Hello! I'm just getting into D&D, and I'm a bit lost with character creation and implications it has on games/parties I may play with as I get into the game. I have yet to play my first game, but whenever I have an idea of a character I want to play, turns out they are far more complicated than a simple "barbarian with big axe".
The first character I wanted to create was to be a necromancer, as this is one of my favorite fantasy magic archetypes in general. There's plenty of advise on what races/classes to choose, but it seems like there are inherit problems with playing necromancers such as some DMs not even allowing them in game due to their complexity, parties of other PC's distrusting and often turning against a necromancer (even when that necromancer tries to be cooperative and friendly with their party) and so on. Although some of these issues seem like they'd be alright to try and navigate as a veteran, I'm wondering if it's even worth my time trying to play this kind of build as a newbie, and if so, what advise people can give on that?
The second character of choice was a werewolf. But this too seems to be a problematic character, with similar party trust issues, and lots of versions of the game not really having a specific werewolf class (save a subclass for "blood hunter" but that class in of itself isn't always accepted in certain DM's games?) meaning you'll have to try to work around game limitations and rules to give yourself a "werewolf like" class (e.g. druid that shapeshifts into something akin to a werewolf, but uses a spell to do so rather than being infected/cursed/inherited with lycanthropy). Similar thing with the necromancer, just doesn't seem newbie friendly and it makes me a bit scared to invest to much time into creating a character that lots of DM's may not even allow me to play. Again, any advise would be helpful.
Finally the last class I settled on after wondering if my first two choices are even worth my time was a lightning themed battle mage. I'm not big on most magical classes, including elemental classes, save lightning, so having a character focused around mastering the chaotic kind of power that comes from lightning is very appealing to me, but aside from a necromancer, I'm probably not gonna want to play a class that is solely focused on magic. But even this seems hard. From what I gather, in order to do this effectively I'd need to do something called multiclassing? I'm still kind of lost on the whole multiclassing thing in general and how it's done, but once again I gather that it's not a newbie friendly mechanic and is up in the air on rather or not different DM's allow it..
Push comes to shove I can try creating a verily simple character to play my first few games with or whatever, but every character idea that I have that seems to actually get me excited seems to be complicated as far as this games character creation goes. That could also just be my newbie brain having to much information to try and take in, as this game seems to have a huge rabbit hole to deep dive into with the shear amount of rules, variations, and even acceptable/unacceptable kind of culture. And some classes just seem to be universally accepted, but all of these that I've presented seem to be reliant on different DMs. But what do you guys think? Out of these 3 ideas, which one would probably be the easiest for me to get into? Is it even worth it for me? If you play any of these characters, and have advise on creating one to try and sidestep some of these issues, that would also be great! Thanks in advance for the time to read and respond.
By starting with class, you're putting yourself in a difficult position. There are many cool things that classes can do, but GMs will argue the point because some of those things don't belong in some world, and players will argue the point because everyone is telling the story of their character's assumptions as well as their character's best intentions. You should start with backgrounds. Figure out why the character ought to be a part of the world, and only then look for the ways they break from expectation. The necromancer would be a great example for us to use.
D&D steals from Tolkien. That shouldn't be news. In Tolkien's world, "The Necromancer" was another name for Sauron, the enemy of all living things. Tolkien didn't originate the evil wizard archetype, though. So even the player who hasn't read Tolkien and doesn't know better knows that wizards can be bad news. However, taking a look through the backgrounds, it's really only criminal and pirate that come with any baggage, and even then D&D is about telling the kind of story where being a criminal/pirate can be cool and edgy. Folk hero has a baked in expectation that people love your character!
So start with something like, my character is an acolyte of the church of Kelemvor (Forgotten Realms being the most common setting, I'm going to pull examples from there). They've grown up for 16 or so years having experiences that relate to the church and make them a part of society in the realms. After you've established that the character has a vested interest in the world and is not looking for an excuse to become the evil wizard everyone fears, then add on to explain how they chose necromancy as the best tool to further the church's aims. Basically, you've got to convince the rest of the table that the character can be trusted.
That's an interesting perspective I hadn't really considered. I had some basic back stories written for these 3 characters, but kept them pretty generic with the details because I don't really know much about D&D lore yet. But I guess it does make sense to build a character from the ground up rather than building around the idea of a finished product so to speak. Something else I try to incorporate, to limit the "edginess" on some of these characters, is to give them more light hearted or comedic characteristics or personality traits. Something like arachnophobia for the necromancer or a strong urge to mark territory whenever threatened or presented with conflict for the werewolf. Partly because I think to much edge can get redundant, but also because I think these things can create opportunities to build that trust or stronger relationships with the other players, rather it's from a good laugh or a moment of vulnerability, etc.
But then I guess the question is, how would I prepare a character for such roles/classes that I could work towards if I'm unsure about if the playstyle is even gonna be acceptable by the DMs? I know if you're playing with a group you regularly play with and they have their rules you're quite familiar with, things like this are simpler, but I don't know anyone who plays so I'll be looking for groups to play with while being new myself. I just think it would suck to start a game with a character I'm planning on becoming a necromancer with, invested heavily into being a magic wielder for, only to be told that necromancy is not something that DM will allow, or they'll heavily restrict it. At that point, I really wouldn't know where to take the character as I doubt I'd like most other heavy caster kind of builds. These are the kind of situations I'd like to avoid getting into this game. For the werewolf specifically, that's an element I'd want built into his background and would preferably start the game already infected.
For the werewolf character, PC lycanthropy is a variant in the DMG that's very much up to the DM's discretion, especially when it comes to things like immunity to mundane weapon damage. If you just want some of the flavor without being tied into a particular class, look at the Shifter race from MotM.
There's a Storm Sorcery subclass for Sorcerer that might do what you want for #3, though it's not just about lightning.
If you want a class that's themed around lightning but not a pure caster, I recommend taking a look at the Tempest Cleric. You can blast enemies with lightning bolts but also smack them with a warhammer if you want to change things up.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
If you want a class that's themed around lightning but not a pure caster, I recommend taking a look at the Tempest Cleric. You can blast enemies with lightning bolts but also smack them with a warhammer if you want to change things up.
Hello! I'm just getting into D&D, and I'm a bit lost with character creation and implications it has on games/parties I may play with as I get into the game. I have yet to play my first game, but whenever I have an idea of a character I want to play, turns out they are far more complicated than a simple "barbarian with big axe".
The first character I wanted to create was to be a necromancer, as this is one of my favorite fantasy magic archetypes in general. There's plenty of advise on what races/classes to choose, but it seems like there are inherit problems with playing necromancers such as some DMs not even allowing them in game due to their complexity, parties of other PC's distrusting and often turning against a necromancer (even when that necromancer tries to be cooperative and friendly with their party) and so on. Although some of these issues seem like they'd be alright to try and navigate as a veteran, I'm wondering if it's even worth my time trying to play this kind of build as a newbie, and if so, what advise people can give on that?
The second character of choice was a werewolf. But this too seems to be a problematic character, with similar party trust issues, and lots of versions of the game not really having a specific werewolf class (save a subclass for "blood hunter" but that class in of itself isn't always accepted in certain DM's games?) meaning you'll have to try to work around game limitations and rules to give yourself a "werewolf like" class (e.g. druid that shapeshifts into something akin to a werewolf, but uses a spell to do so rather than being infected/cursed/inherited with lycanthropy). Similar thing with the necromancer, just doesn't seem newbie friendly and it makes me a bit scared to invest to much time into creating a character that lots of DM's may not even allow me to play. Again, any advise would be helpful.
Finally the last class I settled on after wondering if my first two choices are even worth my time was a lightning themed battle mage. I'm not big on most magical classes, including elemental classes, save lightning, so having a character focused around mastering the chaotic kind of power that comes from lightning is very appealing to me, but aside from a necromancer, I'm probably not gonna want to play a class that is solely focused on magic. But even this seems hard. From what I gather, in order to do this effectively I'd need to do something called multiclassing? I'm still kind of lost on the whole multiclassing thing in general and how it's done, but once again I gather that it's not a newbie friendly mechanic and is up in the air on rather or not different DM's allow it..
Push comes to shove I can try creating a verily simple character to play my first few games with or whatever, but every character idea that I have that seems to actually get me excited seems to be complicated as far as this games character creation goes. That could also just be my newbie brain having to much information to try and take in, as this game seems to have a huge rabbit hole to deep dive into with the shear amount of rules, variations, and even acceptable/unacceptable kind of culture. And some classes just seem to be universally accepted, but all of these that I've presented seem to be reliant on different DMs. But what do you guys think? Out of these 3 ideas, which one would probably be the easiest for me to get into? Is it even worth it for me? If you play any of these characters, and have advise on creating one to try and sidestep some of these issues, that would also be great! Thanks in advance for the time to read and respond.
By starting with class, you're putting yourself in a difficult position. There are many cool things that classes can do, but GMs will argue the point because some of those things don't belong in some world, and players will argue the point because everyone is telling the story of their character's assumptions as well as their character's best intentions. You should start with backgrounds. Figure out why the character ought to be a part of the world, and only then look for the ways they break from expectation. The necromancer would be a great example for us to use.
D&D steals from Tolkien. That shouldn't be news. In Tolkien's world, "The Necromancer" was another name for Sauron, the enemy of all living things. Tolkien didn't originate the evil wizard archetype, though. So even the player who hasn't read Tolkien and doesn't know better knows that wizards can be bad news. However, taking a look through the backgrounds, it's really only criminal and pirate that come with any baggage, and even then D&D is about telling the kind of story where being a criminal/pirate can be cool and edgy. Folk hero has a baked in expectation that people love your character!
So start with something like, my character is an acolyte of the church of Kelemvor (Forgotten Realms being the most common setting, I'm going to pull examples from there). They've grown up for 16 or so years having experiences that relate to the church and make them a part of society in the realms. After you've established that the character has a vested interest in the world and is not looking for an excuse to become the evil wizard everyone fears, then add on to explain how they chose necromancy as the best tool to further the church's aims. Basically, you've got to convince the rest of the table that the character can be trusted.
That's an interesting perspective I hadn't really considered. I had some basic back stories written for these 3 characters, but kept them pretty generic with the details because I don't really know much about D&D lore yet. But I guess it does make sense to build a character from the ground up rather than building around the idea of a finished product so to speak. Something else I try to incorporate, to limit the "edginess" on some of these characters, is to give them more light hearted or comedic characteristics or personality traits. Something like arachnophobia for the necromancer or a strong urge to mark territory whenever threatened or presented with conflict for the werewolf. Partly because I think to much edge can get redundant, but also because I think these things can create opportunities to build that trust or stronger relationships with the other players, rather it's from a good laugh or a moment of vulnerability, etc.
But then I guess the question is, how would I prepare a character for such roles/classes that I could work towards if I'm unsure about if the playstyle is even gonna be acceptable by the DMs? I know if you're playing with a group you regularly play with and they have their rules you're quite familiar with, things like this are simpler, but I don't know anyone who plays so I'll be looking for groups to play with while being new myself. I just think it would suck to start a game with a character I'm planning on becoming a necromancer with, invested heavily into being a magic wielder for, only to be told that necromancy is not something that DM will allow, or they'll heavily restrict it. At that point, I really wouldn't know where to take the character as I doubt I'd like most other heavy caster kind of builds. These are the kind of situations I'd like to avoid getting into this game. For the werewolf specifically, that's an element I'd want built into his background and would preferably start the game already infected.
For the werewolf character, PC lycanthropy is a variant in the DMG that's very much up to the DM's discretion, especially when it comes to things like immunity to mundane weapon damage. If you just want some of the flavor without being tied into a particular class, look at the Shifter race from MotM.
There's a Storm Sorcery subclass for Sorcerer that might do what you want for #3, though it's not just about lightning.
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If you want a class that's themed around lightning but not a pure caster, I recommend taking a look at the Tempest Cleric. You can blast enemies with lightning bolts but also smack them with a warhammer if you want to change things up.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
For #3 you could look into the Path of the Storm Herald Barbarian.
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Yeah, just a pure storm sorcerer seems like it'd be to heavy on the casting for me. But it may be worth a look at this point.
That may be worth looking into for sure!
Yeah, I'll check that out. Thanks for the tip!
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As a fan of Necromancers in general I'd say go with the Necromancer. Here's a link to a Build idea for necromancer i had many moons ago: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/class-forums/wizard/49763-necromancy-primer-part-6-the-van-helsing-undead
It themed around being a goodly Van Helsing/Vampire Hunter type character but using Wizard/Necormancer to do it.