AD&D Character Creation Rules for 5th Ed

[Anonimicon]

Okay, so. My GM wants to start making it so all of our characters follow the old adnd rules in character creation. By this I mean rolling out the stats and placing them down in the order rolled, then seeing which classes and races your character is applicable for. He told me to find out how to do this for all of the classes and races in 5th ed since not all of them were available in adnd. So I was hoping someone on here could help me find it somewhere out there on the internet (i have looked for about 30 minutes as of this post).

I was told to come here from the DnD 5e/Next forum by Oscredwin.

[Eslin]

I gotta ask... why? Why would you want to randomly restrict the classes and races each player can pick from? If you think some are unbalanced then change or ban them, what possible reason is there to have each player randomly only eligible to pick certain races or classes?

[Ryunosuke]

So...just rolling 3d6, or 4d6 (dropping lowest result) and simply assigning those values in order to each of the six ability scores?

If so then that was practically the primary standard method to character creation and generating ability scores in 3.5 (and i think 4e) if your DM chose not to use point buy/elite array for the player characters. There isn't even a ruleset needed for that in 5th if that's what you meant. Just have everybody roll stats and chose race/class from there to build their characters.

[Anonimicon]

So...just rolling 3d6, or 4d6 (dropping lowest result) and simply assigning those values in order to each of the six ability scores?

If so then that was practically the primary standard method to character creation and generating ability scores in 3.5 (and i think 4e) if your DM chose not to use point buy/elite array for the player characters. There isn't even a ruleset needed for that in 5th if that's what you meant. Just have everybody roll stats and chose race/class from there to build their characters.

To my understanding (i never played adnd, personally, so i can't whether this is true or not) having a certain ability score at a certain level locks the character from certain classes/races. For example, say you roll an 11 in wisdom. The druid in adnd requires that you have at least 12 wisdom in order to play as it. Because you have 1 less than the requirement you are now locked out of playing a druid, whether you wanted to or not.

Really, all my gm is looking for are what requirements a homebrew would have for the new classes and races.

[Ryunosuke]

To my understanding (i never played adnd, personally, so i can't whether this is true or not) having a certain ability score at a certain level locks the character from certain classes/races. For example, say you roll an 11 in wisdom. The druid in adnd requires that you have at least 12 wisdom in order to play as it. Because you have 1 less than the requirement you are now locked out of playing a druid, whether you wanted to or not.

Really, all my gm is looking for are what requirements a homebrew would have for the new classes and races.

Then I ask the same question as Eslin. Why made the needless restriction for character creation at all?

[Anonimicon]

Then I ask the same question as Eslin. Why made the needless restriction for character creation at all?

I gotta ask... why? Why would you want to randomly restrict the classes and races each player can pick from? If you think some are unbalanced then change or ban them, what possible reason is there to have each player randomly only eligible to pick certain races or classes?

Because the randomness can be fun?

[Ryunosuke]

Because the randomness can be fun?

I mean if you really want to then...just use the ad&d guide? you cant have less than 12 in a primary stat for the class to take it?
Strength for Fighters and Barbarians (maybe Constitution as well)
Dexterity for Rogues and Rangers
Strength and Charisma for Paladins?
Wisdom for Druids and Clerics
Intelligence for Wizards
Charisma for Bards, Sorcerers and Warlocks

[Eslin]

The problem is this doesn't seem to have a point - if you have 11 intelligence, you're not going to create a wizard in the first place. Which is why I hate rolling for stats, everyone should have equality when creating characters, giving someone a permanent advantage just because they rolled dice well before the game started is stupid, but if your group enjoys it then go nuts I guess.

But the fact remains that such restrictions are pointless, the 10 strength guy's not making a barbarian anyway. Why bother?

[Ninjadeadbeard]

My group often does this as well. We go 3d6 straight down, but we also allow two re-rolls. You are allowed to burn one reroll to get a whole new set of rolls though, and the DM could give you a free set of rolls if your final stats sucked too much (like, four 8's and two 10's).

You also picked Race before you roll, seeing as how no one in RL gets to pick their heritage. Apply bonuses, and then pick Class and Background.

Restrictions are unnecessary since, as has been mentioned, NO ONE is building a Int 9 Wizard! Although a Dex-build barbarian could be fun...

[Thrudd]

I can understand wanting a fair method to generate random characters. Random can be fun, and it helps to shake up a group that is set in their ways and always playing the same type of characters. The difficulty is that 5e is a game in which the ability scores have a large part in the gameplay, so using a strict method of randomly generating them results in a possibly un-fun experience for unlucky players (more so than is usual). The issue is not just assigning ability score requirements to the classes, but also making sure the characters you get are playable.

There are ways this can be mitigated, so you can have random classes and abilities, but also make sure players don't end up with too much disparity in power levels. One way is to use a very lenient method of ability generation, like 5d6 best 3. Characters will all have pretty high scores and should qualify for at least one class that they would excel in. It is unlikely any player would be stuck with a character that isn't really good at anything.

Another way would be to randomly roll for class on a table, and then use a dice pool to determine the ability scores. There are twelve classes, so you could just roll a d12 for class. Or if you want to skew the demographics so there are slightly more of the "basic" classes than others, do a d100 and have fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue each with 11% chance, and the other classes each with 7% chance. You can do the same with races, make a d100 table with all the allowed races on it, adjusted for the desired demographics of the setting.

Once you know the class, you give the player a dice pool that they will divide between the abilities to determine their scores. For instance, you might have a dice pool of 24d6 (that would allow 4d6 on all scores). The minimum you can assign to any attribute is 3d6. If they rolled a fighter, they would probably like to assign more dice to strength, so they might roll 6d6 for strength and take the best 3. Now they want a decent constitution, too, so they put 5d6 there. Now they have enough for 4d6 in one attribute, and 3d6 in the three others. If you think these scores would be too low, you can give them more dice for the pool.

For the ability score requirements for the classes, I would say you need to have at least a +1 bonus in at least one of the abilities that the class gets proficiency in, and neither of the abilities can have a penalty. That pretty much covers everything. If you feel some of the classes are objectively better than others (I don't think that's the case, but some people might), increase the requirement for them accordingly, like you must have a +2 bonus on one relevant ability and +1 on the other. However, if this is the case, and you are using the random class/dice pool method, you would want to make sure those objectively better classes have a smaller chance of being rolled.

[Demonic Spoon]

Yet another way of doing this would be to use the standard array, or a 27-point-buy allocation of attributes, and then randomize which attribute gets each score.

[DrBurr]

1)Change the ability generation method to 3d6 straight down instead of 4d6 drop 1 and assign.
2)Use the Multiclass rules Minimums for Ability scores as the required stats
3)Convert the AD&D's class restrictions for Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs from Unearthed Arcana, or the PHB if you don't have UA. Along with level caps with you want
4)You'll need to create class restrictions for Dragonborn and Tieflings or just ban them from the table
5)Use the Bard race restrictions from 2e. In 1e they were a weird Multiclass only Class
6)You'll need to creates race restrictions for Warlocks and Sorcerers or ban the classes.
7)Convert the Mins and Maxes for Racial Ability Scores from 1e. You'll need to make Mins and Maxes for Dragonborn and Tiefling if they aren't banned

Some suggestions
*Use the Cavalier's Race Restrictions over the original Paladin's, this will give you a little more variety than Human Only Paladins
*If you don't want to Axe the Warlock and Sorcerer you could use the Race restrictions for the Assassin for the Warlock and the Illusionist for the Sorcerer.
*You'll need to decide if Feats fall in line with your view of 1e. Without them then every character will gain Ability Score improvements instead, and you'll want to remove the variant human.
*Spellcasting was a lot more restrictive in 1e, you might want to adapt some of those rules as well like no spellcasting in heavy armor or Magic Users (Wizards) needing to prepare specific spells

[DiBastet]

1)Change the ability generation method to 3d6 straight down instead of 4d6 drop 1 and assign.
2)Use the Multiclass rules Minimums for Ability scores as the required stats


If the GM wants creation rules similar to AD&D I think this covers it. That or a minimum of 12 on both the class' proficient saving throws (this works ok for homebrew classes). Also he might want to ban level stat increases so you get stuck with whatever you rolled. He might also put arcane spellcasting failure back in the game and change HP past level 10 to a specific number. Also giving some kind of leadership at level 10 for bonus style points.

[SiuiS]

Again, I suggest using one of the many widely available AD&D character generators, which often restrict your class and race choice based on stats.