Making a new character - malpinder/adventure-pals GitHub Wiki

If you don't know what or who you'd like to play at all, that's fine - let me know and I can make a character for you. Otherwise, go through as many or as few of the following steps as you want, and I'll do whatever's left.

Pick a character

Have a think about the character archetype you'd like to play. Clichés, tropes and stereotypes are encouraged, especially if they have potential for humour. Try to describe your character in a sentence. For some examples:

  • a grumpy ex-guard who is getting too old for this and will turn this carriage around Right Now if you don't stop bickering
  • an over-dramatic, newly-qualified magic user who just wants senpai to notice them
  • a forgetful medic who got into this career after his kids left home and always makes sure everyone has a packed lunch
  • a pragmatic and kind-hearted barbarian who's on the run from every authority around for a variety of implausible reasons
  • an incredibly glam ultra-femme amazonian who always goes in 110% to every course of action, no matter how small

You might find http://www.whothefuckismydndcharacter.com/ to be a useful source of ideas. You might also look at a character you think is interesting (Lucio; Xena; Giles) and borrow aspects of their character.

If you're unsure, pick a character who is like yourself, or like the person you aspire to be, as you'll find it easier to work out what that character would do or feel.

Pick a species and name

You can play a character of any species listed in The Setting - human, elf, dwarf, dragonborn, halfling, goblin, or orc. (You can also play anything that you can convince me fits into the genre - a fawn, a kobold, a cat-person traveler from the Beyond Lands - if it can be mechanically a class in one of the books.)

  • Humans are flexible and can be and often are every role
  • Elves are good at magic, archery and stabbing
  • Dwarfs are good at Tradition, and traditionally hit things with hammers
  • Dragonborn are good at fighting and convincing people
  • Halflings are good at fighting and convincing people, but from lower down
  • Goblins are good at magic and getting out of trouble
  • Orcs are good at hitting and stabbing things

Don't feel constrained by which species works best for which role - pick something you think would be fun to play.

Choose a name that sounds vaguely sensible - we'll be saying it a lot. Normal names with Unusual Spellings are probably a safe bet, as are Syllable NounVerber names. The books have a lot of suggestions for names, too.

Pick a combat role

You can either go the flavour route or the mechanics route:

Flavour:

Do you want to be a melee stabby-smashy type, or a ranged arrows-pew-pew type? Do you want to be tough and strong, deal lots of damage, or support your buds? And do you want to get your strength from divine worship, personal skill & effort, or magical talent?

Mechanics:

4e has four combat roles:

  • leaders heal and buff their buddies to fight better, like clerics and bards
  • controllers use area-of-effect & debuff abilities to shape fights, like wizards and druids
  • defenders tank lots of damage to protect their buddies, like fighters and paladins
  • strikers deal a lot of damage to kill things quicker, like rangers and rogues

You can pick the kind of role you'd like to play, or pick a specific class. Any class from the player's handbook 1 or 2 is allowed, except for warlocks.

Stats

Either use the Standard Array - 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 - or the Customisable Array - 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, plus 22 to spread out. No rolling.

Everything else

Pick skills, feats, powers, equipment, and generally fill out all the bits on the character sheet. Follow the rules in the Handbooks.