D&D Character Sheet Basics

Summary

In this engaging video, the co-owner of Skilltree, Maddie, guides viewers through the process of creating a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) character. She starts with the basics, explaining how to determine ability scores and choose a race, focusing on a rogue character with a twist of irony. Maddie then delves into selecting a background, class proficiencies, and equipment, providing a comprehensive walkthrough of character creation. The video also teases an interactive community game, 'Branching Paths,' where viewers can influence the narrative within the D&D world created by Maddie and her friends.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video is a tutorial on creating a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) character, focusing on the basics for beginners.
• 🎲 The character creation process starts with determining ability scores, which are the core stats of a character: strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.
• 🧩 A standard array of numbers is used to generate ability scores, and the video creator chooses to build a rogue character with a focus on dexterity and intelligence.
• 🏃‍♂️ The rogue class and the chosen race (halfling, specifically lightfoot) influence the分配 of ability scores, with bonuses to dexterity and charisma.
• 🌐 The video emphasizes the importance of choosing a character's race and background, which provide additional abilities, proficiencies, and features.
• 🛡 The character's class (rogue in this case) determines proficiency in saving throws, skills, and equipment, which are essential for gameplay.
• 🔢 Ability score modifiers and the proficiency bonus are calculated and applied to skills, saving throws, and other character attributes.
• 🗡️ Equipment and weapons are chosen based on class proficiencies, and their use is explained in the context of the character's abilities.
• 🛡 Armor Class (AC) is calculated, combining the character's dexterity modifier with the armor being worn, which affects combat effectiveness.
• 🎭 The video concludes with filling in roleplay aspects such as the character's name, personality traits, and alignment, adding depth to the character's story.
• 🌟 The video also promotes community engagement through a 'branching paths' D&D game on Skilltree, where viewers can influence an ongoing story.

Q & A

What is the first step in creating a D&D character according to the script?

The first step in creating a D&D character is to determine your ability scores, which are the six basic stats of strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma.

What is the significance of using the standard array to determine ability scores in D&D?

Using the standard array to determine ability scores provides a pre-generated set of numbers that players can use to assign values to their character's six basic stats, ensuring a balanced starting point for character creation.

Why did the script's author choose to create a rogue character with a specific mindset?

The author chose to create a rogue character who thinks he is smarter than he actually is, inspired by a spark of creativity, aiming to give the character a unique and interesting personality trait.

What are the favored ability scores for a rogue class in D&D?

For a rogue class in D&D, the favored ability scores are dexterity and intelligence, as these attributes are crucial for the class's skills and abilities.

Why did the author select a halfling race for their rogue character?

The author chose the halfling race for their rogue character because it provides a bonus to dexterity, which is important for a rogue, and allows the choice between lightfoot and stout subraces, with the lightfoot subrace offering additional benefits like stealth and charisma bonuses.

What is the role of a character's background in D&D, and how does it impact the character?

A character's background in D&D provides them with proficiencies in certain skills, tools, and sometimes languages, as well as equipment and a unique feature. It helps to flesh out the character's story and history, influencing their abilities and role-playing aspects.

How does proficiency in saving throws, skills, and equipment work for a rogue class in D&D?

A rogue class in D&D is proficient in dexterity and intelligence saving throws, which helps them resist effects related to these abilities. They also gain proficiency in certain skills and equipment, which are enhanced by adding a proficiency bonus to the ability score modifiers when the character is proficient in them.

What is the significance of ability score modifiers in calculating a character's skills and saving throws in D&D?

Ability score modifiers in D&D are used to adjust a character's skills and saving throws, reflecting how proficient they are in various abilities. These modifiers can be positive or negative and are derived from the character's ability scores, affecting gameplay mechanics like initiative, passive perception, and attack rolls.

How are hit points determined for a first-level rogue character in D&D?

For a first-level rogue character in D&D, hit points are determined by rolling a d8 (the rogue's hit die) and adding the constitution modifier. The maximum result of the d8 is used, and for a rogue, this base is typically 8, with the constitution modifier added to it.

What is the process for calculating a character's Armor Class (AC) in D&D?

A character's Armor Class (AC) in D&D is calculated by considering the armor they are wearing and their dexterity modifier. The base AC from the armor, found in the Player's Handbook, is adjusted by adding the character's dexterity modifier to determine their total AC.

Outlines

00:00

🎲 Introduction to Creating a D&D Character

The video begins with a playful introduction to creating a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) character, highlighting the challenges of starting a new game and focusing on the basics of character creation. The narrator, Maddie, introduces herself as the co-owner and editor of Skilltree, a platform for D&D enthusiasts. She emphasizes the importance of a character sheet, which tracks a character's stats and abilities, and decides to use the official format from the D&D Player's Handbook. Maddie chooses to create a rogue character with a focus on dexterity and charisma, aiming for a character that is not very smart but convincingly portrays intelligence. She explains the process of selecting a race, choosing a halfling for its dexterity bonus and subraces, and adjusting ability scores accordingly. The video also touches on the importance of choosing a background, which provides additional proficiencies and features to the character.

05:01

📊 D&D Character Sheet Mechanics

This paragraph delves into the mechanics of filling out a D&D character sheet, starting with the calculation of ability score modifiers and the proficiency bonus, which is based on the character's level. The narrator demonstrates how to apply these modifiers to saving throws and skills, explaining the concept of proficiency and how it enhances a character's abilities. The video covers the calculation of passive perception and initiative, which are key combat statistics. It also discusses hit points, the health and stamina of a character, and how they are determined by class and constitution modifier. The narrator walks through the process of equipping the character with weapons, armor, and tools, detailing how to calculate attack bonuses and damage. The armor class, which determines how difficult a character is to hit in combat, is also explained. Lastly, the video touches on class features and how they enhance the character's abilities at first level.

10:02

🌐 Engaging with the D&D Community

The final paragraph shifts focus from character creation to community engagement. The narrator invites viewers to participate in 'Branching Paths,' an interactive D&D game on Skilltree's community tab, where players can vote on the story's progression. This game takes place in the world that Maddie and her friends play in, meaning the community's decisions can impact their actual game. The video encourages viewers to explore the community tab, participate in the game, and learn more about the world and characters involved. It concludes with a nod to the ongoing narrative and the joy of playing D&D, inviting viewers to continue their journey in the game and to explore more content from the Skilltree platform.

Keywords

💡D&D (Dungeons & Dragons)

Dungeons & Dragons, often abbreviated as D&D, is a tabletop role-playing game where players create characters and embark on adventures in a fantasy world. In the script, the video aims to teach viewers how to create their own D&D character, which is central to participating in the game. The process of character creation is a fundamental aspect of D&D, allowing players to customize their experience and contribute to the storytelling.

💡Character Sheet

A character sheet in D&D is a record of a player character's attributes, abilities, and backstory. It is used to track the character's progress and capabilities throughout the game. In the script, the character sheet is mentioned as a tool for keeping track of a character's stats and abilities, emphasizing its importance in defining the character's role within the game.

💡Ability Scores

Ability scores in D&D represent the core attributes of a character: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. These scores determine a character's proficiency in various actions and skills. The script explains the process of determining ability scores as the first step in character creation, highlighting their significance in shaping a character's capabilities and role within the game.

💡Rogue

The rogue is a character class in D&D known for their stealth, cunning, and skill in thievery and deception. In the script, the decision to create a rogue character who thinks he is smarter than he is, illustrates the creative freedom players have in D&D to develop unique character concepts. The rogue's abilities, such as dexterity and intelligence, are central to the character's identity and gameplay.

💡Race

In D&D, race refers to the character's species or ethnic background, such as human, elf, dwarf, or halfling. Each race comes with unique racial traits and abilities that can influence a character's skills and attributes. The script mentions choosing a halfling race for the rogue character, which grants bonuses to dexterity and the option to select subraces like lightfoot or stout, adding depth to the character's identity.

💡Background

A character's background in D&D provides a narrative context for their skills, equipment, and personality traits. It helps to flesh out the character's history and motivations. In the script, the choice of 'charlatan' as a background for the rogue character adds proficiency in deception and sleight of hand, as well as unique equipment, enhancing the character's role as a cunning and persuasive individual.

💡Proficiency

Proficiency in D&D refers to a character's expertise in certain skills, saving throws, or equipment, which grants them a bonus to their related actions. The script explains how proficiency is determined and applied, such as adding a proficiency bonus to skills like deception, which the rogue character becomes proficient in due to their background.

💡Hit Points

Hit points represent a character's health and stamina in D&D. They determine how much damage a character can withstand before being defeated. The script details how hit points are calculated for a first-level rogue, using the character's hit dice and constitution modifier, which is crucial for understanding a character's survivability in the game.

💡Class Features

Class features in D&D are special abilities and traits unique to each character class. They define the character's role and capabilities within the game. The script mentions that the rogue class has specific features at level one, such as thieves' cant and sneak attack, which are integral to the rogue's gameplay and contribute to the character's overall strategy and tactics.

💡Armor Class

Armor class (AC) in D&D is a measure of how difficult it is for enemies to land a successful attack on a character. It takes into account the character's armor and dexterity modifier. The script explains how to calculate the AC for a rogue wearing leather armor, which is an important aspect of character defense and survivability in combat.

💡Alignment

Alignment in D&D describes a character's moral and ethical perspective, typically categorized as lawful good, chaotic evil, neutral, etc. It helps to guide role-playing decisions and interactions with other characters. The script humorously assigns the rogue character a 'chaotic neutral' alignment, suggesting a free-spirited and morally flexible nature, which adds to the character's depth and role-playing potential.

Highlights

Introduction to creating a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) character

Explanation of the importance of character stats and abilities in D&D

Guidance on using the official character sheet from the Player's Handbook

Tutorial on determining ability scores for a character

Decision-making process for choosing a character's class and race

Insight into choosing a rogue class with a focus on dexterity and intelligence

Selection of a halfling race for its dexterity bonus and subraces

Adjusting character stats based on race choices

Importance of background in defining a character's skills and equipment

How to choose a background that complements a character's class

Overview of class proficiencies and how they affect character abilities

Explanation of how to calculate ability score modifiers and proficiency bonus

Filling out character sheet with saving throws and skill proficiencies

Calculating a character's passive perception and initiative bonus

Understanding hit points and how they relate to character health

Detailing the process of choosing and equipping a character with weapons and armor

Calculating a character's Armor Class (AC) for combat effectiveness

Incorporating class features at first level and their impact on gameplay

Finalizing a character with roleplay aspects like name, personality, and alignment

Invitation to participate in the 'Branching Paths' community D&D game

Encouragement for viewers to engage with the Skilltree community and resources

Transcripts

today i'm gonna get you started on an

epic journey and teach you how to make

your very own d d character yeah that's

not happening what are you doing what

are you doing i was

gonna show them how to make a d d

character do you think you're the most

qualified for that

that's not fair i've been playing d d

for like four years now yeah and i have

to explain your character every time

that's not true i know exactly what i'm

doing with this you put the the numbers

um

they're on page give me a second

oh i'm maddie co-owner of skilltree the

little crow in the corner usually i'm

also

the editor now that that train wreck is

avoided let's talk about dvd as i'm sure

most of you know the hardest part of

getting into anything is how to start

when it comes to d d a good place to

start is the basics of creating a player

character each character is defined by

their stats and abilities which we keep

track of on a character sheet you can

find just so many character sheet

formats out there but for our purposes

we will stick with the official sheet

provided in the back of the player

handbook because we are boring and i

have limited time you can copy it from

the book or easily find digital versions

online i'll be linking digital resources

i mentioned in the comments section

below so be sure to check that out all

right let's jump right into this the

first thing you want to do is to

determine your ability scores ability

scores are the six bare bone stats of

your character they are strength

dexterity constitution intelligence

wisdom and charisma the most basic way

of determining your scores is to use a

pre-generated array of numbers called

standard array with those scores we need

to decide what kind of character we want

to play i have decided that i want to

build a rogue that thinks he is smarter

than he actually is i don't know why i

guess a just a spark of inspiration hit

me now each class has ability scores

they favor basically what their

abilities are based off of a rogue's

abilities are typically based off of

dexterity and intelligence because of

that i'm putting my highest scores in

dexterity and charisma and my lowest in

wisdom and intelligence after all r

rogue is not so smart but he is really

good at convincing people that he is

we'll come back to what it means to be a

rogue later first i want to get the

basics in next we're gonna decide what

race we want to play i'm choosing a

halfling because it gives me a bonus in

dexterity it also gives me the option of

choosing between two sub-braces a light

foot halfling or a stout halfling i'm

choosing lightfoot because it gives me

another bonus to an ability that i'm

favoring charisma as well as a feature

that makes me stealthier all of which

are good things for our rogue after all

he he has to be good at some things all

that's left for our race is to adjust

our stats accordingly and write in the

features it gives us with that all

settled it's time to decide our

background a background gives every

character some things that they are good

at some special equipment and an ability

specific to the background since our

rogue is pretty good at pretending to be

something that he isn't i'm choosing

charlatan this makes our rogue

proficient in the deception and sleight

of hand skills as well as the disguise

and forgery tools it also gives him some

unique equipment and the false identity

feature what are all of those words that

just came out of my mouth

to avoid explaining myself twice i'm

gonna take us back to our class all

right like your background and some

races your class makes you good at

certain things every class gives you

proficiency in two saving throws some

skills and some equipment saving throws

are your ability to resist something be

it dodging out of the way of a trap

using dexterity resisting poison using

constitution or fighting off mind

control using wisdom rogues are

proficient in dexterity and intelligence

saving throws so we just bubble those in

next the book gives us a list of skill

proficiencies to choose from as a rogue

we get to choose four from that list

because of my background i'm already

proficient in deception and sleight of

hand so i'll avoid choosing those

instead i'll choose acrobatics

performance persuasion and stealth a

rogue is turning into quite a little

performer isn't he we've gotten about as

far as we can while still avoiding the

math so so let's let's talk about the

math you've probably noticed that each

of the ability scores have this big

empty space right above them that's

because we don't actually use the scores

themselves

instead these scores give us modifiers

in a kind of convoluted way these

modifiers can be either positive or

negative depending on how far above or

below 10 they are you don't need to

really know how that works as the book

will give you a handy chart for

reference you can just use that to fill

in the modifiers above your ability

scores there is one more modifier you

need to figure out your proficiency

bonus this is basically a bonus applied

to all the things that you are good at

it is determined by your character's

level so ours and every other level one

character is plus two now it's time to

use those modifiers to fill out a lot of

our character sheet your saving throws

and skills use the ability score

modifier that they relate to it should

be pretty easy to tell which saving

throw uses what ability score modifier

since they share the same name but for

the skills you'll notice a little hint

in parentheses telling you what ability

score modifier to apply if at any time

while you were making this character you

marked one of those skills or saving

throws as proficient add the proficiency

bonus as well we'll use our lovely

deception skill as an example it's the

biggest off charisma so we have that

plus two we are also proficient so we

add our proficiency bonus on top which

brings us to a plus four after we're

done filling out all of our skills and

saving throws let's fill in our passive

perception it's super simple it's just

10 plus your perception skill modifier

for this rogue since we have a plus 0 in

perception it would be an even 10. if he

was more perceptive like maybe a plus 2

it would be 12. another easy thing to

fill in now that we have all our

modifiers figured out is our initiative

bonus this is just your dexterity

modifier he may not be smart but at

least he's quick to action only a few

things left before we have a fully

functional character that in mind let's

talk about hit points a familiar concept

to most hit points is your health your

stamina and your luck every class has a

certain dice assigned to them to

determine how many hit points they have

the bigger the dice the more hit points

for the first level of a character which

is what we are currently concerned with

you always get the maximum amount on

that dice so for a rogue who has a hit

dice of a d8 we have a base health of

eight we then add on our constitution

modifier to get our level one hit point

maximum because that modifier is plus

one our total level one hp is nine all

that's left now are our class features

and our equipment for our equipment we

make sure to fill in what weapons armors

and tools we are proficient in from our

class and then we choose our starting

gear from the options listed i think

i'll pick the short sword the bow and

the burglars pack since we have weapons

now let's add those attacks to our sheet

all of our weapons are dexterity based

so we use that modifier to determine the

attack bonuses and the damage rules we

can reference the weapons chart further

in the player's handbook for all the

statistics of each weapon we can also

finally figure out what our armor class

is now that we have armor armor class is

how difficult you are to hit in combat

be it from thick armor or being able to

dodge out of the way because of this it

takes both the armor you are wearing and

your dexterity modifier into

consideration we are now wearing leather

armor which if we check the armor stats

in the player's handbook gives us an

armor class of 11 plus our dexterity

modifier for us that would be 14.

alright now we only have one last thing

to do which is to fill in the class

features you get at first level these

vary drastically between the classes but

typically are pretty self-explanatory

the rogue's level one abilities aren't

super complicated if we read through

them we can see we get a special new

language called thieves can't the

ability to do extra damage under certain

circumstances and the choice of two

proficiencies to upgrade i think i'll

apply our new expertise ability to our

deception and performance skills i just

add the plus two of our proficiency to

their bonus again and our rogue is now

an expert at lying and putting on a show

and we're done all that's left is spaces

for where you define the roleplay

aspects of your character like their

name and personality traits my

background recommended a few personality

traits so i'm just gonna plug in a few

from there as for alignment he seems a

free-spirited fellow not concerned with

the morals of others so chaotic neutral

it is and for a name i mean i'm a fan of

irony so i think i'll call my not so

smart rogue

clever seems fun right and there we have

it a fully functional level one rogue

with a bit of personality to him

obviously there's more to learn when it

comes to actually playing said rogue but

we've officially taken that first step

and have a basic character perfect

timing too because i think i'm reaching

the limit of how long i can keep clean

got it back

all right

okay

everything's how it should be and sure

maybe she did an okay job explaining it

but i mean i would have made at least a

smart character why would you name him

she's so mean

anyways i wanted to take this

opportunity to tell you about something

cool we're doing in the community tab

here on skilltree for a few weeks now

everybody's been playing a game of d and

d with us it's called branching paths

and it basically works like a choose

your own adventure as the pieces of the

story get listed you and the rest of the

community get a chance to vote on what

happens next and as a bonus this whole

thing takes place in the world that

maddie created that myself and my

friends play in which means the

decisions you make have an actual impact

on the game we play it's been super fun

to see the interaction so far and the

type of decisions you all are making so

yeah check out the community tab here on

skilltree if you want to play and also

check the links in the description to

learn more about the world we're playing

in the character and the story so far i

hope to see you there and i can't wait

to play with you this is a fun game that

i really do love in the meantime though

keep leveling up you

thank you for sticking around i know

she did this episode but if you want to

watch a really good episode why don't

you check out one of these ones down

here these ones feature just me

makes them better

alright let's be honest she probably

does know better than me