Birth of the Character Concept

Creating detailed and nuanced characters has recently become much easier thanks to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything’s, This is Your Life section. However if you are looking for some alternatives, or perhaps are new to D&D, I have a few suggestions to get your next PC off the paper and into their first adventure.

For New Players

For new players I strongly suggest picking your favourite character from a movie, book or TV show, as this provides a great framework for your characters back-story, attitudes and personalities. This may seem like a silly idea as it could be difficult applying a template to the selection of available classes and races, but I will provide some examples. Ultimately you will find that almost any conceivable character can be converted to a D&D PC.

Firstly, Mulan everyone’s favourite female warrior. Take the human race (possibly variant to access find familiar through the magic initiate feat). The charlatan background can provide access to the disguise kit (if you plan to parade around as Mulan’s hidden identity Ping). And finally, use the monk class with possibly the way of the kensai, for weapon superiority, to reflect Mulan’s martial prowess, previous training and eastern thematic components.

Judge Dredd, everyone’s favourite judge, jury and executioner. You will most likely want to start with a human. Secondly, possibly take the Urban Bounty Hunter or even City-Watch background for thematic reasons and proficiencies in insight or intimidation. Finally to really tie the concept together, using the paladin class with an oath of vengeance should allow the character to operate as Lawful Neutral and get some judgement done.

A Picture is Worth...       

Finding a great piece of character art can be all the inspiration needed to create a great and interesting character. Using sites like Pinterest, allow people to comb through thousands of images searching for the perfect character idea. Once you have found one you like look closer at the smaller details, how did the character get that scar? Whats in that vial dangling from the characters belt? Does the character seem to have a martial, spiritual or arcane ability? What class does this character appear to fit? Another option here is to use MTG creature cards like Champion of the Parish, or Woodland Sleuth. They provide not only the art but also typically some flavour text for personality or ideals.

Idea’s Only

The last idea is to just start with a simple concept and then elaborate that over and over until something decent appears. Using some character back story generators such as Whothefuckismydndcharacter, can also be a great way to have a initial concept to build off.

An example could be as simple as: A dwarf that is good at combat but doesn’t like fighting. Well if he doesn’t like fighting maybe he makes his living as a woodworker. He might be travelling looking for new materials or new and exotic styles to replicate. If he is looking for new things maybe he is interested in study so he has a sage or guild artisan background. Maybe he was shunned from the dwarves for liking to work with wood. If he was shunned from his people does he prefer the company of elves, or humans perhaps? If he spends time with people outside his race, does he plan to return new knowledge to his people?

This kind of brainstorming can often lead to complex and detailed characters. I often find leaving an initial concept for a few days then coming back to it helps with a lot of new ideas and concepts to build on.