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One thing I’ve been noticing lately is that beginners want to learn more about how to play D&D before they commit to buying any books. While I cover the very core basics to D&D in Roleplaying 101 and Roleplaying 102, I’ve come to realize that some people want to learn more before committing to buying D&D products.

First of all, you only need one D&D book to get started: The D&D 3.5 Player’s Handbook. This explains all you need to really get started. Of course, it might help to get some dice, and print out a character sheet or two. However, you can just as easily borrow someone else’s dice, and write down your character’s stats on a blank sheet of paper.

So let’s start off with how to create your D&D character!

The Very Basics
At the top of most character sheets, you’ll find slots for not just name, but height, weight, hair color, eye color, gender, etc. For the most part, you can just use your imagination to make up these things. Just envision the character you want to make, and fill in the information based on what you come up with.

You’ll also find spots for Race, Class, Alignment, and Deity on your character sheet as well. A lot of veteran D&D players will also fill this in right off, since they already know what they want to play. If you also know exactly what you want to play, then go ahead and fill those in now. However, beware that the choices you can put in there might depend on the campaign you’re playing! Make sure to ask your Dungeon Master if your choices are okay with him or her first.

Rolling for Abilities
The next thing you’re going to do is roll for your ability scores. These scores are your basic attributes for your character, and largely determine how good your character is in certain areas. Here’s an explanation for each of the six ability scores you’ll be rolling for:

• Strength - Nothing but muscle with this ability. It determines how strong your character is, from how much they can lift to how hard they can hit.
• Dexterity - Nimbleness, reflexes, flexibility, and precision, all rolled into one. This one determines how quick your character reacts, as well as precision with weapons that require it. It also helps when trying to swipe something away, getting out of being tied up, and dodging blows.
• Constitution - Hardiness and just how healthy your character is. Determines how much abuse your character can take, physically. Also helps with resisting poisons and taking certain spells without even flinching.
• Intelligence - How much you can learn and know! This is a huge factor in determining how many skills you know. Also, certain magic-based classes use this ability to determine how many spells you know.
• Wisdom - Experience with the world. A wise one learns from his or her own experiences, not from books or schools. It’s also your character’s force of will, and can even help push back at some sort of mental attack, like mind control.
• Charisma - Pretty much how well your character gets along with people. While most D&D players liken this to attractiveness, it doesn’t neccessarily have to be so all the time. It’s really more the force of your character’s personality. This is the score for leaders, though it also works for those who like to lie to others, or simply intimidate them.

Now that you know what these ability scores are about, it’s time to roll for them! Most Dungeon Masters will use the 4d6 drop the lowest rule (If you need help, read up on dice notation). This basically means that after you roll the four dice, you just drop the one with the lowest roll, and add up the remaining three. Also, most DMs will let you assign the scores in any order you wish, which can make life much easier when you have a certain character you want to create.

What I generally do, as do many other D&D players, is do the 4d6 roll six times, noting down the results in a blank sheet of paper (or even the back of the character sheet). If the results are to my liking I’ll use those for my ability scores, and assign them as I see fit. If the results suck, then I’ll just reroll.

However, be warned that different Dungeon Masters may have different rules on how to generate your ability scores. So make sure to find out from your DM what the rules are before you start rolling!

Pick Your Race and Class
If you haven’t done so before rolling your ability scores, now would be a good time to choose what race your character is going to be, as well the class.

Race I think is pretty self-explanatory, as it is the species your character will be. This game is more than just about a bunch of humans!

Class is more or less what your character’s career is. For example, a Fighter will have focused on combat training with weapons most of his life, whereas a Wizard will have been studying various tomes for most of his life. This is also going to determine how much gear your character is going to start off with as well, but we’ll get to that later.

Now for the more technical aspects.

Race is going to determine what extra abilities your character might have. A lot of races will modify your ability scores that you just rolled. For example, elves get a +2 to dexterity, but a -2 to constitution, being that they’re more graceful but not as hardy. You’ll probably need to modify your character sheet a little bit to reflect the changes that your race will be causing.

Class will have an effect on your saving throws, which help your character resist certain kinds of damage. It will also effect which skills your character is going to be able to learn. Class also has an effect on what feats your character can take as well. It also affects health, your ability to attack, the kinds of weapons you can wield, and all sorts of other things.

Class can probably be one of the more overwhelming things to Dungeons & Dragons. But fear not, I’ll help you through this whole process.

Filling in a Few More Things
Now that you have your ability scores, race, and class all squared away, you can now go ahead and fill in several more things on your character sheet. One of the first things you’ll want to do is fill in your character’s ability modifiers. This is what directly affects everything else that’s dependent on your ability scores. Your ability modifiers are, of course, based on your actual ability score.

If you look at page 8 of the 3.5 Player’s Handbook, you’ll find a table called ‘Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells’. Starting with your first ability score (which is probably strength), match the score with the number range listed under the Score column. Then on the row you find it on, you’ll find your modifier under the Modifier column. So if you’re lucky to have an ability score that’s 20 (such as with a 18 rolled for dexterity and +2 to dexterity for elf), you’ll have a very nice +5 modifier for that ability score.

Next up, go ahead and fill in your Saving Throws. You’ll find your Base Save on the table in the Player’s Handbook for your character’s class. Each Saving Throw has an ability score linked to it, as should be shown on your character sheet. Go ahead and fill in the Ability Modifier for each Saving Throw with the appropriate modifier listed. Just in case, the saving throws and associated ability score modifiers are:

• Fortitude - Constitution
• Reflex - Dexterity
• Will Power - Wisdom

Also, the saving throws are abbreviated as Fort, Ref, and Will, just in case you get confused when looking at your character sheet.

For the actual saves, you just add up your base save with the ability modifier, and you’re set to go. Over the course of playing you can potentially get other modifiers, but for now there’s no need to worry about them.

You’ll also want to get your current hit points for your character. Each class uses a different die to determine hit points, so make sure to refer to your class’s information in the Player’s Handbook to figure that out. Also, a lot of Dungeon Masters will let you have the max possible value for your character’s first level. So if your hit die (the kind of die you use to determine hit points) is a d4, then you’ll get the maximum possible value of 4 for your hit points. Also, make sure to add your Constitution modifier to the result! You get to add that for each hit die (aka level) your character has. Though, if you have a negative modifier, you’ll be subtracting instead.

Next there’s your character’s movement speed. This is derived from your race, so refer to the race you’ve chosen for your movement speed. However, your speed can be affected by how much you’re carrying. And how much you can carry is determined by your strength, naturally.

On your character sheet (and it might depend on how it’s formatted), you should be able to find Max Loads for Light, Medium, and Heavy loads. You can find out what the maximums are for each category by referencing table 9-1 on page 162 in the Player’s Handbook. Just find your strength score on the table, and you’ll find the max values for each category of encumbrance.

Now, as I mentioned, how much you’re carrying can affect your movement speed. You can easily find that on table 9-2 on the same page as Carry Capacity. You may notice that the entry for light loads is left out on that table. This is because light loads are easy to handle, so there’s no penalties for carrying your typical gear.

Another part of your character sheet you can now fill in is your Initiative. This determines how quickly you act when combat begins (or any other situation when reaction time counts). As I mentioned above, Dexterity helps to determine this. So go ahead and mark in your Dexterity modifier for that, as well as marking the main value. There are some things that can make your initiative higher, but I’ll cover that later.

Finally, the last thing you can fill in before we move on to the next step is your Attack Bonuses. First, you’ll have your Base Attack Bonus, which is determined by your class and level. So just go refer to your class, find what level you are, find the Base Attack Bonus for that level, and mark it down on your character sheet.

Now depending on your character sheet that you have, you may find entries for Melee, Ranged, and Grapple attack bonuses. Fill in the Base Attack Bonuses in the appropriate places next to them. Then fill in the appropriate ability score modifiers as well, which will be strength for both melee and grapple, and dexterity for ranged. Just add them up and write down the total value for your Total Attack Bonus for each of those three.

Whew!
Admittedly, this has probably been a lot for you to digest. However, there’s still more to do with creating your character for D&D! Yes, I know this can seem like a long, arduous task, but it does get easier once you get accustomed to it. Once you’ve created a few characters, creating them will seem like a breeze.

So keep your eye out for next week, where I’ll be covering skills, feats, languages, cash, and equipment. And depending on how long it gets, I may even throw in spells too!

Update: Part 2 is up! So go learn about skills, feats, and equipment for your character!