Character Creation Process

Before starting character creation, consider spending some time thinking about your character’s background and goals. Some relevant questions to ask yourself:

‡ Was your character born and raised in Icewind Dale or do they hail from distant lands? If the latter, why are they in/going to Icewind Dale?

† A max of two characters can be from the dale itself, to help maintain an air of mystery about the region and its goings-on.

‡ What in their background and history has led them here? For what reasons will they get involved in this adventure? What’s in it for them? Altruism? Greed? Lust for power or knowledge? Fear?

† Players AND characters should have solid motivations for joining together and going on this adventure. If your character is from Icewind Dale, see the Background Hooks section below.

‡ Do your characters know each other? Does everyone know each other or just some of you? How long have they known each other? Are they friendly towards each other? Jealous? In love?

† This is up to the group and each of you, but if only some are from the area, then there will have to be a compelling tale of how they came to know each other and why they want to adventure as a group. Work together to create a party of adventurers, not just a group of players.

‡ What secrets are they hiding? Do they share things with their friends? Family? Patrons? Are they trusting? Guarded? Shy? Nervous? Open? Honest?
† Each player will start with at least one Dark Secret for their character. Some are indeed pretty damn dark. It will be up to you whether your character shares these secrets with their fellow adventurers or NPCs. DO NOT share secrets with other players if they are not also shared with their characters.

Allowed Sourcebooks

We will use Roll20’s Charactermancer for character creation and leveling up. We will use my Roll20 Compendium as the source for information. Everything is drag and drop from the compendium to character sheet and VTT.

These are the books I have in my Roll20 Compendium:

  Player’s Handbook (PHB)
  Sword Coast Adventurers Guide (SCAG)
  Rime of the Frostmaiden (ROF)

You can use anything in these books, including races, backgrounds, classes, subclasses, feats, spells, etc. ROF itself doesn’t contain many distinct options for characters but does have a lot of flavor variations. One unique option for this campaign is the Goliath as a playable race. Info about them is in the Compendium, but I also will put out an information sheet on them. If anyone desperately wants something from another source, feel free to buy it for me at Roll20 Marketplace.

Available Races and Subraces
All the character races presented in the Player's Handbook are well suited for this adventure, as are Goliaths - tall, strong folk who live in the mountains. Whatever race you choose, I will expect you to roleplay it thoroughly, as will your fellow players. Non-Humans are NOT Human, and they think, behave, and act differently than we do. Some of them may seem closer to humans than others, but they all have very distinct peculiarities, including dietary needs, customs, and mannerisms. I don’t expect you to do voices, speak in foreign languages, or do any sort of acting, but you can if you want.
These are the races for this campaign:

The standard PHB races have slightly different variations and names in The Forgotten Realms. There is detailed info in the Sword Coast Adventures Guide, available via my Roll20 Compendium, about the various races, subraces, and cultures of Faerun. No matter what sort of race you play, please do the research.

Available Classes and Subclasses

Again: Roleplay. Roleplay. Roleplay. A class is more than just a source of cool tricks or neat abilities, it is the base of who your character is; what makes them tick and drives them forward to adventure. Clerics should act like clerics, Rogues should be roguish, Barbarians should be barbaric, Knights should behave in a knightly manner, and so on. There are a lot of classes and subclasses available for this campaign; pick one you can roleplay, not one that gives you abilities that you will use as a player but not as a character. Make sure you know your class and what you can do before play; avoid looking things up in-game. That means know your spells if you’re a Wizard, your combat maneuvers if you’re a Battlemaster, etc.
These are the classes and subclasses for this campaign:

Available Backgrounds

The Player's Handbook and Sword Coast Adventurers Guide offer a plethora of backgrounds ready to use. You can use any of them, or we can work together to create a unique one suited to your character.
These are the standard available backgrounds:

Backgrounds are a keystone to roleplaying, so read, understand, and be prepared to roleplay your character’s background thoroughly. Some have only a little nuance, while others can be dramatic, such as Far Traveler from Sword Coast Adventurers Guide (SCAG):

“Almost all of the common people and other folk that one might encounter along the Sword Coast or in the North have one thing in common: they live out their lives without ever traveling more than a few miles from where they were born. You aren't one of those folk. You are from a distant place, one so remote that few of the common folk in the North realize that it exists, and chances are good that even if some people you meet have heard of your homeland, they know merely the name and perhaps a few outrageous stories. You have come to this part of Faerun for your own reasons, which you might or might not choose to share. Your accent, mannerisms, figures of speech, and perhaps even your appearance all mark you as foreign. Curious glances are directed your way wherever you go.”

The standard character backgrounds are well suited for this adventure, but if you are having trouble fleshing out your character’s background details to explain why they are in or coming to Icewind Dale, check out the Icewind Dale Background Hooks for ways that the various backgrounds can be tied to the adventure.

Once you're ready to create a character, follow the step in the sidebar at the right, to create them in Roll20's Charactermancer. If you have any questions, let me know. After your character is created, you can access the Character Sheet at anytime to view or modify it. I will also go in and modify things from time to time. Initially, there are a few things to change before the game starts. They are:

Add “Basic Cold Weather Clothing”, with a weight of 5 pounds to the Inventory section of your character sheet. You can drag it over from the Compendium if you want. You can also split it out into its components if you wish: heavy fur coat or cloak, layers of wool clothing, fur-lined hat or hood, fur-lined leather boots and gloves, goggles (note that you won’t start with goggles unless you are from Icewind Dale). You can keep the “Common Clothing” in your inventory or ditch it to save weight.

Other than that, your equipment should have auto-populated correctly, and your encumbrance and ammunition should be calculating automatically. (We will be using Basic Encumbrance rules and automatic Ammo/Resource tracking through Roll20’s API system.)

Turn on the following under Settings:
• Ammo Tracking
• Show Exhaustion Tracking
• Track Hit Dice per Class

If you’re unsure how to do this any of this, let me know.

Character Creation with
Roll20 Charactermancer

If you’ve never used Roll20’s Charactermancer, it can be a bit confusing to get started. To use it, simply open your character sheet for the first time, by clicking on it in the Journal tab on Roll20. The first page will be to edit character basics. Type in your character’s name, then hit Save Changes.

First, click on the Character Sheet tab; this will cause a pop out box to appear. Then, click on the Use the Charactermancer button. Follow the prompts from there; it’s pretty simple.

Go through in order, choosing your character’s Race, Class, Abilities, Background, Equipment, Spells (if applicable), Feats (none at 1st level), and basic Biographical data (height, weight, etc.). If you get lost or change your mind along the way, you can always go back and change something.

Race
Choose your Race, then Alignment. Pick your character’s Skill, Tool, and Language proficiencies from the race-specific drop downs. If your character is an Elf or a Half-Elf, choose weapon training or magic options from the available choices. Then, choose their Subrace or Ancestry (for Dragonborn). If you’re going to play a Human, choose the Standard Human option. Information on all the choices will be in the box to the right or can be found in the Compendium.

Class
Next, choose your character’s Class. Then pick their Weapon, Armor, Skill, Tool, and Language proficiencies, as well as any displayed options, from applicable class-specific drop downs. Again, information on all the options is displayed to the right and can be found in the Compendium. All the Class Features are described here as well; this is a good chance to study up on them.

Abilities
Choose the Point Buy method. This puts everyone on near equal footing. Your racial bonuses will be automatically added to your choices and total scores can be viewed at the top as you assign points.

Background
Choose an available Background from the drop-down box. Pick any available Skill, Tool, and Language proficiencies. Then, roll or choose your character’s Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws from the drop-down boxes, or leave them blank and create your own later (you’ll be able to type them into the character sheet when it’s done).

Equipment
Under the Equipment tab, choose Class Equipment from the drop-down, then pick your character’s starting Armor, Weapons, and Equipment Pack from the available options based on their Class, then any options from their Background. If you want your character to have any equipment that doesn’t appear in the options, let me know and we can make appropriate substitutions.

Spells
If your character is a spellcaster, pick appropriate cantrips and spells from the dropdown boxes. It’s that easy!

Feats
This one is simple: No one starts with any Feats. Click the Next button and move on. Easy peasy!

Bio
Fill in the boxes with whatever you envision your character to look and be like. Their race description should be in the box on the right, and you can access info, including random height and weight tables in the PHB (page 121) or in the Compendium. SCAG has detailed information on the physical characteristics of Faerunian Subraces. Take your time and think about what your character is physically like and be prepared to describe them to the other players and NPCs.

Review
Anything you missed will show up in red on this page. Go back through and correct any errors or omissions. Then you’re done!