When that pool hits zero, your character falls unconscious, which is bad. See, when you take damage, you take it out of your current pool of hit points. In Dungeons & Dragons, the great mysterious and magnitude of life and death is distilled into a system of unconsciousness and saving throws. Hit points represent how much of a beating your character can take before they kick the bucket, hypothetically speaking. Image: Wizards of the Coast Working out your D&D character’s hit points Calculating ability scores in D&D 5E is a key part of creating your character. There is a nice boring table on page 13 of the Player’s Handbook, which you can refer to when you’re filling in the ability modifier section of your character sheet (no, we’re not going to include it here). Your ability scores will determine your modifiers, or, how much you’ll be able to add to your rolls when performing ability checks. Otherwise, you could assign the scores 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 to the abilities of your choice (for example STR: 12, INT: 8, CHA: 15, WIS: 13, DEX: 13, CON: 10), which ensures that you start with a well-rounded character that leans just enough into the abilities you want them to specialise in. If you like to live life on the edge, then for each stat score you can roll four six-sided dice and add up the three highest scores do this six times and you have your ability scores. These stats consist of strength, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma and dexterity, and can be generated into two very distinct ways. You’ll be generating these three core aspects of your character in much the same way as everyone else.Ībility scores are your D&D character’s primary statistics and pretty much determine how good they are at doing anything.
Watch on YouTube How to calculate ability scores, hit points and armour class rating (AC) There’s some complicated stuff in this guide, which we’ve endeavoured to break down and translate in a way that doesn’t turn your brain into a bowl of soggy Eton Mess.
So, we figured it would be easier if we covered these elements in their own guide, separate to our other D&D articles, to give you the basics you’ll need before you start tackling anything else. Also added link to MPMB's Patreon, seeing as the original DMGuild posting had a pay-what-you-want option but ENWorld doesn't.You’ll need to get your head around certain aspects of Dungeons & Dragons 5E character creation, regardless of what race and class you decide to play as. Don't mind the security warning, they just didn't set up the certificate properly: you're safe as long as you don't enter any sensitive info like passwords/credit card info on that page.Įdit 3: updated link again, they restored the ENWorld download. MPMB's Patreon is here, if you want make a donation for using the sheet, as they're constantly updating it.Įdit: updated link, the old mirror went downĮdit 2: updated other link, that ENWorld page is apparently broken currently so here's a fallback link to ENWorld's archived version.
If you don't have a decent computer/laptop, it might run a bit slow though, due to the scripts making the automation work. Only problem is the base sheet only has SRD content due to a WotC limitation (since it's a buyable product), so you'll have to import scripts from here if you want the rest of the content (including expansions!), or other homebrew people have come up with. (Disclaimer: It's less of a step-by-step guide for new players and more of an automated sheet for experienced players to super quickly write out a new character, though).
Also has full descriptions of all class features and spells.
It's not online, but it's a PDF that calculates almost everything automatically and has a ton of automation for levelling up and adding features. Highly recommend MPMB's Character Sheet (yes, it is literally named that) if you want autocompleting character sheets.