Creating a character is a major part of DnD however if you are new player then making a character can also be incredibly intimidating. Picking a class, race, and rolling for abilities is hard enough but you also have to come up with their name, what they look like, their backstory, their alignment (aka their morals) and know how they would react in different situations. That's a lot!
Character sheets can also be very confusing, though the first page would be the main one you use as it covers the different statistics for the character, like where their skills are and how good they are with their skills. The second page is fore their descriptions: physical appearance, backstory, allies, and treasure. The third page covers any magic spells the character knows – characters gain more spells at more difficult levels the higher their character levels up.
If you have no idea about what kind of character to create, there are many, many websites with pre-generated character sheets, from the official DnD website to any number of other fan sites and YouTube videos. You can find pre-generated sheets for any combination of races, classes, and levels to help you get started.
If that is still too overwhelming, then you can always borrow a character from a book, movie, or show you already know and adjust them to DnD specifics. Skills and characteristics can be adjusted to suit gameplay but more importantly, you will know their story and can likely imagine how they would react in a certain situation. Again, just searching on the internet for “(Character name) DnD” will lead you to character sheets and notes other people have already created for that character. But let’s do an example just to give you an idea of how you would go about the task.
Trisana Chandler is a character from the book series Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce. Tris had a rough childhood of being passed from house to house of her extended family because things often went wrong when she was angry or upset. She was found by a mage named Niko who takes her to a temple where she found out she has very powerful weather magic, which is why things would break when she was upset. She learned control of her magic and found a family with three other students and their caretakers. Over the course of the books, Tris went from a surly child who was angry at the world to a confident young woman dedicated to helping people.
Tris would be the type of character that is very easy to convert to a DnD character, specifically a Cleric who can control storms. Like Tris, this is a very powerful type of class who can do a lot of damage when attacking magically which is what she would use mostly and would help you understand how spell attacks work. Tris is a smart character who loves to read so she would have higher Wisdom and Intelligence, while her being a bookworm who uses magic would mean that her Strength and Dexterity would be lower (meaning she would not be as good at athletic actions like running or jumping).
Again, the big thing would be knowing how Tris would react in certain situations. Because you know Tri’s story, you would know that her alignment would be Neutral Good (“I mostly follow the rules sometimes I bend or break them for a good reason”). So if you were faced with a situation like breaking the law of a city to save someone’s life that is something Tris would do. If faced with pirates attacking, Tris (who survived a pirate attack on her home when she was young) would likely react with force to protect innocents from the pirates. As long as you know the character, you will find it easier to react to gameplay and it will help you learn the rhythms and rules of the game.
Just for reference, here is what Tris's character sheet would look like as created on DnD Beyond, a great resource for character creation:
These numbers were determined by the digital dice being rolled and then me deciding how skilled Tris would be at certain things. For example her athletic skills (strength, dexterity and constitution) are all very low verses her very high intelligence. Setting her intelligence high and pairing her special skills as History and Investigation, and her background as a cleric gave her a high level of skill in Religion. All these were determined through my knowledge of Tris as a character and then DnD Beyond guiding me step by step in creating her character sheet.
Don’t be afraid to play around with your character before your campaign starts, especially if you talk it over with your DM. Even if your DM is new to being a DM, they will still know how the game works and help you with creating a character. If you are not comfortable with your character, then you are going to find it difficult to learn the rules and flow of the game which will make for a poor experience playing it, which nobody wants.
