INTRODUCTION

Creating a Dungeons & Dragons® character is a process of evolution.

I INTRODU NTRODUCTION CTION

The D&D® game is a game about heroes. Through imagination, storytelling and fellowship, you can explore what it means to be a hero. One of the most exciting and rewarding parts of the game is listening to the quiet voice of your inner hero, allowing some part of your own special potential to rise to the surface and reveal itself.

Your character is more than just a collection of statistics, random numbers, and equipment lists. He or she is a mirror that can reveal the bright spark within you. Do not be content to simply copy an image from a movie or a book. Don’t feel constrained to follow the easy formulaic heroes found in dozens of novels and any number of trite movies. Give your character a part of your own heroic potential. The reward will certainly be worth the effort.

WHAT’S INSIDE

The Hero Builder’s Guidebook provides something extra during each step of the character generation process. In short, you’ll develop everything that happened to your character before his or her first adventure. You’ll have a better handle on how you view the world — and what the world thinks of you. And you’ll know what goals you’re working toward.

We’ll start where all D&D characters traditionally start: with six numbers between 3 and 18 written on scratch paper. The Rolling Your Ability Scores chapter helps you make those difficult choices. You’ll learn just what the odds are on rolling that 18, what to do if you get unusually low scores, and suggestions on how to roleplay a character whose abilities are much different than your own.

At the heart of the character generation process is the Choosing Your Race and Class chapter. After all, when most people are asked what kind of D&D character they have, they reply “I’m an elven thief” or “I’m a human barbarian.” This chapter discusses each of the race/class combinations available to 1st-level characters, providing tips for maximizing your character’s potential, tips for roleplaying them, and some unusual variants for each race and class.

The Creating Your Personal History chapter delves into your character’s pre-adventurer past. You’ll decide what your family is like, where you grew up, and what friends and enemies you made along the way. More than two dozen tables guide you through your character’s childhood and adolescence, and you can either choose the results you like or let the dice decide.

Your characters alignment functions as a moral and ethical compass. and the Selecting an Alignment chapter helps you figure out which way the needle is pointing. There’s a quiz you can take to help decide the alignment that’s right for you, and suggestions for meshing your alignment

with your character’s personality—and keeping it fun.

We conclude our tour through character generation with a glance at the future in the Planning Your Future Career chapter. After all, the skills and feats you choose as a 1st-level character become the foundation for your later choices. Like a swords-and-sorcery guidance counselor, this chapter points you in the right direction if you want to eventually become the ultimate gladiator, gadgetmaster, or stealthy sneak.

Finally, veteran D&D players will tell you that deciding on a name for your character can sometimes be the toughest task of all. The Rule of Names appendix lists hundreds of names you can use or adapt for your character, and it explains the dos and don’ts of D&D character names.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The Hero Builder’s Guidebook is a companion to the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Player’s Handbook. You will need a copy of that book to use the tools provided in this product.

The Player’s Handbook makes certain assumptions about your character: The character has been trained to a basic level of competence in some field. The character has established a personal moral code. The character has been the beneficiary of some financial largess to purchase basic equipment and supplies. Perhaps the biggest assumption the Player’s Handbook makes is that your character is a hero. The Player’s Handbook has no rules for creating player characters who will be farmers, or swineherds, or household servants. Unlike the common person in the world your Dungeon Master has created, your character is about to embark on the most exciting, most dangerous profession the world has ever known: adventurer!

The Hero Builder’s Guidebook is designed to help you answer some of the many questions you may have about your character. It will assist you in developing a rich history, a context for your storytelling more sophisticated than “I’m a fighter” or “I’m a wizard.”

This book will also walk you through the character creation process, step by step. It provides advice for setting your starting ability scores. You have at your fingertips dozens of ready-to-go character hooks awaiting only the spark of life you’ll bring to them. Inside you’ll find systems for developing the necessary social structures required for certain types of characters, like clerics, paladins, and monks. And this guidebook can assist your DM, working with you, to create a whole range of nonplayer characters with some connection to your character: friends, enemies, kin, acquaintances, lieges, etc.

The objective of this material is to enrich your role-playing experience. Nothing within these pages should be seen as a way to get between you and the hero you want to play. If a die roll produces a result you don’t like, consult your DM, then reroll or simply pick a more palatable option. If you don’t like the choices your previous selections have produced, back up and take a different path. If you develop material on your own, integrate it. In other words, do what it takes to make sure that when the game begins, you’ll be ready to meet the challenge.

BEGINNING

All great stories have a beginning. Through the medium of the D&D game, you will tell an epic story by creating the actions and dialog of a character uniquely your own. Your character’s story begins here.

Be sure you have the necessary implements handy: dice, paper, and pencil. If you’re using the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Character Generator software, be sure you know how the program’s many features work.

If you’re going to be creating characters as a group, make sure that you have enough space for everyone to write, roll dice, write and make notes, erase and rewrite. If you plan to create your character with your DM on hand, provide space for her and her books and notes as well.

Now, open your Player’s Handbook and turn to the section on generating ability scores. Are you ready? Adventure awaits!