Ok, so I'm just getting into D&D and while trying to find a group I've been working on learning as much as I can (which isn't much). I've even made a few place holder characters until I get the books I need to fully build them out. My question is, do you actually pre build characters or should I be waiting to find a group? Like does the DM give you information that might might aid in that, such as, elves experience more difficulties in dialog checks due to the culture of their world or information that might influence the creation to make it more fun for role playing? Also, I know that most of the fun comes from the creation a d role playing but Id like to make decisions that could benefit the party or game, if if thats just in personality or whatever. Any information would be great thank you!
As with almost everything in D&D the answer is it varies from table to table depending on the DM and the game. I tend to run pre-written adventures so most are set in the same default setting of the Forgotten Realms and so it's fairly easy to slot in someone who rocks up with a fairly generic premade character. However I also play in games that have very specific home brew settings and if I chose a certain race without checking first I'd spend my entire time causing trouble for the party because I'd accidentally chosen the most evil race imaginable in that world. Tone also plays a big part, your comedy goblin Boglin wouldn't fit in a world that's designed to be low magic and grimdark any more than a gritty dark psychopathic loner would fit in a campaign about a dozen pixies saving a marshmallow unicorn from the King of Candy Land.
Having said that creating random characters is a great way to learn the way different stats interact with each other, like how boosting dexterity impacts armour class and initiative bonus whilst dumping intelligence lowers certain skill checks so don't be afraid to play around for practice just don't have your heart set on a particular character until you find a group
Either is fine. Some groups work well with folks who bring a ready-made character to the table a the start, while others may work better with everyone sitting down together and working out a batch of characters together.
But if you want to just crank out brain babies over and over to see what they look like with stats, that fine too.
There are two different schools of thought on this, neither of which is right.
For some, they come up with a character idea first, then, when they find a game, they work with the DM to figure out how to make the character they want to play work with the world - that typically involves the player making some changes to their character to fit the DM's world and the DM helping identify areas of the world that work with the player's backstory.
This is most effective if the player only creates a framework before they find a group - a species, class, perhaps some personality traits, and some universally applicable background elements not tied to something specific. For example, "this character was once a student at a prestigious university" rather than "this character was a student at the Library of Korranberg" - the former could be in any world, no matter what the DM is running, the latter only works in one specific setting.
The advantage of this model is that it gives you time to come up with your character's personality and traits--even if there might be some changes to the character when coordinating with the DM, you will still have a core idea that you have grown used to. The disadvantage is that you have to be willing to change your character and the DM has to be willing to work with you. That can cause some problems--especially if your idea does not mesh with the DM's vision (ex. a gunslinger fighter might not be allowed at some tables).
The second option is to work with your DM to come up with a character that fits with their world. This has the advantage of the character having grown organically out of the world in which you were playing. It also can be fun to have someone else working closely with you on creating your character's identity. The disadvantage is feeling rushed during character creation, since the DM might not even have fully fleshed out their world before the game begins. It also can be miserable to have someone else micromanaging your creation of your character's identity--fun or misery will depend on the vibe between the player and DM as they work on this.
Neither is right or wrong--you should do what you think will help you, as an individual, come up with a character whose shoes you feel comfortable stepping into.
I really appreciate the feedback! Taking all that into consideration, I think ill stick with making a few different builds with less specific backgrounds but leave a couple open for game specific builds. To piggyback on this, since I am new and have zero paid books, yet, will that make it significantly harder to find a group or campaign? I've heard most in the community are pretty open to new players but again I don't have everything that might be needed.
I really appreciate the feedback! Taking all that into consideration, I think ill stick with making a few different builds with less specific backgrounds but leave a couple open for game specific builds. To piggyback on this, since I am new and have zero paid books, yet, will that make it significantly harder to find a group or campaign? I've heard most in the community are pretty open to new players but again I don't have everything that might be needed.
It'll make it harder to create characters because you'll only have access to the free rules and one subclass per class but it shouldn't stop you finding a game to join. If the rest of the group also use DDB you might even be able to join their campaign on here and share the books they own depending on whether any of them have a Master Tier membership and a collection to share
I really appreciate the feedback! Taking all that into consideration, I think ill stick with making a few different builds with less specific backgrounds but leave a couple open for game specific builds. To piggyback on this, since I am new and have zero paid books, yet, will that make it significantly harder to find a group or campaign? I've heard most in the community are pretty open to new players but again I don't have everything that might be needed.
Generally speaking, there is no expectation for players to own books. In the overwhelming majority of tables, the DM is the only one who owns any books and shares them with the players. As this has been the norm for about fifty years now, no one is really going to hold it against you if you (even if DMs love to grumble about how they end up with all the expenses, they still tend to pony up the cash at a greater rate than players).
The only thing you really need to show up with is a can-do attitude, the willingness to work with your DM, and the ability to learn from the mistakes you will inevitably make (even experienced players make mistakes, so really not something to be embarrassed by). Your DM will tell you if you need anything else, such as a tablet for your character sheet or your own set of dice.
It does, as CunningSmile mentioned above, limit your ability to design characters on D&D Beyond, but, that should not be that big of a problem. There is enough content on D&D Beyond's free option to give you an idea of what type of character you want to make. Your subclasses might be limited, but you get access to every non-artificer class. This goes to the "be prepared to make changes to your character" point - do not get married to any of the (rather dull) Basic Rules subclasses. Once you are in a campaign, you can make a decision about your subclass based on the DM's world and what content they have available.
I really appreciate the feedback! Taking all that into consideration, I think ill stick with making a few different builds with less specific backgrounds but leave a couple open for game specific builds. To piggyback on this, since I am new and have zero paid books, yet, will that make it significantly harder to find a group or campaign? I've heard most in the community are pretty open to new players but again I don't have everything that might be needed.
Just so you know, most of us who play regularly have a stable of dozens, (or hundreds, or at least a couple,) of characters and character ideas they want to play. So you’d be in good company having a bunch pre-made and ready to go.
I'll also add some tables when they start a campaign like to build a whole party, not just characters. This is in terms of game mechanics and making sure the group has their bases covered, and also in terms of getting together. Some groups like to start with some or all of the party knowing each other, others prefer the classic, you meet in a tavern. So just try and stay flexible.
One more bit of advice kind of off topic. The first group you find may not be right. There’s lots of different ways to play, so if you find a group and you don’t enjoy playing, it may be their play style doesn’t match with yours.
Thanks everyone! This may sound weird but I actually haven't even known anyone that played (and I'm 34) so it's all pretty much new so I greatly appreciate it. I just learned you can play online so ill probably reach out on discord or something!
Here's a POV i find too few have on PC creation. Yes i see people have mentioned that play can be radically different from one table to the next.
My own POV is that i do dream up PC ideas regularly in my free time outside of a campaign. But i will not know what/who my PC is before i meet the people i am playing with. As there are other players, how they like to play, what the general table vibe is, matters to this PC creation, A LOT.
Think of RPing as a co-op story telling game. We should be cooperating with the other players, telling an "ensemble cast" story about their adventures.
Ensemble cast is the key part here, no one player at the table is The Star of Their Story, that everyone else is just a supporting role to. It is Our Story, and I find it is important for the players to be somewhat in sync about what that story is.
A PC that wants to be a sell sword, concerned mostly with maximizing their own profits, is not going to get along so well with a group of do gooders who want to altruistically give it away for free. A vigilante willing to take matters into their own hands, is not likely a close trusted confidant of a group of highly lawfuls who would join the towns local milita. And so on and so on and so on.
MOST IMPORTANT: What really matters about your character is their character. Not any of the skills, powers or stats on the sheet. The "role" we play, is the character of the character, not the class title they hold. It's about who are they, not what are they.
If the players do not openly talk about what their idea of a fun adventuring party is, before smashing their PCs into a group. They can easily wind up with a group of PCs that no story can plausibly explain why they hangout and trust each other enough to do dangerous stuff together.
Inner party conflict is not an intrinsically bad thing, but it needs to be the right kind of it. Han, Luke, and Leia are constantly bickering with each other, but they are not fundamentally opposed to each other. They are of like minds about the things that matter. They just have very different approaches about how to get it all done and come into conflict over that regularly.
Bad conflict is basically when the players at the table do not agree about the MO of the party. Are we do gooders, are we baddies, are we greedy or not, etc. etc.
So i do dream, up PCs i might enjoy playing and come up with names i like so i have one ready to use whenever. But i am committed to nothing in advance of meeting the other players. I am not going to an RP table and injecting the PC i like, without regard to the rest of the players at the table.
And on the campaign setup of "meet n greet" where we will must go in with PCs that do not yet know each other that we made without any table talk. Just be ready to play out an honest role play story of "and my PC bailed on that not like minded group of people to go who knows where?" And make a new PC that now that you are informed, that can fit story plausibly with the party MO. That's just real, if someone don't like someone else, they just don't hangout with them. If a group of people don't vibe with someone they don't keep inviting them to come hangout.
So this is why i try to avoid RNG PC party make up, and actually talk with the other players and GM first. To find out, what's the general direction of the camping (might require altruistic do gooders), and what the party fun vibe is like, before i make a final call on who my PC will be.
I usually have a bunch of character ideas brewing that I would like to play in the future, but don't actually build a character for a campaign/adventure until I have talked to the GM.
Ok, so I'm just getting into D&D and while trying to find a group I've been working on learning as much as I can (which isn't much). I've even made a few place holder characters until I get the books I need to fully build them out. My question is, do you actually pre build characters or should I be waiting to find a group? Like does the DM give you information that might might aid in that, such as, elves experience more difficulties in dialog checks due to the culture of their world or information that might influence the creation to make it more fun for role playing? Also, I know that most of the fun comes from the creation a d role playing but Id like to make decisions that could benefit the party or game, if if thats just in personality or whatever. Any information would be great thank you!
As with almost everything in D&D the answer is it varies from table to table depending on the DM and the game. I tend to run pre-written adventures so most are set in the same default setting of the Forgotten Realms and so it's fairly easy to slot in someone who rocks up with a fairly generic premade character. However I also play in games that have very specific home brew settings and if I chose a certain race without checking first I'd spend my entire time causing trouble for the party because I'd accidentally chosen the most evil race imaginable in that world. Tone also plays a big part, your comedy goblin Boglin wouldn't fit in a world that's designed to be low magic and grimdark any more than a gritty dark psychopathic loner would fit in a campaign about a dozen pixies saving a marshmallow unicorn from the King of Candy Land.
Having said that creating random characters is a great way to learn the way different stats interact with each other, like how boosting dexterity impacts armour class and initiative bonus whilst dumping intelligence lowers certain skill checks so don't be afraid to play around for practice just don't have your heart set on a particular character until you find a group
Either is fine. Some groups work well with folks who bring a ready-made character to the table a the start, while others may work better with everyone sitting down together and working out a batch of characters together.
But if you want to just crank out brain babies over and over to see what they look like with stats, that fine too.
There are two different schools of thought on this, neither of which is right.
For some, they come up with a character idea first, then, when they find a game, they work with the DM to figure out how to make the character they want to play work with the world - that typically involves the player making some changes to their character to fit the DM's world and the DM helping identify areas of the world that work with the player's backstory.
This is most effective if the player only creates a framework before they find a group - a species, class, perhaps some personality traits, and some universally applicable background elements not tied to something specific. For example, "this character was once a student at a prestigious university" rather than "this character was a student at the Library of Korranberg" - the former could be in any world, no matter what the DM is running, the latter only works in one specific setting.
The advantage of this model is that it gives you time to come up with your character's personality and traits--even if there might be some changes to the character when coordinating with the DM, you will still have a core idea that you have grown used to. The disadvantage is that you have to be willing to change your character and the DM has to be willing to work with you. That can cause some problems--especially if your idea does not mesh with the DM's vision (ex. a gunslinger fighter might not be allowed at some tables).
The second option is to work with your DM to come up with a character that fits with their world. This has the advantage of the character having grown organically out of the world in which you were playing. It also can be fun to have someone else working closely with you on creating your character's identity. The disadvantage is feeling rushed during character creation, since the DM might not even have fully fleshed out their world before the game begins. It also can be miserable to have someone else micromanaging your creation of your character's identity--fun or misery will depend on the vibe between the player and DM as they work on this.
Neither is right or wrong--you should do what you think will help you, as an individual, come up with a character whose shoes you feel comfortable stepping into.
I really appreciate the feedback! Taking all that into consideration, I think ill stick with making a few different builds with less specific backgrounds but leave a couple open for game specific builds. To piggyback on this, since I am new and have zero paid books, yet, will that make it significantly harder to find a group or campaign? I've heard most in the community are pretty open to new players but again I don't have everything that might be needed.
It'll make it harder to create characters because you'll only have access to the free rules and one subclass per class but it shouldn't stop you finding a game to join. If the rest of the group also use DDB you might even be able to join their campaign on here and share the books they own depending on whether any of them have a Master Tier membership and a collection to share
Generally speaking, there is no expectation for players to own books. In the overwhelming majority of tables, the DM is the only one who owns any books and shares them with the players. As this has been the norm for about fifty years now, no one is really going to hold it against you if you (even if DMs love to grumble about how they end up with all the expenses, they still tend to pony up the cash at a greater rate than players).
The only thing you really need to show up with is a can-do attitude, the willingness to work with your DM, and the ability to learn from the mistakes you will inevitably make (even experienced players make mistakes, so really not something to be embarrassed by). Your DM will tell you if you need anything else, such as a tablet for your character sheet or your own set of dice.
It does, as CunningSmile mentioned above, limit your ability to design characters on D&D Beyond, but, that should not be that big of a problem. There is enough content on D&D Beyond's free option to give you an idea of what type of character you want to make. Your subclasses might be limited, but you get access to every non-artificer class. This goes to the "be prepared to make changes to your character" point - do not get married to any of the (rather dull) Basic Rules subclasses. Once you are in a campaign, you can make a decision about your subclass based on the DM's world and what content they have available.
Just so you know, most of us who play regularly have a stable of dozens, (or hundreds, or at least a couple,) of characters and character ideas they want to play. So you’d be in good company having a bunch pre-made and ready to go.
I'll also add some tables when they start a campaign like to build a whole party, not just characters. This is in terms of game mechanics and making sure the group has their bases covered, and also in terms of getting together. Some groups like to start with some or all of the party knowing each other, others prefer the classic, you meet in a tavern. So just try and stay flexible.
One more bit of advice kind of off topic. The first group you find may not be right. There’s lots of different ways to play, so if you find a group and you don’t enjoy playing, it may be their play style doesn’t match with yours.
Thanks everyone! This may sound weird but I actually haven't even known anyone that played (and I'm 34) so it's all pretty much new so I greatly appreciate it. I just learned you can play online so ill probably reach out on discord or something!
Here's a POV i find too few have on PC creation.
Yes i see people have mentioned that play can be radically different from one table to the next.
My own POV is that i do dream up PC ideas regularly in my free time outside of a campaign.
But i will not know what/who my PC is before i meet the people i am playing with. As there are other players, how they like to play, what the general table vibe is, matters to this PC creation, A LOT.
Think of RPing as a co-op story telling game. We should be cooperating with the other players, telling an "ensemble cast" story about their adventures.
Ensemble cast is the key part here, no one player at the table is The Star of Their Story, that everyone else is just a supporting role to. It is Our Story, and I find it is important for the players to be somewhat in sync about what that story is.
A PC that wants to be a sell sword, concerned mostly with maximizing their own profits, is not going to get along so well with a group of do gooders who want to altruistically give it away for free. A vigilante willing to take matters into their own hands, is not likely a close trusted confidant of a group of highly lawfuls who would join the towns local milita.
And so on and so on and so on.
MOST IMPORTANT: What really matters about your character is their character. Not any of the skills, powers or stats on the sheet.
The "role" we play, is the character of the character, not the class title they hold. It's about who are they, not what are they.
If the players do not openly talk about what their idea of a fun adventuring party is, before smashing their PCs into a group. They can easily wind up with a group of PCs that no story can plausibly explain why they hangout and trust each other enough to do dangerous stuff together.
Inner party conflict is not an intrinsically bad thing, but it needs to be the right kind of it.
Han, Luke, and Leia are constantly bickering with each other, but they are not fundamentally opposed to each other. They are of like minds about the things that matter. They just have very different approaches about how to get it all done and come into conflict over that regularly.
Bad conflict is basically when the players at the table do not agree about the MO of the party. Are we do gooders, are we baddies, are we greedy or not, etc. etc.
So i do dream, up PCs i might enjoy playing and come up with names i like so i have one ready to use whenever.
But i am committed to nothing in advance of meeting the other players. I am not going to an RP table and injecting the PC i like, without regard to the rest of the players at the table.
And on the campaign setup of "meet n greet" where we will must go in with PCs that do not yet know each other that we made without any table talk.
Just be ready to play out an honest role play story of "and my PC bailed on that not like minded group of people to go who knows where?" And make a new PC that now that you are informed, that can fit story plausibly with the party MO.
That's just real, if someone don't like someone else, they just don't hangout with them. If a group of people don't vibe with someone they don't keep inviting them to come hangout.
So this is why i try to avoid RNG PC party make up, and actually talk with the other players and GM first. To find out, what's the general direction of the camping (might require altruistic do gooders), and what the party fun vibe is like, before i make a final call on who my PC will be.
I build each character specific to the campaign they will be part of, I never pre-build.
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I usually have a bunch of character ideas brewing that I would like to play in the future, but don't actually build a character for a campaign/adventure until I have talked to the GM.
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