A Garbage Handbook to Dungeons and Dragons:
Volume 1: Character Sheet
By: Skye Black Assistant Narrator: Gobbo© 2022 Star Bunny Productions
Typeset in Adobe 2021 Using Marion designed by Typodermic Fonts Inc, Apple Chancery designed by Hermann Zapf, Using Minion Pro designed by Robert Slimbach, Using Charter Designed By Matthew Carter. Thanks to JoCat for Gobbo and the Inspiration for this Project.
A Garbage Handbook to Dungeons and Dragons: Volume 1: Character Sheet
Special Thanks to JoCat, Matt Mercer, and especially to my Players
Acrobatics (Dex)
Animal Handling (Wis) Arcana (Int)
Athletics (Str)
Deception (Cha)
History(Int)
Insight (Wis)
Intimidation (Cha)
Imvestigation (Int)
Medicine (Wis)
Nature (Int)
Perception (Wis)
Performance (Cha)
Persuasion (Cha)
Religion (Int)
Sleight of Hand (Dex)
Slealth (Dex)
Survival (Wis)
Welcome to a Garbage Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons.
This volume will cover the basics of the 5th Edition Character Sheet, including how to fill out the header, roll for stats, and how to make your Dungeon Master’s job a little easier. Remember, while reading this guide that every DM has a different way of doing things, and this is just how we are doing things around here. Discuss with your DM if you have any questions about their personal play style. For this guide, you will need a blank character sheet, a pencil (don’t you dare use a pen, you little crap), and some shiny math roc… I mean dice. You’ll need dice. A d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100.
The header of your character sheet contains the name of your character, your character’s class, race, level, alignment, background title, your experience points (if your DM is using milestones, get out of here. We’re not going to talk about those), and the name of the player, which is YOU!
Go ahead and fill in your name and your character’s name as they are completely up to you.
If your DM is having you start at level one, your experience points should be set to 0. After collecting a certain amount of XP, your character will level up. Refer to this chart if you need help figuring out how much XP is required for each level. You’ll notice that your proficiency bonus is also on this chart. Go ahead and write that un der inspiration. We’ll explain it later.
INSPIRATION
PROFICIENCY BONUS
Strength Dexterity
Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma
ARMOR CLASS (AC) INITIATIVE SPEED
Hit Point Maximum CURRENT HIT POINTS TEMPORARY HIT POINTS
SAVING THROWS
Acrobatics (Dex)
Animal Handling (Wis)
Arcana (Int)
Athletics (Str)
Deception (Cha)
History(Int)
Insight (Wis)
Intimidation (Cha)
Imvestigation (Int)
Medicine (Wis)
Nature (Int)
Perception (Wis)
Performance (Cha)
Persuasion (Cha)
Religion (Int)
Sleight of Hand (Dex)
Slealth (Dex)
SUCCESSES
FAILURES
Next, we should decide your character’s class and race. For your race, you have the choices of Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Human, Drag onborn, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Tiefling. A few of the races also have sub-races so feel free to look into those as well. Each race has its own perks and drawbacks, so make sure to read up on them before choosing which one you would like to play. Depending on your DM, you may also have the option to use a Homebrew Race or Class, but we’ll just stick to what is in the Player’s Handbook for this guide. Go ahead and fill in your cho sen character race. If you’d like, you can flip your character sheet over and fill in the appearance header to make your characters a little bit more unique and allow the other player and DM to visu alize your character. Each race has its own specific features such as skin color, hair color, eye color, age range, height, and weight. Some races are also more likely to follow certain alignments, so take that into account when deciding yours. Find your Race’s speed and fill in the proper box. 5 ft = 1 square on a battle mat.
Total HIT DICE DEATH SAVES
Next is your character class. Your character class will decide what skills, proficiencies, and features (feats) your character has. Like with Races, your DM may allow a homebrew class. Your options from the Player’s Handbook are Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wiz ard. Certain classes are harder to play than others so make sure to pick one that you feel you can play comfortably. Some of the class es also require an additional sheet of paper called the Spell Sheet which we will cover in Volume 2. For now, let’s ignore your feats and move on to your character’s alignment.
Alignment is essentially your character’s morals. Are they by the book and follow the rules to the T, or are they a rule breaker, do ing whatever they may please? There are nine alignments, Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral,
Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil. Pick the one that you believe fits your character best of all. Remember that if your character acts in a way not befitting their alignment, your DM may be forced to alter your chosen alignment.
Last for the Character Header is your Background. Your charac ter’s background will affect your skills, feats, and proficiencies. They also give you some extra equipment that may come in handy. They give your character their Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. You can decide those by random or you can pick whichever one you like. Feel free to fill those in when you’d like. The background available in the Player’s Handbook are Ac olyte, Charlatan, Criminal, Entertainer, Folk Hero, Guild Artisan, Hermit, Noble, Outlander, Sage, Sailor, Soldier, and Urchin. Most of these backgrounds also have a variant that you can choose in place. For example, a Sailor has the variant of a Pirate.
This next part is important so pay attention. A character is only as good as its stats so it’s time to feel those out. The Ability Scores are split into Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Some classes will have preset Ability Scores available so you can use those if you like, but for this guide, we’ll be using the dice method. You need to roll 4d6s 6 times. Record all of the numbers in groups of four. Strike out the lowest number in each of the six groups and then add the numbers in each together. These are your stats. Each class relies on a different stat for its attacks. Rogues use Dexterity, Bards use Charisma, etc. Depending on your class, you may get bonuses to add to these. Decide what stat each of these numbers belongs to and place them in either the big box or in the little circle. Each class has an ability score that they can increase. Find it under your race and add it to the proper score. Next, we need to figure out the modifiers. Use this chart to match your score to your mod and then write it into the empty box or circle. Next to
14 = +2
the Ability Scores, you should see Saving Throws. Match the Mod ifier from your Ability Scores to the blank line in that box. Look at your Class features and find which Stats are your saving throws. Fill in those bubbles in Saving Throws. Add your proficiency bonus from earlier to your bubbled-in saving throws.
Now that we have your ability modifiers, we can fill out your skills. Go back through your Class, Race, and Background, and choose the skills you want your character to be proficient in. Bubble in those circles on your character sheet. Next to the name of the skill you will see three letters in parentheses. Str equals Strength. Dex equals Dexterity. Con equals Constitution. Int equals Intelligence. Wis equals Wisdom. Cha equals Charisma. Fill in the skills with your ability score modifiers that match those letters, adding your profi ciency bonus to the ones with filled-in circles. Below your skills are
Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma
your passive wisdom/perception. Add 10 to your perception skill to make your passive.
SAVING THROWS
Acrobatics (Dex) Animal Handling (Wis) Arcana (Int) Athletics (Str) Deception (Cha) History(Int)
Insight (Wis) Intimidation (Cha) Imvestigation (Int) Medicine (Wis) Nature (Int) Perception (Wis) Performance (Cha) Persuasion (Cha) Religion (Int) Sleight of Hand (Dex) Slealth (Dex) Survival (Wis)
SKILLS
PASSIVE WISDOM (PERCEPTION)
HIT POINTS
Health
Now we need to calculate your character’s health. Under your Class features, you will see something called a hit die. This is what we will use to determine your hit points. For example, Barbarian’s Hit Die is a 1d12 at level one. We’ll write that in the Hit Dice Box. To calculate your hit points, take your max roll on your hit die, in this case, 12, and add your Con modifier to it. That number will be your max hit points. Every time you level up, roll your hit dice or use the predetermined number for your hit die and add that number to your hit points. Leveling up can also increase the number of hit dice you have.
Next, we’ll figure out your initiative. Take your Dex Mod and write in the box. Congrats, that’s your initiative score. You’ll use that to determine the turn order in a fight.
Your Armor Class (AC) will determine whether you get hit in a fight.
Every race has a different armor proficiency. Classes like Monk do better without using armor at all. Decide which kind of armor you want your character to use. Take the AC that the Armor provides and add your Dex Mod to it if told to. Some heavy armor has a set AC and requires a specific Strength Score to use it. Some armor will also give you a disadvantage on stealth rolls (Roll twice and take the lower number). Now we have your AC. You can also use a shield to increase your AC.
Remember all those feats, traits, skills, languages, and item pro ficiencies we had you ignore? Now you’re gonna go back to your class, race, and background and fill those into these boxes. With your background, you should have gotten some gold so go ahead and write that in here now too. If you didn’t already, fill in those personality traits.
Equipment
Last, but certainly not least is equipment. You can’t exactly fight without a weapon now, can you? Pick out some starting equip ment and weapons that you’re proficient in and write them into your inventory along with that armor you picked out earlier. That last box smack dab in the middle of your sheet contains your attacks. Put each of your weapons in that box. If it’s a piercing weapon, write in +Dex to the ATK bonus. If it’s slashing, +STR. Write in the Damage Dice and Type next to It.
CONGRATS. You’ve filled out the basics of your character sheet. If it’s to your DM’s liking then you’ve done everything right. If not, we’re sure they’ll be willing to help you fix it. Happy Adven turing!
Star Bunny Productions