Super new to all this, little character creation help

[Giggity360]

Good evening. I just recently, and by recently I mean we've only had 3 sessions, started playing DND for the first time. The worst part about it all was trying to figure out how to create the character, and of course the first one I make was something non-standard (duskblade). Long story short, I've ended up near-death each session and based on that I'm not 100% on how much longer I'll be able to keep him alive. That being said, I wanted to get another guy prepped and ready in case I needed it. I've been looking at various different things all over the internet trying my best to figure out how to make a Ranger (I'm feeling like a quick in and out bow and arrow kinda guy) and I've looked at so many damned numbers and things that my eyes have started to cross and I'm getting a headache. I just don't understand where all the numbers come from (aside from the main stat die rolls). Is there some sort of step-by-step guide for this sort of thing? Once I understand it, I should be fine, but damn am I getting frustrated.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Ranger can get a bit tricky. Base ranger can be a bit disappointing (1/2 HD animal companion? Really?). Ranger gets a lot of its power from two things: The Mystic Ranger (Dragon #336 page 105) gives you more spells and the feat Sword of the Arcane Order lets you prepare wizard spells in your ranger spell slots.

If you don't have access to these things, let me link you a personal favorite: the Swift Hunter (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=0fe0gfuu5ttmrd1l9pglj2r4d4&topic=103.0)

[Giggity360]

Thank you for the response, and I mean no offense by this Zam, but some of the things you said are some of the things that are getting me confused. As an example, I have zero clue what 1/2 HD means.

[ZamielVanWeber]

HD = hit die. A ranger's animal companion is drawn off the druid table, with the exception that their effective druid level is 1/2 their ranger level.

EX: A 4th level druid can take an ape as an animal companion. A 4th level ranger could not because you need druid level 4th and a ranger's is equal to half their ranger level, 2 in this case.

[Giggity360]

Thank you. Like I said, theres so much I've been reading its overwhelming. Would you happen to know a guide somewhere that shows me step by step how to make a character (in general, not just the ranger) and explains itself as it goes along?

[Extra Anchovies]

Start here. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=9479) You'll want to bookmark that, along with this nifty handbook index. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=399.0)

Welcome to the char-op club.

If you want to hear from someone else about what the Ranger can do, have a handbook. (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4621) There's also this mini-guide (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1543) that goes into some detail on expanding the ranger's spellcasting.

If you want my own advice regarding the ranger, read the spoiler below.

Regarding the Ranger: straight out of the PHB they aren't that impressive. They can do a bunch of stuff but can't do any of it that well. Thankfully, there are a lot of ways to improve it.

Generally, the most powerful thing in the game is spellcasting. There's a ranger alternate class called the Mystic Ranger that gives you a hefty buff to your casting, especially at the low levels, by adding on 0- and 5th-level spells and speeding up the progression a lot (you give up the animal companion, only get four favored enemies, and your bonus feats are somewhat delayed). It's one of the strongest classes before 10th level (after that point they stop getting new spell levels so their power is diminished quite a bit). It can be found on page 105 of Dragon Magazine #336, which is on Scribd (I'm not sure if linking non-Wizards-hosted dragmag stuff is allowed here, so I'll let you do the googling yourself).

Another big boost to the ranger is the Wildshape Ranger alternate class feature (ACF) in Unearthed Arcana (UA). It's also on the hypertext d20 SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger), which you'll want to bookmark (main page is here (http://www.d20srd.org/)). Wild Shape is awesome because A) it has tons of utility (various movement modes, extraordinary senses, etc) and B) lots of combat power (Lions can full-attack on charges, giant octopi are awesome lockdown grapplers, etc).

The Ranger wildshape ACF is limited to Medium-sized animals only, but there's a prestige class that fixes that called Master of Many Forms (one of the strongest noncasting PrCs in the game, because it greatly expands the already very powerful Wild Shape ability), from Complete Adventurer (page 58). If you don't have the book, there are some sites that host the class information online, but I can't link those because that's not allowed on this forum (it being copyright-protected content). Googline "master of many forms class" might turn something up.

So the best thing you can pull out of a Ranger build is, in my opinion, a Wildshape Mystic Ranger 5/Master of Many Forms 10. Spend the last five levels on basically whatever you want. Probably more WMR levels to keep your Wild Shape hit die cap at your character level.

[GilesTheCleric]

If you're still learning the rules of the game and how everything works together, I recommend going through the PHB in order as you make your character. In the first few pages (page 4?) there's a numbered list of what to do to build a character. Each chapter in the book is laid out in the same order, so that you can go from front to back and end up with a completed character.

I'll go over some of the abbreviations on the character sheet quickly just so you know what they all mean:

Ability scores: these describe your character's physical and mental attributes. Normal people have 10 or 11 in each. Characters like you play in Dnd can have 18 or more. These are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each class in the PHB tells you what scores are important to have high; for a rough rule of thumb, you want high strength on melee classes, and a high casting stat in spellcasting classes. Regardless of the class, it's good to have at least a 14 in Constitution (14 gives you a +2 con mod).

Ability modifier: this is a number that's derived from the ability score. It's a number that you'll use for most things in dnd. For example, if you have an 18 strength, then your strength's ability modifier is +4 (see the table on page ~6 to see how the modifiers and scores relate). That +4 from strength is what you add to your weapon damage when you hit things. These numbers vary from -5 to +5 or more; positive numbers here are good to have. This is called a "mod" for short, or a "bonus" or "penalty" (eg. str bonus).

Saving throws: this is what you roll to avoid having something bad happen to your character. Each of them protect you in the way the name describes -- fortitude helps you remain stable against things like poisons; reflex helps you dodge things like fireballs or traps; will helps you prevent foes from controlling your mind. Each one is increased by your class (see the class table) and your ability modifier relevant to each save.

Grapple: this is how you suplex foes. It's complicated to use in 3.5, but if your goal in life is to piledrive every goblin you come across, then the PHB has rules for this in the combat section (somewhere in pages ~130-150, I think? I'm afb). You'll add your strength mod to this.

Base Attack Bonus, or BAB: This is a made-up number that describes how good you are at using weapons. Your class increases it (see the class table), and you add it to attack rolls and grapple checks. Don't add anything to this number; this number is what you add to your attack rolls and grapple checks.

Spell resistance: Ignore this.

HP (hit points): How lucky you are, punk. Once you're at 0, you're KOed; at -10 your luck has run out and you're dead. Until you hit 0, you remain in tip-top fighting shape, though. Each level you'll add your con mod to this. At first level, you'll start with max hit points. Hit Die (HD) determine how many base hp you get each level; if you're a Fighter, you have a d10 HD. So, at first level you'll get 10 hp + con mod; then at each level after one you'll roll a d10, then add that result + con mod to your total.

AC (armour class): This is the number your foes roll against in order to hit you. If they meet or beat the number with their attack roll, you're taking some damage. Add the AC bonus of your armour and your dex mod. Touch and Flat-Footed (FF) are both numbers that are going to be lower than your regular AC, and are what happens when you're at a disadvantage -- Touch means that your armour isn't going to stop a foe from just placing a hand on you, somewhere *shivvers*, so you don't get to add your armour bonus to that. FF means that you're not aware a foe is attacking you, so you don't get to try and wiggle out of the way -- no dex bonus is applied, but you still get your armour bonus. In any case, a higher number is better.

Initiative: This is how quickly you can react to the start of a fight. With a higher number, you'll go first more often. As you continue to progress into the world of op-fu (optimization), you'll learn that getting this high is important. Until you have a firm grasp on the Noob Handbook linked above, and have figured out how and why Tiers (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=658.0) work (maybe after a year or two of play), don't stress about this. Raise it if it's easy to do, don't worry about it otherwise. Add your dex mod to this.

Skills: Each time you level, you'll get some skill points, which you can spend to put "ranks" into your class skills. More ranks means you're better at the skill; you can't ever have more than character level+3 ranks in any one skill. With a higher int mod, you'll get more skill points to spend.

Attack roll: This is a d20, plus your strength mod, plus your BAB. If you get a number equal to or higher than your foe's AC, then you hit.

Damage: Once you've hit, you roll for damage. With melee weapons, you'll roll the damage dice for the weapon (typically 1d4 to 1d12 depending on the weapon. You'll add a varying amount of your strength mod to the damage: x1 if you're using a light weapon (like a dagger) or a one-hander like a longsword, or x1.5 with a two-hander like a battleaxe. With ranged weapons (like a bow), you don't add any strength damage at all. With thrown weapons (like a sling), you'll add x1 strength mod.




Edit:More on ability score and modifiers: Just so you don't make the same mistake I did: Don't add your ability modifier to the score. The ability score will tell you what your modifier is, but those two numbers don't add or subtract or do anything with each other besides that. Also, if something is giving you a bonus to your ability score (like a belt of giant's strength giving you +4 enhancement to strength), then you'll add that number to your score, not the modifier. So, if you're a barbarian with 18 strength (+4 modifier) and you get a belt of giant's strength, you suddenly have 22 strength, and a modifier of +6 (because scores of 22 and 23 mean your modifier is +6, per the table).

Double edit: If you're not intimidated by spreadsheets, there's many character sheets that will fill themselves out for you. There's one in my signature, and with some googling you can find others. However, I do recommend that you don't rely on an automated character sheet too heavily -- it's important to learn how everything works together. Try using such a sheet just as a way to double-check that you've done everything correctly, perhaps.

[Note that my sheet is made to break up different bonus types -- in the example above, the belt of giant's strength has an enhancement bonus; if your character had one of those, but next acquired some gauntlets of strength +2 (enhancement +2), then they would still only receive a +4 to strength, because both bonus types are enhancement, and thus don't stack. This is because one of the rules of the game is that bonuses of the same type don't stack, but instead the largest value is used. My sheet makes it clear which types are granting what values of bonus (both permanently and temporarily), and this is probably way more info than you need at this point in your gaming career. If you do use my sheet, try to ignore all of the extra fields, and just pay attention to the colour-coded ability mod fields.]

As a note to the lurkers and other folks of the board, expect my sheet to be updated with an expanded skills section, and possibly a dedicated bloodlines section. Further, I'm mulling over the idea of building in a rd/min/hr buff duration tracker for each field, but that's going to be a lot of work since I plan on doing it without macros. I'll get onto both of those things after I'm done moving, and after I'm done with my in-progress domain handbook+index. It's really moving along, I promise! I've gone through about 40/120 books, and 0/93 drag mags, but the ones I've done are some of the big ones (FaP, CD, CC, PGtF, MoF, MoE, PGtE, etc).

[jiriku]

Welcome to the hobby!

We're glad you're here, but I should warn you that this forum is not the best place to get newbie advice. A lot of the regular posters here have been playing the game for decades and are extremely advanced. It's easy for them to forget what it was like to struggle with the basics. We'll all do our best to get you started and enjoying the game, though. :smallsmile:

Giles gave a great primer, I second everything he said. There are a few things I'd suggest for you as a beginner as well:


In the Player's Handbook (PHB), chapters 1-5 and chapter 8 are important. Everyone needs to have a solid of understanding of the rules in those chapters that apply to their character. You don't need to know every class or every skill and feat, but you should really know the general rules for how classes, skills, and feats work, and you should understand the choices that are relevant for your character in particular. Everyone needs to know the combat chapter very well. The rest of the book is either rarely referenced or is important only for spellcasting PCs.

The character idea that Extra Anchovies mapped out for you (often called a build) is a powerful one, but I do not recommend it for you. It relies heavily on advanced rules from multiple sourcebooks, and it doesn't sound like you're ready for something that difficult yet.

An important organizing principle for D&D is the d20 roll. Whether you're attacking a monster, persuading the duke, bashing down a door, sneaking past a guard, or trying to stave off the effects of poison, almost every challenge is resolved by rolling a twenty-sided die (d20), adding a bonus, and comparing it to a target number set by the Dungeon Master. If you meet or exceed the target number, it's all gravy. Of course, the devil is in the details when it comes to finding out what your bonus is. Still, most rolls are made by adding a bonus representing training (base attack bonus or skill rank, most often), a bonus representing talent (an ability score modifier), and a bonus representing special equipment (such as a magic sword or an alchemical lab). Exceptions abound, however, and often you'll have more or fewer numbers to add up to determine your total bonus. I find it MASSIVELY HELPFUL to add up the bonuses for common actions ahead of time and note them down -- you don't want to be referencing a calculator constantly when you're playing.

[Extra Anchovies]

Welcome to the hobby!

We're glad you're here, but I should warn you that this forum is not the best place to get newbie advice. A lot of the regular posters here have been playing the game for decades and are extremely advanced. It's easy for them to forget what it was like to struggle with the basics. We'll all do our best to get you started and enjoying the game, though. :smallsmile:

Giles gave a great primer, I second everything he said. There are a few things I'd suggest for you as a beginner as well:

The character idea that Extra Anchovies mapped out for you (often called a build) is a powerful one, but I do not recommend it for you. It relies heavily on advanced rules from multiple sourcebooks, and it doesn't sound like you're ready for something that difficult yet.

:smallbiggrin: It's what I do best. The complexity of WSR is really heavily dependent on your knowledge of the various monster-heavy sourcebooks, but he's right. I should have thought that through a little better. Sorta forgot the fact that you were really new :smallredface:

Jiriku and Giles both give good advice. Listen to both of them, play some more, then go back and take a look at those optimization guides I linked.

[Giggity360]

Thank you so so much to all of you, especially Giles. That was extremely helpful. I will continue to refer back to this.

[Extra Anchovies]

Thank you so so much to all of you, especially Giles. That was extremely helpful. I will continue to refer back to this.

No problem! Feel free to ask us about basically anything related to the game. If it's a simple rules question you may want to try the Q&A by RAW (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?389369-Simple-RAW-Thread-for-3-5-Score-and-Nine) (rules as written) first; it's a long thread, but you don't need to read any of it other than the first post. Welcome to the forums!

[ExLibrisMortis]

Archery is a bit tricky in D&D. For example, a melee attack gets a strength bonus to damage, but a ranged attack does not get an ability bonus to damage. A 16 strength fighter with a longsword gets 1d8+3 damage, a 16 dexterity fighter with a longbow gets a plain 1d8. You also can't use Power Attack with bows.

If you want a skirmishing nature-themed character, javelins might appeal to you. With two levels in Bloodstorm Blade (a prestige class from Tome of Battle), you can treat your thrown weapon attacks as melee attacks. With four levels, your thrown weapons always return to you, so you can throw the same javelin ten times in a round, if you have the attacks. That way, you can pretty seamlessly switch between javelin combat at range and melee combat (possibly with another weapon).

For example: human Ranger 3/Barbarian 1/Warblade 1/Bloodstorm Blade 4.

There's one important substitution: the barbarian must be a spirit lion totem barbarian (Complete Champion). It gives you the ability to make a full attack on a charge.
Bloodstorm Blade requires Point Blank Shot to enter. You'll also want Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper (Complete Warrior), Leap Attack (Complete Adventurer). Pick up the archery combat style at Ranger 2. That's all your feats spoken for.

Together, this allows you to do the following:
1) Activate your Bloodstorm Blade ability. You can now treat thrown attack as melee attacks.
2) Charge an enemy that's 90 feet away.
3) Move double your speed (60') towards the enemy.

3.5) Make a leap as the final 10' of movement. This activates the benefit of the Leap Attack feat.
4) Make a full attack, using thrown attacks, but treating them as melee attacks. You have 30' range with your javelins.

4.5) Throw the same javelin three times.

Your full attack at the end of a charge looks like this:

Three attacks, +8/+8/+3 base attack, thanks to Rapid Shot. You get +1 to hit and damage within 30' thanks to Point Blank Shot. You power attack for 10 points - your maximum. Thanks to Leap Attack, that adds 30 points of damage to each hit. Your AC drops by 10, but your base attack remains at +10. Let's say you have 20 strength at level 10 - you get +5 to hit, and +7 to damage (1.5x - javelins are two-handed weapons). You also have Punishing Stance from the warblade (-2 AC, +1d6 damage to all melee attacks).

Total: +16/+16/+11, 2d6 + 38 damage per hit (average 45). Not including magic weapons, nor barbarian rage, nor a friendly bard nearby. You now have a -12 penalty to AC - don't get hit. But if you do, you have lots of health - barbarian, warblade and bloodstorm blade all have a d12 hit die.

[Ettina]

Also, keep in mind that a Rogue can make a pretty good 'quick in and out bow and arrow kinda guy' too, and may be simpler to play. No fussing about with an animal companion or ranger spells, and if you sneak attack you can do a lot of damage really quickly.

[Giggity360]

Thanks to the help ive received here, and looking more into the PHB, I think ive gotten a pretty decent Rogue made up here. Trying to figure out what alignment would line up now though. I'm thinking I want her to be like, mercenary for hire, in it for the money. If there's nothing in it for me with some kind of value, I dont want to do it. I would prefer to do things quietly, but will work with the group if it makes me getting paid easier.

[ComaVision]

Thanks to the help ive received here, and looking more into the PHB, I think ive gotten a pretty decent Rogue made up here. Trying to figure out what alignment would line up now though. I'm thinking I want her to be like, mercenary for hire, in it for the money. If there's nothing in it for me with some kind of value, I dont want to do it. I would prefer to do things quietly, but will work with the group if it makes me getting paid easier.

Sounds like a pretty classic Chaotic Neutral to me.