Unearthed Arcana: Quick Characters Sometimes you need quick characters for a D&D 3 Charlatan 4–5 Criminal session. Whether you’re running an impromptu 6 Entertainer game with limited time for character creation, you 7–8 Folk hero want to get a new player into an established game 9–10 Guild artisan quickly, or you need a new PC to replace a dead 11 Hermit adventurer, these optional rules are for you. These 12 Noble rules can be used instead of the normal process of 13–14 Outlander character creation, replacing the choice and 15 Sage creativity of that process with a series of tables 16–17 Sailor that quickly generate a 1st-level character. 18–19 Soldier With the exception of backgrounds, these rules 20 Urchin focus on the character options available in the D&D Basic Rules as a means of keeping things simple. Alternatively, for players who are comfortable defining a character’s personality traits, ideals, Alignment and flaws through roleplaying, the quick character generation process can be made even Roll a d6 to determine your character’s alignment. quicker by foregoing a background, instead rolling for the skill and tool proficiencies normally d6 Alignment provided by a background. Roll four times on the 1 Lawful good following table, rerolling any duplicate results. 2 Neutral good 3 Chaotic good d20 Proficiency 4 Lawful neutral 1 Acrobatics 5 Neutral 2 Animal Handling 6 Chaotic neutral 3 Arcana 4 Athletics Background 5 Deception 6 History Backgrounds already make use of random tables 7 Insight to flesh out your character, and are easy to apply. 8 Intimidation 9 Investigation You can roll a d6 to determine your character’s 10 Medicine background if you’re using the Basic Rules, or roll a 11 Nature d20 to use the full list of backgrounds from the 12 Perception Player’s Handbook. 13 Performance 14 Persuasion d6 Background Rules) 15 Religion 1 Acolyte 16 Sleight of Hand 2 Criminal 17 Stealth 3 Folk hero 18 Survival 4 Noble 19 Carpenter’s tools 5 Sage 20 Thieves’ tools 6 Soldier In place of a background feature, once during any game session, you can pick a nonplayer character d20 Background (Player’s Handbook) you meet and declare that your character knows 1–2 Acolyte that NPC. The relationship is respectful but not
Unearthed Arcana: Quick Characters Sometimes you need quick characters for a D&D session. Whether you’re running an impromptu game with limited time for character creation, you want to get a new player into an established game quickly, or you need a new PC to replace a dead adventurer, these optional rules are for you. These rules can be used instead of the normal process of character creation, replacing the choice and creativity of that process with a series of tables that quickly generate a 1st-level character. With the exception of backgrounds, these rules focus on the character options available in the D&D Basic Rules as a means of keeping things simple. Alignment Roll a d6 to determine your character’s alignment. d6 Alignment 1 Lawful good 2 Neutral good 3 Chaotic good 4 Lawful neutral 5 Neutral 6 Chaotic neutral Background Backgrounds already make use of random tables to flesh out your character, and are easy to apply. You can roll a d6 to determine your character’s background if you’re using the Basic Rules, or roll a d20 to use the full list of backgrounds from the Player’s Handbook. d6 Background Rules) 1 Acolyte 2 Criminal 3 Folk hero 4 Noble 5 Sage 6 Soldier d20 Background (Player’s Handbook) 1–2 Acolyte 3 Charlatan 4–5 Criminal 6 Entertainer 7–8 Folk hero 9–10 Guild artisan 11 Hermit 12 Noble 13–14 Outlander 15 Sage 16–17 Sailor 18–19 Soldier 20 Urchin Alternatively, for players who are comfortable defining a character’s personality traits, ideals, and flaws through roleplaying, the quick character generation process can be made even quicker by foregoing a background, instead rolling for the skill and tool proficiencies normally provided by a background. Roll four times on the following table, rerolling any duplicate results. d20 Proficiency 1 Acrobatics 2 Animal Handling 3 Arcana 4 Athletics 5 Deception 6 History 7 Insight 8 Intimidation 9 Investigation 10 Medicine 11 Nature 12 Perception 13 Performance 14 Persuasion 15 Religion 16 Sleight of Hand 17 Stealth 18 Survival 19 Carpenter’s tools 20 Thieves’ tools In place of a background feature, once during any game session, you can pick a nonplayer character you meet and declare that your character knows that NPC. The relationship is respectful but not