The Best DnD Character Ideas For Beginners

Learn about the best beginner-friendly DND character ideas!

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Best D&D Character Ideas for Beginners
Best D&D Character Ideas for Beginners

Are you excited to play your first D&D game? The first thing you have to do is envision a character idea and pick a race and class. You can try dozens of character combinations, but you can save time by focusing only on the best beginner ideas.

This article will introduce some of the best DND character ideas that offer a neat balance of hit point total, survivability, and roleplay. Additionally, we’ll also share some cool products that will help in making successful character builds and a wonderful character concept.

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Top 3 Products to Help You Make Fun DND Character Ideas

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition

Best for making a unique character backstory

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide: Expanded Genres Edition
Image source: Simon and Schuster
Pros
  • Lots of character prompts and activities
  • The book can be used for other tabletop games
  • Budget-friendly
Cons
  • Some tabletop games might feel out of place with the book
  • Lackluster cover

The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide is an essential book that will help you flesh out your character’s backstory. The book contains exciting prompts to help you understand your character better. Some of the prompts are related to your character’s habits, dark secrets, and even funny quirks. While you can always write a character backstory from scratch, the Ultimate RPG Backstory book will help you save time.

The book looks like an average field guide with big letters on the cover. This might put you off, especially if you’re expecting fancy artwork. However, the dull cover is just a minor hitch compared to the book’s in-depth content. Going through the RPG Backstory book is like having a small adventure before you even attend your first tabletop session!

The Ultimate RPG Backstory Guide is a part of the Ultimate RPG Guide Series written by various authors. It is a thick book with approximately 336 pages of meaty content, but it’s not heavy at all. The pages are also durable enough to withstand consistent turning.

The Expanded Genres edition offers enough content to cover multiple genres. So if you want to build a space alien swashbuckler, just browse a few pages of the Ultimate Backstory book, and you’re good to go!

D&D 5E Character Journal With Graph Pages

Best for making characters and writing their stories

DnD 5E Character Journal With Graph Pages
Image source: @DandyBeyond on Twitter
Pros
  • Nice character layouts
  • Plenty of space to write on
  • Beginner-friendly
Cons
  • Fragile pages
  • The cover is prone to dents and bumps

Disorganization is a common problem among D&D players. As characters gain levels, their information will often get too unwieldy. The quick answer to this problem is the D&D 5E Character Journal from Dandy Beyond.

Dandy Beyond’s Character Journal contains 164 pages for delightful note-taking. The pages are divided among character sheets, graphs, blanks, and dozens of college-ruled text sheets. If you’re a dedicated tabletop RPG player or an aspiring writer, the 5E Character Journal will make you happy. Plus, the journal has an impressive purple cover adorned with intricate linings.

You just need to be careful with the journal’s pages because they are somehow fragile. One quick turn, and you might rip off a page accidentally. The cover is also not too durable, so make sure that you put the journal in a stable carrying bag if you’re planning to travel.

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse

Best for making uncommon and strange characters

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
Image source: Dungeons & Dragons
Pros
  • Great compilation of monstrous characters
  • Improved 5E bestiary
  • Well-detailed lore D&D monster lore
Cons
  • Some parts of old content have been reused
  • Almost no new monsters

Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse (MOM) is one of the newest and most popular books of D&D. The book contains more than 200 monsters and 30+ playable monstrous characters. Whether you want to build a unique character or read up on deep monster lore, Monsters of the Multiverse is an ideal addition in your library.

Even though MOM introduced very few new things, it’s still a compact, all-around guide for any beginner. All of the monsters are neatly fleshed out, and the monstrous characters contain all of their necessary templates. Instead of buying multiple books to create a wonderful, strange character, you can just get MOM and explore its content.

The artwork of MOM is also impressive. Most of the monsters had significant art improvements in terms of ferocity, uniqueness, and color complexity. Getting the Monsters of the Multiverse is like buying a new version of your favorite toy or product!

Guide to Different DnD Character Idea and Breakdown

The character ideas featured in this article section aren’t too simple or complicated. Rather, they are somehow balanced and meant to scale up progressively based on character goals and campaign flow.

Dragons Character Concepts – Dragonborn Fighter

The Dragonborn Fighter is an ideal sight to behold. Bearing draconian scales and horns, the Dragonborn Fighter can strike fear against the hearts of his enemies. Additionally, the Dragonborn Fighter breaks the norm of ‘human-only heroes’, which can hold the highest hit point among all players in a session.

Mechanically, a Dragonborn Fighter has an extra cutting edge on the battlefield. Depending on the chosen lineage, the character can make a dragon elemental breath attack. This is a great way to break the resistance of specific monsters. However, the Fighter’s class and subclass features will overshadow the draconian lineage traits on higher levels.

Still, it’s nice to see a Dragonborn swinging a sword against a throng of bloodthirsty enemies!

Variant Human Rogue

Variant Humans are interesting because of the extra stuff that they can learn. Picking a Variant Human will give you extra ability score bonuses, additional skill proficiency, and a feat with an average hit point count. If you combine the race with the Rogue class, your character will become a ‘utility master. which can bear natural armor bonus.

The cream of the crop is the Rogue’s Expertise class feature. This feature will double the bonus of two chosen skill proficiencies. At higher levels, you can even pick more proficiencies to boost.
It’s possible for a Variant Human Rogue to reach +11 (or more) modifiers for most skill checks!

Stealth? You will succeed. Deception? You can fool virtually anyone. Lockpicking? No lock is ever safe from you. Such is the power of the Variant Human Rogue!

Halfling Warlock

Hafling Warlocks are strange – they can cast patron-granted spells. These spellcasting abilities make them live without burdens. They are almost as tricky as rogues because of their Lucky (rerolls unlucky 1s) trait. Plus, the Halfling Warlock character build will encourage continuous roleplay and funny shenanigans.

As expected, Halfling Warlocks aren’t meant for the frontlines. They should be entrenched safely on the back, hurling Eldritch Blasts against unwary foes. Also, a Halfling Warlock has the potential to be a ranged weapon user because of Dexterity bonuses.

And if you’re going to play a Halfling Warlock, you have the chance to be a real mischief-maker or a brooding person guided by a sinister patron. It’s your choice!

Elf Barbarian

You’ve heard about the Elf Ranger or the mysterious Elf Druid living in the woods. Now, it’s time to explore the uncommon Elf Barbarian. At first, you might feel that this character combination is underpowered, has a low hit point count, or lacks specialization. This is a misconception! The Elf Barbarian is like a wise and angry warrior with a high degree of survivability; meaning having a decent to high hit point potential.

Your chosen Barbarian subclass will also determine the effectiveness of your Elven build. The Path of the Berserker will turn your character into a beefy tank while raging. You just need to find a strong weapon to boost your character’s damage-per-turn. On the other hand, the Path of the Beast shows a more natural route to Elf’s personality dynamic. You’ll have excellent natural attacks under the Path of the Beast.

Don’t be a pure Legolas raining arrows against his foes. You always have the option to become an Elven version of Conan the Barbarian!

Here’s an Effective Buying Guide Explained Briefly

Now that you’ve seen the products that can help you make impressive characters, it’s time to learn how to shop for those products easily. Our short buying guide will highlight the most important factors in purchasing D&D products.

It’s All About Content

Content is the most important aspect of any D&D character creation book. The book should contain in-depth advice on making D&D characters. Strategic recommendations should also be included, as well as interesting artwork.

If you’re not buying a D&D book, you can also consider content as the main product included in the whole package. These products can be miniatures, cutout pieces, small tools, and accessories. Watch out for small damages and product inconsistencies. You should also check if a special warranty covers the product package.

Extra Products and Freebies

The best online shops always care about their customers by including freebies and extra products. Even if you don’t need freebies, you might feel happy that the shop went the extra mile to deliver high-quality service. Typically, D&D book packages might have extra journal cards or complimentary books at one price.

A Matter of Price

For almost all buyers, price is the most important aspect. You must always set a working budget to help you shop around for valuable options. D&D products, especially those made by third-party publishers, have a fair pricing range of $30-50. Such a range will give you high-quality products with lots of favorable reviews.

Product packages in the range of $51-200 are usually branded options. These products usually come from Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, Hasbro, WizKids, Avalon Hill, and Games Workshop.

FAQ

What makes an interesting character?

Answer: A remarkable backstory makes a character interesting. You don’t need to write a full-length novel for a backstory. Instead, you can just create one or two paragraphs highlighting the things that happened in your character’s past with its family. The backstory will shape your character’s fantasy, motivation, and reasons for joining the campaign.

How to make characters unique?

Answer: You can make characters unique by writing interesting backstories of short personality blurbs inspired by popular trends like Elden Ring or an Evil Paladin. Each blurb can be a sentence describing your character’s actions or mannerisms. You must also know your character’s greatest source of motivation.

What are some ideas for character quirks?

Answer: There are many character quirks that you can find online. Some character phrases that you can choose are heavy eater, heavy drinker, excellent juggler, overly dramatic, extremely tardy, always sleepy, artifact hoarder, coffee lover, custard hunter, half-mad, and fungi planter. Feel free to make different combinations!

Can I take a quiz to find my best character idea?

Answer: Yes. A quiz is a great way to formulate an interesting character idea. You can even consider a character idea quiz as a writing prompt to get your creativity going.

Conclusion

Making the best character idea is one meaningful part of your D&D journey. Don’t hesitate to unleash your creativity while building your first awesome character.

Also, don’t forget these products that will help you make cool and fun characters:

Do you have an interesting character idea or original character concepts? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

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Ivan is a freelance copywriter with deep interest in gaming, game design, and technology. During his free time, Ivan spends his time playing with his daughter and taking a casual stroll in the park.

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