Jul 31, 2021 2:37 pm
You don't need to buy books to play D&D 5e. The basic rules are a free pdf, and they're perfectly fine to create your first character. The Player's Handbook (PHB), Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGtE), Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE) and other sourcebooks have more options, but why make things more expensive and complicated for yourself for your first character?
We'll be following the Step-by-Step Characters on page 8 of the basic rules.
The fields on the Gamers' Plane sheet are in green.
1. From the Characters menu at the top of the screen, choose All characters
2. At the bottom of the My Characters page, in the New Character section give the character a name (Label) and select Dungeons & Dragons (5th) from the System drop down.
3. You'll be taken to a page to edit the character.
Fill in:
* Name with your character's name. Make sure you do this or you won't be able to post as them.
* Level(s) with 1
* Proficiency Bonus with 2
4. Decide on your character's race. This is less mechanically important than new players tend to think. Choose something which appeals to you, rather than for their abilities.
Many races also have subraces. e.g. If you pick 'Dwarf', you might then pick the subrace 'Mountain Dwarf'. Your character then gets all the traits of their race and their subrace.
Fill in the Race part of your character sheet with your choice.
Fill in your character's Speed based on their race's speed.
5. Decide on your class. Cleric, Fighter, Rogue or Wizard are in the basic rules. The PHB has some more. Fighters and rogues are easy for new players to manage, whereas wizards are more difficult. They're all about the same in terms of usefulness, so don't worry about your selection too much. Choose the one you want to play.
Fill in the Class(es) part of your character sheet with your choice.
6. Put the numbers 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 against ability scores on the left. Look at the 'quick build' section on that class in the book to find out what are their most important ability scores. Then add the bonuses for your race to those scores.
If you want to customise these stats then most DMs allow point buy. Use a point buy calculator to allocate your points. A nice feature of these sites is that they'll often show the race bonus and calculate your scores.
Once you know the Dexterity ability score, put the bonus (it'll be between -1 and +4) in the Initiative field.
Once you know the Constitution ability score, look at the rulebook for your class's Hit Points at 1st Level. Put this score in your character's Total HP and Current HP.
7. Back to the rule books. Based on your class you should see two saving proficiencies (e.g. Strength and Constitution for fighter). Check the boxes on your GP sheet that corresponds to the ones in the book where it says Save Prof?.
8. In the book, your class will have a choice of skills. e.g. A fighter might choose two from (Acrobatics, Animal
Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival), but a rogue can choose four from (Acrobatics, Athletics,
Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth). Pick your skills by selecting the boxes on your character sheet under Skills.
9. Now comes the background. Back to the book. Choose the background that appeals to you. You should be getting an idea of what sort of person they are by now. Each background comes with a special feature. It also lets you choose two more skills. The book will suggest the extra skills e.g. Criminals: Deception and Stealth. See page 38 of the basic rules for choosing and customizing your background. You'll also get some tool proficiencies and/or languages. I put those under feats/abilities in a other proficiencies section. Some people add tool proficiencies as new skills using the Add Skill and some people put them under notes.
10. Copy over proficiencies and abilities from your class, race, and background to your character sheet. Some people put those in notes. I prefer to put them under feats/abilities.
11. Most people choose the equipment packages for their class. e.g.
Go through the selection and copy/paste them in the Items part of your character sheet.
12. Once you've chosen these you'll be able to fill in the weapons part of your character sheet and their AC (armour class).
For melee weapons your Attack bonus is your STR bonus + your proficiency bonus. e.g. if your character has a Strength of 16, their STR bonus is +3. Your proficiency is +2 (at level 1), giving a total attack bonus of +5. The damage will be determined by the weapon type plus the STR bonus. e.g. a mace does 1d6 damage, so in this case we'd put 1d6+3 in the Damage box. Note that you don't get your proficiency bonus as a damage bonus.
Ranged weapons use DEX instead of STR (unless they're thrown, then it's STR again).
If a weapon has the finesse property then DEX can be used in place of STR.
Copy the weapon's properties under its Notes.
Yeah, this bit gets messy. If you're unsure then ask your DM to check it.
13. Your AC will be determined by your choice of armour, whether you have a shield, and for light/medium armour your DEX bonus. See the table on page 46 of the basic rules.
14. Wow. That was a lot of numbers. Now comes the most important bit. ACTUALLY MAKING A CHARACTER!
Your character's character is the most important part of this game. Who are they? Who, where and what's important to them? What drives them? What are their quirks? What are their character flaws? This is the most important part of the character sheet. You should try to get some of this into the Notes section, but it'll evolve as the game progresses. Oh yeah, put something in the alignment box too, it's a crude way of expressing morality - but it can be a helpful general touchstone.
15. Upload an avatar.
Here's an example of a completed character sheet.
Qralloq has a video for creating and submitting a custom character sheet.
If you want other players to be able to see your character sheet then consider making it public. Here's a video about that.
I think that's everything... but if I've missed anything out or got something wrong then let me know and I'll edit this.
We'll be following the Step-by-Step Characters on page 8 of the basic rules.
The fields on the Gamers' Plane sheet are in green.
1. From the Characters menu at the top of the screen, choose All characters
2. At the bottom of the My Characters page, in the New Character section give the character a name (Label) and select Dungeons & Dragons (5th) from the System drop down.
3. You'll be taken to a page to edit the character.
Fill in:
* Name with your character's name. Make sure you do this or you won't be able to post as them.
* Level(s) with 1
* Proficiency Bonus with 2
4. Decide on your character's race. This is less mechanically important than new players tend to think. Choose something which appeals to you, rather than for their abilities.
Many races also have subraces. e.g. If you pick 'Dwarf', you might then pick the subrace 'Mountain Dwarf'. Your character then gets all the traits of their race and their subrace.
Fill in the Race part of your character sheet with your choice.
Fill in your character's Speed based on their race's speed.
5. Decide on your class. Cleric, Fighter, Rogue or Wizard are in the basic rules. The PHB has some more. Fighters and rogues are easy for new players to manage, whereas wizards are more difficult. They're all about the same in terms of usefulness, so don't worry about your selection too much. Choose the one you want to play.
Fill in the Class(es) part of your character sheet with your choice.
6. Put the numbers 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8 against ability scores on the left. Look at the 'quick build' section on that class in the book to find out what are their most important ability scores. Then add the bonuses for your race to those scores.
If you want to customise these stats then most DMs allow point buy. Use a point buy calculator to allocate your points. A nice feature of these sites is that they'll often show the race bonus and calculate your scores.
Once you know the Dexterity ability score, put the bonus (it'll be between -1 and +4) in the Initiative field.
Once you know the Constitution ability score, look at the rulebook for your class's Hit Points at 1st Level. Put this score in your character's Total HP and Current HP.
7. Back to the rule books. Based on your class you should see two saving proficiencies (e.g. Strength and Constitution for fighter). Check the boxes on your GP sheet that corresponds to the ones in the book where it says Save Prof?.
8. In the book, your class will have a choice of skills. e.g. A fighter might choose two from (Acrobatics, Animal
Handling, Athletics, History, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival), but a rogue can choose four from (Acrobatics, Athletics,
Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth). Pick your skills by selecting the boxes on your character sheet under Skills.
9. Now comes the background. Back to the book. Choose the background that appeals to you. You should be getting an idea of what sort of person they are by now. Each background comes with a special feature. It also lets you choose two more skills. The book will suggest the extra skills e.g. Criminals: Deception and Stealth. See page 38 of the basic rules for choosing and customizing your background. You'll also get some tool proficiencies and/or languages. I put those under feats/abilities in a other proficiencies section. Some people add tool proficiencies as new skills using the Add Skill and some people put them under notes.
10. Copy over proficiencies and abilities from your class, race, and background to your character sheet. Some people put those in notes. I prefer to put them under feats/abilities.
11. Most people choose the equipment packages for their class. e.g.
Go through the selection and copy/paste them in the Items part of your character sheet.
12. Once you've chosen these you'll be able to fill in the weapons part of your character sheet and their AC (armour class).
For melee weapons your Attack bonus is your STR bonus + your proficiency bonus. e.g. if your character has a Strength of 16, their STR bonus is +3. Your proficiency is +2 (at level 1), giving a total attack bonus of +5. The damage will be determined by the weapon type plus the STR bonus. e.g. a mace does 1d6 damage, so in this case we'd put 1d6+3 in the Damage box. Note that you don't get your proficiency bonus as a damage bonus.
Ranged weapons use DEX instead of STR (unless they're thrown, then it's STR again).
If a weapon has the finesse property then DEX can be used in place of STR.
Copy the weapon's properties under its Notes.
Yeah, this bit gets messy. If you're unsure then ask your DM to check it.
13. Your AC will be determined by your choice of armour, whether you have a shield, and for light/medium armour your DEX bonus. See the table on page 46 of the basic rules.
14. Wow. That was a lot of numbers. Now comes the most important bit. ACTUALLY MAKING A CHARACTER!
Your character's character is the most important part of this game. Who are they? Who, where and what's important to them? What drives them? What are their quirks? What are their character flaws? This is the most important part of the character sheet. You should try to get some of this into the Notes section, but it'll evolve as the game progresses. Oh yeah, put something in the alignment box too, it's a crude way of expressing morality - but it can be a helpful general touchstone.
15. Upload an avatar.
Here's an example of a completed character sheet.
Qralloq has a video for creating and submitting a custom character sheet.
If you want other players to be able to see your character sheet then consider making it public. Here's a video about that.
I think that's everything... but if I've missed anything out or got something wrong then let me know and I'll edit this.
