3rd Edition - Hero builders guidebook, Rpg, D&D 3ed

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H
ERO
B
UILDER’S
G
UIDEBOOK
Credits
Designers:
Ryan S. Dancey, David Noonan, and John D. Rateliff
Editor:
David Noonan
Creative Director:
Ed Stark
Art Director:
Dawn Murin
Cover Illustration:
Brom
Interior Illustrations:
Tennis Cramer
Typographer:
Victoria L. Ausland
Graphic Design:
Sherry Floyd and Sean Glenn
Project Manager:
Josh Fischer
Product Manager:
Chas DeLong
Dedication:
All for one! One for all!
Based on the original Dungeons & Dragons
®
rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and the new Dungeons
& Dragons game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison.
Table of Contents
ROLLING YOUR ABILITY SCORES
2
CHOOSING YOUR RACE AND CLASS
7
CREATING YOUR PERSONAL HISTORY
38
SELECTING AN ALIGNMENT
51
PLANNING YOUR FUTURE CAREER
56
APPENDIX: THE RULE OF NAMES
66
1
INTRODUCTION
4
INTRODUCTION
Creating a Dungeons & Dragons
®
character is a process of evolution.
I
NTRODUCTION
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
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.
2
NTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
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.
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.
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
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!
3
ROLLING YOUR ABILITY SCORES
R
OLLING YOUR
looks like a church bell.
In case you were curious, the odds of rolling
an 18 on 3d6 are about 1 in 200 rolls (about .5%).
On average, only 3% of all characters created
using this system should have an 18 in any ability
score.
Over many years, it became common practice
with many groups to change the basic system to
create characters that were slightly better than
average. After all, these characters are heroes!
After watching that practice develop and become
fairly widespread, we decided to embrace it with
this edition of the rules.
You will roll 4d6 and keep the best three
results. This has the effect of raising the average
total to 11.5. This doesn’t seem like a huge
increase, but due to the way the math of
probabilities expresses itself, it tends to create
characters with one or two abilities that are
substantially higher than average, and few if any
that are lower. In short, it tends to shift and flat
ten the bell curve slightly in your favor, making
your character far more likely to be exceptional
than average.
The odds of getting an 18 using this system
are much better—about 3 times better than using
the 3d6 system, in fact. About 9% of all
characters should have an 18 as an ability score
before they apply racial modifiers. Under the 4d6
system, your odds of getting a 15, 16, or 17 are
substantially better as well. And your odds of
getting a 3, 4, or 5 are commensurately reduced.
ABILITY SCORES
Your character’s ability scores provide a roadmap
indicating what types of adventuring classes your
character is suited for, and what classes you may
want to avoid. The game allows you to choose
any class you wish for your character regardless
of the value of your ability scores. However,
setting up your ability scores to match your goals
helps your character survive and thrive in a world
of danger and adventure.
ABILITY SCORES
_________AND BELL CURVES
Within D&D, the average human being is
assumed to have a value of 10.5 in each score.
The normal human range is from 3 to 18, and the
average score is related to the roll of three six-
sided dice (3d6). In prior versions of D&D, 3d6
was the standard way to create ability scores for
player characters. Due to the way that probability
is expressed by three tumbling dice, the chances
of getting a score close to the average are better
than the chance to get a score near either of the
two extremes. This probability sequence is known
as a bell curve because if you plot the various
chances for various totals, the resulting shape
Each character has something extra – something beyond the norm.
4
OLLING YOUR
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