D&D 5E Your First 5e Character (now with PHB content!)

[Afrodyte]

I made a human fighter based on Porthos from BBC's The Musketeers. As it turns out, with backgrounds, I was able to create this character quite easily, and the human fighter became something I was actually interested in playing.

PORTHOS, new Musketeer
Race: Human (variant)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Fighter
Background: Urchin
Languages: Common, Dwarfish
Ability scores (beginning): Strength 15, Dexterity 13, Constitution 13, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 11, Charisma 12
Ability scores (with racial increases): Strength 16 (+3), Dexterity 14 (+2), Constitution 13 (+1), Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 11 (+0), Charisma 12 (+1)
Proficiency bonus: +2
Skills: Athletics, Intimidation, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Tools: disguise kit, thieves' tools
Feats: Tavern Brawler
Combat Stats:

Armor Class: 14 (studded leather)
Hit Points: 11
Saves: Strength, Constitution
Speed: 30 ft.
Weapons:​

• Rapier +5 (1d8+3 piercing, 1d8+5 dueling style)
• Dagger +5 (1d4+3 piercing, 1d4+5 dueling style)
• Heavy crossbow +4 (1d10+2 piercing, range 100/400)
• Hand crossbow +4 (1d6+2 piercing, range 30/120)
• Unarmed. +5 (1d4+3 bludgeoning)
• Improvised melee +5 (ask DM for damage)
• Improvised ranged +4 (ask DM for damage)

Features:

Dueling Fighting Style. +2 damage when wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons.
Second Wind. Use a bonus action to regain 1d10+1 hit points. Porthos must take a short or long rest before using it again.​

PORTHOS, an experienced Musketeer (4th level)
Race: Human (variant)
Alignment: Neutral Good
Class: Fighter (Battle Master archetype)
Background: Urchin
Languages: Common, Dwarfish
Ability scores: Strength 16 (+3), Dexterity 14 (+2), Constitution 14 (+2), Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 12 (+1), Charisma 12 (+1)
Proficiency bonus: +2
Skills: Athletics, Intimidation, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Tools: disguise kit, thieves' tools, leatherworker's tools
Feats: Tavern Brawler
Combat Stats:

Armor Class: 14 (studded leather)
Hit Points: 33
Saves: Strength, Constitution
Speed: 30 ft.
Weapons:​

• Rapier +5 (1d8+3 piercing, 1d8+5 dueling style)
• Dagger +5 (1d4+3 piercing, 1d4+5 dueling style)
• Heavy crossbow +4 (1d10+2 piercing, range 100/400)
• Hand crossbow +4 (1d6+2 piercing, range 30/120)
• Unarmed. +5 (1d4+3 bludgeoning)
• Improvised melee +5 (ask DM for damage)
• Improvised ranged +4 (ask DM for damage)

Features:

Dueling Fighting Style. +2 damage when wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons.
Second Wind. Use a bonus action to regain 1d10+1 hit points. Porthos must take a short or long rest before using it again.
Action Surge. Porthos can take one additional action on top of his regular action and a possible bonus action. He must finish a short or long rest before he can use this feature again.
Battle Master:​

• Superiority dice. Porthos has 4 superiority dice (d8s). He regains all spent superiority dice after a short or long rest.
• Maneuvers:
  
  Disarming attack. When Porthos hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend 1 superiority die to attempt to disarm the target, forcing it to drop one item of his choice that it's holding. He adds the superiority die to the attack's damage roll, and the target must make a DC 13 Strength saving throw. On a failed save, it drops the object Porthos chose. The object lands at the target's feet.
  Menacing attack. When Porthos hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend 1 superiority die to attempt to frighten the target. He adds the superiority die to the attack's damage roll. The target must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened of Porthos until the end of his next turn.
  Trip attack. When Porthos hits a creature with a weapon attack, he can expend 1 superiority die to attempt to knock the target down. He adds the superiority die to the attack's damage roll. If the target is Large or smaller, it must make a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.​

​

 

[drjones]

My first character (theoretically, I have DMd for years but another guy says he will DM in parallel the first adventure path, but has not yet picked up any of the books.) is based entirely on a name :

Grimblesnatch

From there I get more fuzzy on the details, he could be a half-orc hedge wizard (wild mage, maybe druid) of small stature (half orc and half gnome?)

Or he might be a gnome thief/illusionist with the Spy background. With many names, a penchant for disguise and a dark history. I am not sure how to build that though.

The odds that we will hit any kind of high level with his guy is low but just going 3 levels into thief to get the trickster basics and the rest in illusionist would give the best spell casting the soonest. 50/50 gives more sneak and thief defensive stuff but then I will probably never even see 3rd level spells. I thought about something like thief/bard but then with the spell list it misses some jems and it's hard to be super sneaky when you have to play the drums and sing all the time. Illusionist focus is not that great to my eye, kind of depends on how powerful the DM is willing to let creative illusions be.

 

[Picablo]

Not sure it matters...

It's looking more and more like I'm going to end up DM'ing but so far I've been tinkering with a Half-Elf Sorcerer ut haven't quite figured out a background and while Noble seems like the best fit I'm not sure that it does't seem like the easiest one as well.

Anyone else with a sorcerer a little more fleshed out than mine?

 

[Afrodyte]

It's looking more and more like I'm going to end up DM'ing but so far I've been tinkering with a Half-Elf Sorcerer ut haven't quite figured out a background and while Noble seems like the best fit I'm not sure that it does't seem like the easiest one as well.

Anyone else with a sorcerer a little more fleshed out than mine?

I do have a similar character (sorcerer with noble background)! She's a minor noble who was raised with a mother (wizard) who often used magic on her as discipline, which awakened her latent magical abilities.

NAME, Human sorcerer (Level 1)
Race: Human (variant)
Alignment: Chaotic neutral
Class: Sorcerer
Background: Noble
Languages: Common, Elvish, Dwarvish
Ability scores (after racial and feat adjustments): Strength 10 (+0), Dexterity 14 (+2), Constitution 12 (+1), Intelligence 12 (+1), Wisdom 11 (+0), Charisma 16 (+3)
Proficiency bonus: +2
Skills: Animal Handling, Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Persuasion
Feats: Skilled
Combat stats:

• Armor class: 12 (unarmored)
• Hit points: 7
• Saving throws: Constitution, Charisma
• Speed: 30 ft.

Weapons:

• Spell attack +5 attack (Save DC 13)
• Light crossbow +4 attack (1d8+2 piercing; loading, two-handed, range 80/320)
• Dagger +4 attack (1d4+2 piercing; light, finesse, range 20/60)

Features:

• Wild magic surge. Immediately after casting a spell of 1st level or higher, roll a d20. If the result is a 1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table (PHB 104) to create a random magical effect.
• Tides of chaos. Gain advantage on one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. Must finish a long rest before using this feature again.
• Cantrips: blade ward, fire bolt, mage hand, prestigitation
• 1st-level spells: chromatic orb, shield

 

[Mandragola]

I'm thinking about taking a human oath of vengeance paladin.

Human Paladin Soldier

S 16 (14+1 for human, +1 for heavy armour master)
D8
C14
I10
W10
C16 (15+1 for human)

Take heavy armour master at level 1 to be a tough tanky guy.

Skills will be athletics and intimidate from background, Insight and Persuasion from Paladin and one other free choice. I might go with deception because I have the idea that he's been infiltrating the cult of the dragon posing as an army deserter.

Plan to go with duelist fighting style and oath of vengeance, to be able to put the hurt on things.

Background-wise this guy is an experienced soldier who has been around a bit, seen some bad things and decided he wants to do something about it. We might be playing the hoard of the dragon queen adventure so maybe I'll give him a bit of the altered background from that.

I'm not sure about alignment. The book says vengeance paladins tend towards lawful neutral but I'm actually thinking neutral good might be more appropriate. That would represent someone who was prepared to break the rules where necessary for the greater good - though I'm not sure whether he'd go as far as a LN paladin might. He likes to play the dumb brute and trick information out of people, not necessarily go around torturing and burning the baddies.

He's not really anything special from a build perspective I think. This is a fairly obvious set of stats I think and he should be a decent all-rounder that I can have fun playing.