New to DnD: Help lol

[Darkranger85]

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to this whole tabletop rpg thing and it's pretty overwhelming.

I'm reading the player manual and it's like studying for the SATs or something.

I could really use some help making heads or tails of this whole process and getting my first character up and running.

I'd also be up for a friendly game to get my feet wet if anyone is available. :)

EDIT: What in the world does your deity choice effect if you are a cleric?

[GilesTheCleric]

Deity choice affects roleplay and alignment for the most part. It will also grant you different domains and a different favoured weapon. Some spells change based on your deity, but there are few of them so it's not worth worrying about.

I'll dig up a quick guide I made on character creation in just a bit here.

Edit: Here's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15365621&postcount=37) my post on character creation. The whole thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=286383) is pretty useful.

[Ranting Fool]

EDIT: What in the world does your deity choice effect if you are a cleric?

Welcome :smallsmile:

A cleric's deity affects:
Alignment (You must be within 1 step of your deity. So Lawful Good deity means you could be Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutrally Good)
A cleric gets two domains (Which give a power/buff + sometimes unique spell choices)
Roleplay goodness. :smallbiggrin:

[holywhippet]

Each deity generally has a specific area they focus on. For example, Heironeous is the god of justice, honor and chivalry. Worshippers of his should be trying to uphold such things as best they can. Pelor on the other hand is the god of the sun, light and healing. His worshippers should also have particular dislike of undead.

[Darkranger85]

What do the domains do?

For instance if I was a cleric of Selune what difference would that make from being say, a cleric of Meilikki?

[Darkranger85]

Each deity generally has a specific area they focus on. For example, Heironeous is the god of justice, honor and chivalry. Worshippers of his should be trying to uphold such things as best they can. Pelor on the other hand is the god of the sun, light and healing. His worshippers should also have particular dislike of undead.

Yeah, I can understand the role playing differences. But what about practical differences? Do you gain different spells or bonuses?

[Subaru Kujo]

What do the domains do?

For instance if I was a cleric of Selune what difference would that make from being say, a cleric of Meilikki?

The domains are like a separate spell list for clerics. On their class spell advancement, they have for each level except Level 0 spells, a number+1. That +1 is a spell from one of your two domain lists (you choose to prepare one or the other each day).

They also have a different ability depending on the domain, and you can use both each day. For instance, Strength gives you an enhancement bonus to that ability score for a single round that is equal to your cleric level.

[holywhippet]

What do the domains do?

For instance if I was a cleric of Selune what difference would that make from being say, a cleric of Meilikki?

Take a look here for a list of the basic domains: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/clericDomains.htm

Each cleric takes two domains from the list their God provides (or you can pick no God, but not all DMs will allow that). Each domain provides a specific bonus of some sort and has a list of spells in it. For example, if you have the luck domain then once per day you can redo a dice roll provided you do it immediately (ie. before the DM says if it worked or not). For the spells, you have a single domain slot for each level of spells you can cast. You can pick a spell from either domain to fill that slot. For example, a third level cleric can cast first and second level spells. So you have a first and second level domain spell slot. If you had the luck domain you could fill the first slot with entropic shield and the second slot with aid.

[Yuki Akuma]

There are a couple of feats, magic items and prestige classes that require you to worship a specific deity, as well.

[Darkranger85]

Alright, that really helps clear that up! I appreciate it!

Any advice on starting the first character? My head is still spinning with all these stats and such and it just doesn't seem like the player manual explains it as well as it could.

[holywhippet]

Alright, that really helps clear that up! I appreciate it!

Any advice on starting the first character? My head is still spinning with all these stats and such and it just doesn't seem like the player manual explains it as well as it could.

Well, for most classes there is one ability score they really depend on. For divine casters it is usually wisdom. For arcane casters it will be either intelligence (wizards) or charisma (sorcerers and bards). For fighters it is strength. Rogues tend to favour dexterity a bit since a lot of their skills call for it.

Other ability scores vary in usefulness, but constitution is helpful to everyone as it gives you a bonus to your hit points and dexterity can help you avoid getting hit. As such, you generally want that ability to be as high as possible. If you are rolling for your ability scores, put the highest value in the most important score for your chosen class. If you are using point buy, put an 18 in that score for spell casting classes and at least 16 for any other class.

As for picking a class. Clerics are a good choice as will be decent in combat, can wear good armor and have your spell casting to help you out. Fighters aren't a bad choice for a starting character as they are a fairly simple class to play with. Rogues are also good as they have a lot of tricks they can pull off. For the love of Gygax, do not try playing a monk. A skilled player can optimise a monk to be decent, but for a beginning player it's a bad idea as your low armor class will do you no favours.

For race, human is a good solid pick for a beginner as their bonuses are fairly simple to understand. Dwarves are a bit more complicated, but they have a lot of strengths to help them out. If you are a fighter, I'd avoid small races like gnomes and halflings as you will have smaller weapons and do less damage.

[Subaru Kujo]

Alright, that really helps clear that up! I appreciate it!

Any advice on starting the first character? My head is still spinning with all these stats and such and it just doesn't seem like the player manual explains it as well as it could.

Rogue's a fairly good choice, as is a fighter. Clerics are fun, but if you do that, don't go pure healbot (especially if you are a Good one, since you can just spontaneously cast them if need be in that case): focus more on buffs to help your group get the enemies down as quickly as possible.

[ArcturusV]

Hmm, advice on playing your first character, and that character is a cleric?

First off... dont' be afraid to jump into scenes. This is just general advice. But often it's easy to feel "overwhelmed" and like you don't know what's "right" to do in a scene, be it talking with NPCs, combat, dealing with the environment, etc. But outside of things that are, well, dickish, like stealing from your party, or bashing a fellow player's skull in while he sleeps, etc, there isn't really a 'wrong' choice.

You'll have more fun if you jump in. Even if you do pick something "wrong" or foolish, it's a team game, and count on your fellow players for advice. Don't run off half cocked, don't ignore them, but don't also let them lead you around by the nose.

Pick a character concept and run with it. When you say "Cleric" what do you mean? It can be different things. Are you the guy who's wading into battle, casting your magics to increase your abilities and lay the smack down on the infidels? Or are you the guy who blesses his teammates, making them stronger to face the challenges they will come across? Or are you the wise advisor who uses his magic to glimpse into the strands of fate, glean information, and choose the best course of action? All these are possible when you play a Cleric, pretty easy.

Biggest worry is spell selection. The thing is, and I believe this to be true, people can't just TELL you what good spells are good. Because there's a learning curve involved (Not to mention the particulars of your campaign). But the general advice you're looking for?

Look through spells, keep it simple using only a few books to make it easy. Just the short lists of "These are the level ___ cleric spells" in the book, and their shorthand descriptions. You want to look through and think to yourself how you're going to use the spells, and choose them based on sort of the following criteria:

1) Completely wins the day. Spells that, once cast, just instantly solve a problem for you. Things like Augury/Divination are included in this list. You cast one spell, you solve one problem/encounter.

2) Spells that have a high impact on an encounter, but don't necessarily win it. Something like Hold Person can fit this, as you can find the biggest, largest, dumbest brute who might be troublesome and tell them to freeze.

3) Spells that have a wide effect and high utility. This could include things like Bless, throwing out small bonuses to all of your allies ain't bad. It can also include spells that have a lot of utility use like Light.

4) Spells that "finish" a problem. These are things like Flame Blade, etc, that either finish off enemies for good.

[Darkranger85]

Thanks guys! That is useful info!

But unfortunately my issues are before the game starts.

I haven't even finished drawing up my first character. I have my ability points rolled for and I think I have the HP done right, but I can't figure out how to figure out the like 5 dozen different stats on this sheet.

For instance I don't even see in the manual where it tells me what my 'size' is, never mind what the modifier might be.

[ArcturusV]

For that you want to look at your Race. At the end of the various race entries it'll have a stat block saying things that you get for being that race. Up top on it will be "Size: _____". Medium typically, which has no modifiers, unless you're playing a Gnome or a Halfaman, in which case you're Small, and it will mention the modifiers.

[Subaru Kujo]

Thanks guys! That is useful info!

But unfortunately my issues are before the game starts.

I haven't even finished drawing up my first character. I have my ability points rolled for and I think I have the HP done right, but I can't figure out how to figure out the like 5 dozen different stats on this sheet.

For instance I don't even see in the manual where it tells me what my 'size' is, never mind what the modifier might be.

Well, let's start with what you are playing for sure. What is it? Because it will tell me what your max skill points are at first level and your feat choice(s).

[holywhippet]

Thanks guys! That is useful info!

But unfortunately my issues are before the game starts.

I haven't even finished drawing up my first character. I have my ability points rolled for and I think I have the HP done right, but I can't figure out how to figure out the like 5 dozen different stats on this sheet.

For instance I don't even see in the manual where it tells me what my 'size' is, never mind what the modifier might be.

If you can understand enough of it to make use of it (and ignore the parts you don't need) consider using something like this: http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm

[Darkranger85]

Well, let's start with what you are playing for sure. What is it? Because it will tell me what your max skill points are at first level and your feat choice(s).

Ok, I'm thinking it's going to be an elven wizard.

But, I want to learn how to put the character together, so tell me how you come up with stuff. :)

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the help!

[Darkranger85]

If you can understand enough of it to make use of it (and ignore the parts you don't need) consider using something like this: http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm

Yeah, I saw that before actually. I might end up using something like that but ultimately I'd rather know how to do it myself.

[Subaru Kujo]

Ok, I'm thinking it's going to be an elven wizard.

But, I want to learn how to put the character together, so tell me how you come up with stuff. :)

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the help!

Well, first off, I'd recommend throwing the ability scores as the rulebook tells you to. It's fairly close to what I'd do. Charisma or Wisdom would be a good 4th stat followed by the other and then Strength. Next you'll have to calculate your ability score mods. To do that, just subtract 10 from your base score, and divide it by 2, rounding down. If the base score is lower than 10, it's going to be a negative modifier (and there's nothing wrong with having one of those).

After that, pick a number of class skills equal to your Int mod +2. Spellcraft (which allows for spell identification and therefore counterspelling, as well as for scribing spells in your spellbook), Concentration (which allows for spellcasting when threatened by someone in melee with you (though if you get to the point where it's a big deal, you are probably already dead), and Knowledge (Arcana) (Remember various bits about how arcane magic works (you'd be surprised how often that comes up in many campaigns)) are all good things for a wizard to have.

For the rest of it, I'm going to have to defer it to a more qualified person, as the feats and specialization decide how you will play him (blaster, summoner, or otherwise). Just rest assured, you build him right, he's going to be wrecking the world six ways from Sunday (and I do mean that literally: Wizards just crap all over the competition once they get going).

[GilesTheCleric]

Check out page 6 in the PHB for a concise summary of how character creation works. The chapters in the book are also set up in this order, so it's easy to start at the beginning of the book and work your way to the end, filling in your character as you go.

Each class helps you figure out what you should do when making it. Eg. for wizards, in the game rule information section, it lets you know first what abilities are important so that you can assign your ability scores, and then gives you the details of skills.

Also, please try not to double-post. There's an edit button if you need to add more info to your posts.

[Spore]

You'll want your best attribute to be intelligence. Then you get to use DEX and CON (don't underestimate CON, you are a frail elf, you NEED the extra hit points). You can assign WIS CHA and STR to your liking as it is unlikely to affect your adventure much. Just be advised that low WIS tends to penalize your perception and will saves (against charm spells, or fear effects) low CHA will makes you unable to be a great leader and small talker to the npcs. Low STR could mean that you need someone to carry some of your stuff since you have about 45 pounds of gear with a STR of 8 and you are then medium encumbered.

Here you are: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xjPIOH8F8a0l74BdDF7Q23nCfZ-YX68Xr6JmmtznMw4/edit - I find him to be not only amusing but quite understandable to beginners.

Just realize that even the mediocre choices are above the possibilities of a weaker class after a bunch of levels.

[Yuki Akuma]

Good skills to have:

Use Magic Device - It's not a class skill for Wizards, and your Charisma modifier won't be very high, but it'll be nice to have in the long run. Remember that cross-class skills cost 2 skill points per rank and have a maximum rank that's half the maximum rank for class skills.

Craft - Helps you make stuff with certain spells like Fabricate, as well as crafting items to turn into magic items if you go that route. You can also use it to earn a bit of money, which at very early levels can be handy.

Balance - Cross class again, but you want to have at least 5 ranks in this eventually, so that you're not flat-footed while balancing. You won't have those five ranks until level 7, though, alas.

Knowledge - The Planes, History, Geography, whatever. Even one or two ranks in a Knowledge skill can be useful if you're an Int-focused character - untrained, you can't make any check with a DC higher than 10.

Good spells for a first-level Wizard are Grease (your Rogue will love you - remember, anything trying to balance without 5 ranks in Balance is flat-footed), Color Spray and Sleep (the go-to 'win the encounter in one move' spells at first level).

Sleep loses its usefulness at later levels, but Grease and Color Spray remain useful forever.

For feats... Reserve feats (from Complete Mage) can be nice, if you expect to be adventuring for a long time until you can rest to regain spells. I'm not entirely sure there's one you can take at first level, though...

Item crafting and metamagic feats are also a good choice. When crafting items, remember that lower-level characters earn more XP - it doesn't matter if you spend a bit of XP on making items, because you'll end up catching up eventually.

[CRtwenty]

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to this whole tabletop rpg thing and it's pretty overwhelming.

I'm reading the player manual and it's like studying for the SATs or something.

I could really use some help making heads or tails of this whole process and getting my first character up and running.

I'd also be up for a friendly game to get my feet wet if anyone is available. :)

EDIT: What in the world does your deity choice effect if you are a cleric?

When I create characters I usually use the following steps. I'll use your Elf Wizard as an example

1. Come up with a character concept (Elf Wizard in this case)
2. Determine and assign stats and racial bonuses (Intelligence is key for Wizards)
3. Determine base bonuses (Base Attack Bonus, Saving Throws, Hit Points, etc.) using the Wizard class table in the PHB.
4. Determine and allot Skill Points (Spellcraft, Concentration, Knowledge (Arcana), and Knowledge (The Planes) are must have skills for my Wizards.)
5. Pick Feats and enter in Class Abilities.
6. Spell Selection, Specialization (I wouldn't suggest playing a Specialist Wizard as your first character, you want to be free to experiment)
7. Starting Gold, and Equipment (At low levels this is simple, the Starting Packages aren't a bad option at level 1)
8. Fluff (Height, Weight, Appearance, Name, Backstory)
9. Other Details (Familiars, etc.)