Chapter 2 Making Characters
Your First step in playing D&D is to imagine and then create a character of your own. Your character is a combination of the fantastic hero in your mind’s eye and the different game rules that describe what he or she can do. You choose a race such as elf or dragonborn, a class such as wizard or fighter, and distinct powers such as magic spells or divine prayers. Then you invent a personality, description, and story for your character. Your character is your representative in the game, your avatar in the D&D world. A character is a combination of game statistics and roleplaying hooks; the statistics define the physical aspects of what the character does in the world, while roleplaying choices define who he or she is. Throughout this book, we use the word “you” interchangeably with “your character.” As far as the rules of the game are concerned, your character is you. You decide what your character does as you move through the world, exploring dungeons, fighting monsters, and and interacting with other characters in the game. This chapter includes the following sections.
✦ Character Creation: A guide to the character creation process.
✦ Ability Scores: How to generate your character’s ability scores.
✦ Roleplaying: Elements to help you shape your character, including alignment, deities, personality, appearance, background, and languages.
✦ Making Checks: Expanding on the core mechanic to explain the basic die rolls of the game.
✦ Gaining Levels: Rules for gaining experience levels and advancing your character.
✦ Character Sheet: Explanation of a character sheet and where you can find information for each entry on the sheet.
Character Creation
First, take a minute to imagine your character. Think about the kind of hero you want your character to be. Your character exists in your imagination—all the game statistics do is help you determine what your character can do in the game. Do you like fantasy fiction featuring dwarves or elves? Try building a character of one of those races. Do you want your character to be the toughest adventurer at the table? Try choosing fighter or paladin for your character class. If you don’t know where else to begin, take a look at the art that appears throughout this book and the brief character descriptions in each race entry in Chapter 3, and see what catches your interest. Follow these steps to create your D&D character. You can take these out of order; for example, some people prefer to pick their powers last.
1. Choose Race. Decide the race of your character. Your choice of race offers several racial advantages to your character. Chapter 3.
2. Choose Class. Your class represents your training or profession, and it is the most important part of your character’s capabilities. Chapter 4.
3. Determine Ability Scores. Generate your ability scores. Your ability scores describe the fundamental strengths of your body and mind. Your race adjusts the scores you generate, and different classes rely on different ability scores. Chapter 2.
4. Choose Skills. Skills measure your ability to perform tasks such as jumping across chasms, hiding from observers, and identifying monsters. Chapter 5.
5. Select Feats. Feats are natural advantages or special training you possess. Chapter 6.
6. Choose Powers. Each character class offers a different selection of powers to choose from. Chapter 4.
7. Choose Equipment. Pick your character’s armor, weapons, implements, and basic adventuring gear. At higher levels, you’ll be able to find and create magic items. Chapter 7.
8. Fill in the Numbers. Calculate your hit points, Armor Class and other defenses, initiative, attack bonuses, damage bonuses, and skill check bonuses. Chapter 2.
9. Roleplaying Character Details. Flesh out your character with details about your personality, appearance, and beliefs. Chapter 2.
RACE, CLASS, AND ROLE
The first two decisions you make in character creation are picking your character’s race and choosing a class. Together, these describe your basic character concept; for example, dwarf fighter, eladrin wizard, or tiefling warlord. Your choice of character class also determines your character’s role—the job your character does when the adventuring party is in a fight. You should pick the race and class combination that interests you the most. However, sometimes it’s a good idea to first consider the role you want your character to fill. For example, if you join an existing game and none of the other players are playing a character in the defender role, you would help them out by playing a fighter or a paladin.
A variety of fantastic races populate the world of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game—people such as dragonborn, dwarves, and elves. In any good-sized town or city, you typically run across at least a few individuals of each race, even if they are simply travelers or wandering mercenaries looking for their next challenge. Many different intelligent creatures populate the world, creatures such as dragons, mind flayers, and demons. These aren’t characters you can play; they’re monsters you fight. Your character is an adventurer of one of the civilized races of the world.
Many different types of heroes and villains inhabit the world: sneaky rogues, clever wizards, burly fighters, and more. Character race defines your basic appearance and natural talents, but character class is your chosen vocation, the specific trade you follow. You can learn more about these classes in Chapter 4.
Each character class specializes in one of four basic functions in combat: control and area offense, defense, healing and support, and focused offense. The roles embodied by these functions are controller, defender, leader, and striker. The classic adventuring party includes one character of each role: wizard, fighter, cleric, and rogue. Character roles identify which classes can stand in for each other. For example, if you don’t have a cleric in your party, a warlord serves just as well in the leader role. Roles also serve as handy tools for building adventuring parties. It’s a good idea to cover each role with at least one character. If you have five or six players in your group, it’s best to double up on defender first, then striker. If you don’t have all the roles covered, that’s okay too—it just means that the characters need to compensate for the missing function. Future volumes of the Player’s Handbook will introduce additional classes for all these roles. Controllers deal with large numbers of enemies at the same time. They favor offense over defense, using powers that deal damage to multiple foes at once, as well as subtler powers that weaken, confuse, or delay their foes. Defenders have the highest defenses in the game and good close-up offense. They are the party’s front-line combatants; wherever they’re standing, that’s where the action is. Defenders have abilities and powers that make it difficult for enemies to move past them or to ignore them in battle. Leaders inspire, heal, and aid the other characters in an adventuring group. Leaders have good defenses, but their strength lies in powers that protect their companions and target specific foes for the party to concentrate on. Clerics and warlords (and other leaders) encourage and motivate their adventuring companions, but just because they fill the leader role doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a group’s spokesperson or commander. The party leader—if the group has one—might as easily be a charismatic warlock or an authoritative paladin. Leaders (the role) fulfill their function through their mechanics; party leaders are born through roleplaying. Strikers specialize in dealing high amounts of damage to a single target at a time. They have the most concentrated offense of any character in the game. Strikers rely on superior mobility, trickery, or magic to move around tough foes and single out the enemy they want to attack.
Ability Scores
After you choose your race and class, determine your ability scores. Six abilities provide a quick description of your character’s physical and mental characteristics. Are you muscle-bound and insightful? Brilliant and charming? Nimble and hardy? Your ability scores define these qualities—your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Strength (Str) measures your character’s physical power. It’s important for most characters who fight hand-to-hand.
✦ Melee basic attacks are based on Strength.
✦ Clerics, fighters, paladins, rangers, and warlords have powers based on Strength.
✦ Your Strength might contribute to your Fortitude defense.
✦ Strength is the key ability for Athletics skill checks.
Constitution (Con) represents your character’s health, stamina, and vital force. All characters benefit from a high Constitution score.
✦ Your Constitution score is added to your hit points at 1st level.
✦ The number of healing surges you can use each day is influenced by your Constitution.
✦ Many warlock powers are based on Constitution.
✦ Your Constitution might contribute to your Fortitude defense.
✦ Constitution is the key ability for Endurance skill checks.
Dexterity (Dex) measures hand-eye coordination, agility, reflexes, and balance.
✦ Ranged basic attacks are based on Dexterity.
✦ Many ranger and rogue powers are based on Dexterity.
✦ Your Dexterity might contribute to your Reflex defense.
✦ If you wear light armor, your Dexterity might contribute to your Armor Class.
✦ Dexterity is the key ability for Acrobatics, Stealth, and Thievery skill checks.
Intelligence (Int) describes how well your character learns and reasons.
✦ Wizard powers are based on Intelligence.
✦ Your Intelligence might contribute to your Reflex defense.
✦ If you wear light armor, your Intelligence might contribute to your Armor Class.
✦ Intelligence is the key ability for Arcana, History, and Religion skill checks.
Wisdom (Wis) measures your common sense, perception, self-discipline, and empathy. You use your Wisdom score to notice details, sense danger, and get a read on other people.
✦ Many cleric powers are based on Wisdom.
✦ Your Wisdom might contribute to your Will defense.
✦ Wisdom is the key ability for Dungeoneering, Heal, Insight, Nature, and Perception skill checks.
Charisma (Cha) measures your force of personality, persuasiveness, and leadership.
✦ Many paladin and warlock powers are based on Charisma.
✦ Your Charisma might contribute to your Will defense.
✦ Charisma is the key ability for Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Streetwise skill checks.
Each of your ability scores is a number that measures the power of that ability. A character with a 16 Strength is much stronger than a character with a 6 Strength. A score of 10 or 11 is the normal human average, but player characters are a cut above average in most abilities. As you advance in levels, your ability scores keep getting better. Your ability score determines an ability modifier that you add to any attack, check, roll, or defense based on that ability. For instance, making a melee attack with a battleaxe is a Strength attack, so you add the ability modifier for your Strength score to your attack rolls and damage rolls. If your score is 17, you’re pretty strong; you add +3 to your attack rolls and damage rolls when you make that attack. Your ability scores also influence your defenses, since you add your ability modifier to your defense score.
✦ For Fortitude defense, you add the higher of your Strength or Constitution ability modifiers.
✦ For Reflex defense, you add the higher of your Dexterity or Intelligence ability modifiers.
✦ For Will defense, you add the higher of your Wisdom or Charisma ability modifiers.
✦ If you wear light armor or no armor, you also add the higher of your Dexterity or Intelligence ability modifiers to your Armor Class.
You can use one of three methods to generate ability scores. In each method, you can take the numbers you generate and assign them to whichever ability score you want. Remember, your class determines which ability scores are important to you, and your race modifies certain ability scores. Ability scores increase as a character gains levels. When you assign your initial scores, remember that they’ll improve with time. Method 1: Standard Array Take these six numbers and assign them to your abilities any way you like: 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10. Apply your racial ability adjustments (see Chapter 3) after you assign the scores to your abilities. Method 2: Customizing Scores This method is a little more complicated than the standard array, but it gives comparable results. With this method, you can build a character who’s really good in one ability score, but at the cost of having average scores in the other five. Method 3: Rolling Scores Some players like the idea of generating ability scores randomly. The result of this method can be really good, or it can be really bad. On average, you’ll come out a little worse than if you had used the standard array. If you roll well, you can come out way ahead, but if you roll poorly, you might generate a character who’s virtually unplayable. Use this method with caution. Roll four 6-sided dice (4d6) and add up the highest three numbers. Do that six times, and then assign the numbers you generated to your six ability scores. Apply your racial ability adjustments. If the total of your ability modifiers is lower than +4 or higher than +8 before racial ability adjustments, your DM might rule that your character is too weak or too strong compared to the other characters in the group and decide to adjust your scores to fit better within his or her campaign preferences.
To round out the unique aspects of your character, choose skills, feats, powers, and equipment. Your class tells you how many skills you start with at 1st level. Some races give you an additional skill choice as well. See Chapter 5 for details on skills. You also choose one heroic tier feat at 1st level (or two, if you’re a human). Some classes grant bonus feats as well. See Chapter 6 for feat descriptions. Your choice of class powers defines how your character functions in and out of combat. Each class section in Chapter 4 offers recommendations on choosing powers that reflect your approach. Finally, consult Chapter 7 to pick your equipment. You begin your career at 1st level with 100 gold pieces, enough to equip yourself with basic gear (and maybe have a few coins left over). Once you’ve picked all the other aspects of your character, it’s time to fill in the numbers.
Roleplaying
The DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game is, first and foremost, a roleplaying game, which means that it’s all about taking on the role of a character in the game. Some people take to this playacting naturally and easily; others find it more of a challenge. This section is here to help you out, whether you’re comfortable and familiar with roleplaying or you’re new to the concept. Your character is more than a combination of race, class, and feats. He or she is also one of the protagonists in a living, evolving story line. Like the hero of any fantasy novel or film, he or she has ambitions and fears, likes and dislikes, motivations and mannerisms, moments of glory and of failure. The best D&D characters blend the ongoing story of their adventuring careers with memorable characteristics or traits. Jaden the 4th-level human fighter is a perfectly playable character even without any embellishment, but Jaden the Grim’s personality—brooding, fatalistic, and honest—suggests a particular approach to negotiating with NPCs or discussing issues with the other characters. A well-crafted character personality expands your experience of the game dramatically. D&D is a roleplaying game but not necessarily an exercise in improvisational theater. Sometimes, the role you play is defender or leader—the character you’re playing is engaged in combat and has a job to do so that your team comes out victorious. Even in combat, though, you can interject bits of personality and dialogue that make your character more than just the statistics on your character sheet.
ALIGNMENT
If you choose an alignment, you’re indicating your character’s dedication to a set of moral principles: good, lawful good, evil, or chaotic evil. In a cosmic sense, it’s the team you believe in and fight for most strongly. A character’s alignment (or lack thereof) describes his or her moral stance:
✦ Good: Freedom and kindness.
✦ Lawful Good: Civilization and order.
✦ Evil: Tyranny and hatred.
✦ Chaotic Evil: Entropy and destruction.
✦ Unaligned: Having no alignment; not taking a stand.
For the purpose of determining whether an effect functions on a character, someone of lawful good alignment is considered good and someone of chaotic evil alignment is considered evil. For instance, a lawful good character can use a magic item that is usable only by good-aligned characters. Alignments are tied to universal forces bigger than deities or any other allegiance you might have. If you’re a high-level cleric with a lawful good alignment, you’re on the same team as Bahamut, regardless of whether you worship that deity. Bahamut is not in any sense the captain of your team, just a particularly important player (who has a large number of supporters). Most people in the world, and plenty of player characters, haven’t signed up to play on any team—they’re unaligned. Picking and adhering to an alignment represents a distinct choice. If you choose an alignment for your character, you should pick either good or lawful good. Unless your DM is running a campaign in which all the characters are evil or chaotic evil, playing an evil or chaotic evil character disrupts an adventuring party and, frankly, makes all the other players angry at you. Here’s what the four alignments (and being unaligned) mean.
The Good Alignment Protecting the weak from those who would dominate or kill them is just the right thing to do. If you’re a good character, you believe it is right to aid and protect those in need. You’re not required to sacrifice yourself to help others or to completely ignore your own needs, but you might be asked to place others’ needs above your own . . . in some cases, even if that means putting yourself in harm’s way. In many ways, that’s the essence of being a heroic adventurer: The people of the town can’t defend themselves from the marauding goblins, so you descend into the dungeon—at significant personal risk—to put an end to the goblin raids. You can follow rules and respect authority, but you’re keenly aware that power tends to corrupt those who wield it, too often leading them to exploit their power for selfish or evil ends. When that happens, you feel no obligation to follow the law blindly. It’s better for authority to rest in the members of a community rather than the hands of any individual or social class. When law becomes exploitation, it crosses into evil territory, and good characters feel compelled to fight it. Good and evil represent fundamentally different viewpoints, cosmically opposed and unable to coexist in peace. Good and lawful good characters, though, get along fine—even if a good character thinks a lawful good companion might be a little too focused on following the law, rather than simply doing the right thing.
The Lawful Good Alignment An ordered society protects us from evil. If you’re lawful good, you respect the authority of personal codes of conduct, laws, and leaders, and you believe that those codes are the best way of achieving your ideals. Just authority promotes the well-being of its subjects and prevents them from harming one another. Lawful good characters believe just as strongly as good ones do in the value of life, and they put even more emphasis on the need for the powerful to protect the weak and lift up the downtrodden. The exemplars of the lawful good alignment are shining champions of what’s right, honorable, and true, risking or even sacrificing their lives to stop the spread of evil in the world. When leaders exploit their authority for personal gain, when laws grant privileged status to some citizens and reduce others to slavery or untouchable status, law has given in to evil and just authority becomes tyranny. You are not only capable of challenging such injustice, but morally bound to do so. However, you would prefer to work within the system to right such problems rather than resorting to more rebellious and lawless methods.
The Evil Alignment It is my right to claim what others possess. Evil characters don’t necessarily go out of their way to hurt people, but they’re perfectly willing to take advantage of the weakness of others to acquire what they want. Evil characters use rules and order to maximize personal gain. They don’t care whether laws hurt other people. They support institutional structures that give them power, even if that power comes at the expense of others’ freedom. Slavery and rigid caste structures are not only acceptable but desirable to evil characters, as long as they are in a position to benefit from them.
The Chaotic Evil Alignment I don’t care what I have to do to get what I want. Chaotic evil characters have a complete disregard for others. Each believes he or she is the only being that matters and kills, steals, and betrays others to gain power. Their word is meaningless and their actions destructive. Their worldviews can be so warped that they destroy anything and anyone that doesn’t directly contribute to their interests. By the standards of good and lawful good people, chaotic evil is as abhorrent as evil, perhaps even more so. Chaotic evil monsters such as demons and orcs are at least as much of a threat to civilization and general well-being as evil monsters are. An evil creature and a chaotic evil creature are both opposed to good, but they don’t have much respect for each other either and rarely cooperate toward common goals.
Unaligned Just let me go about my business. If you’re unaligned, you don’t actively seek to harm others or wish them ill. But you also don’t go out of your way to put yourself at risk without some hope for reward. You support law and order when doing so benefits you. You value your own freedom, without worrying too much about protecting the freedom of others. A few unaligned people, and most unaligned deities, aren’t undecided about alignment. Rather, they’ve chosen not to choose, either because they see the benefits of both good and evil or because they see themselves as above the concerns of morality. The Raven Queen and her devotees fall into the latter camp, believing that moral choices are irrelevant to their mission since death comes to all creatures regardless of alignment.
PERSONALITY
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is a game of heroic extremes, populated by legendary heroes and unrepentant villains. Your character needs only a few personality traits that you can use as roleplaying touchstones, key traits that you can focus on and that are fun to play. A complex background and extensive motivations aren’t necessary, although you can flesh out your character’s personality as much as you like. A typical D&D adventure offers many opportunities for your character’s personality to shine. Those roleplaying opportunities usually arise in three kinds of situations: social interactions, decision points, and dire straits. The following sections pose questions to help you choose personality traits for your character, which you can write on your character sheet. Select one personality trait for each kind of situation. If you already have a personality in mind for your character, you can skip this section; the information here is for inspiration only.
When you communicate with a nonplayer character outside combat and try to influence that individual, that’s a social interaction. You might try to persuade a guardian monster to let you pass, negotiate with a merchant lord to increase the pay offered for a dangerous mission, or question a surly centaur about the goblins that ambush travelers in the forest. The DM plays the part of any NPC you talk to, while you and the other players decide what your characters say, even speaking in character if you like.
When you face tough choices in an adventure, your character’s personality can influence the decisions you make. Do you try to sneak past the dragon’s cave, approach openly to parley, or storm in with blades drawn and spells blazing? Which of the six stone doors in the entry hall do you open first? Do you save the captives from the trap or pursue the slavers? When your group tries to decide what to do next, how do you approach such conversations?
Some of the most memorable demonstrations of a character’s personality appear in dire straits. A character retorts to a villain’s threat with a trademark one-liner, shouts a famous battle cry, leaps into harm’s way to protect others, or turns and flees in the face of overwhelming odds. Every battle, hazard, or other dire situation offers opportunities for roleplaying, especially if things go awry. When your character lands in a dire situation, how does he or she usually react? Do you follow a code? Do you follow your heart? Do you look out for yourself or others?
MANNERISMS
The easiest way to bring your character to life at the gaming table is to adopt distinctive mannerisms—particular patterns of speech or other behaviors that you can take on at the table to convey how your character looks, sounds, and acts. If you are naturally inclined to spin dice or shuffle cards while the game takes place, you might consider incorporating that behavior into your character. Perhaps your character carries a deck of cards that he shuffles when he’s bored or nervous, or maybe she crouches to the ground and creates little sculptures out of rubble while she’s waiting for her companions to decide where to go next. By contrast, another character might vociferously participate in those deliberations, frequently resorting to exclamations such as “By Kord’s right arm!” to emphasize his opinion. Speech patterns can be even more distinctive. A dwarf who never enters battle without shouting, “The dwarves are upon you!” injects a dose of fun roleplaying just as the die rolling is getting most intense. A wizard who never speaks except in haiku might be carrying the idea of distinctive speech to an extreme, but if you can pull it off (try writing a page full of standbys to cover common situations before the game begins), everyone at the table will remember your character for years! Another good way to think about speech and other mannerisms is to create specific prompts your character says or does when using certain powers. For example, your paladin might yell, “Feel the might of Bahamut!” every time she uses the righteous smite power, and murmur, “Bahamut’s healing breath wash over you,” when she uses lay on hands.
APPEARANCE
Is your character tall, short, or in between? Solid and muscular, or lean and wiry? Male or female? Old or young? These decisions have no real impact on the game, but they might affect the way that nonplayer characters—and even the other players—think about your character. Each race description in Chapter 3 gives the average height and weight for a character of that race. You can decide for your character to be above or below average. You should also decide what color skin, hair, and eyes your character has. Most races approximate the human range of coloration, but some races also have unusual coloration, such as the stony gray skin of dwarves or the violet eyes of some elves. Finally, consider features that distinguish your character from others. Some of these might be inborn, such as an unusual eye color or skin color, while others might be habits of fashion or the scars of past injuries. Jewelry, clothing, tattoos and birthmarks, hairstyles and colors, and posture—one unusual feature from among those choices can make your character stand out in the other players’ minds.
BACKGROUND
Your character’s background often stays there—in the background. What’s most important about your character is what you do in the course of your adventures, not what happened to you in the past. Even so, thinking about your birthplace, family, and upbringing can help you decide how to play your character. These questions can help you start thinking about your background.
✦ Why did you decide to be an adventurer?
✦ How did you acquire your class? If you’re a fighter, for example, you might have been in a militia, come from a family of soldiers, or trained in a martial school, or you might be a self-taught warrior.
✦ How did you acquire your starting equipment? Did you assemble it piece by piece over time? Was it a gift from a parent or a mentor? Do any of your personal items have special significance?
✦ What’s the worst event of your life?
✦ What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you?
✦ Do you stay in contact with your family? What do your relatives think of you and your chosen career?
Making Checks
Before you go any further, it’s important to understand the use of the core mechanic and how it applies to every aspect of the game. Every power, skill, and special feature in the game is keyed to one of the six ability scores. You resolve actions by making different kinds of checks, all of which use the same core mechanic: roll a d20, add any modifiers, and announce the result. Your Dungeon Master then compares your check result against a target number, the Difficulty Class (DC) of the test, task, or attack that you’re attempting. Most difficulty class numbers are set for the Dungeon Master; for example, an ogre savage has an Armor Class of 19, and climbing a typical dungeon wall has a DC of 15. Other times, your Dungeon Master estimates the DC of a task that isn’t specifically covered by the rules. The D&D game uses three basic kinds of checks, which are described further below: attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks. If you try to hit a monster with a mace, you’re making a Strength attack against the monster’s AC; if you try to blast a monster with a fireball spell, it’s an Intelligence attack against Reflex defense; if you try to balance on a tightrope, it’s an Acrobatics check against a DC set by the DM; if you try to bash down a door, it’s a Strength check against a set DC that depends on the nature of the door. The description of each power and skill tells you what ability you base its check on. Occasionally, you make a check that is compared against someone else’s check result. Doing this is called making an opposed check. A modifier is any number that adds to or subtracts from a die roll. The most commonly used modifiers are based on your ability scores. A bonus refers to positive values. If a feat adds your Dexterity modifier to damage, it won’t do anything if your Dexterity modifier isn’t positive. A penalty is the opposite: It’s always negative. Part of creating a character is figuring out your normal check modifiers for common tasks such as making attacks or using skills. Most checks in the game add additional modifiers, including the following:
✦ Your bonus from your weapon proficiency if you’re making an attack
✦ Your skill training bonus if you’re using a skill
✦ Special bonuses for feats you’ve chosen or magic items you’re using
✦ Bonuses that apply to the circumstances of the check (charge attacks or combat advantage, for example)
✦ Penalties that apply to the circumstances (your target has cover, you’re attacking while prone, and so on)
Your modifiers reflect everything about you that is relevant to the task at hand: your training, competence, and native ability. The d20 roll represents luck, fate, fortune, and unpredictable opportunities or sudden distractions. A battle is full of frantic action, and the random die roll represents that mayhem.
ATTACK ROLLS
Perhaps the most frequent die rolls you make in a D&D game are attack rolls. All attack rolls are described in this way: [Ability] vs. [Defense] For example, a wizard’s fireball spell is an Intelligence attack against the target’s Reflex defense (written as Intelligence vs. Reflex). A fighter’s longsword attack is a Strength attack against Armor Class (or AC). The ability score and the defense involved depend on the attack you’re using. If the check result is higher than or equal to your opponent’s defense, you hit and (usually) deal damage. The total of all the modifiers you add to an attack roll is your base attack bonus. You can find much more about attack rolls in Chapter 9. Example: Kiera, an 8th-level elf ranger with a Dexterity of 17 and a +1 magic bow, shoots her bow at an ogre savage. Her base attack bonus is +10, which includes +4 for one-half her level, her +3 Dexterity modifier, her +2 bonus for being proficient with the bow, and the bow’s +1 enhancement bonus. To see if she hits the ogre, she rolls 1d20 and adds 10. If she rolls an 11, her check result is 21. Since an ogre savage has an Armor Class of 19, she has scored a hit!
ATTACK To make an attack, roll 1d20 and add the following:
✦ One-half your level
✦ The relevant ability score modifier
✦ All other modifiers. The total is your attack result.
SKILL CHECKS
The knowledge and talents your character has learned are represented by skill checks. When you use a skill, you hope for a result higher than the DC of the task. For example, a cleric’s Heal check is a skill check against a specific DC. A rogue’s Stealth check is a skill check against a DC equal to the target’s Perception check result (an opposed check). If the check result is higher than or equal to the DC, you succeed. The total of the modifiers you add to a skill check is your base skill check bonus. You can find much more about skill checks in Chapter 5. Example: Alek, a 6th-level human wizard with an Intelligence of 18, is trying to identify a strange creature by using the Arcana skill. His base skill check bonus is +12, which includes +3 for one-half his level, his +4 Intelligence modifier, and a +5 bonus for being trained in Arcana. To see if he identifies the creature, he rolls 1d20 and adds 12. If he rolls a 7, his check result is 19. Since the DC to identify the creature is 15, he realizes it’s a quickling.
SKILL CHECK To make a skill check, roll 1d20 and add the following:
✦ One-half your level
✦ The relevant ability score modifier
✦ All other modifiers. The total is your skill check result.
ABILITY CHECKS
Sometimes you’re not making an attack or a skill check, but trying to accomplish a task that doesn’t fall into either category. You make an ability check. Ability checks give the DM a way to adjudicate actions when an attack or a skill check isn’t appropriate.
ABILITY CHECK To make an ability check, roll 1d20 and add the following:
✦ One-half your level
✦ The relevant ability score modifier
✦ All other modifiers
The total is your ability check result.
Example: A Strength check to break down a door is 1d20 + one-half your level + your Strength ability modifier. A 4th-level character with a 16 Strength makes a Strength check by rolling 1d20 + 5 (+2 for level, +3 Strength modifier). If he rolls a 16, his result for that Strength check is 21.
Gaining Levels
As you adventure and gain experience, you advance in level. Gaining a level (also called leveling or leveling up) is one of the biggest rewards you’ll receive for your success in the game—your character improves in several ways every time you go up a level. Each time you overcome a noncombat encounter, defeat monsters, or complete a quest, your Dungeon Master awards you experience points (XP). When you earn enough XP, you reach a new level. For more about rewards, see Chapter 8. The Character Advancement table shows the total XP you need to reach each level and the abilities and other benefits you gain with each new level.
STEP BY STEP
Refer to the Character Advancement table and follow these steps when your character gains a level. At most levels, you gain access to a new power or a new feat. Refer to your class description in Chapter 4 for the full listing of the powers available to you, and see Chapter 6 for the complete list of feats. The game assumes that you’ve been learning these powers in your spare time, studying musty tomes or practicing a complicated series of maneuvers. In game terms, though, as soon as you gain a level, you can immediately use your new powers and feats.
1. Ability Scores Check the Ability Scores column to see if you can improve your ability scores. If you can, choose the abilities you want to increase. At 4th, 8th, 14th, 18th, 24th, and 28th levels, you increase two ability scores by 1 (you can’t take both increases in the same score). At 11th and 21st level, you increase each of your ability scores by 1. If you increase an ability score to an even number, your ability modifier goes up, and that change affects powers, skills, and defenses that rely on that ability score. Make a note o
2. Level Modifier If your new level is an even number, everything that’s based on one-half your level becomes better—your attacks, defenses, initiative, skill checks, and ability checks. In combination with any increased ability modifiers, you now have the information you need to increase those numbers. Go through your character sheet and note those increases.
3. Tier If you just reached 11th, 21st, 31st etc level, you have some exciting decisions to make—you can enter a new tier, which is described in Chapter 4.
4. Hit Points Check your class description in Chapter 4 to see how many hit points you gain with your new level. Add those to your total. If you increased your Constitution score, increase your hit points by 1 (as if you had your new Constitution score when you were 1st level). Also, if you increased your Constitution score to an even number, increase your number of healing surges by one.
5. Class Features When you check your class description for hit points, also check your class features to see if any of your powers or other abilities improve with level. For example, the rogue’s Sneak Attack class feature improves at 11th and 21st levels.
6. Powers At most levels, you gain access to a new power. You can take each power only once (you can’t choose the same power multiple times). Refer to your class description in Chapter 4 for a full listing of the powers available to you. At-Will Attack Powers: At 1st level, choose two at-will attack powers from the list in your class description. You don’t automatically learn new at-will powers as you advance, but as you gain levels you can choose to retrain (see “Retraining,” below) and replace an atwill power you know with a new one. Encounter Attack Powers: At 1st level, select one power from the list of 1st-level encounter attack powers in your class description. At 3rd and 7th levels, you learn a new encounter power of your level or lower. At 11th level, you learn a new encounter power when you choose a paragon path. The path you choose determines the power you gain. At 13th, 17th, 23rd, and 27th levels, you can replace any encounter attack power you know from your class with a new one of your new level (or an encounter attack power of a lower level, if you choose). Daily Attack Powers: At 1st level, choose one power from the list of 1st-level daily attack powers in your class description. You learn a new daily attack power of your level or lower at 5th level and again at 9th level. At 20th level, you learn a new daily power, determined by your paragon path. At 15th, 19th, 25th, and 29th levels, you can replace any daily attack power you know from your class with a new daily attack power of your new level (or a daily attack power of a lower level, if you choose). Utility Powers: At 2nd level, choose one utility power from the list of 2nd-level utility powers in your class description. You learn a new power chosen from the list of utility powers of your level (or a utility power of a lower level, if you choose) at 6th level and again at 10th, 16th, and 22nd levels. At 12th level, you learn a new utility power determined by your paragon path. At 26th level, you learn a new utility power from your epic destiny.
RETRAINING
Sometimes you make decisions when you create or advance your character that you later regret. Perhaps a power you chose isn’t working with your character concept, or a feat never comes into play the way you anticipated. Fortunately in such a case, level advancement isn’t only a time to learn new powers—it’s also an opportunity to change some of those decisions. Every time you gain a level, you can retrain your character: change one feat, power, or skill selection you made previously. You can make only one change at each level. When your class table tells you to replace a power you know with a different power of a higher level, that doesn’t count as retraining—you can still retrain an additional feat, power, or skill as normal. Feat: You can replace a feat with another feat. You must meet the prerequisites of the new feat. You can’t replace a feat if it’s a prerequisite for any other attribute you have (another feat or a paragon path, for example), or if the feat is a feature of your class, path, or destiny (as the Ritual Caster feat is a class feature for wizards). You can replace heroic tier feats with higher-tier feats, but only one at a time, once per level you gain. For instance, at 11th level, you gain one feat and you can also retrain one of your heroic tier feats, gaining a paragon tier feat in its place. At 12th level you can do the same, so you can potentially have four paragon tier feats at 12th level. (You might find that many of your heroic tier feats remain worthwhile well into higher levels, however.) Power: You can replace a power with another power of the same type (at-will attack power, encounter attack power, daily attack power, or utility power), of the same level or lower, and from the same class—a 5th-level attack power for another 5th-level attack power, for example, or a 22nd-level utility power for a different 22nd-level utility power. You can’t replace a power that’s a class feature (such as a cleric’s healing word or a warlock’s eldritch blast) or a power gained from a paragon path or epic destiny. Skill: You can replace a trained skill with another trained skill from your class list. You can’t replace a skill if it’s required for a feat, a power, or any other attribute you have, or if it’s predetermined by your class (such as Arcana for wizards or Religion for clerics). If your class requires you to choose one of two skills (such as the ranger, which requires either Dungeoneering or Nature), you can alter your choice by retraining, but you’re limited to replacing one skill with the other.