The first step to play is creating your player character. Your character is a combination of various statistics, roleplaying hooks, and your imagination. You choose an ancestry (such as Human or Halfling) and a class (such as Fighter or Wizard). You also invent the personality, appearance, and backstory of your character. Once completed, your character serves as your representative in the game, your avatar in the Dungeons & Dragons world.
Before you get into the thick of the mechanics below, think about the kind of adventurer you want to play.
You might be a courageous Fighter, a skulking Rogue, a fervent Cleric, or a flamboyant Wizard. Or you might be more interested in an unconventional character, such as a brave Rogue who likes hand-to-hand combat, or a sharpshooter who picks off enemies from afar. Do you like fantasy fiction featuring Dwarves or Elves? Try building a character of one of those ancestries. Do you want your character to be the toughest adventurer at the table? Consider a class like Barbarian or Paladin. If you don't know where else to begin, take a look at the illustrations in this book to see what catches your interest.
Once you have a character in mind, follow these steps in order, making decisions that reflect the character you want. Your conception of your character might evolve with each choice you make. What’s important is that you come to the table with a character you’re excited to play.
Also, make sure to talk to the other players about your ideas if they’re around. Hearing what other players have in mind can help focus your choices or inspire you to create a concept that works well with other adventurers in your party. For example, if all the other PCs are rough-and-tumble warriors, you might want to make a Cleric so you can patch them up with healing magic!
Every character belongs to an Ancestry, one of the many intelligent humanoid species in the D&D world. The most common player character ancestries are dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans. Some ancestries also have Heritages, such as mountain dwarf or wood elf that help further define the particulars of your chosen ancestry. For more detailed information, refer to the Ancestry section.
The Ancestry you choose contributes to your character’s identity in an important way, by establishing a general appearance and the natural talents gained from culture and ancestry. Your character’s Ancestry grants particular traits, such as special senses, proficiency with certain weapons or tools, proficiency in one or more skills, or the ability to use minor spells. These traits sometimes dovetail with the capabilities of certain classes (see step three). For example, the traits of lightfoot halflings make them exceptional Rogues, and high elves tend to be powerful Wizards. Sometimes playing against type can be fun, too. Halfling Paladins and mountain Dwarf Wizards, for example, can be unusual but memorable characters.
Your Ancestry also increases one or more of your ability scores, which you determine in step four. Take note of your ability score increases and remember to apply them later.
Record the traits granted by your Ancestry on your character sheet. Be sure to note your starting languages and your base Speed as well.
Choosing your character’s class is the most important factor in bringing your concept into the game. Your character’s class broadly describes a character’s vocation, what special talents he or she possesses, and the tactics he or she is most likely to employ.
Your character receives a number of benefits from your choice of class. Many of these benefits are Class Features — capabilities (including spellcasting) that set your character apart from members of other classes. Your choice of character class also dictates your Proficiencies, which is a game term describing what kinds of equipment you are trained to use (like armor, weapons, or tools) and what kinds of challenges you are best at handling (skills and saves).
The character classes are described in the Classes section. Oncee you have made your selection, record all the features that your class gives you at 1st level on your character sheet.
Typically, a character starts at 1st level and advances in level by adventuring and gaining experience points (XP). A 1st-level character is inexperienced in the adventuring world, although he or she might have been a soldier or a pirate and done dangerous things before.
Starting off at 1st level marks your character’s entry into the adventuring life. If you’re already familiar with the game, or if you are joining an existing D&D campaign, your DM might decide to have you begin at a higher level, on the assumption that your character has already survived a few harrowing adventures.
Record your level on your character sheet. If you’re starting at a higher level, record the additional elements your class gives you for your levels past 1st. Also record your experience points. A 1st-level character has 0 XP. A higher-level character typically begins with the minimum amount of XP required to reach that level (see “Beyond 1st Level” later in this section).
Your character’s Hit Points define how tough your character is in combat and other dangerous situations. Your Hit Points are determined by your Hit Dice (short for Hit Point Dice).
At 1st level, your character has 1 Hit Die, and the die type is determined by your class. You start with Hit Points equal to the highest roll of that die, as indicated in your class description. (You also add your Constitution modifier, which you’ll determine in step four.) This is also your Hit Point Maximum.
Record your character’s Hit Points on your character sheet. Also record the type of Hit Die your character uses and the number of Hit Dice you have. After you Rest, you can spend Hit Dice to regain Hit Points (see “Resting and Recovery” in the Game Rules Reference section under Combat & Turnbased Action).
The table that appears in your class description shows your Proficiency bonus, which is +2 for a 1st-level character. Your proficiency bonus applies to many of the numbers you’ll be recording on your character sheet:
Your class determines your Weapon Proficiencies, your Saving Throw Proficiencies, some of your Skill Proficiencies (which are listed here under their relevant Ability Scores), and some of your Tool Proficiencies. Your Background gives you additional Skill and Tool Proficiencies, and some Ancestries give you yet more Proficiencies. Be sure to note all of these Proficiencies, as well as your Proficiency bonus, on your character sheet.
Your Proficiency bonus can’t be added to a single die roll or other number more than once. Occasionally, yourProficiency bonus might be modified (doubled or halved, for example) before you apply it. If a circumstance suggests that your Proficiency bonus applies more than once to the same roll or that it should be multiplied more than once, you nevertheless add it only once, multiply it only once, and halve it only once.
Much of what your character does in the game depends on his or her six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability has a score, which is a number you record on your character sheet.
The six abilities and their use in the game are described in more detail in the Ability Scores section. The Ability Scores Summary below provides a quick reference for what qualities are measured by each ability and what classes consider each ability particularly important.
Measures: Natural Athleticism, Bodily Power, Physical Might
Important for: Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin
Related Skills: Athletics
Measures: Physical Agility, Reflexes, Balance, Poise, Reaction Time
Important for: Monk, Ranger, Rogue
Related Skills: Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Measures: Health, Endurance, Physical Fortitude, Vital Force
Important for: Everyone!
Related Skills: None
Measures: Mental Acuity, Information Recall, Analytical Skill, Knowledge Aquisition and Application
Important for: Wizard
Related Skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion
Measures: Awareness, Intuition, Insight, Mental Fortitude
Important for: Cleric, Druid
Related Skills: Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Survival
Measures: Confidence, Eloquence, Leadership, Influence
Important for: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock
Related Skills: Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion
You generate your character’s six Ability Scores randomly. Roll four 6-sided dice and record the total of the highest three dice on a piece of scratch paper. Do this five more times, so that you have six numbers.
If you want to save time or don’t like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.
Now take your six numbers and write each number beside one of your character’s six abilities to assign scores to Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Afterward, make any changes to your ability scores as a result of your Ancestry choice.
After assigning your Ability Scores, determine your Ability Modifiers using the Ability Scores and Modifiers table below. To determine an Ability Modifier without consulting the table, subtract 10 from the ability score and then divide the result by 2 (round down). Write the modifier next to each of your scores.
| Ability Scores and Modifiers Table | ||||
| Score | Modifier | Score | Modifier | |
| 1 | -5 | 16-17 | +3 | |
| 2-3 | -4 | 18-19 | +4 | |
| 4-5 | -3 | 20-21 | +5 | |
| 6-7 | -2 | 22-23 | +6 | |
| 8-9 | -1 | 24-25 | +7 | |
| 10-11 | +0 | 26-27 | +8 | |
| 12-13 | +1 | 28-29 | +9 | |
| 14-15 | +2 | 30 | +10 | |
¶ Variants: Generating Ability Scores
There are a few other methods to determine your starting Ability Scores, and no method is strictly "better" than another. Some people simply like one way more, so below is a list of all the methods for generating scores that appeal to different kinds of players. Each is tagged as optional, and it's up to you and your DM to determine what methods are allowed at your table.
‣ Optional Rule: Rolling Ability Scores
‣ Optional Rule: Rolling Heroic Ability Scores
‣ Optional Rule: Point Buy Ability Scores
‣ Optional Rule: The Standard Array Ability Scores
Every story has a beginning. Your character’s Background reveals where you came from, how you became an adventurer, and your place in the world. Your fighter might have been a courageous knight or a grizzled soldier. Your wizard could have been a sage or an artisan. Your rogue might have gotten by as a guild thief or commanded audiences as a jester.
Choosing a background provides you with important story cues about your character’s identity. The most important question to ask about your background is what changed? Why did you stop doing whatever your background describes and start adventuring? Where did you get the money to purchase your starting gear, or, if you come from a wealthy background, why don’t you have more money? How did you learn the skills of your class? What sets you apart from ordinary people who share your background?
Each background gives a character Proficiency in two skills. Skills are described in the Using Ability Scores section.
In addition, most backgrounds give a character Proficiency with one or more tools. Tools and Tool Proficiencies are detailed in their respective sections.
If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, he or she can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead.
Your ancestry indicates the languages your character can speak by default, and your background might give you access to one or more additional languages of your choice. Note these languages on your character sheet.
Choose your languages from the Standard Languages table, or choose one that is common in your campaign. With your DM’s permission, you can instead choose a language from the Exotic Languages table or a secret language, such as thieves’ cant or the tongue of druids.
Some of these languages are actually families of languages with many dialects. For example, the Primordial language includes the Auran, Aquan, Ignan, and Terran dialects, one for each of the four elemental planes. Creatures that speak different dialects of the same language can communicate with one another.
| Standard Languages | ||
| Language | Typical Speakers | Script |
| Common | Humans | Common |
| Dwarvish | Dwarves | Dwarvish |
| Elvish | Elves | Elvish |
| Giant | Ogres, giants | Dwarvish |
| Gnomish | Gnomes | Dwarvish |
| Goblin | Goblinoids | Dwarvish |
| Halfling | Halflings | Common |
| Orc | Orcs | Dwarvish |
| Exotic Languages | ||
| Language | Typical Speakers | Script |
| Abyssal | Demons | Infernal |
| Celestial | Celestials | Celestial |
| Draconic | Dragons, dragonborn | Draconic |
| Deep Speech | Aboleths, cloakers | — |
| Infernal | Devils | Infernal |
| Machine Speech | Mechadrons | Unreadable by non-Constructs |
| Primordial | Elementals | Dwarvish |
| Sylvan | Fey creatures | Elvish |
| Undercommon | Underworld traders | Elvish |
| Void Speech | Satarre | Writhing runes |
Each background provides a package of starting equipment. If you use the optional rule from the Equipment section to spend coin on gear, you do not receive the starting equipment from your background.
Fleshing out your character’s personality—the array of traits, mannerisms, habits, beliefs, and flaws that give a person a unique identity—will help you bring him or her to life as you play the game. Four categories of characteristics are presented here: personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Beyond those categories, think about your character’s favorite words or phrases, tics and habitual gestures, vices and pet peeves, and whatever else you can imagine.
Each background contains suggested personal characteristics based on your background. You can pick characteristics, roll dice to determine them randomly, or use the suggestions as inspiration for characteristics of your own creation.
Personality Traits. Give your character two personality traits. Personality traits are small, simple ways to help you set your character apart from every other character. Your personality traits should tell you something interesting and fun about your character. They should be self-descriptions that are specific about what makes your character stand out. “I’m smart” is not a good trait, because it describes a lot of characters. “I’ve read every book in Candlekeep” tells you something specific about your character’s interests and disposition.
Personality traits might describe the things your character likes, his or her past accomplishments, things your character dislikes or fears, your character’s self-attitude or mannerisms, or the influence of his or her ability scores.
A useful place to start thinking about personality traits is to look at your highest and lowest ability scores and define one trait related to each. Either one could be positive or negative: you might work hard to overcome a low score, for example, or be cocky about your high score.
Ideals. Describe one ideal that drives your character. Your ideals are the things that you believe in most strongly, the fundamental moral and ethical principles that compel you to act as you do. Ideals encompass everything from your life goals to your core belief system.
Ideals might answer any of these questions: What are the principles that you will never betray? What would prompt you to make sacrifices? What drives you to act and guides your goals and ambitions? What is the single most important thing you strive for?
You can choose any ideals you like, but your character’s alignment is a good place to start defining them. Each background in this chapter includes six suggested ideals. Five of them are linked to aspects of alignment: law, chaos, good, evil, and neutrality. The last one has more to do with the particular background than with moral or ethical perspectives.
Bonds. Create one bond for your character. Bonds represent a character’s connections to people, places, and events in the world. They tie you to things from your background. They might inspire you to heights of heroism, or lead you to act against your own best interests if they are threatened. They can work very much like ideals, driving a character’s motivations and goals.
Bonds might answer any of these questions: Whom do you care most about? To what place do you feel a special connection? What is your most treasured possession?
Your bonds might be tied to your class, your background, your ancestry, or some other aspect of your character’s history or personality. You might also gain new bonds over the course of your adventures.
Flaws. Finally, choose a flaw for your character. Your character’s flaw represents some vice, compulsion, fear, or weakness—in particular, anything that someone else could exploit to bring you to ruin or cause you to act against your best interests. More significant than negative personality traits, a flaw might answer any of these questions: What enrages you? What’s the one person, concept, or event that you are terrified of? What are your vices?
Once you know the basic game aspects of your character, it’s time to flesh him or her out as a person. Your character needs a name. Spend a few minutes thinking about what he or she looks like and how he or she behaves in general terms, while keeping in mind that characters are defined by much more than their ancestry and class. They’re individuals with their own stories, interests, connections, and capabilities beyond those that class and ancestry define.
This section expounds on the details that distinguish characters from one another, including the basics of name and physical description, the rules of backgrounds and languages, and the finer points of personality and alignment.
Your character’s name and physical description might be the first things that the other players at the table learn about you. It’s worth thinking about how these characteristics reflect the character you have in mind.
Name. Put some thought into your character's name. Cultures in D&D have their own naming conventions, similar to the way culture works in the real world. Different nations use their own languages, and different Ancestries have different traditions—Dragonborn might have Draconic names written on phonetic common for instance, while Tieflings have their concept of "Virtue Names" which are concepts they wish to embody. The internet can provide a wealth of help in coming up with a good name for your character and their plenty of name generators you can consult if you're at a loss for ideas.
Sex/Gender. You can play a male or female character without gaining any special benefits or hindrances. Think about how your character does or does not conform to the broader culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and sexual behavior. For example, a male drow cleric defies the traditional gender divisions of drow society, which could be a reason for your character to leave that society and come to the surface.
You don’t need to be confined to binary notions of sex and gender. The elf god Corellon Larethian is often seen as androgynous, for example, and some elves in the multiverse are made in Corellon’s image. You could also play a female character who presents herself as a man, a man who feels trapped in a female body, or a bearded female dwarf who hates being mistaken for a male. Likewise, your character’s sexual orientation is for you to decide.
You can decide your character’s height and weight, using the information provided in your Ancestry's description, if any is given, or seek out a Random Height and Weight table if that makes the process simpler. Think about what your character’s ability scores might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character might be thin. A strong and tough character might be tall or just heavy.
Your Character's Abilities. Take your character’s ability scores and ancestry into account as you flesh out his or her appearance and personality. A very strong character with low Intelligence might think and behave very differently from a very smart character with low Strength.
Other Physical Characteristics.* You choose your character’s age and the color of his or her hair, eyes, and skin. To add a touch of distinctiveness, you might want to give your character an unusual or memorable physical characteristic, such as a scar, a limp, or a tattoo.
Alignment. A typical creature in the game world has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes. Alignment is a combination of two factors: one identifies morality (good, evil, or neutral), and the other describes attitudes toward society and order (lawful, chaotic, or neutral). Thus, nine distinct alignments define the possible combinations. See here for slightly more detailed discussion of Alignment.
Your class and background determine your character’s starting equipment, including weapons, armor, and other adventuring gear. Record this equipment on your character sheet. All such items are detailed in the Equipment section.
Instead of taking the gear given to you by your class and background, you can purchase your starting equipment. You have a number of gold pieces (gp) to spend based on your class, as shown in the Equipment section. Extensive lists of equipment, with prices, also appear in that section. If you wish, you can also have one trinket at no cost (see the "Trinkets" table at the end of the Equipment section).
Your Strength score limits the amount of gear you can carry. Try not to purchase equipment with a total weight (in pounds) exceeding your Strength score times 15. "Using Ability Scores" has more information on carrying capacity.
Your Armor Class (AC) represents how well your character avoids being wounded in battle. Things that contribute to your AC include the armor you wear, the shield you carry, and your Dexterity modifier. Not all characters wear armor or carry shields, however.
Without armor or a shield, your character’s AC equals 10 + his or her Dexterity modifier. If your character wears armor, carries a shield, or both, calculate your AC using the rules in the Equipment section. Record your AC on your character sheet.
Your character needs to be proficient with armor and shields to wear and use them effectively, and your armor and shield proficiencies are determined by your class. There are drawbacks to wearing armor or carrying a shield if you lack the required proficiency, as explained in the Equipment section.
Some spells and class features give you a different way to calculate your AC. If you have multiple features that give you different ways to calculate your AC, you choose which one to use.
For each weapon your character wields, calculate the modifier you use when you attack with the weapon and the damage you deal when you hit.
When you make an attack with a weapon, you roll a d20 and add your Proficiency Bonus (but only if you are proficient with the weapon) and the appropriate ability modifier.
As your character goes on adventures and overcomes challenges, he or she gains experience, represented by experience points. A character who reaches a specified experience point total advances in capability. This advancement is called gaining a level.
When your character gains a level, his or her class often grants additional features, as detailed in the class description. Some of these features allow you to increase your ability scores, either increasing two scores by 1 each or increasing one score by 2. You can’t increase an ability score above 20. In addition, every character's proficiency bonus increases at certain levels.
Each time you gain a level, you gain 1 additional Hit Die. Roll that Hit Die, add your Constitution modifier to the roll, and add the total (minimum of 1) to your hit point maximum. Alternatively, you can use the fixed value shown in your class entry, which is the average result of the die roll (rounded up).
When your Constitution modifier increases by 1, your hit point maximum increases by 1 for each level you have attained. For example, if your 7th-level fighter has a Constitution score of 17, when he reaches 8th level, he increases his Constitution score from 17 to 18, thus increasing his Constitution modifier from +3 to +4. His hit point maximum then increases by 8.
The Character Advancement table summarizes the XP you need to advance in levels from level 1 through level 20, and the proficiency bonus for a character of that level. Consult the information in your character's class description to see what other improvements you gain at each level.
The shading in the Character Advancement table shows the four tiers of play. The tiers don’t have any rules associated with them; they are a general description of how the play experience changes as characters gain levels.
In the first tier (levels 1–4), characters are effectively apprentice adventurers. They are learning the features that define them as members of particular classes, including the major choices that flavor their class features as they advance (such as a wizard’s Arcane Tradition or a fighter’s Martial Archetype). The threats they face are relatively minor, usually posing a danger to local farmsteads or villages.
In the second tier (levels 5–10), characters come into their own. Many spellcasters gain access to 3rd-level spells at the start of this tier, crossing a new threshold of magical power with spells such as Fireball and Lightning Bolt. At this tier, many weapon-using classes gain the ability to make multiple attacks in one round. These characters have become important, facing dangers that threaten cities and kingdoms.
In the third tier (levels 11–16), characters have reached a level of power that sets them high above the ordinary populace and makes them special even among adventurers. At 11th level, many spellcasters gain access to 6th-level spells, some of which create effects previously impossible for player characters to achieve. Other characters gain features that allow them to make more attacks or do more impressive things with those attacks. These mighty adventurers often confront threats to whole regions and continents.
At the fourth tier (levels 17–20), characters achieve the pinnacle of their class features, becoming heroic (or villainous) archetypes in their own right. The fate of the world or even the fundamental order of the multiverse might hang in the balance during their adventures.
| Character Advancement | ||
| Experience Points | Level | Proficiency Bonus |
| 0 300 900 2,700 |
1 2 3 4 |
+2 +2 +2 +2 |
| 6,500 14,000 23,000 34,000 48,000 64,000 |
5 6 7 8 9 10 |
+3 +3 +3 +3 +4 +4 |
| 85,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 165,000 195,000 |
11 12 13 14 15 16 |
+4 +4 +5 +5 +5 +5 |
| 225,000 265,000 305,000 355,000 |
17 18 19 20 |
+6 +6 +6 +6 |