D&D 5E Any interest in a step-by-step guide to character creation?

[painted_klown]

Hello all,

I have finally figured out how to properly create 5E characters with confidence in what I am doing. However, as a new player, I found character creation to be one of the most difficult things to learn. IMO the PHB wasn't as clear as it should have been, and I ended up watching a slew of youtube videos, asking questions, reading this forum (and others), doing endless google searches, etc, all to finally piece it together in a way that was logical, and easy to understand.

Now that I "have it down" I am thinking of typing up an easy to follow, step by step guide on how to roll up a 5E character. However, this would be very time consuming, and I only want to do it if there is enough interest to go through all of the work, and other players would get use out of it.

I will have the poll open for 7 days to determine if there is enough interest. Thanks for reading, and please let me know.

 

[ExploderWizard]

What's wrong with the PHB? How is it unclear?

 

[painted_klown]

What's wrong with the PHB? How is it unclear?

IMO it has you doing things out of order. For me, it didn't make sense like that. Additionally, I felt it sort of "glossed over" some stuff, especially when it came to backgrounds and how to figure out your attack bonus, and other detailed information. It was a lot of "how do I come up with that?" type of stuff for me.

All my opinion, and perhaps I am just a little dense, and nobody else had issues trying to figure all of it out. That's why I decided to have a poll. Perhaps I was the only one with such issues?

Having said that, now that I do understand it, I relaize it's in the book, just not in a way that feels logically laid out or especially clear IMO.

 

[Astrosicebear]

I think the PHB is pretty clear... but maybe thats for those of us familiar with previous editions.

I support a Youtube video with a detailed walk through, animated, with highlights and such. It could really help bring awareness and new players a sense of confidence.

Youtube has tons of "Lets play" videos, why not some for 5E? Good luck!

 

[Queer Venger]

Even clearer than the PHB is the Starter Box set, which does a very good job of explainig character creation and is geared to teaching new players to D&D. So no, its not needed and definitely not priority as far as tools we could use for 5e at the moment.

 

[designbot]

Even clearer than the PHB is the Starter Box set, which does a very good job of explainig character creation and is geared to teaching new players to D&D.

Maybe you're thinking of the Basic Rules? (They're almost identical to the Players' Handbook on this topic, though.)

The Starter Set uses pre-generated characters, and doesn't cover character creation at all.

 

[Jaelommiss]

For myself, no. I understand character creation and can make a PC in just a couple of minutes.

For my players, yes. Some players are just unable to get their head around character creation. I'm not sure if it's the layout in the PHB, the order of the steps, or something else, but some of my players take over an hour to create their characters. Having an alternate tool to guide them might help.

 

[Gecko85]

I understand where you're coming from, but there are already quite a few 5e character creation videos on YouTube for those who need more help.

Another good way to learn is to try your hand at creation first, then re-create the same character using one of the several auto-calculating PDF character sheets, to see if what you did matches what the sheet created. (I'm partial to the MadBeard Fillable sheet...)

 

[Queer Venger]

I used the Starter Box set to create characters, so yes, my group found it was a tool for this and as useful as the Basic Rules pdf.

 

[painted_klown]

I used the Starter Box set to create characters, so yes, my group found it was a tool for this and as useful as the Basic Rules pdf.

I too used the starter set to help learn how to create characters.

I looked at the premade characters and worked to determine how they came up with the numbers they did. By referencing them, and the other sources I tired, I finally got it all down.

IMO, the premade characters were invaluable to see how the pieces all fit together when complete. I almost "reverse engineered" the sheets a bit, to figure some stuff out.