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Glundrall
2007-01-02, 08:53 PM
I'm not exactly sure where to begin because there is quite a bit that I don't know and need help with, but I'll give it my best and if someone can help me that would be nothing short of amazing. If not, well then maybe by writing it out I'll get some of it figured out.

First thing I should probably say is that I haven't had the chance to play very much. All of my campains have died at some point or another because the DM (different one each time) didn't feel like he had the time to do it that week...or the next and so on. I also don't know that much about starting a halfway decent character because I have always had help or someone point out better ways of doing things without really explaining where they got the information from or how they figured it out. I am rather intelligent when it comes to figuring things out, but having next to nothing to do with creating a character told to me is a major set back. And all of my DMs have tried out 'new' enemies they created to see how they did and made it massively harder than it was suppose to be.

The only really fun character I have played was a monk, which may or may not be that great of a class. I don't know, but it was fun. The only thing I didn't like about it was the restriction of the alignment. I would love to create another monk, but I haven't found a good custom class that lets it be anything but LE of LG (I probably just screwed those up, but I hope you can at least understand them).

I think that should let anyone know just how little I know about creating a character that is halfway decent. So here are my questions, I do apologize to anyone who found the above annoying.

Are there character sheets online that can be filled out of the computer? I don't have a printer readily available and it would be much easier for me to manipulate the sheet on my computer instead of having to print it out since it is a hassle to do for me.

Are there any official changes to the monk class or another class that is basically a monk without the alignment restriction?

What books are useful for creating a character? I have a rather large collection that someone gave me so I'm sure I can find most all of the books. Such as books explaining how prestige classes work and other things of that sort. There was so much going on in my few campains that I know wasn't by by the book I'm not too sure about a lot of things.

And I have the Player's Handbook 3.5E so if any of this is in there I can find it. There is just a ton of things to sort through and I don't know where to start.

Sorry if most of this seems really simple, but I figure I need to find out sometime if I ever hope to be a decent player...

(If I'm posting in the wrong place tell me and I'll move. This just seemed the best place to put it at the time...)

Halcyon_Dax
2007-01-02, 09:02 PM
Dont worry about it, those sort of DM foibles happen all the time, you will find a good group sooner or later.

Having the PHB is a great start, there is a chapter in there called Creating Characters, I believe, and it literally lists the steps quite simply. Start there, then once you have the hang of rolling and the basic races and classes read the rest of the book.

One thing to remember, Ignore the discussions of overpoweredness/underpoweredness that appear all over these boards. In most games, a monk will be just fine, and is a fun class choice.

As for alignment, everything is at the descretion of your DM, so ask him before the game if you can be like 'a wandering chaotic martial artist' type of monk rather than a lawful one. A good DM would allow it (if you provide a good reason).

This site:
http://www.d20srd.org/
Has all the information you will ever REALLY need to play DnD. Though as a player, all you actually need is the Players Handbook. Thats it. Read it. Learn it. You are set.

Good luck!

PM me if you have any specific questions or anything.

Glundrall
2007-01-02, 09:09 PM
Thank you very much. I think the most troubling thing was thinking I needed to know all of these other....20 books?

But yeah, that makes it much easier, thank you again.

Halcyon_Dax
2007-01-02, 09:14 PM
Theres a bazillion books, but you are on the right track with the PHB.

Later on, once you figure out the rules and get all that down you may want to consider picking up some more specialty books.

Good books that expand on races:

Races of the Wild
Races of Stone
Races of Destiny (Its not as good as the above 2)
Good books that expand on Classes:

Complete Adventurer (sneaky types, skillful characters)
Complete Divine (Less good, divine casters)
Complete Warrior (Fighty types, includes nice monk stuff, if you end up loving that class)
Complete Arcane (Stuff for arcane casters)
There are many other books that you might want to pick up, but the above are nice because they expand upon the basics rather than adding new systems. Some other books that are great, but offer new systems (I advocate learning the core system first) are these:

Expanded Psionics Handbook
Tome of Battle

Good luck!

Shazzbaa
2007-01-02, 09:20 PM
I'd say right now as long as you don't make it too complicated you should be fine and have fun. You don't need to do things "the best way/the most optimised way" ever in order to have a character that can do cool things.

Once you start understanding character creation, you might start looking into ways to optimise more, or other material to use, in other books. Or, you might find you prefer to stick to the basics.

For now, yeah, you don't need anything but the PHB to make a cool character.

cupkeyk
2007-01-02, 10:17 PM
Here is an extensive character generator (http://www.pathguy.com/eberron.htm)

and the same one simplified (http://www.pathguy.com/cg35lite.htm)

As for not complicating things, monk is not the way to go. Stunner monk should be halfling rog1monkx with ability focus, the seventh level halfling substitution level(second isn't bad either, first sucks) and aesthetic rogue so you can stun big bad guys easy then deal sneak attack damage on them while they are stunned.

Halcyon_Dax
2007-01-02, 10:42 PM
Monk is fine. He wasnt asking for that crazy build (though I love it).

The fact that monk has MAD, will help him get a grasp on the various abilities and how they work in the game. And unless its a high powered campaign, monk is fine.

Glundrall
2007-01-02, 11:59 PM
Male Human Male Human Monk 1
Lawful Good
Representing Glundrall

Strength 14 (+2)
Dexterity 15 (+2)
Constitution 13 (+1)
Intelligence 11 (+0)
Wisdom 18 (+4)
Charisma 13 (+1)

Size: Medium
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 200 lb
Eyes: Black
Hair: White
Skin: Tan

Total Hit Points: 9

Speed: 30 feet

Armor Class: 16 = 10 + 2 [dexterity] +4 [wisdom]

Touch AC: 16
Flat-footed: 14

That is what I've gotten so far. I have the rest of the sheet, it would just be too long to put here. I'm hoping I can get someone to let me actually use this. This is the first time I've actually rolled good numbers so I'm rather excited :)

Halcyon_Dax
2007-01-03, 12:06 AM
Wow, those are nice ability scores. It is usually a good practice to roll infront of the DM (because people are lying bastards, hey). But I hope he lets you keep those scores.

(I would advise switching dex and str, then putting your points into str, it will give you more punch, and your wis is already giving you nice armor. I think you will net a greater advantage with a higher str)

cupkeyk
2007-01-03, 12:10 AM
I am assuming that the charisma 13 is vanity. I mean I can't stand it if my characters are ugly social miscreants either. But the skill point of putting that 13 in int could be really helpful. Consider placing the fourteen in constitution and thirteen in str. You will never be dealing a lot of damage ever anyway. You are there to last a long time and aggravate the bad guys while your friends kill them.

Unearthed arcana has a lot of cool variants for monks (http://systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/unearthedCoreClass.html#fighting-styles)

halfling stunner monks rock, but I said that already.

Glundrall
2007-01-03, 02:13 PM
Thanks, but a stunner monk isn't what I'm going for right now. I'm trying to keep things simple until I can get a little more experience. I'm still rather new although I've technically been playing for three years. Not many campains, but all of them were like what I described in my first post...

Tokiko Mima
2007-01-04, 12:53 AM
The only really fun character I have played was a monk, which may or may not be that great of a class. I don't know, but it was fun. The only thing I didn't like about it was the restriction of the alignment. I would love to create another monk, but I haven't found a good custom class that lets it be anything but LE of LG (I probably just screwed those up, but I hope you can at least understand them).

If Monk alignment restrictions bother ya, remember that you only need to stay Lawful as long as you continue to advance monk levels as a pure monk. If you multiclass out to anything else, you're free to change alignments and you'll keep your old monk abilities. Of course, Monk is a class that locks you in because it gets dramatically better at higher levels.

As far as finding a class 'like monk, but without the alignment restrictions'... I can think of a lot of Monk PrCs, but they all keep the alignment restrictions...

LordLocke
2007-01-04, 03:42 AM
I'd reccomend against Monk if it's your first time. It can be a decent class, but despite all the shiny battle-looking merits it gets, it's best as a speedy nullification machine or- if combat goes more then a few rounds- a mobile support platform via a handy haversack and a metric ton of situational gear, consumable items like potions, and the like. The moment things like 'gargantuan', 'emits a blazing aura', and 'capable of flight' start appearing, the Monk pretty much requires a pocket wizard or a lot of magical gear to be able to do anything.

If you must have that barefisted flavor, I'd highly suggest going for a control monk- grapple, trip, bull rush- anything that lets you push the enemy around/deny the enemy actions/keep enemy spellcasters from casting. It will require learning a few advanced combat rules (Which is why I tend to point first-timers to a cleric, rogue, or ranger- less to learn to be effective) but you'll add more to your team then just rolling damage dice, and ultimately, you have the most fun when you're contributing, newbie or experianced vet alike.

As for your stats, I'd make Charisma your dump (low) stat unless you got a really good reason to keep it 13. Intelligance gives you skill points (Monk makes a decent skillmonkey when it comes to mobility-based talents) and opens up a few feat doors that might prove invaluable On the flip side, Charisma does next-to-nothing for anything the monk has to offer. (You can be pretty with low charisma- it can also mean having a gruff, surly personality, a lack of manners, a bad temper, or what-not)

Glundrall
2007-01-04, 04:15 AM
The charisma was a piece of advice that got left over from a great deal of bad advice that had to do with the reason I didn't feel very comfortable making a character on my own. I've been pretty good about forgetting a lot of things I know are bad, that just happened to be one of them that I kept in my head.

Maybe one reason why I like the monk so much if in every campain I've played I have an attempt on my life by at least one party member for some crazy reason. As in, they wanted to kill someone so they just randomly picked me. Monk is never without its weapons...ok maybe too paranoid, but I survived being jumped by a lich and a mage in my party that decided to try and kill me on their way out. I guess bad reason to like the class so much, but I just thought it was fun (although I admit to wanting to play a rogue)

Dervag
2007-01-04, 05:52 AM
If every campaign you play involves a player-on-player attack... you are very unfortunate in your selection of people to play with. However, 'never without weaponry' is one of the monk's selling points, so it's not just paranoia.

If you're trying to build a character that's fun to play and that fits into a party well, high Charisma may be a good choice even if it doesn't give you the mightiest monk build the world has ever seen. Low charismas are for 'built' characters in which a big part of the goal is to optimize the character's power. Optimizing character power isn't necessarily your goal as long as the character works well enough that you aren't getting beat up or left out of the action all the time in actual play.

Matthew
2007-01-04, 06:37 AM
I think the idea was that those extra Skill Points work out better than the Charisma Bonus in the long run.

Glundrall
2007-01-04, 03:09 PM
I know three people who are willing to be a DM around where I live and I have tried all three and would rather not again. I've been looking for a PbP to join that would be willing to help a new player or another DM that I at least haven't figured out whether he/she sucks or not.

And as far as the Char/Int that everyone has been throwing around; I think I'll just wait and see what kind of campaign I get into. Depending on the focus Charisma might be better. Who knows *shrugs*

LordLocke
2007-01-04, 03:37 PM
Meeh, "It's what I want" is probably the best reason around- that's all I need to be sold on you taking the Charisma over the Int. Flavor before fixer and all that.

Glundrall
2007-01-04, 04:17 PM
Well I was thinking it would depend on if we do more inside of towns or outside of them. If there was going to be a large amount of things done inside of a town then the extra Charisma might be more fun to play, while on the other hand if it ended up being more of an action setting it might be more fun to play with the extra skills that the Int allows.

In the end I just want me and everyone else I'm playing with to have fun. While I do like having a slightly higher than average Charisma, it might not be fun in that campaign depending on the setting. Fun, it's really what it is all about ^_^

Halcyon_Dax
2007-01-04, 07:15 PM
True, and Charisma is a nice stat to have just... Because!

Generally, I like to think of my character's looks and personality, and distribute stats according to that.

silentknight
2007-01-04, 07:40 PM
I love to make characters. I would suggest making some just for fun (if it is for you) so that you can explore the abilities of the different classes and increase your experience in doing so. You'll learn where to look in the books for the info you need and do so faster.

Just don't get your heart set on playing a certain character. A DM may have a certain way that he/she wants you to make characters or may not allow certain classes/races/combinations. It doesn't hurt to ask though. If the DM is experienced enough, he can look it over to make sure its okay to play.