A beginners guide to knowing yourself

A Beginners Guide to Knowing Yourself

By Atrideous Lox

Welcome reader, to this tome of enlightenment. My name is Atrideous Lox and I present to you all that you need to elevate yourself from mundanity into the adventuring life. Elven Ganja has given me great insight beyond the mortal plane of existence, into the very fabric of this universe. This manuscript presents all that I learned by studying the essence of creation. How to reflect on your person. How to distill your dreams. How to kindle your motivation. How to identify your strengths and weaknesses. How to grasp your innate hereditary talents. How to find the power inside you.

Who are you?

If there is one question you should ask yourself before you start the life of an adventurer, it should be: Who am I? Only by knowing yourself, you will be able to prosper out in the unforgiving world that is Ko-ún. There is no solve al solution for everyone to figure this out. There are, however, a few tricks that might help to get you started. In this chapter, I shall present a few of those. At the end of this chapter is a questionnaire you can ask yourself to help you create a map of yourself to aid you further in the process of self-evaluation.
For some, it is easiest to start evaluating their place in the world. For others, it is easier to start with their dreams and imaginations. Again for others, it is the most natural place to start in other media. And of course, there are some who dabble on the highest planes of creation, taunting the very gods that created the fabric of this world, crafting their personality to fit with the laws of our universe. There is no better or worse place to start. As such, do not feel pressured to follow the following guides in the order they are presented. Nor feel pressured to use all of them or just some of them.

Where am I from?

A good point to start is to reflect on your place in the world and your personal history. Asking questions like:

• Where am I now?
• What is unique to this place?
• What have I been doing up till now?
• Who were my parents?
• What were their occupations?
• What events in my personal past have influenced or shaped me?
• What is the geographical layout of my birthplace?
• What kind of society did I grow up in? Nomadic/Tribal? A town or city? A farm with just my family or a large community?
• What skills were necessary for me or my people to survive?
• Could I get along with those around me?

All of these questions (and more) can help you attune to your personality. Some sources that might help you are maps of the world and histories of the lands. Most places are unknown to me, as I spent my days in Delunar, but if you originate from beyond these borders I will courteously invite you to come and tell me all about the lands you reign from over supper.

What is your motivation?

One does not start adventuring without motivation. Simply walking into a world full of danger without proper cause or reason is akin to madness. Think carefully about what makes your clock tick. Do you dream of riches beyond comprehension? Do you seek justice for a wrong done to you or your family? Do you dream of lands unexplored? The first 3 questions you should ask yourself are:
1. Are your motivations internal or external? There are two key types of motivations you might experience: internal and external. (Bear in mind that you may experience both at the same time)
Internal motivations are those that come from within the character. The character is motivated to act by a choice they have made within themselves – a personal goal, perhaps, or a desire to achieve some outcome or reward.
External motivations are outside factors that motivate the character to act. Other characters, or situations outside the character’s control, may influence or even force them to make certain decisions and actions.

2. Are your motivations realistic and believable? How many times have you come across a villainous character who’s evil simply for the sake of being evil? Or a hero whose every action is completely altruistic and selfless?
These kinds of characters tend to fall rather flat – all because their motivations are unrealistic.
Very few real people do terrible things simply for the sake of it, and even fewer act selflessly 100% of the time. If you are true to yourself as a sentient, breathing person, be honest to yourself about your motivations.
The author Michelle Hodkin sums it up best:

The villain is the hero of her own story. Everyone has reasons for what they do.

Everyone loves to be a hero – but no one really connects with a person who has no flaws in their personality or their motivations.
Remember that you are not black-and-white – no real person is. Sentient beings are complex creatures. Good people can be motivated by ‘bad’ or selfish reasoning, and bad people are often motivated by what they believe to be good or right.

3. What do your motivations reveal about you? Your reasons for doing what you do say a lot about who you are. Your motivations can provide important insight into:

• Your values, morals, and beliefs.

• Your hopes, dreams, and fears.

• Your strengths and weaknesses.

• Events in their past have influenced who they are today.

Knowing your motivations you can explain your dreams. Some questions to help to identify those dreams could be:

• If I could be born anew, where would I be?
• In a different world or universe, what would my life look like?
• If I was a hero, what feat or accomplishment would people praise me for?

Not only will a well-considered motivation help you develop your character, but it will also help you make decisions in face of dilemmas, or decide your stance with other people in the world.

Inspiration from media

Another great place to start is to start from media. There are various books, stories, series, and moving pictures written by authors from this realm and beyond. Placing yourself in a story you like, imagining interacting with its characters, can be a great way to learn who you would like to be. There are tons of sources of inspiration around and about. The sky is the limit. Would you be an apprentice to Gandalf? A squire to Jayme Lannister? Would you be a hitchhiker from Betelgeuse 5 stranded in a peculiar world?
If this is the place you start, a good way to earth your personality is to commune with the all-powerful orchestrator of the weave of existence. Consult your nearby spiritual professional for help establishing contact beyond the material plane.

Tampering with the foundations of the universe

Ah, you, who seek to play with the laws that govern our universe. You who seek to outsmart the All-powerful, the Benevolent, the Weaver of the Fabric. You walk a risky path but are in a position to grasp great power. Elven Ganja gives us great insight into the inner workings of this universe, showing us exploits, technicalities, and possibilities to snowball. But also it can make us blind. Blinded by visions of great power we forget the fundamentals of character creation. Without personality, life is void and meaningless. Forget not, you who have partaken from the apple of wisdom, to attune with your earthly self. First and foremost, you shall be an actor playing the protagonist of your own life. Only then come the laws of this universe.
For you, seeker of power, study well the final chapter of this book. And fear not to look beyond these pages.

Create an overview of yourself

Now that you have a general idea of your character, it is essential to make it tangible. Whilst there are many ways to do so, I would recommend making a one-sentence description or pitch of your character, and fill in a character questionnaire.
One sentence pitch: This is possibly the hardest part of character creation, but it's very powerful. Try to summarize your entire character in one sentence. This forces you to consider what part of your character is most important to you. A couple of examples
Gordak: Gordak is a bloodthirsty orc barbarian cursed to become a necromancer who reanimates the prey he's trying to eat.
Oreg Stormborn: Oreg is grumpy warrior featuring a large burn scar on his head from when his mother was struck by lightning during childbirth.
Chuck McGuyver: Chuck is a tinkerer and charlatan with a big alcohol problem trying to find a way to permanently sustain his addiction.
If you are struggling with creating this elevator pitch I recommend learning more about the setting you will be playing in. It can be difficult to come up with something new if you have zero constraints, so figuring out all the creative constraints of the setting can help reduce the possibilities. Brainstorming with other players is another way to help come up with this. Social media is a great place to get character ideas as well.
Character questionnaire: It can help a lot to fill out a character questionnaire, in which you record some of the characteristics of your character. Note that you do not need to fill out everything, but some things can help. These I found and adapted, high on Elven Ganja, somewhere on what is seemingly called: The Internet. The world beyond our realm of existence is endless.

Basic Statistics Name: Age: Nationality: Prosperity: Hometown: Current Residence: Occupation: Daily wage/earnings: Talents/Skills: Siblings (describe relationship): Spouse (describe relationship): Children (describe relationship): Grandparents (describe relationship): Grandchildren (describe relationship): Significant Others (describe relationship): Relationship skills:
Physical Characteristics: Height: Weight: Race: Eye Color: Hair Color: Glasses or contact lenses? Skin color: Shape of Face: Distinguishing features: How do you dress?: Mannerisms: Habits: (smoking, drinking etc.) Health: Hobbies: Favorite Sayings: Speech patterns: Disabilities: Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): Greatest flaw: Best quality:

Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes Educational Background: Intelligence Level: Any Mental Illnesses? Learning Experiences: Short-term goals in life: Long-term goals in life: How do you see yourself? How do you believe you are perceived by others? How self-confident are you? Are you ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? What would most embarrass you?

Emotional Characteristics Strengths/Weaknesses: Introvert or Extrovert? How do you deal with anger? With sadness? With conflict? With change? With loss? What do you want out of life? What would you like to change in your life? What motivates you? What frightens you? What makes you happy? Are you judgmental of others? Are you character generous or stingy? Are you character generally polite or rude?

Spiritual Characteristics Do you character believe in Gods/pantheons/etc? What are the character's spiritual beliefs? Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life? If so, what role does it play?

D&D character creation

In one of my escapes beyond the fabric of existence, I learned of a phenomenon that I can only describe as a temporary universal law. This law, seemingly called D&D5e Ruleset, is sometimes invoked over our mortal plane of existence seemingly only targeting adventurers. To become an adventurer equipped to deal with these laws, follow the instructions of this chapter.
Step 1: Pick a Race
This is a fairly simple step, when looking at your character it’s possible that you can determine what race you pick from it. If your character description does not immediately give away what race you should pick then start to read through the races that are available. Once this choice has been made make note of the traits on your sheet, keeping in mind the ability score changes because these will be important later.
Step 2: Pick a Background
You will have already thought of your background to some extent by now. You can either choose a background from the available list of backgrounds based on what matches closest with your character's personality or choose something based on the proficiencies it a background gives. If a character would gain the same proficiency from two different sources, you can choose a different proficiency of the same kind (skill or tool) instead, or just have a double proficiency in the skill of choice.
Of course, you can also create your own background. There are a few rules concerned with this in the original ruleset. When I communed with the All-knowing I learned they don't really care for the official rules. But to avoid an unexpected balancing act, please refer to the rules for custom background creation.
This is the point that it is usually recommended to fill out the boxes labeled Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. The background you picked does have some tables that you can look at for suggestions but that is all they are, suggestions. You can take the time to flesh out your character more at this point or you can wait until you determine more functionality of your character. Sometimes it is useful to roll stats or pick your class before filling these out as you still might not have a full idea of the character. Filling these out however can also lead to a better idea of what class you want or what ability scores you should focus on.
Step 3: Alignment
I include this in a separate step because it can be a heated topic. Discussions of the different alignments are too long of a topic for this article, so I will recommend you read this page (PHB pg 122, Basic Rules pg 34).
Step 4: Pick a Class
This step is probably the most important one you will make when it comes to determining your play experience in D&D. This is because a majority of the features you get and will get, come from your class. Your class even determines when you get ability score improvements. Choosing your class will also determine what ability scores you will want your main focus to be when the time comes to generate ability scores. Overall this isn’t a step to breeze over.
Once you have picked your class this will determine your saving-throw proficiencies, skill proficiencies, health, and equipment (I cover this later). Following your elevator pitch and description (and the personality traits if you have them) to help you choose these. Having picked out your race and background before your class will make sure you don’t have to come back to your skill proficiencies because you accidentally chose one that one of those two already gave you.
Step 5: Generate Ability Scores
Before you can start making skill checks and saving throws you need your ability scores. Generating these are about the widest range of ways that a player and DM can choose to do. I will cover the variety of ways that one can go about this. Once you have generated your ability scores, make sure to add those racial modifiers you get from the race you picked in Step 2.
Roll for Them This is the most fun but also most risky approach. The core of this is that you use the dice to determine what your ability scores are. The most common way is to roll four d6’s and keep the highest three, six times. You then take those numbers and choose what ability scores you put them in.

Standard Array There exists a magic list of numbers that D&D calls the Standard Array. This is a list of numbers that you can use for the ability scores of a character. This array is:
15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8
Take each of the numbers and assign them to the ability scores of your choice. It keeps everyone at about the same skill level, and it's quicker, so this would be my method of choice when I make a bunch of characters at once. You will notice that the difference between this technique and rolling is that the maximum you can get for an ability score is 15 vs the 18 of rolling. This technique is more stable versus the risk that comes with rolling.
Point Buy This system is preferred by mathematicians who love turning character creation into a game of maximizing some abilities. The system grants the ability to pick your ability scores using a pool of points. You start with 27 points, and each ability score is worth a different amount of points detailed here:
15 - 9 pts
14 - 7 pts
13 - 5 pts
12 - 4 pts
11 - 3 pts
10 - 2 pts
9 - 1 pts
8 - 0 pts
From here you can generate an entire array of ability scores by “purchasing” each ability score. I personally do not like this system as much, not because of the math involved, but because of the mentality that this type of ability score generation can create. I understand the desire for min-maxing your scores and that it is a variation of fun, it just isn’t what I enjoy having at my table.
Embrace Low Scores I love a low score. This goes back to having character flaws, but this is built right into the system. Do you want to be running the big, brute Barbarian? Give him a low Dexterity and laugh when he fails an acrobatics check, or dread when you need to use those acrobatics to save a teammate. Low ability scores create tension and drama. It will give you a sense of joy if you overcome the odds of having a low score. Embrace failure. Embrace the low ability scores.
Determining Modifiers Remembering modifiers can be difficult if you have not dealt with character generation much. There are a few ways you can look at it. The first is with a simple equation: (ability score - 10) ÷ 2 (round down). The second is to remember that every even number above 10 adds one to the modifier, and every odd number below 10 decreases the modifier by one, remembering that the modifier of 10 is +0 (e.g. 12 and 13 are +1, 14 and 15 are +2, 8 and 9 are -1 and 6 and 7 are -2). Or you can look the table up.
Step 5.5: Higher Level Characters
If you are making a character above 1st level you will need to go through the process of leveling up for each level. This may change your starting equipment, talk with the benevolent god of the universe to see what else you get equipment-wise.
Step 6: Equipment
There might be some confusion as to why I waited for equipment until after ability score generation. I choose to do it this way since some of your ability scores will help determine what equipment you choose to take. While each class has a list of equipment that they can choose from, you can alternatively instead roll for starting gold and purchase everything you choose to start with (another reason picking a background first is helpful). All information on the equipment and starting gold starts on PHB pg 143.
For example, if you are a Fighter but have decided that your main score is Dexterity then you may want to pick up a finesse weapon. If you don’t like the starting equipment a class starts with then you taking the purchasing route gives you more variety, but you need to keep in mind your class’s proficiencies.
Step 7: Health and Hit Dice
Each class has a listed hit die value. This is the core of how much health you have. At the first level, your health is equal to the max number on the hit dice ( 6 for a d6, 8 for a d8, etc) plus your Constitution modifier. This hit die value is also your hit die, which you have a total equal to your class level (e.g. if you are a level 3 Barbarian, you have 3 d12 hit dice).
Each time you level, assuming you are creating a character above the first level, then you have a choice for how much health you get each level. You can either take the average of your hit die (4 for a d6, 5 for a d8, 6 for a d10, and 7 for a d12) or you can roll that die and take the result. You then add your Constitution modifier to the number you get for that level and increase your maximum health by that much. Repeat this for each level.
Step 8: Filling in Bonuses
For this section there is a general rule to keep in mind: if your class/race augments any of the covered bonuses, the class/race takes precedence over what is listed here. Most of the time these augments are an addition to existing mechanics of the game so keeping note of them is important. Make sure to review all of your racial and class features when going through this section.
Once you have picked up what equipment you want it's time to start filling out them on the sheet. The weapon’s section lets you write down the weapons you have access to, your attack bonus is equal to the ability score associated with the weapon (Dexterity if it is ranged/finesse, Strength for everything else including thrown) plus your proficiency bonus IF you are proficient with the weapon. The damage is the damage die of the weapon plus the ability score associate with the weapon. Your armor determines your armor class (AC) depending on the type of armor that you got.
Initiative is simple. It is your Dexterity modifier.
For spellcasters, you have two numbers to keep in mind: your spellcasting ability modifier and spell save DC. These are listed in your class, but now you have the numbers to fill these in. Several classes also determine the number of spells they can prepare based on an ability score modifier, make sure to keep track of this number if you are one of these classes (you will know from reading the spellcasting section of your class features).
Lastly make sure that any features or abilities that mention an ability score modifier, make sure to fill those in with the modifier (e.g. Dragonborn’s Breath Weapon, Paladin’s Lay on Hands). This includes skills, which if you are proficient in you also get to add your proficiency bonus to as well. Treat saving throws the same as skills when generating bonuses. One number associated with your skills you may see on your character sheet is Passive Perception. This number is simply 10 plus the Perception bonus you have.

Making a player sheet

There are a couple of sources to make a player sheet. I would recommend aidded, seeing it gives you access to all the D&D resources for free if you make an account. The website is terrible to navigate though. Other sources are Beyond D&D (official, cashgrabby but good) or the use of companion apps (I would recommend 5e character keep, it gives full functionality till level 5 for free).

Now you know all there is to becoming an adventurer. On your travels, be sure to swing by yours truly. Signed, Artrideous Lox

     Portrait of the author: Atrideous Lox

About the author:
Atrideous Lox is a famous scholar and researcher in metaphysics and the (still controversial) use of Elven Ganja. Some claim his insights have given them deep insights into their own soul. Most discard his work as poppycock. Upon publication, his work met a high level of skepticism by the Portis university library. The only reason it was published at all was that the board realized it served particularly well as an insult to any form of religion, effectively equating any priest who claims to have some sort of fundamental knowledge of the metaphysical plane to be a drug addict.

This book is the property of the grand library of Portis.
Date of publication: 11th of Darun, 621 AoM.
Pages: wasted
Section: Spiritual guides
Subsection: General poppycock
Subsubsection: Insulation material and fire starter