Warmup: JustinI want you to pick the bond, flaw, personality trait, and ideal for a Tiefling artificer named Troaxiaus. Intro:Main Topic: Character Creation Explained Simply + Useful ToolsIn explaining the character creation we aren’t just reiterating the process as defined in the player’s handbook, though we are doing that to some degree. In doing this, we are attempting to help you think of simple ways to explain the process to novice players. You see this episode is about you dear listener-adventurer. Oh no… it’s about your players. We will work through this process to help you work through it with the noobiest of noobs to D&D. So let’s begin. We will first describe the different processes simply and then maybe give some tips or tools for helping players. As you’ll notice, the order we describe these is the same order described in DNDBeyond though we might recommend different ways of doing things.

Let me stress something as well. Making the character creation easy and fun is important because if your players never get past this part they will never play.

Race - TannerRace can be a complicated or simple factor in your campaign, and you should plan out your stance (and your NPCs stances) before you recommend anything to your players.  Will you have racist NPCs, or will stereotypes be accepted from the get go (Tolkien-esque /typical fantasy)? If you are making your own world and campaign, are you reframing the races, and should that affect your player’s decision? Like, if orcs in your world are typically nerds, should you discourage your player who wants to be a warrior from playing them? In terms of stats, let them do whatever they find interesting. But, then encourage their racial choice to actually affect aspects of their role playing But, once again, people are not just walking stereotypes—don’t make your player be a copy and paste version. Also, encourage them during character creation to branch out (if they aren’t), or to consider their race’s environment.

Class - JustinAside from choosing your race, your class may have the most impact on your character. It will help you define how your character interacts in combat and in non-combat situations as well as how others will interact with you. That said, choosing a class can be very confusing. As a DM, I like to ask my players questions like: How do you like to fight enemies? What do you want your character to be good at in and out of combat? Do you want to use magic? If so, how complex do you want your magic to be? Are you ok with only getting one opportunity to attack during a combat round? What video games do you like to play if any? How does your character regard deity?

I have found that certain questions actually are a waste of time. These questions make it harder such as: What do you want your character to be able to do? What contributions do you see your character making? What weapon do you want to use?

In general, the more specific the question, the better. I would even go so far as to ask binary questions to force one answer or another.

Obviously, this is somewhat superfluous for a player who’s had the opportunity to play D&D for a second.

Abilities - JustinThe abilities portion is determining your natural abilities as well as how your race and class choices affect those. This is part of assessing your genetics and upbringing and how they affect your character. Simply put, if everything you do were split into 6 categories how good would your character be in those 6 categories. Consequently, that’s exactly how it works in D&D. 

So there are 6 categories: Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution. You’re going to help your players determine the scores for those categories. There are 3 methods: point-buy system, manual roll, or standard array. Each has its pros and cons depending on the type of game you want to play. Most people end up picking the roll method so...