Though the Dungeons & Dragons (2024) Player’s Handbook is now available, there are many people who prefer to still play D&D 5th Edition. This is entirely unsurprising, considering the popularity of D&D 5E and the amount of content released for it - both official and homebrew. If this is your first time playing dnd, then you might need some step-by-step help with character creation: from selecting a species to choosing a class. 

What kind of character do you want to make?

Before taking any specific action, you’ll want to consider the kind of character you’d like to create, as this will shape a lot of your forthcoming decisions. 

Think about this specific dnd campaign you’re playing - what is the setting? what’s the concept? what are the other players in your party creating? Otherwise, you could consider the sorts of characters you gravitate to in films, television, books and video games for a source of inspiration. 

What kind of physical archetypes do you prefer? Do you want to embody a strong melee fighter or an intelligent spellcaster? What sort of personality you want your character to have is also important: are they optimistic and benevolent or cynical and selfish? 

Answering these questions will give you a clearer idea of the type of tabletop RPG character you want to make for your dnd campaign, which will help you to fill in your character sheet. 

Choose your species 

This is the first major decision you’ll be making when creating your D&D 5E character - which species do you want them to be? Though there are many options available - both official and homebrew - as a first-time player, you’d be best sticking to picking from the roster found within the Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook (2014), just to keep things more straightforward. 

Your chosen species will affect major aspects of your character such as their size, lifetime, appearance, speed, spoken languages and specific bonuses to their major stats (or ability scores), saving throws, skill proficiencies as well as general abilities. 

The D&D Player’s Handbook (2014) contains a total of 10 different playable species to choose from, as well as several subspecies within these categories: 

Dwarves are hardy and medium sized, with a proficiency in axes and hammers, as well as the ability to see in the dark and a resilience against poison. Dwarven subspecies include the Hill Dwarves - who gain a boost to their wisdom and health - and Mountain Dwarves, who gain increased strength and proficiency bonuses in light and medium armour.

Elves are dexterous and medium sized, they also have the ability to see in the dark and are resilient against being charmed. Additionally, Elves are proficient in perception. Elven subspecies include High Elves - who have increased intellect and are proficient in swords and bows - Wood Elves, who are also proficient in bows and swords but have increased wisdom, and Dark Elves or Drow: who have a boosted charisma, proficiency in swords and crossbows, access to certain spells and a disadvantage on attack when in direct sunlight.

Halflings are dexterous and small-sized, with a resilience against being frightened, an increase to your luck and the ability to move pass characters bigger than them during combat. Halfling subspecies are Lightfoot Halflings - which gain an increase to charisma and can hide better - and Stout Halflings, who have an increased constitution and have a resilience against poison.

Humans are a medium, all-rounder option who gain boosts to all of their ability scores. Humans don’t have specific subspecies, but instead have different nations and clans that you can select from - which mostly affect your character’s story origins and appearance.

Gnomes are small characters with the ability to see in the dark and have a variety of resiliences against magic. Gnome subspecies are Forest Gnomes - who have a boost to dexterity, can cast minor illusions and speak with animals - and Rock Gnomes, which gain a boost to constitution and can create their own clockwork devices.

Half-elves are medium-sized characters with an increase to their charisma, as well as a boost to two ability scores of your choice, alongside the ability to see in the dark, resilient against being charmed and proficiency bonuses in two skills: there are no subspecies.

Dragonborns are medium sized, gain an increase to their strength and charisma, as well as access to a variety of different breath abilities and resistances - depending on whichever ancestry you choose.

Half-orcs are medium-sized characters who get a boost to their strength and constitution, as well as the ability to see in the dark, a skill proficiency to intimidation and two entirely unique abilities: Relentless Endurance (which allows you to survive when knocked down) and Savage Attack (which boosts your critical hits).

Tieflings are medium-sized characters who have an increase to intelligence and charisma, can see in the dark, have a resistance to fire damage, can cast Thaumaturgy (make lots of noise), Hellish Rebuke (a counter-attack) and Darkness (cut the lights). 

Choose your class

This is your second major decision in character creation and will have a significant effect on their design, abilities and general playstyle. Your choice of dungeons and dragons character class can be driven by the kind of archetype you want to create, what roleplaying game experience you want to have, or even just a specific ability you want access to. It could also be affected by the character species you chose, which may pair better with some classes more than others. Every class also features a selection of subclasses for you to pick from, which slightly alter the individual flavour of your class. 

The available classes in the Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook (2014) include:

Barbarian: Bulky melee users that have access to abilities like Rage and Reckless Attack, which improve their ability to take and deal damage. Barbarian subclasses are the Berserker (which concentrates your existing abilities) and the Totem Barbarian (which introduces options to buff and support). 

Bard: Magic-users that use charisma to cast and typically have access to a wide variety of spells, as well as the ability to inspire their team-mates and themselves. Bard subclasses include the College of Lore - which unlocks the Cutting Words ability - and the College of Valor, which is a more combat-focused option. 

Cleric: Spellcasters who are more tanky and support-focused than other magic-focused classes, alongside a greater access to healing abilities. Cleric subclasses involve choosing either the Domain of Knowledge (which unlocks a collection of utilitarian spells) or the Domain of Life - which further improves upon your support options. 

Druid: Magicians with combat capabilities and bulkier builds, their most distinct ability is that of Wildshape - which enables them to transform into a wide variety of beasts, gaining their stats and traits. Druid subclasses include the Circle of the Land - whose advantages will differ depending on whichever land type you choose - and Circle of the Moon, which further concentrates the Druid’s Wildshape ability. 

Fighter: An all-round balanced combat character, whose mastery of weaponry and martial abilities allow them to stand-toe-to-toe with their opponents. The Fighter class features two subclasses: the Champion, a subclass that builds on the existing strengths of the class, and the Battle-Master: which unlocks a buffet of combat ability options to select from.

Monk: A close-combat melee fighter, with the ability to attack multiple times per turn, options to take various status-inflicting powers and cast spells. The Monk subclasses include the Open-Hand - which focuses closely on providing support to their party members - the Shadow, a subclass built to enhance stealth, and the Four Elements: which unlocks an arsenal of new spells. 

Paladin: Melee-fighter with the ability to cast spells, heal their allies and take plentiful damage, alongside the class’s damage-dealing smite abilities. Paladin subclasses depend on the oath they’ve taken, with Devotion empowering their support abilities, the oath of Ancients giving access to more spells, and the oath of Vengeance opening up access to utility spells. 

Ranger: A ranged attacker and spellcaster, with advanced survivability skills and hunting instincts. The Ranger has two distinct subclasses: the Hunter - which further enhances their hunting abilities, and the Beast Master, which unlocks an animal companion. 

Rogue: This stealth-focused class works best when out of sight and able to get the jump on their opponent, before safely leaping out of danger. Players can choose between the subclasses of the Thief - which strengthens the Rogue’s stealth abilities - the Assassin, a subclass entirely focused around efficient killing, and the Arcane: which unlocks a new collection of spell choices. 

Sorcerer: A spellcasting class with access to a huge collection of spells, and the ability to cast even when they’ve run out of spell slots. The Sorcerer includes two different subclasses - either you choose the Draconic origin, unlocking a different elemental focus depending on the dragon type, or Wild Magic, which empowers your magic at the cost of increased chaos.

Warlock: A spellcaster with the ability to refill their spell slots quickly via short rests, cast ritual spells without spell slots and invoke a powerful damaging Eldritch Invocation. Warlock subclasses depend on the type of Pact your character takes, either a pact with an Archfey, thereby unlocking a wider variety of spells, a Fiend - whose powers are focused around fire - and a Great Old One, which involves more control and domination spells. 

Wizard: This class is entirely built around spellcasting, with a huge potential for customisation and the ability to learn any spell they put in their spellbook. When creating a Wizard, you can choose between specialising in a variety of schools of magic, giving them access to more spells in their chosen school.

Create Ability Scores

Your Ability Scores are the core statistics that your characters will be using to perform actions, cast spells, unleash attacks and avoid damage. The species and class you’ve chosen will have already had some impact on your ability modifiers. Certain classes will favour some ability scores over others - for example, Sorcerers use charisma to cast spells whilst Clerics use the Wisdom stat - which will likely affect your own decisions around creating your array. 

Each ability score relates to a different field of action, some of which you’ll be doing more than others, depending on your class and playstyle. The higher the number - the higher the modifier you’ll be able to add to the associated action, which is more likely to result in a success. 

There are multiple ways to create your ability scores, depending on how much time and effort you want to put into it. One way to is assign a series of set numbers to your ability scores - 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 - putting the higher numbers onto the ability scores you’ll favour. A similar method, with some more randomness, is to roll four d6 and add up the three highest numbers to make an ability score - do this 6 times and assign the numbers to your ability score array. 

A third way of doing this is to use 27 points to purchase the numbers for your ability scores, from a table found in the D&D Player’s Handbook (2014) - with the higher numbers being more expensive - providing a more strategic and involved way of deciding your ability scores.

Hit Points

Your character’s hit points make up their health pool, and will be reduced as they take damage and recovered whenever they take rests, cast healing spells or drink health potions.

To create your character’s hit point total, you’ll take the highest the number found on your character class hit dice - which you can find in the classes section of the Player’s Handbook 2014 - and then add your constitution modifier. At first level, you’ll have one of your character class hit die to roll whenever you’re healing during a short rest, but as you level up you’ll be able roll more hit dice.

When levelling up, you can also increase your hit point total by rolling your character class die and adding your constitution modifier to the result, then adding that to your existing hit point total.

Character Description 

This section is all about those non-gameplay elements in your character creation: what does your character look like? what are their personality traits? where are they from? what is their character background? You’ve probably already thought about these elements when creating your step-by-step character, as they’ve likely affected your choice of species and class. But here is where you can really consider them and define them, giving you a strong foundation for your roleplaying. 

Choose equipment 

The equipment you start with is affected by whichever class and character background you’ve chosen for your character. You will be able to choose from some aspects of your starting equipment - such as the choice between weapons or tools - but others will be decided for you based on your class, such as which weapons you can use and armour you can wear.

Armor class

Your armor class is the number that enemies will need to match or exceed in order to deal damage to you. This number is 10 + your dexterity modifier, unless you’re wearing a set of armour that boosts this number, alongside any shields you carry.