How to create a character

This article will briefly go through how to create a new D&D character in the World of Ares. To get more detailed information on how to create a D&D character check out the "Players Handbook" book made by Wizards of the Coast for 5th edition D&D, D&D Beyond information, or contact your DM for more information.
The world of Ares is inspired by the Forgotten Realms D&D setting, which is the main setting used by Wizards of the Coast. The Ares setting is also developed specifically for use in 5th Edition D&D. Multiple 5th Edition D&D sourcebooks are used under the development of the Ares setting and are ideal to use for DM's running a campaign in this setting.
The D&D sourcebooks for inspiration and use are listed bellow:

• Player's Handbook - PHB
• Dungeon Master's Guide - DMG
• Monster Manual - MM
• Volo's Guide to Monsters - VGtM/VGM
• Xanathar's Guide to Everything - XGtE/XGE
• Mordekainen's Tome of Foes - MToF/MTF
• Guildmaster's Guide to Ravenica - GGtR
• Tasha's Cauldron of Everything - TCoE

Making a character

To develop a D&D character one can follow a series of steps to fill in a character. Firstly think about the kind of adventurer you would like to play, it might be a ruthless barbarian, an inventive tinkerer, a righteous paladin, an aspiring soldier, a mischievous cleric or a charismatic spellcaster. Once you have chosen a character concept you can begin making decisions to start filling out a character.

1. Choose a race

Looking at your concept you must select a fitting humanoid race. Under Player Options in the Races category, you will find all races native to the world of Ares. The Races are ordered in commonality and type; Common means that the race could be found almost anywhere in the world and their existence is widely known, Uncommon means that they are often concentrated and known regionally, Rare indicates that often specific circumstance has lead to their open appearance and rarely acknowledged by the common folk, Monster means that the race is seen as monstrous in the eyes of the public and therefore often feared or frowned upon. Some races have subclasses, that is a specific branch of the race. Each race has its own history and features, and all important information can be found in the races article.
At the end of each race article, the stats used to fill into your character sheet can be found.

2. Pick a background

Time to select your history and what you grew up with. A background gives you character extra proficiencies based on your experience, this could be skill proficiencies, learned languages or tool expertise. The backgrounds can be found under Player Options in the Backgrounds & Professions category. Select a background that is most fitting to your character, gain the skills and equipment befitting that background. If you have a unique background in mind, talk with your DM to see if you can construct the background for your character.
At the end of each Background article, the stats used to fill into your character sheet can be found.

3. Choose a class

Next, it is time to select a class fitting the character. A class gives your character features, abilities and other strength that can be employed in numerous scenarios such as exploring a dungeon, convincing NPC's, fighting monsters, solving mysteries etc. When you select a class you will gain features and proficiencies befitting to its ideal. Each class has their strengths and intended use, and can all be found under Player Options in the Classes category.
Each class article will link to a site containing all stats necessary to fill into your character sheet.

4. Resolve ability scores

Before you can start playing your character you need your ability scores. In 5th edition D&D there is 6 main Ability scores; Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability has a score, which is a number recorded on your character sheet. There are several different methods of generating the numbers and each DM has their preference.
The most common method is to use a standard rolling method. The core of this is that you use the dice to determine what your ability scores are. The most common way is to roll four d6’s and keep the highest three, six times. You then take those numbers and choose what ability scores you put them in.
I Eonigg personally let players roll three different sets of numbers using the 4d6 drop the lowest six times. I then let the players choose which of the three sets they want to use for their ability scores. I do this to account for edge case rolls, like rolling all ability scores below 10 or all of the scores are completely average.

5. Designate equipment

While each class has a list of equipment that they can choose from, you can alternatively instead roll for starting gold and purchase everything you choose to start with (another reason picking a background first is helpful). All information on the equipment and starting gold starts on PHB pg 143 or D&D Beyond Equipment.

6. Describe your character

Know when you know the basics of your character, it's time to flesh him or her out as a person. Your character needs a name. Spend a few minutes thinking about what he or she looks like and how he or she behaves in general terms.
Use D&D Beyond Personality and Background to help inspire and work out the appearance and personality of your character.
When your have designed how your character looks and behaves, it is time to use everything you have so far write a detailed background on how your character became who he is. Talk with your DM to figure out how extensive your background should be.

7. Finalizing

To finnish of your character and your character sheet there is a few more things to fill in, not all being nessesary for every character. Make sure if you are going to play in a campaign that you have a talk with your fellow players about your character before you finnish it. Each character plays a role within a party, a group of adventures working together for a common purpose. Teamwork and cooperation greatly improve your party's chances to survive the many perils in The World of Ares.

• Health and Hit Dice
• Spells
• Initiative
• Passive stats
• Ect..