Five Simple House Rules for Character Creation 

In my current campaign I have a girl who just got into D&D and was struggling with the background part of her character, and eventually she decided to take the lazy route and go with “I’ve got amnesia”. Well, instead of just ignoring her story, I invented an entire quest-line centres around her and her forgotten past, which greatly helped her develop her role-playing abilities because she was always a little shy and couldn’t bring herself to interact with other PCs or NPCs, this pushed her to the forefront and the whole group really enjoyed it. The only drawback is that now I have to come up with 5 other “homecoming” quest-lines for my other players lol. Edit: holy fuck I’m famous

Timestamps: 1:26 - Generating ability scores 7:53 - Floating ability scores 10:23 - "Take Half" Hit points addition. 12:56 - Bonds between Player Characters 17:21 - the "I know a guy" rule.

I've used the "I Know A Guy" rule like this: Each player creates 3 contacts/NPCs that their character know and have some sort of background with, outside of any family members. One will be a friend or ally, someone who would obviously do their best to come to the aid of the character, if needed. One will be more neutral towards the character, like perhaps an old colleague or an innkeeper or a street informant, who will possibly help out the character, but will probably expect something in return. And finally an NPC with whom the character has some sort of beef, unfinished business or rivalry, at least the last time the two of them met. So not necessarily an outright enemy, but just someone who will not immediately feel very friendly or helpful towards the character. Think of a Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back. A true friend would have warned Han and Leia that the Imperials had arrived at Cloud City right there on that landing platform. Instead he kind of sells them out to save his own position. Only to much later turn around and become an ally.

Ok. I've been playing DnD for 33 years. Mostly DMing. Let me say this. You guys are amazing. The work you put into these videos is incredible. This one is, as always, really really good. From all the DnD videos out there, your tips, tricks and thoughts are the ones that influenced my DMing the most in recent years. Thanks Dudes.

1:55 "We have a fond, love-hate relationship with rolling for ability scores" Reminded me about the first time I first dungeon mastered, and I watched my players roll for their stats during session 0. I kid you not. I watched my friend roll up a starting character with 18 18 18 14 13 10.

Floating ability scores. This is the way. I HATE being stuck to a couple of races for certain character builds. This is why the Half-elf is so popular for Charisma classes.

My 1st DM has a char creation rule for noobies that I really liked (but haven’t had a chance to use yet). He’d have us create 2 chars, no backstory yet. Then he’d allow us to take 1 stat pt & 1 feat from 1 char to give to the 2nd char. Then he’d help us create a linked backstory between the two chars, usually family or very close friends worked best. And then we’d play the weaker char 1st at Level 1. This allowed us to learn the mechanics of the game & some the RP benefits of a sub-optimal char. And very frequently, these chars died quickly - inexperienced players in a gritty world. If death was too fast, he’d allow a “let’s try that again” moment, or the grisseled old-timer mentor NPC would kinda save their bacon but both hurt real bad. And when all our 1st chars had died, we’d level up the 2nd chars we had to Level 2. He’d tell us that these chars had received word that their prior linked chars had died, he’d pass down 1 interesting piece of equipment, and off we’d go. I loved how this gave us practice, motivation, a little backstory & history in that world, and a tiny benefit carried over from 1 char to another.

That's a nice "I know a guy" rule you got there Be a shame if someone stole it

There's an old web comic called Goblin Hollow/Under the Lemon Tree and in one story arc they ran a D&D session. The DM had what he called a DGR rule. Basically you wouldn't expect someone to take up the life of an adventurer unless he had a Darned Good Reason to think he had a chance of surviving so all of his characters were allowed to pick one reasonably powerful skill or weapon that wouldn't normally be allowed to a level one character.

The Lando rule is implemented reasonably well in Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, actually. Each player gets an ally and a rival inside their guild, plus a third person they know from another guild, and the renown system in the same book gives the players additional contacts once their renown with the guilds increases

This video is rock solid for folks looking for the enjoyable cooperative storytelling aspect. The longer a proposed campaign, the worse it is to have bad rolls for creation or leveling hamper one person at the table. That sort of quirkiness is, IMO, better suited to one-shots. You could even have a 'peasant D&D' theme for the one-shot, embracing the bad rolls as ordinary townsfolk attempt to deal with an unusual situation.

When in a PC hometown, I always make them roll a D20 with any NPC they interact with that’s not included in their backstory to determine feelings in prior relationships this rule has made a few Random NPC take on a life of there own and became pieces in the story.

Having the first seesion today. You guys's timing is incredible.

*On being able to move racial bonuses around:* I've been doing a lesser version of this -- if you have a +1 to a body stat like DEX, you can move it to any other body stat, but not a mental one. Conversely, a +1 INT could become a +1 WIS or +1 CHA, but not a +1 DEX, STR, or CON. A +2 can't be moved at all, nor can it be split, because I see it as a defining characteristic of the race. This tends to loosen the cookie cutter a little, but not enough that you can't still make good guesses on which way a character of a given race will lean. A tiefling is going to have a +2 CHA, you can count on it. But many sub-races seem to vacillate between INT and WIS that I decided that a bonus to one could be moved to the other, and eventually to the more general rule above. *On a shared background* Even if the players don't feel like participating, they're going to get railroaded into having a shared experience. Since I also like to start at third level (it used to be 5, but I find it's actually nice to "play your way in" to 5th level, you have a better feel for what the character is about that way -- mind you, I fully understand why you are NOT doing that for Season 2), the shared backstory and their 900 XP may be one and the same thing. "This party is together because you already have adventured together out of necessity, and survived two levels." Then we can sit there and make up an explanation for their first two levels, and that becomes their shared experience. Doing this in advance rather than in session would be better, but not strictly necessary. *Weapon equivalence* I treat weapons that *act* almost the same as if they *were* almost the same. For example, if you have proficiency with rapier, then you have proficiency with all d8 Finesse weapons such as cutlass and khopesh -- the only difference is slashing vs. piercing. If you want to carry a butterfly knife or a switchblade or a stiletto in your boot, they'll all be considered easily concealed daggers, but the penalty will be that they can't be thrown (not balanced for it). This does next to nothing to game mechanics, but allows for a wider variety of weapons to appear in game.

One of the things that I like about starting with bonds is that it makes a larger variety of alignments possible, with it being much easier for a neutral, chaotic, or evil character to already have some investment. I like playing bastards, and this really helps to keep my bastard from screwing the party over.

We use the standard array from the handbook, but then allow a +1, +1, -1 that you can assign as you wish, but have to justify with your background. Makes for just the right bump, and inspires some fun background flavor.

I've wanted to play a game with 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 stats - it means you actually have weaknesses, not just a dump stat, but lets non-standard races start with a good class ability score, and it makes multiclassing a bit harder because your ability scores are more widely varied.

Here's something I'm going to start doing in my D&D games: During character creation, you can trade any +2 ability score bonus for one feat. You can also trade out two +1 bonuses from different abilities for one feat. It's always kind of irked me a little bit that (variant) humans are the only race that starts with feats. However, giving everyone else at a starting feat really throws the balance of the game off. Further, this leaves humans a little weaker in comparison, so one might be tempted to give them two starting feats. This wouldn't have been any big deal in previous editions, where feats were cheap and offered only minor benefits, but 5E feats are significantly stronger. (Of course, there is the possibility of starting off everyone at fourth level, so that everyone who wants a feat gets one. But I like playing through those first levels.) So trading out an ability score bonus for feats, just like you do when you hit levels 4, 8, etc., seems like a quick and easy fix. What do you guys think?

"This takes the edge off of the variant human" Me: *Laughs in Half-Elf*

Honestly, your set ability scores should be the absolute standard in character creation. It's always great for a character to start off excelling in at least one thing, because it gives the player freedom to take feats and not feel at all trapped to focus on statistically improving their character through score improvements. Nothing makes a DnD game feel less fair than rolling die for a character, and having a complete imbalance in power between the party. Each class has different strengths and weaknesses. Give the agency to the players to decide where their ability scores go. I would say, if you were playing with new players and are introducing them to DnD 5th edition, rolling for ability scores is the worst way you could go about it. Thanks for the awesome house rules, dudes!

I will bring up that changelings can start with a plus 3 to charisma because of their +2 to charisma and additional +1 to any stat of their choice (Jeremy Crawford did say its intended to allow them to add again to charisma) so its possible with that array to have 20 in charisma

I give all my players expertiese in a skill. I've always felt it "weird" that a bard or rogue is a better athlete than a fighter, or a better arcanist than a wizard. So, all characters have expertiese in one skill, on top of whatever expertiese they may get from classes or feats.

In the session that I'm a part of every Thursday, there's a running gag that I regularly bring up about an old Dwarf woman (named Rosie) who helped raise my Tiefling. Not only has my DM latched onto this idea, actually adding her into the world, the other players have as well. One of our PC's is a very large "Strongest in the room" kind of guy, and whenever I bring up Rosie, he responds by "I must meet this champion, if her legend is to be believed!" I stand by the "I know a guy" rule, and HIGHLY recommend it.

"...having a character that can do everything because they're good in charisma, and intelligence, and in wisdom..." I'm looking at you, Caleb Widogast.

That bonds rule is so fantastic that I can't believe I've never heard of it before. It's brilliantly simple but makes so much sense.

In our 2nd session of Avernus we had the very clear goal of going to the dungeon to continue the story. Instead we ate breakfast and rped for 3 hours before heading there. RP is so important for me cause its what I enjoy the most in DnD

I'm currently in a campaign where we rolled for stats and one of the players literally rolled four 1's and just leaned into it, so now we have a warlock with a wisdom of 3. The player literally rolls a d20 periodically just to see if his character notices things: regular things like the weather, when there's a door, and whether or not the rest of us are staying or moving. We've been in combats where we got through two rounds before the warlock realized we were even fighting. Rolling for stats is clearly the superior method for creating flavorful characters.

"This house rule is so popular that it is on the PHB..." Is it still a house rule? :|

My way of rolling for stats: Roll 4 times (4d6, drop lowest) If none of the scores rolled are 8 or lower, and no scores above 16, assign 8 and 16 as your last two scores. If you have such scores, roll the rest of your stats. If you have the high score, but not the low, roll once. If that roll is 8 or lower, roll again. If not, assign 8. (And vice versa) If a player rolls lower than standard array+2, they are allowed to discard and begin again. Players are allowed to lower their lowest ability score. Solid characters with a weakness are guaranteed, and you still get to do the rolling.

• I like letting everyone roll twice, and everyone can select an array anyone else rolled. Everyone using the same array if everyone liked it enough still gives plenty of diversity as they'll probably place them in different places. • All races gain a bonus feat. Variant human doesn't exist. + the ability to move a +1 from the racial bonuses. (Human straight up gets a bonus +1 instead of moving one) • HP = Average HP + 2 + Con. • Always establish "Roots" between the characters. Blood relations, past bonding associations. I like using "Children of Morta" as a fantastic framework for an adventuring party. The adventurers are family and have an established home base. I also like the immortality mechanic, that the adventurers share a link of immortality. Players will be resurrecting most the time anyway. People try to make death more meaningful by nerfing it so it might not work, I prefer making it more meaningful by tying it to this player-shared resource that can be threatened, which also makes players care more about the home base and since every time they die they come back at home base it also anchors them to home as a place they will visit often. Resurrection magic is still important as it can make the player "respawn" at the casting instead of at home. This mechanic doesn't have to just be a home base though, it could be a shared gift of some sort. It's adaptable to almost any desired party set up and theme.

Bit late to the party here, but I have a couple house rules that I'd like to throw out. 1. Background determines starting ASIs. Tasha's helps a lot with this, but even now I still like to tie ASIs to a character's background. If someone's background was Sage, for example, they might have Int and/or Wis as their increases. Sailor could reasonably be a lot of different Abilities (even Int, if they were a navigator or something similar). Most of the backgrounds have a lot of flexibility in that way, and I've found that tying ASIs to backgrounds really nails down how exactly your character lived prior to being an adventurer helps with the roleplay and informs their character going forward. 2. Starting Feat: Everyone gets one feat to start (subject to DM's approval; I usually veto stuff like Warcaster and Mobile), but it has to tie into their background or history in some way, or otherwise give some fun flavor. This is a good way to work in some of the less optimal but fun RP feats like Chef. Maybe the Druid travelled with the Wizard for a little while and they taught each other some magic (each player gets Magic Initiate for the other's class). You can do some variation on this as well if it gets a little too min-maxy. For example, if the player wants to take something that boosts an ability score above a certain number (I use 18) then either the DM simply says no or allows the player to raise another ability in lieu of the normal ability, or just say no Half Feats entirely. The most important thing is that it ties into the character's backstory somehow. This really helps make lvl 1 characters a little tougher in different ways and makes the characters more fleshed out. 3. Starting Cantrips: The full casters (Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, Bard, and sometimes Artificer) all have Prestidigitation, Druidcraft, and Thaumaturgy for free as appropriate. For some characters like Eldritch Knight you might also add the relevant cantrip, but I usually don't. You could also allow certain subclasses (Arcana/Nature Cleric, Divine Soul Sorcerer) to get an additional cantrip as well, but again I usually don't. The reasoning is that these cantrips are supposed to be all the minor little tricks of that particular kind of magic; it makes some sense that they'd always have them. 4. Very, very occasionally you can alter what skills you get from certain backgrounds. I once had a PC take the Inheritor background, but we switched out Survival for Animal Handling. The reasoning being that the character spent most of their formative years locked in a wizard's tower with some animal companions.

I'm watching this for the first time and loving that some of these suggestions ended up in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything! You guys are visionaries!

With the NPCs one of my players gave me a massive boon in giving me an old carousing buddy. The look on his face when I introduced the character and the RP that ensued was glorious. One of my favorite moments of the campaign so far.

Playing D&D for like 30 years now, I will include the "I know a guy" mechanic (It's not really a rule, is it ?) into my current campaign of mostly newbies. I love the idea of players creating the world with the DM. I already use a 10 candles like approach on passing over narration of certain situations like critical successes and failures. This will so add to my game. Thank you for this simple yet powerful idea.

This is definitely one of the best D&D channels. Simple, well produced, and so much information. Keep up the good work Dudes

I'm about to run my second session as a new DM and I've watched nearly all your videos. They've been invaluable in helping me further understand the 5e rules. Thank you so much!

After watching 5 or 6 of your videos I can tell that you guys have a similar playstyle /mindset to my group. I've played all the editions, and I appreciate the thoughtfulness that you obviously put into these vids. These houserules, especially for a smaller group, make so much sense. Well done. Keep 'em coming!

So, I came up with two interesting ways to “roll” up a character. For kids: they live in a village of retired adventures, when they come of age they are told they need to apprentice at with six craftsman for six months before they let them go adventuring. The blacksmith each week they roll a d6, at month’s end they have their strength score, and so on. Normally they don’t like that they are unintelligent, but are okay that they just don’t like scribing books. The second is way more fun, they all have 10s in every stat. Or 8 or whatever. Then they wake up after a battle in a museum and the curator tells them they need to use the weapons and equipment on the walls to equip themselves. They select their equipment and each piece gives them a stat increase in one of the six stats based on what they pick, if they pick heavy weapons and holy symbols and the helmet with the wings they get strength, wisdom, and charisma. It is more complicated than that, but in the end they fight off their attackers and return the equipment, but then get to select the class they want to play based on their new stats. Worked well the two times I did it.

We generally use the standard array for ability scores, but all characters get 1 free feat at level 1. That free feat could be one that gives a +1 in a stat, so that effectively takes the place of the "floating +1" you described. We already use the "take half HP if you rolled lower" you described, and I like your other ideas too.

You don’t know how happy I am to see this video, I just stared DMing a game yesterday that used these floating ability score bonuses of my own volition and I’m so happy to see you guys push these options. Imagination is the best part about D&D and it makes me so happy to see you all buy into it in this way.

I absolutely love the floating ability score bonus. It allows interesting character concepts to not be totally underpowered. I wanted to play a Centaur Wandslinger Artificer (The cowboy who is his own horse) but that incredibly crippled the character since absolutely NONE of the racial traits or abilities helped...

I love everything you have said in this video. I've always felt the Hit Dice one is near important and having some kind of balance between each players summed stats.

I really like the Standard Array you guys came up with here. Gives everyone the opportunity to be good at what they want their character to be good at without anything being broken.

The drawback to fixed hp and fixed ability scores is that I’ve noticed a lot of people’s favorite part of character creation is seeing how their die rolls influence the creation of their character. Sometimes you’ll come in not knowing what you want to play and when you’re rolling ability scores and later hp, it helps to mold the characteristics of the PC.

I thought the "i know i guy" was awsome at first, but i found that it undermines the background features. Criminal contact, Shelter of the Faithful, Position of Privilege and Researcher can all be used in the same way as "i know a guy". so i have just expanded on the background features to allow players to use them more.

“I know a guy!” I love that idea. 👍🏻

Perfect! I'm literally starting a new campaign next Friday, you guys are legends :D!

My homebrew implementation is when going for HP you roll immediately and if you don’t like it you can either re-roll or take the average that way it puts the responsibility on you if decide to role the second time and get a bad role

I like having my players have an existing relationship with another player’s character. When I played an undying warlock, my friend and I agreed to be characters who used to work for another adventure party, but they got killed and my patron discovered us when he investigated a collection of magic items nearby. So we work for him though I’m the one tied to him in order to protect my friend’s character.

I am planning on experimenting with a “rolled array + 3”, where at session 0 an array is rolled and applies to the entire party for them to put into whatever stats they want, and 3 points they can add to get a stat up to 17

Really enjoyed this one guys! Love bringing character backgrounds into the campaign.

Just forwarded this to my current DM, and I am now STOKED for our next campaign!

I completely agree that for long term characters, point buy or standard array is far better than stat rolling. Taking the average HP roll is already quite generous. I let my players choose: if they roll, they keep the result.

I use a custom point buy. Instead of 27 points you get 30. You can spend 11 points to make a stat 16. It's kinda works likes Monty's where it allows for "sub-optimal" race/class pics, but it also benefits playing into type. An Elf can still play a strength based class with a 16, but a Half-Orc will have a natural edge that can give them an 18.

I'm just getting back into DnD, playing my first Campaign in years - I'm looking to DM again once I've got my sea legs back, and these rules all make a lot of sense. Great video!

I like your stat array. Additionally, a DM of mine had a rule for rolling which I found incredibly fair: First you roll one stat array, assigning the scores to whatever ability you want. Keep this array if you feel like it's good enough. If you're like "nah, this is absolute garbage," then you can roll again. You can keep doing this (within reason) until you feel like you've done well enough that you're satisfied. This allows everyone to have roughly the same amount of power, because no one is stuck with a TERRIBLE array of stats for their class. You don't get a fighter with no stat higher than 12, or a bard who's stuck with a single 16 and everything else low. If you roll poorly, you have an out. If you roll decently, you won't want to press your luck.

I would love to see what the Dungeon Dudes think about builds for ally buffing instead of enemy debuffing

Roll HP every level: Whenever you level up, roll all of your hit dice (with the constitution bonus). If that roll is higher than your current maximum HP, then that is your new maximum HP. Otherwise, your new maximum HP becomes one(+CON) higher than your previous maximum HP. This balances out the variability of hit dice, without removing all randomness from it, and a bad roll doesn't stick around forever. Old school Ability Scores (option): Take a feat at level one. Roll3d6 for all your ability scores, but you may replace the primary ability scores of your class with a 14or13 if you rolled lower. You are guaranteed to be competent in your class, but you probably won't be above average at everything right away. The feat offsets the ~1.5 point lower scores, and lets you get cool stuff earlier.

I very much love that standard array. We also have smaller groups and having that boost is a great help! -Baron

Here's the star rolling method I came up with about 15 years ago. 1. Have two or three players roll using your preferred method. Write those six numbers down and toss them in the middle of the table. 2. Each player choose the set they like and assigns them all as they please. Everyone can choose the same set of they like. This preserves the fun and excitement of rolling with the balance of an array, since everyone can choose the sam

The most recent method for ability scores my friends used is what I call "Matt's Method" (Matt was the DM at the time) and it goes as follows: 1. Roll for ability scores as usual, 4d6 drop the lowest. However, you roll 7 times instead of six, and can pick whichever roll you don't want. You're greatly encouraged to take a varied array instead of a homogeneous heap of the same number, meaning you'll probably have strengths and weaknesses. 1.5. If you don't like your rolls overall, you're allowed to reroll the entire array of 7 rolls once, but you must keep the new rolls. 2. After placing your scores and applying your racial bonuses, you may take one ability score to reduce by one, and choose two others to increase by one each. 3. This is an optional part, but Matt told us to include flaws that were serious enough to have actual mechanical consiquences. For example, my character was a coward, so if he is getting too close to enemies he's forced to make a wisdom save or be frightened. He also has disadvantage on fear effects other than that innate one.

The randomness of rolling is still really exciting, so I like to have each of my players roll 2 or 3 full arrays. Then they can take 5-10 minutes to choose one that everybody uses. This primes them to work together, and if you have players that are more experienced in playing, gets some knowledge passed down as to why this array is better than that one.

Great video. You guys have one of the best D&D channels on RU-vid. I'm going to propose that we start using your version of the standard array at our table.

Thanks for this! Running a session 0 on the weekend and I am totally using the floating ability score!

I dig your standard array I think I'm gonna try it for the next game I DM. I agree with wanting to have the characters have some bond before the adventure begins. Great show as always.

Background Rule: I have my players choose two skills (or one skill be two additional languages or tool proficiencies) they want their characters to have already mastered. I then fit the closest background template that closest fits those skills to the character. I also ask my characters for a rival and an ally NPC, kinda similar to your "I know a guy" rule. Rolling, I do rolls, 4d6 drop lowest, but allow the player the option of replacing two rolls with an 8 and 18. (Though I like your No 20s for first lvl characters concept and will probably mod that.)

As a previous DM I absolutely love the bond rule! If nothing else this is huge for me I love this idea.

I do really love this video!! I'm about to start my first campaign in D&D and this video was amazingly useful. Now I'm even more excited with this ideas. Thank you guys! Salutations from Spain!!

For rolling hit points my DM does it like: you roll, dm rolls hidden, and you get the option of "yours, mine, or the average". Adds a little gamble to it, but you almost never get hosed.

I have my own form of standard array that I use, it gives the players a bit of a stronger start with the potential for an 18 in one stat if they play it. Which is a lot like your first one- 16, 15, 14, 13, 10, 8. It’s a bit weaker than yours actually. But it gives you three solid ‘adventurer level stats’ of 15 or higher. I like that standard. An adventurer should be able to start with a minimum of +2 in their focus stats. For HP, I use the roll option but set a minimum, like the corollary to the rule. I’ve also made use of the house rule that offers Feats to players at level 1, which essentially makes variant human useless.

I definitely agree that having a dump stat adds a lot of depth to a character. We played a pocket dimension one-shot while our party's wizard couldn't come to a session and everyone rolled poorly on their checks to know what a pocket dimension was. My 11 int orc fighter rolled a nat 20 and tried to explain "big room...in small space" with a lot of hand movements and visible frustration of struggling with words. I got the point across, though, and it earned me inspiration (which I used to turn a miss on a Displacer Beast into a crit later that session). Flaws are just roleplay seasoning

This is my new favorite video on this channel. Tyvm.

You can solve this feeling of 'all characters are the same' that comes from using a using a standard array by offering 2 different arrays. 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8 and 16, 16, 13, 12, 10, 8. and the players can choose one. Provides all the stability and balance of a standard array. Still gives the player a choice and creates a better sense of uniqueness

A reason for why I find a standard array good is that one of my early players always had strangely high scores. Their barbarian for example had a charisma score equal to that of the same campaigns paladin. And this was the norm for all of their characters, so I decided that a standard array would let me mitigate such a trend so that each and every character could feel specialised and not have one which outperforms the rest

My favorite of all time episode on this topic.

In our current campaign (started last week) We had everyone roll their stats twice. Then each person could pick and choose which of all the rolled stats they wanted. If you picked someone elses stat rolls (The whole table, not just indevidual numbers) the owner of that rolled table would then be able to allow / deny you taking those stats. (Could only deny if they wanted them for themselves) This gave us approximately 8 stat tables to pick from.

I actually love the idea of the "I know a guy" rule so much. Definitely gonna talk to my DM about it.

Starting with a feat at level 1 seems like an interesting rule to me that could help flesh out a character's own talents outside of race and class, but I could see it happen that a DM could exclude certain feats from this so characters won't get too strong at level 1. Might be even better though, when you can't pick the best feats and only the ones that often aren't seen as worth taking instead of the stats boost, you'll get to give different feats a try that you normally would not pick. Can add a lot of character and might still be situationally usefull.

We’ve been using that array ever since the Q&A 👌

On the rolling for health thing, i tend to allow this. When rolling for HP, If you roll below your average, take one point below the average. EG d10 Hit die, Gets you 6 if you take average, If you roll a 1, you take 5 instead.

I a variation of the point to by system pretty good. I literally set all the point "for sale" instead of giving a base point, and that runs up to around 75 points. This gives you the option to be really good in some stats, but for the cost of some other stats. for example; i created a sorcerer with 18 char and dex, for the cost of strength and con on only 6 and 8. it makes for really good roleplay potential (PS. char only hits 18 because it's a tiefling)

I believe in rolling 4d6 drop lowest assign as desired. I have played other systems. Obviously not all characters will be equal, but who says they have to be, Batman and Superman are on far different power levels but both are in the Justice League, and both have their own roles.

We enjoyed the one time we did "roll 2 arrays and pick 1. Rolls remain in order". So your first result is Strength, second is Dex, etc. It shows that, no matter who you are, there's a careerpath for everyone.

Been watching you guys a few weeks but this is the first time I've commented. First, love you. You guys have such a great dynamic and the show is tight. Seems like you're radio/podcast hosts irl. As for character creation, I got turned on to Apocalypse World years ago and swore off DnD. A friend started a campaign and was looking for players so I'm back into 5e and have been watching your show to see what's new. The things you discuss here are basically interpretations of... well... better roleplaying systems.* These are the tenets of the Apocalypse Engine: Players are heroes, so make them heroic (the buffed array); characters have relationships with each other and NPCs of their own creation (bonds, etc.); and something you didn't quite touch on, the players are as responsible for the world as the GM and should be shaping it in session 0. You've no doubt read the Powered by the Apocalypse rulesets and/or discussion of them, but I think you'd do well to encourage your viewers to check them out. *No shade, I simply mean that the DnD ruleset isn't at it's core a roleplaying system, it's a tactical minis system that people use to roleplay with.

Our favorite one is: No Variant Human, everyone gets a bonus feat

In regards to the "half HP" Is it really a house rule if it's in the Core Rulebook?

I’m not sure how relevant this is to the video, but I’m reminded of a great character interaction story that I’d like to share for the fun of it. My brother played a gnome necromancer who learned necromancy simply because he wanted to resurrect his childhood pet cat. So his character had a camouflaged undead cat that followed him everywhere. I played a tabaxi rogue who didn’t like the strange cat that didn’t act like a cat. And every chance my character had to try something, I had her attempt to steal and bury the cat. She was successful twice. It made for great role playing opportunities between the two characters.

One of my favorites is everyone gets a feat at 1st level. It really makes the early game funner. Players get more cool stuff and abilities such as Magic Initiate. This lets your character start as a spellblade because Green-Flame Blade and Mage Armor are very useful on 1st-level fighters In the case of the DM it lets me give "story feats" to the players such as Aberrant Dragonmarks or some homebrew feats I use. It also helps to balance weaker classes/races. Dragonborn get bonus AC, casters get certain mandatory feats like War Caster and Ritual Caster and Orcs get to offset their Intelligence penalty if needed. It's a really flexible rule that I wish more DMs used.

Things we've been trying on "one shots" 1: Standard Stat Array or Standard Point Buy 2: Free 1st lvl feat. 3: All current Unearthed Arcana is allowed. Something i do is that all stats start with a 6. you roll 3, take highest 2. we plan to make it so your primary 2 stats can start with an 8 or something.

I’ve also heard of people allowing a -2 score to get a feat. It may have even been you guys.

Seriously thank you soooo much for this video! I’m slowly creating my first campaign to DM and this is going to be very helpful making it more interesting and the roleplaying much better.

amazing content as always guys!! love it

One method of ability score generation I saw on reddit recently that I thought was interesting was 4d6d1, but every player uses the same set of rolls and puts them in their own stats however they choose. Haven't tried it, and I think I prefer point buy, but it's definitely interesting. I think your standard array is interesting, but I think I'd prefer point buy with a free feat at level 1. Accomplishes a lot of the same things, and I think everyone starting with an 18 sounds like a lot for me. You might let this include a dwarf playing a keen mind so they can start with a 16 in intelligence!

Really like these ideas. One of my groups uses a “draft” that allows us to roll abilities but even out the variation among characters. Basically, each player rolls six scores (usually 4d6 drop lowest). We then pool all the scores, and then determine an order among the players. The first player chooses a score from the pool, followed by the next character in the order, etc. This draft is a “snake,” so the order reverses after the last player chooses, so the last player to choose gets to choose twice. One variation on this is to have the DM roll six scores to add to the pool, so the number of scores is greater than what the players need, and players are protected from picking the absolute worst scores.

I have some house rules for chargen for my campaign that I really enjoy. 1. Your backstory is whatever happens to you from level 1-3. If you want to have backstory at level 1, you have to be able to fit it completely on a standard 3" x 3" post-it note in your own handwriting. On just one side. 2. Roll your PC with 4d6 Drop Lowest, in order, and then swap any two scores to customize. This makes for some randomization, limits dump-statting, but still offers some customization. 3. If you don't like that character, it's fine. You don't HAVE to play it. But if you want to reroll a new one, you have to finish the first character: just pick a name, class, and alignment. This character becomes one of your family members, starting with parents, then siblings. When you reject a character you rolled and it becomes an NPC, you can't go back, so you had better really decide you can do better on stats next time. This rule slows the player down and makes them consider whether they're willing to play that character after all, and prevents an instant rejection after rolling a low score on the first of six (which of course in a worst-case scenario could result in a player halting a chargen process if their first ability score roll is not an 18. This would be crazy and ridiculous, but you know how some people are.). 4. The party typically sees deaths of low-HP PCs until someone reaches Level 2, and then there's a quick cascade of survivals to everyone reaching Level 2. It also means as the low-HP characters die off, the replacement might end up with more HP. There's a dungeon selection occurring which leads to most surviving PCs that hit level 2 ending up being the ones who rolled well for 1st level HP. Because of this, the DM can help reduce the number of senseless deaths by offering a minimum HP value at 1st level, such as 1/2 the die max. On the other hand, numbers of senseless deaths are deeply intrinsic to D&D, and the real question is whether you feel the PCs should be sheltered from that. I remember a couple of players who rolled 1 for starting HP and their journey of survival to Level 2 was memorable and exciting. 5. The PCs can have whatever personality, and any non-Evil alignment, but the game starts with everyone knowing each other. If you don't do this, there's a pointless "storming" process over the first few sessions where the Evil PCs get rejected or slain by the rest of the party, and the "super cool ranger-type stalks the party before meeting them but then is inevitably discovered and in a ridiculous turn of events is invited to join", which is 1000% more common than you think. This is of course coming from a perspective where I enjoy gameplay as much as, if not more than, roleplaying. I consider a game session of 100% roleplaying to be a huge bummer and a waste of time. Like, Burning Wheel is a game built for that. But everyone wants something particular from D&D and they'll naturally gravitate into groups with similar expectations.

An idea I heard about from another source suggested creating a quick story that could be shared during gameplay to *explain* the character’s personality trait, ideal, bond, and flaw. The player therefore would not be tempted to write a three-page fan-fiction account of their character’s past that no one reads or remembers. Instead they would simply tell the quick story during character down-time as the characters are getting to know each other. Brilliant!

Yes yes yes yes yes. Glad I'm not the only one who dislikes rolling stats for a campaign.

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I use the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic Creation System Basically, you have 30 Ability Score Points to spend across, and you can spend a point for each Ability Score. But, if you have an ability score over 15, you spend 2 points on that Ability Score just to add +1 and your max is 17. This adds more freedom and flexibility

rolling ability scores is just so much more fun xD