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Submit Your Questions for the August Q&A Livestream! (Patreon)

Published:
2020-08-13 16:24:02
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Our August 2020 Livestream will be a Character Creation Clinic! Join us stream on Thursday, August 20th from 6 PM to 8 PM ET.  

Please submit any questions you may have about creating characters for D&D 5e by replaying to this thread. Possible sub-topics might include: 

Character concepts and roleplaying ideas 

Choosing a class and subclass to fit your character concept 

Building a character backstory and personality traits 

Working with your DM to create interesting goals and bonds for your character 

Choosing the right ability scores, ancestries, spells, feats, and other build options for your character 

Please leave your questions in the comments below by Wednesday August 19th at 11:59 PM. We ask that you submit no more than one question for consideration. 

We hope we can answer most submissions, but we may need to narrow our selections occasionally depending on the quantity. We’ll curate the questions to avoid duplicates, and we encourage you to LIKE questions submitted by other patrons which are of interest to you so we can prioritize if necessary. We’ll read out your questions out during the stream, and hopefully take a few extra questions from the live chat as well. 

If you miss the live stream, don’t worry — the full recording will be available on YouTube a few days later. 

Also, be sure to join us on Monday August 17th on Discord for our Writer's Room, where we'll be working on our upcoming YouTube episodes!

Cheers 

Kelly & Monty 

Comments

Colton Parker

As a DM, how do I gently encourage my players to be more... detailed and elaborate in their background stories? Many times, I have issues getting more than a few sentences. What kinds of questions can I ask them to get information to really integrate their character into the world, aside from what's your character's motivation? - Colton aka Marowak

Gregory Russell

I flirted with the idea of a feat only level up system, as in no ASIs. There are plenty of half-feats for stat increases especially with the new UA feats. I also, have a real hard time with the variant human(as I find humans to be just so boring, easy to RP sure, but this is a fantasy world c'mon) since so many of my PCs are forced to choose it because of the feat, so I went off book and said no variant humans, BUT everyone starts with a feat as long as the qualify for it. Do you think the no ASI rule could be too punishing? - aka Infinitetachyon

doug jensen

I'm curious what your thoughts are on the monk. I've seen several extremes on this class. Some say they are great at 1 of 3 things. While the other side says they are a horrible class. So what do you guys think of it and why, and if it you think it's subpar what do you think could be done to make it better

Shadows of Archonia

Do you have an order in which you like to choose character elements, and does it differ from the advice in the PHB? For example, I like to pick race, background, and then class, because that is generally the order in which the character would have acquired those things, and because I find it leads to fewer conflicts in terms of overlapping skills that you have to go back and change.

Dice&Doggos

How would you fit a new character into a game that has already been going on for a while?

Eric

When building a backstory for my Character I typically fall into a few very cliche stories (Orphan, growing up in a hard neighborhood getting into trouble... etc) . Where are some sources that you utilize to come up with unique backstories like Wilhelm's book of rules?

J.B. Wolfe

When it comes to character concepts, do you start in any particular area such as race or class or does it vary between concepts?

SaxyPirate

What is the bare minimum of a stat you'd be willing to use for the main class feature? I.e. A Cleric with 10 Wisdom.

SoraNC

Alignment Question: As a DM how much weight should you place on your players' alignment? Or as a player do you think it should be adhered to or can it be fluid to react to character actions/growth?

Peter Jorgensen

A Wizard gets two spells of own choise every level. How many do you consider fair he get beyond that. Finds during adventure, swap with other wizards, gets as payment and so on. When do you as a DM say, ok, thats enough.

SaxyPirate

What do you think of the template from Xanthars Guide to Everything for building character backgrounds?

ThexJackal

During your session 0, how much emphasis do you guys put on talking amongst the group about your potential PC's for party balance reasons or is that even a concern with your tables?

Patrick McKay

What do you do to kick off a campaign in terms of intra-party character relationships for the first session? Do characters have to have at least one tie to another character to better glue the party together? Are there other keys to get the party aligned and moving together from the very first session?

Daniel Gray Webb

What was the entire process for all of you coming up with your characters for all the one shots. What advice do you have for DMs who want to run a campaign similar to your one offs where everyone is required to be of very similar classes? How do you encourage and get players to still be very unique characters?

Gregg McLeroy

How do I get people at my table who are not comfortable with role playing a character out of their shell? My family has high school and college theater experience and that helps us RP but it may overwhelm our other players.

Bill Goldschmidt

When coming to a Session 0 for a new campaign world, what is a reasonable amount of backstory and character development to have worked out beforehand? How would that vary for a new campaign in a familiar campaign setting, or a one-shot in a familiar setting?

Michael Epp

How can I go about creating fair (not under or overpowered) ability features for a unique sorcerous origin? I have a character whose sorcerous origin is revolutionary spirit, and I'm unsure what kind of abilities to give him that are roughly equivalent to those for draconic bloodline or wild magic.

Seng Hoong Tan

Besides the putting a bag of holding onto a portable hole etc. sort of situation, any suggestions to ‘accidentally’ transport a party to the astral realm? Looking for ways (funny and otherwise) to get them there for a session or two (a change of scenery) after 22+ sessions in forests, caves and a city. They sidestepped (without knowing!) 2 attempts of the accidental kind. I already have a story related way on getting them back but need a way to get them there. Thanks.

Gregg McLeroy

There have been a couple of close calls, but none of your characters have died. How do you handle that in your groups? What are the next steps for the player and how does the DM facilitate the new character's arrival?

Kevin Allen

If you are DMing with a new player, what would be one piece of advice you give them when thinking of a character concept? (imagine you had limited time or did not want to overload them with info)

Douglas Robertson

When and how do you decide to multi-class a character? Is multi-classing worth it in shorter or low-level campaigns?

Robert Gregory

When getting a character's backstory written, how much interaction and Q&A should the PC and DM have with each other? So that A) Everything fits, albeit loosely in the beginning and B) Leave room for the DM to build on it and use it in the campaign for character development. Looking back at DoD S1 with Kelly's and Jill's PCs in reference.

GentlemanJym

When creating a character, when does “playing against stereotype” go too far? And do you think that being too creative with coming up with a character against stereotype can be debilitating? I.E. a half-Orc wizard or a gnome barbarian.

Benjamin Burke

How good or bad is it to consider magic items when building your character? e.g., if my Assassin doesn't have a Weapon of Warning, he's gonna be really bad; or, my Druid might not be great now, but once he gets that Staff of the Woodlands, ooh boy. I see that this could set up a good story goal for your character, but on the other hand you both twist the arm of the DM and risk playing a sub-optimal character while you're waiting for that item. Thoughts?

Jason Shivers

Playing with strangers for the first time... how important is it to make sure the party is going to work together class-wise. From a PC point of view. I mean, it's kinda the DM's job to make things coherent story-wise.

saltor

What's your advice for choosing flaws (and personality traits) for a character that are interesting and non-trivial, but that don't end up being a burden on your party? I'd like my character to make bad choices and sometimes have strong convictions, but I don't want that to result in always making story beats about me at the expense of the other players.

Dungeon Dudes

Great question, do you mind if we save this one for when we do our homebrewing workshop?

Dungeon Dudes

This is a really cool question, but do you mind if we save this for our next DMing Q&A?

Dungeon Dudes

Definitely check out our video on character death! We basically cover all the questions there :)

Seng Hoong Tan

My apologies. For some reason, I read July's question and replied in August. Sure and thanks.

Michael Epp

That's cool, thanks guys!

Charlie Carpenter

I really liked the episode you did on "cliché story arcs." Do you have any opinions on cliché character tropes for NPCs? I often find myself relying on them as a shorthand for my players to understand who an NPC is. Thanks!

Dustin Pengelly

After a long span without playing a character what tips do you have for getting back into character?

cmac

For one of my games the DM and half of the players are first time D&D players. How can I help the DM out in game? For example I try to quietly play peacemaker between the "takes it way to seriously" and the "everything a joke" players or pull us back in if we start to get off track talking movies or video games. What else can I do until she finds her own way of handling things?

Seth V

Question for Monty, what is the process you go through in incorporating your player's backstories into the games you stream? During character creation, how do you strike a good balance of what the player wants and what would fit the world?

firemagus

Hi, my question is in your opinion what battle strategies can PCs employ to maximise advantage other than as a result of spell casting? As an example, although I didn't find any elevation advantage rules, I think that some DMs give advantage to characters on a roof using ranged attacks or spells on characters down at ground level (and I think the Baldur's Gate 3 game will be taking it into account). Any thoughts on this aspect of the game would be appreciated.

Daniel M

When you go to create a character. You go in knowing what you want to do or do you just have a loose concept and let the dice rolls determine the final character?

Atheit

How, as DM's, would you balance combat, that is described in DnD books in extreme detail, and social interactions and exploration, that are mentioned as two other "pillars" of DnD, but are not really well covered by rules.

Preston Cuer

Do you ever introduce game mechanics for character traits? For example, I have a character that has a backstory involving trauma in battle so anytime he fights 6 or more opponents he has disadvantage on attacks due to flashbacks.

Samuel Cavender

As a frequent DM and a lore buff, when I get to the player's side, I often find it difficult to divide what I know versus what my character would logically know. It's hard not to metagame sometimes, and I was wondering if you had any helpful suggestions in preventing me from doing so?

Cormac

Backgrounds are one of the only ways of getting tool proficiencies, but I am yet to see an example of a tool proficiency in D&D that actually felt like it mattered. Do you have any advice on how I can help my players feel like they made a meaningful choice with their tool proficiency?

PROJECT REDMOON

I heard of a new setting made for 5th edition D&D and I'd like to know more about it.

Dungeon Dudes

Hey Oleg, we're going to handle some questions on Player and Character creation for this Q&A -- would you mind if we cover this one next time?

Jason Shivers

1st level or low level vs. 15-20th for new campaign. How do you deal with one shots or epic level campaigns when all the lower levels are just created instead of formed over many play sessions?