Beginning Dungeon Mastering Skills: Learn to Make a Character

Part 1 of 2

If you are new to my series on how to Dungeon Master for your kids, start here. This post assumes that you have read through the series and have all necessary supplies.

One of the first things you’ll be doing as a D.M. is helping your players make their characters. It’s a good idea to know how the rules work, and what the different options are before you start. I find that making a few practice characters helps me understand how the different player character classes work, and in turn, I can help my players understand it as well. Also, it is just plain fun as a creative exercise.

Let’s get started!

Supplies

For character creation, you will need the following:

• A copy of the free, basic rule set for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition.
• A few printed out copies of the character sheet and spell sheet from the back of the rule book.
• A set of gaming dice or app that simulates dice. An example set.
• Four six-sided dice. (Optional)
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Calculator. (Optional, but good if you really struggle with basic math.)

Step-by-Step Instructions

We are given a pretty good tutorial for making a character in chapter 1, so let’s go with that. I will of course be adding my own thoughts and methods as we go along.

*Please note that this is going to be a long post. You may want to bookmark or have on offline copy saved so that you can go through at your own pace and not use up a ton of data.

1. Choosing Character Race

Our first task is to choose the race of our character. Since we are using the basic rule set, we are limited to Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human. Chapter 2 provides us with definitions of the different races, and their particular skills. I suggest reading through each description and see which one stands out as most interesting to you. I am going to choose Elf as my example character’s race. Note that there are a few sub-races listed for Elves, so I am going to choose High Elf for my character. So on our character sheet in the top right, where it says race, I will record the race of my character: High (Sun) Elf. I will also fill in my name in the space provided for player name. I suggest having your players do that as well, it just helps keep things organized. And you won’t have to worry about upsetting your players by giving them the wrong sheet, or forgetting their characters name.

You may have noticed that there are other traits listed for the Elf race, and for the High Elf sub-race. This will be the case for most of the races you choose. Thankfully, it is very easy to record everything on to our character sheet. Let’s tackle these one at a time.

Ability Score Increase/Decrease

Ability scores define how good, or bad, your character is at certain things. A high number indicates that your character is particularly gifted in that area. A high strength for example, means you are exceptionally strong, and are likely to do more damage when attacking. A low number means that your character struggles in this area. A character with a low dexterity score will have a harder time evading attacks or sneaking around. You could consider them clumsy.

I like to record the ability score increase/decrease beside the corresponding box on the character sheet, lightly in pencil. We do not have our ability scores set yet, but we need to remember how they will change once we do. The ability score boxes are on the left hand side of the character sheet. For my High Elf, I will write a +2 next to the box marked ‘Dexterity’ and a +1 next to the box marked ‘Intelligence’.

Age, Alignment, and Size

These traits will have varying impact on your character. We are given some general descriptions to help understand some of the characteristics for our character’s race. It is up to you as the D.M. to decide just how much, if any, impact these will have in your game. In a general sense, they provide some of the defining characteristics of your character.

Age and Size are just as they sound. How old is your character? How tall? You can play around with this to help make your character unique. Should you make your character extremely young or old? Are they short or tall, thin or thick? Maybe they are just run-of-the-mill average? Once you’ve decided what you would like, the first and second pages of the character sheet have places to record this information at the top of the pages. I think I will make my sample character an adult female of average size.

Alignment is a special case. It is a way to define your character’s morality and world view. It helps give weight to the actions your character will consider appropriate or inappropriate within the world. It can also be considered part of a religious belief, punishable if not strictly adhered to. This again is up to you the D.M. just how much impact alignment plays in your world. Page 36 of the basic rules gives definition to the nine alignment options. Once you have decided what alignment sounds fun to you, record it on the first page of your character sheet at the top, where it says ‘Alignment’. I am going to make my character Chaotic Good.

Speed

Each race has a base movement speed. This is how many feet your character can move while walking at a normal pace for one round of action or combat. (This will make more sense if you have read through the rules about movement.) Notice that it is call ‘base’ movement. Certain conditions will affect how far your character is able to move. In the center of the first page of the character sheet is a place labeled ‘Speed’. This is where to record the speed number. For my character, the speed is 30 feet.

Other Racial Traits

This will vary for each race. Thankfully there are two locations on the first and second pages of the character sheet for us to write down all of our race’s additional traits. They are both labeled ‘Features and Traits’. There is also a place to record any known languages or proficiencies on the lower left-hand corner of the first page of the character sheet. It can be difficult to fit all of the information in on the tiny spaces provided, so I like to shorten things to just the important bits I need to remember. If I find I am unable to to fit everything on my sheet, I will use a piece of lined paper to write down the rest.

2. Choosing A Class

Now that you have your race selected and all applicable stats and skills recorded on your character sheet, it is time to pick your character’s class. I think of class as a character’s chosen path or profession. A class helps define the skill set a character brings when adventuring in the world. Since we are using the basic rules our class choices are limited to: Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard. Chapter 3 gives us descriptions of each of the classes. Pick one that sounds the most fun to you and record that on your character sheet at the top of the first page in the spot labeled ‘Class and Level’. While you are at it, for the purposes of this demonstration, record your level as ‘1’. There are additional rules for making a character of a higher level, but that is outside the scope of this tutorial. Level 1 is a beginner adventurer, and where most groups start. In my opinion, level 1 is a great place to start a group of kids new to the game. They get the chance to learn how the game works, and how their character works. It gets more complicated at the higher levels, with more abilities and options available. I find that the natural leveling up progression gives them time to learn and adjust.

I am choosing Wizard as the class for my sample character. So I will record that at the top of my character sheet.

There are going to be a lot of things to record on your character sheet now and it can get a little confusing. Take your time, read and re-read the instructions and descriptions for your particular class. You can do this!

Class Features

All the classes will have these features listed. While they do vary from class to class, where to record them remains the same. Most also function in the same way. Let’s take a look at the features one by one.

Hit Points

Hit points are the way to track the health of your character. This number lets you know how much damage your character can receive before they become unconscious or die. The first stat we are given is ‘Hit Dice’. This means the type of dice you will roll to regain hit points or to gain new hit points when leveling up. For my wizard, my hit die is a d6, a six-sided die. In the center of the first page of the character sheet is a box labeled ‘Hit Dice’, there is also a small line labeled ‘Total’. In the main part of the box, write down your classes hit die. on the line marked total, write down how many total dice you have at your current level. Since we are making a first-level character, we will only have one hit die. I am going to record 1d6 for my wizard.

The next thing we have to record is our hit points at first level. This will be the max number of your hit die, in my case that means 6 hit points, plus your constitution modifier. We have not filled in our ability scores yet, so I like to make a quick note in the ‘current hit points’ box. For my wizard, I will write “6+ Con Mod”. Once I have my ability scores, I can add that number to get my hit point maximum. I suggest doing the same for whatever class you chose.

The final part of our hit point section is ‘Hit Points at Higher Levels’. We are given a couple of options here. We can either take an average h.p. + our constitution modifier at every new level to add to our existing hit points, or we can roll our hit die + our constitution modifier at each new level, again adding that to our existing hit point maximum. The choice is yours as the D.M. which one you want your players to use. I prefer to have my players roll for their hit points. I like the more random element the dice add to the game. I think it can provide some opportunities for creativity and role-play for your players. The disadvantage of rolling is in the randomness, potentially it could keep your character from gaining many hit points, making them easier to kill. Choosing the steady progression does guarantee that each character steadily gains hit points each level, but they miss out on the potential to gain the maximum possible hit points per level.

There isn’t anything to record on our character sheet in this section, but making a note of it, maybe in your ‘Features and Traits’ columns, might be a good reminder.

Proficiencies

Proficiencies are the skills your class is really good at. These include skills based on your skills with weapons, armor, tools, and saving throws. Proficiencies vary widely between the classes, so what your class has will probably be very different from my sample character. But the good news is that everything gets recorded in the same places on your character sheet!

Before we get down to recording our class proficiencies, I want to bring attention to the box on the upper-middle-left hand side of the character sheet, labeled ‘Proficiency Bonus’. What is the point in being really good at a skill if you don’t get a little extra bonus, right? There is a table included in the description page for the different classes. For my class it is simply labeled ‘The Wizard’. The first column is labeled ‘Level’ and the second is labeled ‘Proficiency Bonus’. ( We will tackle the other columns in a bit.) So for a wizard at first level, my proficiency bonus is +2. This is the same for all other classes. Every first level character starts with a proficiency bonus of +2. So write +2 in your proficiency bonus box.

Proficiencies are divided into five general categories: Armor, Weapons, Tools, Saving Throws and Skills. These are the items and skills your character is especially good with. It does not mean your character possesses the items, they just know how to use them well. For Armor, Tools, and Weapons, there is a box in the lower left-hand corner of the first page of the character sheet labeled ‘Other Proficiencies and Languages’ where you can list your characters proficiencies. I find that there isn’t enough room in this box to record everything, so I use part of the second sheet, usually in ‘Additional Features and Traits’. You could also use a separate sheet of paper or a sticky note. For my sample wizard, I will see how much I can cram into the box provided.

Saving Throws and Skills are recorded a little differently from the Weapons, Tools, and Armor. On the center left of the character sheet are two boxes, one labeled ‘Saving Throws’ and the other ‘Skills’. For now all you will need to do is fill in the little bubble next to the corresponding saving throw or skill for your character’s class. For my wizard, I will bubble-in Intelligence and Wisdom for my saving throws, and I get to choose two skills to be proficient in. I think I will go with Arcana (the knowledge of magic lore), and Investigation (I like to think of detectives or researchers for this skill).

Equipment

Each class is given a starting set of equipment. Since we are using the basic rules, and also running a game for kids, I think it makes sense to use this option. Read carefully through this section of the rules for the class you picked. I say this, because a lot of the options are ‘this or that’ options, not ‘both’. Record your selections in the box at the bottom center of the first page of the character sheet labeled ‘Equipment’. The equipment box is small, so you may need to find, or make, additional space to record everything. Chapter 5 gives the details of the different types of equipment, so you can decide which ones sound the best for your character.

For my wizard I am going to choose a dagger, an arcane focus, a scholar’s pack, and a spell book.

Even More Class Features

This is where the classes begin to vary widely in what you will need to record for your character. In general, you will be using the ‘Features and Traits’ boxes to record most of the information. For the spell casting classes there is an additional ‘spell sheet’ that has to be filled out. For the others, you won’t have to worry about keeping track of spells.

Remember the table at the beginning of your class description? This is going to help you know what features are available to your character based on their level. Look up what features are available for your character for 1st level and record those on your sheet. I like to include some notes to myself about what the feature does. This is helpful if there are not enough copies of the rule book to go around. The descriptions for what your character’s class features do is listed under their class features.

According to the Wizard table, the features for my character are Spell Casting and Arcane Recovery. I am going to record those on my sheet, with a few notes to remind me how they function.

Features for the Spell Casting Classes

This section is going to apply only if you are building a character that uses spell casting, like a cleric or wizard. I suggest building one spell caster and one martial character to learn how to do both. Your players are certainly going to making both types of characters.

The third page of the character sheet is for spells. At the top of this page are four boxes to fill in. The first box on the left of the sheet is labeled ‘Spellcasting Class’. This simply means what class your character is. For my character, I will write ‘Wizard’.

The next box over, ‘Spellcasting Ability’, needs to be filled in with what ability your class uses to cast spells. Since the basic rules only have two classes of magic user, your choice will be between Cleric or Wizard. The class description tells us which ability applies for spellcasting, for a Wizard, the spellcasting ability is linked to our Intelligence. So I will write ‘INT’ in the box.

The middle box is labeled ‘Spell Save DC’. DC means difficulty check. In the class description section we are given a few numbers to add together. We still don’t have our ability scores, so this will be another place to make a note about what we will need to add in the future. For my wizard, I am going to write 8 + 2(my proficiency bonus) + INT modifier. A spell save DC is used when your character casts a spell that has a saving throw in its description. Some spells require the target of the spell to make a saving throw in order to try to avoid the worst of the spell. The Spell Save DC number is the target they need to reach or exceed to make their save.

The last box at the top is labeled ‘Spell Attack Bonus’. In our class description this is labeled ‘Spell Attack Modifier’. I have no idea why they changed from modifier to bonus, or vice versa. Anyway, this number is what to add to your character’s spellcasting attack. So I am going to make a note for myself on my character sheet 2 + INT Modifier. Again, since our ability scores are not decided yet, we have to leave that part blank and come back to it later.

The rest of the ‘spell sheet’ is divided into sections, starting with a section labeled ‘Cantrips’, or you could call them ‘Zero Level Spells’, and the rest of the sections are numbered from 1 – 9. The handy chart at the beginning of your character class will tell you how many ‘Spell Slots’ you get per “Spell Level’. The character description tells up how many spells we start with at level 1. So for my wizard, they have 3 cantrips they know from the Wizard Spell list plus one because they are an Elf. They know a total of 6 first level spells, but can only have 2 memorized per day. So, even though they have 6 spells, they only have 2 spell slots at first level, so I have to decide which two my character wants to memorize for the day. Cantrips can be cast every turn without running out. So I will record the 3 cantrips my wizard knows in the cantrips section. Then I will write the number of total spell slots next to the number one section. Any slots I expend during the game will be marked in the box beside the slots total. I will also pick 6 first level spells that sound interesting to me and record those in the level 1 spell section. There are little bubbles to the left of each line where the spells are recorded. These are to mark which spells your character has prepared ,or memorized, for the day.

Now we can get back to more general , not entirely one type of class specific character creation.

3. Determine Ability Scores

Now we get to fill in those ability scores on the left hand side of the first page of the character sheet. Well, sort of. There is still one more chance for those numbers to change in the next step.

There are a few ways we are given to determine these numbers, rolling our ability scores, using the standard set of ability scores, or point buy. My personal preference is rolling scores. The random element is exciting and can make for some great role-playing opportunities. The standard set removes the possibility of rolling a very low number, and gives everyone playing a solid character. Point buy also makes a solid, yet unremarkable character. As D.M. you will need to decide which one you want your players to use. For the purposes of this tutorial, I will go with the standard set of scores.

Once you have your six scores either through rolling, using the standard set, or point buy, you need to decide where to put each number. There are many ways to make this decision. The easiest is to put the highest scores in the abilities your character class will use the most often. For a fighter it could be strength or dexterity, followed by constitution as the next highest score. For a wizard, intelligence is the ability used the most, followed by constitution or dexterity. There are also ‘quick build’ suggestions for each class that can help you determine what you may want to do. Or, you could choose to build your character around an idea you have. Maybe you are a wizard, not the smartest wizard, but the most charming and likeable wizard. You could put your highest score into charisma and lean into role-play and performance. The sky is the limit when it comes to creative character design.

Now that you have an idea where you want your character stats to go, take a look at the numbers you have off to the side from your race and add those to the number in the corresponding ability. You can use those extra ‘bumps’ to your advantage. Let’s take a look at the ‘Ability Scores and Modifiers’ Chart on page 9. The left hand column is your ability score, the right is the modifier. Note that below 10 there are negative modifiers, and above 11 there are positive modifiers. These modifiers are used a lot. Every skill listed to the right of the ability scores, will use the modifier associated with that ability. At first glance, it would seem like putting the highest score with the highest ‘bump’ would make the most sense, but that really isn’t the case. If you look again at the table, there is a range for each ability modifier. A score of 12 or 13 will still give you a +1 modifier. So let’s say you have a score that is a 10. If you put that score in an ability where the stat will be bumped by +2, you now have a 12, giving you a +1 modifier instead of a +0 modifier. Of course if your ‘bumps’ occur in the ability that is the one your class uses, you will probably want to use a higher stat anyway, but only if the ‘bump’ gives you a higher modifier over using any other stat. For example, my wizard uses intelligence to cast spells. My highest stat is a 15 and my next highest is a 14. Let’s say I have a +2 to add to intelligence. So if I put the 15 in intelligence, I will have a 17, which gives me a +3 modifier. But if I use the 14 in intelligence, I get a 16, which still gives me a +3 modifier. That way I can place the 15 into another stat, maybe one with a +1 bump. If I had placed the 14 there, it would only become a 15, and I would not have received a higher modifier. Placing the 15 there gives me another 16, which bumps my modifier to +3. So I get two +3 modifiers to different skills instead of a +3 and a +2. You can play around with the numbers this way a try to get the most modifier bang for your stat buck. This will also work to help avoid negative modifiers. Once you are done crunching the numbers, write your ability scores in the bigger box of the corresponding ability. Write your modifier and whether it is positive or negative in the smaller oval at the base of each box.

Skills

The blocks just to the right of your ability scores are labeled ‘Saving Throws’ and ‘Skills’. We can now take those modifiers we just got and add them to these sections. Any saving throws and skills that you marked with the bubble will also have your proficiency bonus added in. For example my wizard has proficiency with intelligence and wisdom saving throws, so I will add an additional +2 to whatever modifier is associated with that ability. Let’s say my intelligence modifier is a +3. I now have a +5 to all of my intelligence saving throws. Let’s say I only put a 10 in wisdom, so I have a +0 modifier. I still get a +2 to all of my wisdom saving throws because of my proficiency bonus.

If you take a look at the ‘Skills’ box you will see a list of skills with their corresponding ability in parentheses next to them. As with saving throws, any skills you have bubbled in will have your proficiency modifier added as well as your ability modifier. Go down this list and write the ability modifier that corresponds to each skill. For example, Arcana is one of the skills my wizard has proficiency with, so not only will I add my Intelligence modifier, I will add my proficiency bonus as well. Now for a skill I don’t have proficiency in, like Athletics, I would only add the strength modifier.

Filling in the Blanks

Now that we have our ability scores, we can go back and fill in those blanks we left earlier. Let’s start with hit points. Our hit points are determined by our hit dice + our con modifier. For my wizard, her hit points for 1st level will be 6(her hit die) + 1 ( her con modifier) for a total of 7 hit points. You will record your characters max hit points on the line just above current hit points.

Next up for the spellcasters is filling in your spell save dc and spell attack bonus. For my Wizard, her spell save dc will be 8 + 2(proficiency bonus + 3(INT modifier) = 13. Her Spell attack bonus is 2(proficiency bonus) + 3(INT modifier) = 5.

Let’s Take a Break

That was a lot of information to take in! Thank you for sticking it out! This is always the exciting part for me, because you can start to see how you might take your character from just a bunch of random stuff to a living person in your campaign world. The next part is even more fun! We will really round out our characters with a background, personality traits, physical traits, and equipment.

I hope you are finding this tutorial helpful! Feel free to reach out to me in the comments with any questions, or what type of character you are making. And if you are enjoying my content, and haven’t yet, please consider subscribing!