D&D 5E Can you create YOUR character with basic D&D?

[Stormonu]

I DM primarily, but both my latest group and my "classic" play group would be missing characters. But there's enough options to happily start a new group.

My last group:

Human Fighter
Elvin Ranger
Gnome Cleric <-- missing
Human Summoner <-- missing, not likely to ever see (PF class)
Halfling Rogue

Classic Group:

Elvin Fighter/Magic-User
Halfling Fighter/Thief
Human Magic-User
Human Cleric
Human Samurai <-- good luck
Human Monk <-- missing
Human Ranger <-- missing
Human Paladin <-- missing

 

[SavageCole]

There's not one character that I'm looking to create, and I created a fun rogue yesterday to play through the starter set.

We're planning a run through Tyranny of Dragons that will coincide with PHB release. Those additional options will be most welcome.

I'm not knocking the Basic rules. They are terrific, but the full PHB is what I'm really looking for.

 

[jadrax]

Human Samurai <-- good luck

O.k. I will bite. What mechanically do you feel you would need to create this character that is not present in a Fighter build with an appropriately created custom background?

 

[Halivar]

O.k. I will bite. What mechanically do you feel you would need to create this character that is not present in a Fighter build with an appropriately created custom background?

I can see such a class having some gritty psionic or ki self-buffs or save enhancements, maybe Cha-based like a paladin. I agree with you that it isn't necessary, per se, but very easily home-brewed, maybe at the cost of an ability score increase or fighting style.

 

[evileeyore]

O.k. I will bite. What mechanically do you feel you would need to create this character that is not present in a Fighter build with an appropriately created custom background?

In my opinion? Only some sort of Noble background. Everything else is present in the Fighter class.

For Style; either Archer, Defense, Duelist, Great Weapon Fighting, or Two-Weapon Fighting depending on what they see as their character's primary role previous to taking up adventuring.

Protection is inapplicable for obvious reasons.

 

[Klataubarada]

Dravos [DRAV-us] was born 23 winters ago in late 1465 DR in Zhentil Keep. Born son of a prostitute mother and a Zentilar father, he suffered unspeakable mistreatments during his youth, until he could flee. Dravos started working as a dock hand at the age of 14, and sailed away as soon as he could, navigating on the Moonsea wherever ships offering work would take him. He eventually crossed the wrong kind, a pirate ship called The Tortula, a trading vessel operating for the Zhentarim, also known as the black network. He soon started to delve into piratry and has become a buccaneer ever since. Between assignments on whatever ships he can find, Dravos look for mercenary work on land. Selfish by nature, he only cares about himself and how much he can make, this by any means necessary. Dravos is a tall bald man who covers his head under a leather hat and a bandana. Blind of one eye resulting from an “accident” he won’t just tell about, he had it recently sewed shut. Dravos wears a leather vest and belt covered of fake gold trinket made of tarnished brass and carry typical sailors’ weapons, a curved hilted short sword known as a cutlass and a hilted parrying dagger also called a main-gauche.

Well done!

 

[Plaguescarred]

Thank you [MENTION=6777349]Klataubarada[/MENTION] !

 

[nightspaladin]

Not Yet, but I will.

Every time there is a new edition or game I am studying I build our previous campaign characters in the new edition, as a way to learn the new rules. It is remarkabley helpful in figuring out the difference from X to Y game systems.

Hardest was 3.5 to 4e. Had to really wait for phb2 to get a duskblade substitute in the form of the swordmage. 4e to PF was a snap by the time I did it, as Advanced players guids and the rest of the core splat was already out.

For 5e I am going to convert both set of campaign characters, and compare them to their 4e and PF counterparts.

Already seeing some interesting things. Our 3.5 fighter was a dual light mace wielding, crit machine. Nothing fancy just hitting for lots of medium size hits and crit fishing. In both 4e and PF, the character has way more tactical options, but it looks like 5e will bring the character back to it's original design. Not sure if this is good or bad(and I'm sure there are a thousand posts on those differences already). Definitely interesting though.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

My 4e Faelock would be a bit tricky in this rule set. So, no.

But that's ok. I never expect to port characters between editions.

Yes, this.

I saw the thread title, and thought "Does not compute!"

 

[tuxgeo]

My current character is a 5E Ranger (in Li Shenron's "Wolf's Den" dungeon crawl, in the "Playing the Game" section here on EN World).

I need the PHB to do justice to that character; absent justice, however, I am currently in the process of converting him from the 5E Playtest rules to the recently-released Basic rules -- and raising him to 2nd Level at the same time. He's mostly the same: loses 1 point of INT, from 11 to 10, but that's minor; Skills stay the same; armor and attacks each rise by 1.

I voted "Not yet," but that's only partly true: his "Commoner" background converts very well to the "Folk Hero" background.