Five Simple House Rules for Character Creation

it's a brand new year and you may be setting out on a brand new campaign but how are you gonna get started on this new adventure you may be checking out some of our class guides thinking about what kind of character you want to play rolling up your stats figuring things out and you might want to try out some of these house rules that we've used in our campaigns for character creation to set your campaign off on the right foot my name is Monty Martin and I'm Kelley McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes welcome to our channel where we discuss everything Dungeons and Dragons including advice for players and guides for Dungeon Master's we upload new videos every Thursday so please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode today we are sharing the house rules that we've been using over several years for character creation in our campaigns character creation is one of the most fun parts I think of kicking off a new campaign there's nothing like getting inspired and getting new ideas percolating around but there's a few ways that we can smooth out this entire process the rules we're looking at today are there to help inspire your role-playing options as well as being flexible and fair to give you more variety at the table now these house rules are in addition to the standard practices that you might explore during a session 0 we've got a whole video on that right up over here so using these house rules in tandem with a really well run session 0 is the perfect recipe for kicking off a new campaign there's a lot to discuss today so let's get rolling one of the most commonly House ruled options and one that I'm pretty sure everybody has a different way of doing is generating ability scores there's a number of options listed in the players handbook and there are so many different people who have created house ruled versions of how to generate these ability scores today we're going to talk about our method for generating ability scores now we've tried many different methods for ability to score generation over the years we have a fond love hate relationship with rollin fur ability scores we've tried point buy we've tried various fixed arrays we've tried all sorts of different points methods for generating and ability scores but ultimately what we settled on was a slightly more generous fixed score array we've used this in several campaigns now and it's worked really well for us if you're a fan of our dragon hime series we also use these ability score arrays in that show so a lot of people do ask us how did you generate your ability scores and it's using the standard array that Monty has created here which is 17 15 13 12 10 and 8 again this is a little bit more generous than the standard ability score array of 15 14 13 12 10 8 and there's a few reasons why we settled on this our groups tend to include 3 or 4 players most recently we have smaller groups so the extra little bit of power that the players gain tends to compensate for this fact and often that our characters very rarely play healers yeah we almost never have a healer and so we need a little bit of extra help sometimes the other reason why I love the standard array is because as a player one of my favorite parts of Dungeons & Dragons is choosing feats when it comes down to creating your character once you've chosen your race your class and eventually your subclass those are three of the biggest choices you get to make but that locks you in to everything that you are going to gain through leveling up in the campaign when you get to add in feats for me it's a fun little bit of variety to say what cool unique ability do I want to give this character that really fine-tunes them to the way I want to roleplay them and by giving a player character just a little bit more power you give that player the option to look more closely at the feats options rather than always having to take the ability score improvements in addition because we're giving a 17 right off the bat it means that player characters can start with an ability score as high as 18 but can't get that 20 right off the bat so they still do have to use some ability score boost to get that far it also means that players are able to choose a race and class combination that might be a little bit non-standard perhaps choosing a race that doesn't grant a bonus to the gord granted by your class but still being able to start off with a high 17 getting in that +3 modifier that is really the point where you feel specialized in your class as well so it gives a little bit more flexibility for those non-standard combinations and allows players to explore those feats much earlier on if they don't feel like they have to crank up their stats to get maxed out by not giving the player character is the ability to hit 20 right off the bat though you do kind of put that ability score improvement option out there for them at some point but now it's a little bit more lenient on it and they can have a lot more fun mixing and matching races and classes and feats and subclasses with a little bit more freedom to find what speaks to them finally there's a few things that make this a very fair array that I quite like as opposed to rolling which can yield some very random and in my opinion not very organic feeling characters anyways the player characters always get one really big strength and always one or two weaknesses they always have to accept that there's going to be a ten and an eight and one of their ability scores this encourages teamwork because no one has amazing stats that are amazing in every single ability score there's always some kind of trade offer choice when they're building their character Monty and I are huge fans of rolling for your ability scores and have done it many many times the problem is that when you are running a long-term campaign rolling stats can create some imbalance at the table if one of your players ends up with very weak stats in several categories where another player ends up with no weaknesses whatsoever it can make the player who rolled a little more poorly feel left out of the fun at the table sometimes rolling stats works extremely well for one shots or shorter campaigns because you really get to play around with the true feeling of what D&D is with rolling your stats it's one of the most heavy traditions of Dungeons & Dragons but with the fixed array for a longer term campaign you make sure to keep things balanced and fair for the entire party you might see this array and see that every character is using the same array and they feel kind of samey but every character still assigns ability scores as desired applies their racial modifiers and then role plays their character and I find that the still yields characters that feel very unique and very different from each other players get to explore a lot of different options within this and I think that the freedom to explore more options and know what your ability scores are gonna be has meat meant that my players have been more and more creative about what options they want to explore and something that I've said in so many of these videos is I do think that there is an extreme importance about each player character having that eight playing into your flaws and weaknesses is some of the most fun at the table this can create a lot of fun situations that just has hilarious outcomes and it can be so much fun at the table for the group on the flip side using this array each player character generally has one really big strengths and only one which means that they have to work together as a team and collaborate with one another it means that no one player ends up having well I've got the highest strength and the highest charisma and the highest wisdom in the party because I rolled really well and so I get to shine in so many different circumstances it means that the player characters have to take their turns and work together because no one is going to be able to be the dominant force in the party in addition to the standard array we've looked at another rule that can cause a lot of versatility with choosing your race and class options and that is the floating ability score option this house rule modifies the way the bonus is granted to your ability scores by your race works during character creation you may take one point from any racial ability score bonus granted to your ability scores and move it to any other ability score which does not already gain a bonus from your race what this means in play is that if you are playing a wood elf you get a +2 bonus to your dexterity and a +1 bonus to your wisdom under this rule you could either move that +1 wisdom bonus to any other ability score except for dexterity or take one of the points that is granted to you from your dexterity and move it to any other ability score aside from your wisdom or your dexterity this means that if you wanted to play a wood elf wizard and gain a +1 bonus to your intelligence score you would be able to do that this house rule opens up so many more race class combinations that are often ignored by players who might have that slight min/max power game or sort of tendency where they always want to have an optimal boost to their ability scores for their class not everybody out there is a min/max er but it can be a little bit strange at the table when you come in with a non optimized character and a party of otherwise optimized players indeed this house rule is excellent if you have a few players in your group that are always going for the power combos and a few players in your group that just want to explore their imaginations and try different combinations it means that those players feel less penalized for being a little bit more creative and exploring an oddball option because they can mix and match things around to make their character still strong in the midst of a party where other players might be just going for the power combo this simple house rule takes the edge off the variant human for being the most powerful option to choose if you can't decide which other race best fits the character you're trying to play indeed the variant humans insane flexibility gaining a feat ability score bonuses wherever they need it and an extra skill is really hard for a lot of the other player character options to match and this simple tweak which allows race class combinations to work and gel together that wouldn't otherwise have really goes a long way to opening up your players minds one part of Dungeons & Dragons that can be a little rough is when you are leveling up and you roll to see how many hit points you're going to gain and you roll a one and end up with much lower hit points on the rest of the party there's a simple house rule that we use that can help out with this and it is the take half hit points rule this house rule is so popular that it's in the core rule books themselves we use it we love it and we think it's very very fair it also goes hand in hand with the fact that we often create our characters starting at third level or fifth level for a new campaign and this rule combined with the floating ability score bonus from the race and the fixed ability score array means that everybody can make their characters before session zero they can do all the work of getting their characters ready playing around imagining the different combinations they might explore and there's no need to have us all together to witness each other's die roles and we can get that part done before stat sessions zero or between session zero and the first session of actual play I have fond memories of entire character creation nights or it took us forever to roll the ability scores and roll the hip points and do all this stuff and put everything together and it's such a huge change how much faster it is for everyone to make their characters and bring them to the table the rules very simple you take the average amount of hit points whenever you level up there is a modification on this rule that still allows you to roll if you're interested in that when rolling for hit points when you gain a level if you roll below the average result for your hit die you may take the average result instead what this means is that your player characters can still roll to see if they get extra hit points but they will never roll below the average amount offered this rule makes your player characters on average a little bit more robust and tough why we like it again is because we tend to use groups of three or four player characters and nobody likes playing a healer in our in our tables so we use this rule to compensate for that it means that everyone's a little bit tougher and doesn't have to deal with the unfortunate circumstance of rolling a one when they gain hit points for their new level so that wraps up the mechanical side of our list of rules but we're also very passionate about role-playing and getting the players at the table really into their characters stories and we have a couple House Rules that can help out with getting all of your players on board and ready to roleplay most importantly I love player characters that are strongly invested in both each other and the world they inhabit but over the years I found that giving my players a giant 30 page document outlining all of the details of my campaign setting really bogs things down players get overwhelmed by looking at this and also it takes a lot of work to put to document together work that I would rather invest in other things like painting miniatures are preparing the actual adventures themselves so I like to turn a lot of this over to the players and it really helps me kickstart my campaigns and figure out that most difficult session zero question how do all the characters know each other and why are they adventuring together the rule works quite simply during character creation you and at least one other player that's going to be joining that campaign must make a bond that previously existed joining those two characters together in some sort of way a character can have multiple bonds with multiple other characters and this is often necessary to bring the party together in some way but no one can be left out of the loop every character must have some prior knowledge of the others and really if you look at a lot of movies television shows and fiction many stories that we are told in our popular fiction already start this way anyways the characters already have some knowledge of each other in some way and I've used a bunch of Handy tables passed down from RPG map maker Dyson logos inspired by the thei ASCO role-playing game we'll have the link to all those tables down in the description below but the basics of it is is that if the players can't decide I'm just gonna roll for them and they have to deal with it and make that work some of these relationships are quite intimate characters might be siblings parent and child lovers childhood friends or otherwise but there are other relationships which are much more recent you could go the road of having two players that survived a battle together or one that saved another you could do simple things like two characters who went to school together or who have ran into each other several times in passing in their adventures and helped each other out or even two characters that just happen to live in the same town and our friendly acquaintances the main idea here is that when you do watch a movie or read a book oftentimes there's a lot of character development that happens individual with those care actors or those two characters but during a game of Dungeons and Dragons we don't always get the option to explore the deep backstories and plots that cause these characters to rely on one another and when they're going out adventuring together they are relying on one another and they need to trust one another Monty and I are not big fans of parties that like to backstab each other or turn on each other or various things that can cause animosity at the table so by creating these bonds and relationships what you're doing is allowing them to add to their backstory things that we can't play out at the table and that's how they know each other and why they care about each other and why they would agree to set out on a wild adventure together and also it gives context to why they might disagree but continue to work together I have always disagreed with my siblings on many many things but I will always stick by them in a desperate situation and so taking that mentality allows the player characters to have a really fantastic dynamic between them I'm of the opinion that the greatest manifestation of role-playing that occurs in Dungeons & Dragons is the role-playing that happens between the players not the role-playing that the players act out on their own and certainly not the role-playing that happens between one player and the dungeon master when the players together are creating dialogue are interacting with each other are developing their characters on their own that is one of the most magical experiences and Dungeons & Dragons and these bonds and relationships are a way of putting kindling in the fire to spark that try it in your next campaign if there is one rule I would advise every group implement it is this rule the last rule we're going to look at today helps the characters link to the world that's being created we've talked about how they can link to each other but how are they going to be part of the wider world this is a simple rule that we like to call the I know a guy rule or the Lando rule I love the way this rule encourages the player characters to create NPCs that exist in the world and become a part of the adventures in the story the rule works like this when facing a difficult problem a player character can declare well I know a guy and invent a helpful NPC which the PCs can visit for aid in their current situation the PC must work with the DM to provide a quick summary of their history and relationship fury details are usually better to leave room for creative play when the PCs try to interact with this NPC the player that created them makes a charisma check to see how the NPC reacts either positively or negatively a PC may use this ability a number of times equal to their intelligence or charisma modifier minimum of once player characters often think about other NPCs that might be involved in their backstory their parents their friends their old mentors or masters but often times it takes a little bit of extra work to actually involve those characters in the campaign this is often why so many player characters are orphans because getting those NPC's involved can be a hassle but for me as a Dungeon Master I love looking at my players backstories and deciding how I am going to use the NPC's proposed by those backstories in the coming campaign and I make a point of doing so Monte and I have a long history of playing together in many campaigns with Monte being the dungeon master and myself being the player and even as a player when I'm creating my backstory I love creating a few NPCs that I hand over to Monty so that he can pepper them in wherever he wants in the campaign I try to leave it open-ended enough that they could appear anywhere but I already have a predetermined history an idea on what I want to happen with these characters whether it's somebody I'm seeking out for vengeance or a family member I want to save or find or locate again there's a lot of different options to play around with here and creating NPCs of maybe your best friend the blacksmith in the hometown or a longtime lover of yours that you parted ways with years ago and haven't seen since who might have had some magical powers these are little things that you can hand off to your Dungeon Master and have them incorporate them into the campaign which really makes your player character feel like part of a living breathing world and to me that's where I get the most enjoyment out of playing Dungeons and Dragons is when my characters backstory and history comes into play during the campaign as a dungeon master you will create dozens of NPCs for your campaigns a great habit to get into as a Dungeon Master that can help you use this rule in play is Mark key NPCs with an asterisks indicating that these NPCs could have their identities replaced with identities proposed by the player characters in their backstory if a player character created a rogue that had interactions with the Thieves Guild and they talk about their old partner in crime start looking for your roguish NPCs in your campaign and use that partner in crime instead of the NPC that you are going to be creating if one of your player characters grew up in a wizard's school and was trained classically in the arts of a vocation and you later need to have a council of wizards that council of wizards could be made up of their own instructors one of your player characters was part of a military it should be the military of the prominent nation or empire that your player characters are going to be interacting with so they can have interactions with their old war buddies and officers reduce the number of NPC's instead of increase the number of NPCs by combining the ones that you've created with the ones proposed by your player characters backstories this simple act will give you all the ammunition you need to really make your players feel like they never are involved in the world now the I know a guy rule makes it sound like it can be used during the game at the table which it could be but Monty and I in much of our experience have found that actually having a discussion outside of the table where we talk about wood your character know anybody like this or hey Monty my character has this part in their backstory could we work that in doing this outside the table allows both the DM and the player to have a moment to discuss how it's going to fit in and make a few tweaks to make it smooth out and really feel like part of the world then the next time you come to the game you can drop the yeah I know a guy and show up a cloud city and there's Lando and then you roll your charisma save and see if he's gonna accept you or kick you out one of the really unexpected outcomes of these discussions has actually been how the I know a guy rule links back with the party bonds and ideals and in fact the relationships between the player characters in our most recent character creation Kelly had a character in his backstory that was a tough woodland mentor that took his character in and helped him survive in the early years as we were discussing this NPC a little bit more we realized that Jill's character herself was a perfect match for this NPC so rather than creating an NPC we decided let's just link the two player characters using this method so be on the lookout for how the player characters themselves could fill these roles it really makes the group much more integrated and makes the story so much tighter so this has been a look at five simple house rules for character creation in Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition if you have any awesome house rules for character creation tell us about them in the comments below if you're enjoying our show please consider supporting our work on patreon you can find out how you can contribute to the channel by following the links in the description below don't forget to check out our live play shadows of dragon hime which airs Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. Eastern on twitch.tv slash dungeon underscore dudes you can find all the episodes from that season and season one dungeons of dragon hime up over here and of course we had plenty more great house rules that you might want to consider using in your DND campaigns over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 588,070

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: q0eCR7OY95Q

Length: 24min 12sec (1452 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 23 2020