I think most of us have this problem. You’re overwhelmed by the possibilities of the game. You can’t stop making characters, and you always produce them faster than you use them. Before you know it, you have an excel spreadsheet with 30+ characters all battling for a place in your next campaign… okay, maybe that last part’s just me. Either way, I’m excited to see some responses / solutions in the comments! How do you manage your characters? What tips could you share for players who compulsively make characters they don’t have the time to play?
I have this same problem. If you have too many character concepts and ideas, try this:
Select a few favorites and reserve them for yourself. (By few, I mean 4. You have to be merciless, only pick the characters you REALLY like.) Put the rest of the character concepts into a folder that you can use for:
One-shot characters
NPCS
Sidekicks
Pre-generated Characters/Inspiration for other players.
Backup characters if all of your favorites die somehow.
I just view it as a game in and of itself. Making characters is fun for me and time well spent, even if I'll never play them. When it's actually time to play it's usually pretty easy for me to identify 2-3 that I like the best and choose from there.
After 40+ years I’ve got a decent idea of how different builds will work from my own earlier builds and from watching fellow players and their builds. I still enjoy the building but now I often build in the DDB app just to try out something someone is asking about to see it develop. Once built and discussed it’s time to delete unless it really takes my fancy. Then it may become a n NPC in my campaign.
I just keep making them though I usually end up going back to some of them and tweaking the concept and general layout of how I want the character to develop. For now I'm going to stick with being a player as I'm still quite new to dnd but when I think I have enough experience I'll probably switch to DMing to put my concepts to use.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I think most of us have this problem. You’re overwhelmed by the possibilities of the game. You can’t stop making characters, and you always produce them faster than you use them. Before you know it, you have an excel spreadsheet with 30+ characters all battling for a place in your next campaign… okay, maybe that last part’s just me. Either way, I’m excited to see some responses / solutions in the comments! How do you manage your characters? What tips could you share for players who compulsively make characters they don’t have the time to play?
Become a DM. Run a tournament Arc story.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I have this same problem. If you have too many character concepts and ideas, try this:
Select a few favorites and reserve them for yourself. (By few, I mean 4. You have to be merciless, only pick the characters you REALLY like.) Put the rest of the character concepts into a folder that you can use for:
Write stories with your extra characters as protagonists.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
I like this idea, or even have them as NPCs that help in small battles with local BBEG. They can be used over and over again!
I just view it as a game in and of itself. Making characters is fun for me and time well spent, even if I'll never play them. When it's actually time to play it's usually pretty easy for me to identify 2-3 that I like the best and choose from there.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
After 40+ years I’ve got a decent idea of how different builds will work from my own earlier builds and from watching fellow players and their builds. I still enjoy the building but now I often build in the DDB app just to try out something someone is asking about to see it develop. Once built and discussed it’s time to delete unless it really takes my fancy. Then it may become a n NPC in my campaign.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I just keep making them though I usually end up going back to some of them and tweaking the concept and general layout of how I want the character to develop. For now I'm going to stick with being a player as I'm still quite new to dnd but when I think I have enough experience I'll probably switch to DMing to put my concepts to use.