House Rules - Character Creation

Interesting and Flawed Characters

First and foremost; try and make a character that is interesting and not just a bunch of stats optimized to be great in combat. Think about an interesting background, and I'm not talking about the backgrounds that you select from the book, although you can use the traits/flaw/ideal/bonds tables there as inspiration but no more than that; just adding the rolled results together will not result in real character.

You should have a good idea of what your character did in the past and how it got here. How was their childhood, what did their parents do? Give it some family members and friends/enemies for flavor and potential plot hooks. No Chaotic Neutral murder-hobos with no living family or friends.

Flaws

Flaws make for interesting characters; try and distribute your ability scores in more interesting ways, pick a (less useful) skill that reflect your career before you became an adventurer, etc. Also worth thinking about is certain phobias (spiders, tight spaces, etc.), character flaws (overbearing, afraid of commitment, etc.), and other things that make your character more rounded without making them unplayable. A valuable skill is being able to read the temperature of the room; know when the other players are fine with your character doing something that will mess up the party's plans and when they are not.

Self-Starter

Try and make a character with a background, personality, flaws, Obsession, and more that is a 'self-starter' when it comes to roleplaying opportunities and plot hooks. What doesn't work well is a long term 'quest' for your character. This might seem counter-intuitive as that's what's portrayed in most media. But when playing with other players who all also have characters with their own stories and wants it usually makes little sense for the others to join you to avenge your loved one, find the McGuffin, or bring the ring to the other side of the world if that takes months or more. It might also not work with the campaign the DM wants to run. Don't count on getting the others' sword, bow, or axe.

What works much better is for your character to have motivations that can easily be used in many different types of stories, encounters, etc., especially when combined with a robust character background. Then you will have many fun opportunities to encounter people from your past and it will be much easier for the DM to adapt any adventure to include something that will offer your character an opportunity for roleplay, to show off special skills or knowledge, etc.

Compare these two characters; one is all about getting revenge on the secret cabal of assassins that killed his love and has little in the way of background or friends and family, the other is a former scribe who reported their employer for fraud and had to leave town post haste, they have a fondness for jewelry from the Caeus era and mystery novels, their father runs a dance school, their mother is a cleric of Lirr, they have a brother that left on a ship that was never heard of again, they have an ex who they had a falling out with over the death of a pet, and a childhood friend who they slighted by picking someone else over them, and they hold a grudge. Now, which one will be easier to get some fun stuff into an adventure for?

Fail better

Worth keeping in mind; success doesn't always make for the most interesting or memorable adventures. Finding the thingy and returning it to the duke is pretty straightforward. But not finding it, getting chased and ending up somewhere new, or finding it and then selling it and getting the duke angry with you, can be much more interesting and lead to things unexpected by both the players and the DM. Bad decisions can lead to great stories! (But you might want to discuss as a group before making big decisions, see reading the temperature of the room above.)

Inspiration

It is definitely the most fun to come up with your own ideas for a character but should anyone need it: Character Inspiration.

Rulebooks Used

To keep things simple we only use races/classes/spells/etc. from the 2014 PHB and no other books, with a few exceptions below.

Ability Scores

Characters get the standard ability score array; 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8.

We use the racial Ability Score Increase from the 2014 PHB and the Variant Human Traits (page 31); humans get +1 to two ability scores, proficiency in one skill of your choice, one feat of your choice.

Races/Classes

Dragonborn, Drow, Tieflings, and Sorcerers are not available due to story reasons, but if you really, really want to, talk to the DM.

There are a few tweaks to some classes, mostly the deserved nerfs from the 2024 rules, see House Rules - Classes.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds from any of the official books can be used.

Trinkets

A list of 1200 trinkets, most of which are great. Don't forget you have a trinket as it can be useful in all kinds of situations. If you are ever without one you'll get a new one, and if you want more than one then it shouldn't be too hard to buy or find one.

Languages

Next to the ones in the PHB, there's also Dark Speech (used by followers of evil gods, etc.) and Ancient (precursor to Common).

Skills

Players get to choose one extra skill proficiency more than normal and there are a number of new skills, see House Rules - Skills.

Feats

Some feats have been changed and a number of feats from other books are allowed, see House Rules - Feats.

Custom Character Stuff

If you have a very specific character idea I might be willing to make a small change in a race/class ability, etc. if we can work this out together. But it won't be something that will make your character more powerful than before, more likely the opposite. See examples here.

DM Fiat

The DM will always need to give his fiat to any character concept, even if it is strictly within the rules it could still be unsuitable for the campaign.

For a new campaign

A fun way to start a campaign in a city; the players write rumors about their characters (true, mostly true, false) and then distribute rumors to others.