Character Concept Art: Red

My concept are for my character called Red. Pictured here she duel wields a wand and a gun.

-thek8t

Getting Started #4: Ability Scores.

There are 6 ability scores in Dungeons & Dragons. I will be giving instructions based on 3.5 but it is very similar in other editions.

The 6 Ability Scores are:

Strength (Str) – Melee attacks/athletic skills

Dexterity (Dex) – Armour class/acrobatic skills/reflex saves/ranged attacks

Consitution (Con) – Hit points/fortitude saves/endurance skills

Intelligence (Int) – Skill points/ knowledge skills

Wisdom (Wis) – Spellcasting/will saves/perception

Charisma (Cha) – Spellcasting/social skills

Each class has different abilities score which are most important and this should be reviewed before assigning scores.

How to get these scores:

There are different ways but I tend to just use point buy as it allows you to build particular characters.

Point Buy: for this you have a bank of points and using a point buy calculator
(Click here) you assign the points to each score. Depending on how strong your DM wants you to be they may give you anywhere from 15 to 25 points. All the scores start at 8 and usually can go up to 18 at first level. The more points you allocate, the more they cost.

Here are some examples of tips on how to allocate points.

If you are a wizard you won’t need as much strength and constitution as you shouldn’t be engaging in melee combat and instead should allocate more points into intelligence which powers your spells.

Rogues get a lot out of intelligence because of the amount of skills they can get, but dexterity is more important in order to dodge attacks and hit more often with light and ranged weapons. They don’t need much wisdom since they don’t have any spellcasting abilities.

Fighters need high strength for their physical attacks. A high consitution is also good to increase their hit points since they will be in the front lines. Intelligence, wisdom, and charisma (the mental stats) are not important for the fighter’s attacks.

-thek8t

A D&D Battle – How it looks.

D&D requires imagination.

-thek8t

Where to get Mats & Minis

Mats are really hard to find. However some comic book shops may have them (I have seen them at conspiracy comics as well as comic connection before). They arnt essential but are useful and nice to have!

Online there is a site called http://www.trollandtoad.com which is really good for finding mats or even minitures. This is the only place I have been able to find bulk minis. Setes stores have some but this site is the best and better than amazon for finding these things. Ebay can be good too. Make sure you use the right kind of markers!

Some examples from Troll and Toad;

From: http://www.trollandtoad.com/p214479.html

http://www.trollandtoad.com/p329237.html

http://www.trollandtoad.com/p329248.html

-thek8t

Where to get Books?

D&D books, funnily enough, are not hard to find. However older editions are obscure they can be found online on amazon, ebay and maybe sites like kijiji. However you usually have to shop around a bit to find ones in nice conditions or find the more obsucre books.

However 5th edition, 4th edition, and reprints of the other cores, (as well as other games currently being printed)  simply be found in chapters, comic shops, as well as online (amazon usually has good deals).

Here is the d&d books in a chapters. They are found near the humor section for some reason.

-thek8t

Getting Started #3: The Classes and Their Stats

Each player in d&d choose a class to play. This includes things like druids, clerics, fighters, wizards and so on. You should look at this before you start doing your ability stats because each character has particulair stats that it needs. For example a sorcerer needs charisma while a wizard needs intellegence to do their spells. Looking at what your class needs will help you in deciding where to allocate your stats.

-thek8t

-thek8t

Getting Started #2: The Books

One of the first things you have to choose when you play is which edition. Doesnt really matter whoch but 5th edition is whats on the shelves right now and easiest to find.

There are 3 main books you will need to have access to. The players handbook has all the information on classes, spells and chracter creation, items all the sort of things.

This is the only book te players will need  to read and reference. The other books, the monster manuel, and thr dungeons madters guide are only needed by the dungeon madter (sometimes in certain editions these books are consolidated into one). In these books there are infomrstion about non player charcters (npc) creation, magic items and loot, traps, monsters, experience points and everythinf the DM needs to know about the rules to be able to play.

There are often many other supplementary books with more monsters, classes, spells or items but these and not essential to play the game. I would say only use the additional books you own or have readily acessbile as these new rules are not usually on the online referencing documents. You do not need ever book to play but make sure your books are of the same edition! (Rules change from edition to edition and are often not compatible).

-thek8t