A group of friends of mine will be starting D&D next month and the DM wants everyone to use point buy instead of asking how they want to pick their stats. I was thinking of doing pre-made sheets for the new players to give them ideas on how to build characters. Is what I'm doing the right thing for new players or not?
Anything to get new players going faster is a good thought. I do believe that learning this game is easiest when you’ve built your own character sheet from the geound up. It makes it so that when the DM says “Roll insight” they know where it is and what it is because they put it there.
But I feel robbed having to continue playing a pre-gen character.(Lost Mine of Phandelver. Still running my introductory campaign because playing with the wife and kids is taking FOREVER, even while having a level seven character in other games since that started.) What I’d do if I wanted someone to love the game is say “just think of the type of character you want to play and we’ll build together from that. If you want to be The Man in Black from Princess Bride, we can build him for you. If you want to be Vizzini, we can build him, too.” (I’m thinking halfling enchantment wizard with low stats in Strength and Wisdom.)
I think a session 0, where the group spends a few hours discussing and deciding how their party will be composed, how their characters know each other, and building the characters with the DM's help, is the best way to go with new players.
The DM was suppose to have been me but a friend of mine asked someone else without telling me and he uses point buy and I don't think that is a good why to build a character when the players never played D&D before.
Like I said, session 0, everyone gets together and helps eachother plan out their characters. Typically makes teams more balanced and session 1 starts more smoothly since often characters will already know each other.
How keen are your new players, and how much have they read /watched? It can be boring and frustrated to build characters without having played. You make a long series of decisions that you don't understand. So regardless of the way you assign ability scores, they will need lots of help making those decisions. I think pre-made characters are a great tool to get started but it depends a bit on your players. You can also point out the quick build options suggested in the PHB for each class.
As of right now, the new players know nothing of D&D, while the DM is a hardcore D&D player. I do not want to interfere with the DM but I want to help the new players understand what stats they would like to have as a baseline on character creation. Also, thank you Terhonator for the character pre-builds sheet site.
I get that the DM that was chosen against my wishes is a veteran player but I do not like his guidelines. I feel like he is limiting everyone and I know no one wanted point buy. Am I wrong for wanting this to go well when the position of DM was stolen form me to begin with, and are his guidelines below any good?
1. make them level 1 2.Use pointby system when deciding stats 3.any race from PHB and the expansion books are fair game 4. any questions about the setting for the back story message me 5. when finished with backstory send it to me for me to look it over 6. any good or Neutral alignment no evil characters
I get that the DM that was chosen against my wishes is a veteran player but I do not like his guidelines. I feel like he is limiting everyone and I know no one wanted point buy. Am I wrong for wanting this to go well when the position of DM was stolen form me to begin with, and are his guidelines below any good?
1. make them level 1 2.Use pointby system when deciding stats 3.any race from PHB and the expansion books are fair game 4. any questions about the setting for the back story message me 5. when finished with backstory send it to me for me to look it over 6. any good or Neutral alignment no evil characters
Seems pretty standard. Point buy isn't usually favored, but it makes encounter building consistent and the players even.
1. make them level 1 - this is fair for new players less stuff to keep track of, with class abilities gained after 1st level. 2.Use pointby system when deciding stats - I prefer the 4d6 drop lowest, but you can create a fair character with point buy, but for new players maybe Standard Array would be better? 3.any race from PHB and the expansion books are fair game - This really opens up a lot of stuff, but how much are new players gonna know about say Yuan-ti and others. 4. any questions about the setting for the backstory message me - that's fair to be available for such 5. when finished with backstory send it to me for me to look it over - Looks like he wants to make sure that the PC is gonna fit in the game and isn't secretly the crown prince or something 6. any good or Neutral alignment no evil characters - I myself really agree with this, evil characters and new players can be a real bad gaming experience. He wants the PC's to basically get along and work together without someone maybe backstabbing the others for gain of some kind, Remember a Neutral character can do a wide variety of things even things morally questionable.
Yeah, I don’t think anything there is tyrannical. I prefer point buy myself. Especially with new players. Though, I see the appeal of rolling stats. You can get pretty buff. You can also get pretty screwed. Which either leads to feeling like the group peon, or fudging/rerolling a lot of results to bring you up to level with your party. Which can make the game look cheap or squishy.
As for sending him the backstory, that seems to be the mark of a DM who wants to incorporate backstories into the plot. I’ll be doing that when I start DMing.
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A group of friends of mine will be starting D&D next month and the DM wants everyone to use point buy instead of asking how they want to pick their stats. I was thinking of doing pre-made sheets for the new players to give them ideas on how to build characters. Is what I'm doing the right thing for new players or not?
Anything to get new players going faster is a good thought. I do believe that learning this game is easiest when you’ve built your own character sheet from the geound up. It makes it so that when the DM says “Roll insight” they know where it is and what it is because they put it there.
But I feel robbed having to continue playing a pre-gen character.(Lost Mine of Phandelver. Still running my introductory campaign because playing with the wife and kids is taking FOREVER, even while having a level seven character in other games since that started.) What I’d do if I wanted someone to love the game is say “just think of the type of character you want to play and we’ll build together from that. If you want to be The Man in Black from Princess Bride, we can build him for you. If you want to be Vizzini, we can build him, too.” (I’m thinking halfling enchantment wizard with low stats in Strength and Wisdom.)
I think a session 0, where the group spends a few hours discussing and deciding how their party will be composed, how their characters know each other, and building the characters with the DM's help, is the best way to go with new players.
The DM was suppose to have been me but a friend of mine asked someone else without telling me and he uses point buy and I don't think that is a good why to build a character when the players never played D&D before.
Like I said, session 0, everyone gets together and helps eachother plan out their characters. Typically makes teams more balanced and session 1 starts more smoothly since often characters will already know each other.
How keen are your new players, and how much have they read /watched? It can be boring and frustrated to build characters without having played. You make a long series of decisions that you don't understand. So regardless of the way you assign ability scores, they will need lots of help making those decisions. I think pre-made characters are a great tool to get started but it depends a bit on your players. You can also point out the quick build options suggested in the PHB for each class.
These are useful: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets
Scroll down the page and download Pre-generated characters level 1-10.
My current projects, One click download PDFs:
- Clam Island campaign questbook: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/By3s5Uqqf (Levels 1-4)
- Frostglade Tundra campaign questbook: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyZ_4eEyKE (Levels 1-4)
- Goldfish Archipelago campaign questbook: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/-3HajWXM (Sequel to Clam Island, Levels 5-8)
As of right now, the new players know nothing of D&D, while the DM is a hardcore D&D player. I do not want to interfere with the DM but I want to help the new players understand what stats they would like to have as a baseline on character creation. Also, thank you Terhonator for the character pre-builds sheet site.
I get that the DM that was chosen against my wishes is a veteran player but I do not like his guidelines. I feel like he is limiting everyone and I know no one wanted point buy. Am I wrong for wanting this to go well when the position of DM was stolen form me to begin with, and are his guidelines below any good?
1. make them level 1
2.Use pointby system when deciding stats
3.any race from PHB and the expansion books are fair game
4. any questions about the setting for the back story message me
5. when finished with backstory send it to me for me to look it over
6. any good or Neutral alignment no evil characters
Seems pretty standard. Point buy isn't usually favored, but it makes encounter building consistent and the players even.
Well lets see item by item ok
1. make them level 1 - this is fair for new players less stuff to keep track of, with class abilities gained after 1st level.
2.Use pointby system when deciding stats - I prefer the 4d6 drop lowest, but you can create a fair character with point buy, but for new players maybe Standard Array would be better?
3.any race from PHB and the expansion books are fair game - This really opens up a lot of stuff, but how much are new players gonna know about say Yuan-ti and others.
4. any questions about the setting for the backstory message me - that's fair to be available for such
5. when finished with backstory send it to me for me to look it over - Looks like he wants to make sure that the PC is gonna fit in the game and isn't secretly the crown prince or something
6. any good or Neutral alignment no evil characters - I myself really agree with this, evil characters and new players can be a real bad gaming experience. He wants the PC's to basically get along and work together without someone maybe backstabbing the others for gain of some kind, Remember a Neutral character can do a wide variety of things even things morally questionable.
Thank you for your input, hopefully he will let us use manual 4d6-lowest when I talk to one other person about this.
Yeah, I don’t think anything there is tyrannical. I prefer point buy myself. Especially with new players. Though, I see the appeal of rolling stats. You can get pretty buff. You can also get pretty screwed. Which either leads to feeling like the group peon, or fudging/rerolling a lot of results to bring you up to level with your party. Which can make the game look cheap or squishy.
As for sending him the backstory, that seems to be the mark of a DM who wants to incorporate backstories into the plot. I’ll be doing that when I start DMing.