How to Create a Great Character
I
highly recommend these articles on making D&D characters:
Solid Character Motivations by Sly Flourish
A role-playing game player’s obligation by DM David
Building Great D&D Characters by Sly Flourish
Rules
The following rules are for characters created for 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons.
Source Books
When making a character you may select options from the Player's Handbook plus one other official WotC sourcebook (same as Adventurer's League).
Starting Level
Characters start at fifth level in Rakvalinor.
Starting Equipment
Characters begin with their normal 1st-level starting equipment plus 600 gold coins (weighing 12 lbs) they have accumulated during prior adventures.
Each new character may purchase a single
Uncommon magical item available from the
Dungeon Master's Guide at a price of 500 gold coins, AND they may purchase one or more
Common magical items from
Xanathar's Guide to Everything at a cost of 100 gold coins per item.
Ability Scores
Determine a character's starting ability scores with one of the following two methods:
Standard Array
Assign the six numbers 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8, to the six ability scores in whatever order you desire.
Dungeon Master's Favorite
Roll each ability score in order by rolling 4d6 and adding the three highest d6 results together.
When you are done generating all of the character's scores, perform exactly one swap of two ability scores of your choice.
Reminding me that you used this method may result in your character getting Inspiration. Thank you to DM David for describing this method.
Racial Ability Bonuses
In accordance with the optional rule in
Tasha's: when creating your character you may optionally take any ability score increase you gain from your race or subrace and instead apply that increase to an ability score of your choice. If you gain more than one increase, you can’t apply those increases to the same ability score, and you can’t increase any score above 20.
Elf and Half-Elf Characters
Player characters should not be natives from Rakvalinor: a big part of the fun is exploring the unknown. If your character is an elf, they should be a foreigner from another continent: see
5e Character Backgrounds for suggestions.
Fey Ancestry
Rakvalinor is one of the native homelands of the elves, therefore elves get less benefit from their "alienness" while in Rakvalinor. An elf character's
Fey Ancestry trait is replaced with the following:
Fey Ancestry: You suffer a -4 penalty on saving throws against being magically charmed or put to sleep, and the paralyzing claws of ghouls and ghasts.
A half-elf character's
Fey Ancestry trait is replaced with the following:
Fey Half-Ancestry: You suffer a -2 penalty on saving throws against being magically charmed or put to sleep, and the paralyzing claws of ghouls and ghasts.
These penalties apply to all elves and half-elves, including foreigners, and they apply on non-material planes visited during adventures on Rakvalinor.
Gaining Levels
In Rakvalinor characters will gain
Experience Chunks, which can be consumed later to level up.
The number of Chunks required is equal to the level that will be reached: to go from level 5 to level 6 consumes 6 Chunks, and then to go to level 7 consumes 7 additional Chunks.
A character may level up at the end of any short or long rest.
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