caster (someone who mainly uses magic), half-caster (uses magic to supplement their normal abilities), or weapon-oriented. Your class determines how your character fights, solves problems, and what they are proficient in. The basic classes are as follows:

• Barbarian
• Bard
• Cleric
• Druid
• Fighter
• Monk
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Rogue
• Sorcerer
• Warlock
• Wizard

Fighters, barbarians, monks, and rogues are weapon-oriented classes. They use swords, war hammers, hand-to-hand combat, or their sneaky intellect to fight. Clerics, paladins, rangers, and bards are partial casters, who use their magic to enhance their other skills. Druids, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards are full magic casters. Your class also determines the type of weapons you can use, how many hit points you get, and the spell list you would gain spells from if you were a caster. You can learn more about each class at D&D beyond.

Your background, which is essentially the backbone of your backstory, is the next step in character creation. Different backgrounds give you different benefits for choosing them, ie. the Outlander, who gains proficiencies in one type of musical instrument. There are a couple of different backgrounds to choose from.

• Acolyte
• Charlatan
• Criminal (Variant: Spy)
• Entertainer (Variant: Gladiator)
• Folk Hero
• Guild Artisan (Variant: Guild Merchant)
• Hermit
• Noble (Variant: Knight)
• Outlander
• Sage
• Sailor (Variant: Pirate)
• Soldier
• Urchin

Once you choose your background, you can use it to help develop personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws for your character. If you enjoy the roleplay aspect of the game, this is your time to shine! Make your character believable by giving them strong personalities and lovable quirks. This is also the time to choose your character’s alignment. Their alignment is their leading force when they make decisions. View the alignment chart below to decide where your character falls.

Creating a character is a fun way to flex your creative muscles, get an idea you’d like to play down on paper, or even just make the closest D&D approximation of your favorite pop-culture icon like Batman, (trust me, there are too many tutorials on how to do that). Once you have mastered the basics of character creation, it can be truly one of the most engrossing things about D&D. As any longtime player or DM knows, most of us have a running list of characters that we would like to play, or character concepts that we are interested in. (I have a friend who keeps an Excel spreadsheet of his character ideas.) Character creation is only the first step to this awesome game. After you master the basics, its all uphill from here!

Now that you have the basics, hop on over to D&D Beyond to find more enticing character ideas!