hello everyone this is the character creation episode after learning how to play Dungeons & Dragons in previous videos I think you are ready to learn how to create your own character the great thing about DM v5e is that character creation is much easier than most previous editions which means that you can easily learn how to do it in just one video some players create their own character by first coming up with a concept a pyromaniac no wallow for example others just want to build an effective character then build a backstory from it both methods are completely accessible but just to make it easier for you all to learn character creation I will just build a normal functional character what is effective is subjective anyway it depends on the sort of role you want to take in the part for the character creation process we are going to build grant from scratch and go through the process of filling out his character she grant angle back that dwarf and cleric is a spell caster so this character creation process takes a bit longer and non spellcasters but I'm going to divide the video into two parts the part where the process is common for all classes and the part that only spellcasters use a link to its finished character sheet can be found in the description below so you can compare them if you want we are going to fill out the character sheet section by section if you're going to create your character along with this video I'm going to place this symbol over the screen so that you can pause the video and not get left behind but we may have to go back to previous sections periodically now let's have a look at the blank character sheet as you can see there are three pages in your character sheet but really you just need the first and third page for gameplay the second page is for your backstory actual information and mostly other narrative details it only serves as a useful reminder for you don't expect other players to read it because most of them won't besides it is better to have your character talk about his backstory in the game anyway there are three things that define your character class race and background the majority of your abilities come from your class race and background only give you bonus ability scores traits and other features so choosing your class is the most important choice you can make within a class that are different archetypes take off them as subclasses when you get to choose one depends on the class itself spiders can become champion battle master or eldritch night starting at level 3 but instead of an archetype clerics has defined domain they have to make their choice right off the bat at level one choosing certain archetypes or domain can greatly alter your gameplay experience infant or the same class instead of healing you could be blasting holy flames left and right but for this tutorial I am going to make grant a cleric of the life domain in the players handbook that is also a class table that summarizes your features and abilities I will refer to this periodically through the video there are quite a lot of ways to choose from elf dwarf humans gnomes and so on these races only have one set of bonuses and trade humans have Padian options while others like the dwarves elves and gnomes have suffragette divisions that alter their package of bonuses grant is a hilt war so he gets the common globin bonus and features + is unique supplies bonus backgrounds give you a very package of skills tools language proficiencies and different amount of starting money there are no sub backgrounds so when you choose a background that sense is all you get I will make grant an acolyte mechanically you don't have to worry about alignment there are no alignment restrictions in this edition of D&D but this information can help other players understand your character's life philosophy a bit better so they won't be completely surprised when your chaotic neutral character pick spikes for no reason a bit of PSA here Dungeons & Dragons is a social game try to play cooperatively or at least don't have fun at another players expense you are not winning the game or any friends by making other players feel miserable now we are going to start building our character we are going to refer back to our class race and background selections a lot so if you're creating along has the players handbook of basic rules handy your ability scores determine how effective you are a different task it affects your skills fighting capabilities eight points spell casting and everything else there are three ways of generating your ability scores the traditional method is using dice so roll 46 and throw away the smallest number you do this six times to create an array of number then you can assign them to the abilities you want however this method has fallen out of favor in official organized gameplay the following two methods are more commonly used the standard array unless the traditional methods you don't roll any dice but your people have set array of numbers you can assign to your ability point by system where you start with all of the three scores at a then you have 27 points to distribute among them the higher you go the more expensive it gets each score you improve above eight cost one points each until you reach 13 from then on every increment cost you two points and the maximum ability score you can reach is 15 so it costs you nine points to increase an ability score from 8 to 15 to make it easy I will just use the standard array but before you start assigning scores it is better to review your racial bonuses first I want grant to be an effective spell casting cleric so I assign 15 to its wisdom so that he will have 16 with some score and +3 modifier this modifier number down here is more important than the score this is the number that gives you the actual bonus and penalties during gameplay 10 or 11 is the score for commoner giving you zero modifier for every two points above ten you get a modified point at sixteen you get plus three and at eight or nine you get negative one be aware that other classes may use different abilities for their spell casting and class features wizards use their intelligence and barge use their charisma to read your class features carefully at level one your proficiency is +2 filling out the blank field is very easy this transfers are modified across from your ability column if you see strength on the saving TRO just transfer the respective modifier to the plant spot do the same for the skills when you see the abbreviated strength here in parentheses this transfer to modify it across that's for dexterity in for intelligence and so on if your character has proficiency in certain saving chores or skills you get to color in circle and add your proficiency bonus at level 1 it is passed to your saving through proficiency come from your class but your skill proficiencies come from various sources class background and sometimes raise your class give you options for your skill but your background and raise door and since you can't stack proficiency bonuses it is better to start with your race and background then pick whatever option you have left as I still 12 grant doesn't get any skill proficiencies from his race this background as an acolyte different proficiency in insight and religion so let's go back to this class skill option you have the options of two skills from history inside medicine persuasion and religion two of them overlap with the skills from this background so let's choose the remaining options hmm history and medicine now let's apply the proficiency bonuses to his saving throws and skill plus to each their next let's look at his passes perception passes perception is 10 plus your wisdom modifier and proficiency if you have proficiency in the perception skill or 10 plus your perception skills total your other proficiencies includes your language weapon armor and tools these come from race class and background you have to read carefully because sometimes what appears to be a feature like the dworkin combat training racial trade is actually a set of proficiency so grant is proficient in the following weapons it's common to miss a few things and you have to go back to previous section I am sure that we will return to this section later on four features and train you pretty much just bring across your race background and class features I like to add parentheses to identify where the features come from but you don't have to do that for spell casting the rules are unique for every class but pay special attention to whether you can perform ritual casting and the type of spell casting focus you use if your spell casting focus isn't specified then you will have to use the more expensive component pouch to fulfill the material component requirement of a spell luckily you only need to buy its component pouch one Glen's defined domain is the live domain once you have chosen an archetype or domain you can't get other options features from the same class even if you multi class so don't make the mistake of taking features from two or more archetypes or domain the last domain also gives grant owners proficiency in heavy armor so let's go back and put it in the other proficiency section done your equipment comes from your background and class you don't get too many options from your background so let's start from there bring across equipment and the gold pieces you only get your starting money from your background there are alternate options for equipment but I'm not going to cover it in this video your class gives you multiple choice options for your starting equipment or every third point because Glen is proficient with Warhammer due to its racial trade let's pick Warhammer then chain wheels because he is also proficient in it due to bring light domain clarity then let's give him a light crossbow next you have the option of either a priest pack or Explorer pack let's choose the priests pack the last entry a shield and the holy symbol is mandatory now let's calculate his armor cloth because he is wearing a chainmail 16 plus to drop his shield is a total of 18 is pretty tough for a cleric its initiative is his dexterity modifier - 1 SB comes from his race 25 feet that's how fast he can move on his turn with his stubby door Nick Tory grant maximum hit point referred to this class features it starts with a then you ask his Constitution modifier but don't forget features that must modify it is to open toughness Rachel Trey increases his maximal hit points by a 1 so he has a maximum of 11 hit points ignore temporary hit points you only get it when you activate the certain class features or spell it's nice it's on your class feature 1d8 or cleric this section is just a reminder of what you can do with your weapon it only has three slots for convenience but if you are armed to the teeth with a dozen weapons and knows 20 damage dealing spells you can still use all of them but writing all down can be a chore if you watch the video on combat and saving throws then you should know that tacking happens in two stages first you attack to hit then you deal damage if you do watch this video to learn more about how attacking works your attack bonus for melee weapons use your strength modifier and if you are proficient in the weapon you get to add your proficiency bonus grant is proficient in Warhammer so two plus two for the damage he cost using his Warhammer is one da refers to the weapon lives in the book then add his trans modifier +2 but don't add this proficiency you'll never add proficiency to the damage dealt by any weapon period for thrown weapons like javelin or tagging you still use your strength modifier but you can choose to use your dexterity modifier for show melee weapon if it has a finesse property the dagger is one of them for range weapons that don't have the finesse property and are not thrown you use the sanity grants dexterity is terrible but it has proficiency in simple weapons so that's likely offsets negatives but not by much I wouldn't trust him with a crossbow if I were you you can also put your spell's here instead of making an attack roll grants sacred flame spells pushes these enemies to resist against it by making a dexterity saving TRO they need to make 13 or above to evade it personality trait ideal bonds and flaws does not have any immediate and mechanical benefit the DM may war to inspiration point that lets you reroll dice if you don't play your character well but it is really subjective some p.m. has completely different criteria or a warning inspiration some don't even know ward any inspiration at all in the background section of the players handle you can see a range of personality trait ideals bonds and flaws but those are just suggestions you are not required to use them grant for example has characteristics I just invented if you have reached this far then congratulations you would have filled out the first page of the character sheet if you are creating a non spellcaster like fighters month barbarian or VOC this is where you end the character creation process remember that your cancer sheet is just a reminder for your character's abilities and wealth it does not even have all the space prepared for every class's unique features so you can modify it however you want to suit your need some people who know what they are doing can even record all the character information in a blank piece of paper anyway if you are building a spellcaster or just want to see through the creation of grant you can continue watching there's just a couple more steps before completion okay now we are moving to the third page of the character she grants spell casting class is cleric and his spell casting ability is wisdom you can find it in the spell casting column in his class feature other classes may use other abilities for their spell casting to read carefully your spouse HCC is the number of monsters need to be to resist your spell you get the number by using this formula a plus your spell casting ability modifier in this case wisdom plus your proficiency so grant spell safe DC is 8 plus 3 plus 2 30 spell attack bonus is spell casting ability modifier class proficiency 3 + 2 5 it would use this if the spell requires him to make an attack role whether it be merely or ranged number of spells you can learn and prepare varies between each class what I am doing now is strictly for clerics so refer to the relevant class table and your spell casting class features if you are creating a different class each class have spell casting list that you can find in the players handbook usually you pick a certain number of spells on there and you can prepare or memorize a certain number of them at a time however unlike many other classes clerics know all the spells in their lives but they are mainly support spells and may not be as destructive as some other classes as level one cleric grant can prepare his spell casting modifier plus one spell through four rather than writing out his whole spell list I will just write down the spells he has prepared also let's go back to issue Nikolai's the main features as allies domain cleric he has extra spells that he will have prepared at all time bless and cure wounds look at the class table and you can see that at level one we have two level 1 spells log so that means that despite having 6 options it can practically only cost level 1 spells twice in a day that is until he replenishes his spell slots after a long rest luckily for him there are 10 trips these are level 0 spells so they are so easy and familiar to your character they can cause them all they want however the effects won't be as powerful as level spells and once you have chosen them you won't be able to change them so there you go all done you have managed to last through the whole video and created a spell casting class awesome if you need to know more about spell casting order a few other facet of the game you can go through the series playlist in case you haven't noticed this has been my plan all along instead of character creation I started with the rules of the game first so that you have enough resources to refer back to while creating your character I hope this kind of the creation walkthrough has been useful to you even though it's not meant to be a comprehensive guide in general you create a character all you need to do is to read the rules carefully don't worry about making mistakes because even veteran players sometimes make them talk to your dungeon master you're unsure choking your character Sheen and politely ask him to check for any errors and with that we have reached the end of the episode happy character creating and I will see you on the next one CJ over and up you you