Michael's RPG Shelf: Building A Well-Rounded PC (Without Looking At Stats)

Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.

Those six primary attributes are the nuts and bolts of every PC you roll up in Dungeons & Dragons regardless of the edition you're playing. No matter your race, your class(es), your level, or your skills/powers/abilities, those six numbers essentially tell everyone at a glance who you are, right?

Of course not.

There are tens of thousands of different permutations and combinations of numbers for those statistics, but they no more describe who your character is than your driver's license does. Just as a driver's license is shorthand for your basic vital statistics like eye color, height, and birth date, the character sheet is shorthand for your PC's vital statistics like agility, stamina, and how hard you can punch a goblin in the anatomical area of your choice. They describe the upper limits of your character's abilities...and nothing else.

Then there are other traits, like your description, background, bond, ideals, and flaws, that help present a more rounded view of who your character is as a part of the world: is she a member of a royal family who graduated from a prestigious school, or did she grow up in the streets as a student of the school of hard knocks, or was she a societal outcast who made her way in life as a hermit? And what about Alignment and Faith--surely that tells you everything you need to know about how your character behaves, right?

Sure, in a basic, outline-like fashion. And if that's everything there is to know about Dirk Murderhobo, because you're just playing for fun and really want to whack things and take their stuff, you know what? That's totally fine.

You don't need to get any more complex with your character creation than what's on the sheet if you don't want to. You can have plenty of fun playing Dungeons & Dragons or any other RPG by playing straight to archetypes or making your PC an aspect or persona of yourself. There's nothing wrong with that, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

That said, what if you want to go deeper into your character motivations? Here are eight simple questions you can ask yourself about your PC to flesh out her background, dig into her head, and portray her in a realistic and consistent fashion from session to session.

"Why Is My (Race) A (Class)?"

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There are tons of great places to start with developing a sense of who your PC is as a person, but the single most fundamental way to add depth and personality to him is to look at his race/class combination and figure out why he made the choice he made. Often, race and class are looked at from a player's perspective, and the answer is simple: my Halfling is a Rogue because Halflings make kick-ass Rogues.

But that's why you, as a player, went with Halfling Rogue for your PC. Why did he, as a Halfling, decide to become a Rogue? Was he born into a crime syndicate family and brought up in the ways of stealth and trickery, or was he an orphan, abandoned to the streets at a young age, and forced to survive by his wits and cunning alone? Did he become an apprentice to a guild because several of his friends were also trying to join? Does he want to be a Rogue, or is that simply the way the world works and it's what's expected of Halflings and he has to fight the urge daily to quit and take up some other profession?

Answering this question is especially important if you're playing into a standard fantasy trope like the Halfling Rogue, Dwarven Fighter, or Half-Elf Bard, because it makes your character unique among all the other "obvious" choices of race/class combos. Not every race/class combination, even ones with identical ability scores, are the same. Knowing why your PC elected or wound up in the class he did will separate you from the herd.

The good news is that if you've chosen a race/class combo that casts against type (something which Fifth Edition does much to encourage), you've likely already come up with a reason why your Gnome became a Druid, or your Dwarf became a Wizard, and exploring that is why you rolled the character up to begin with. These are the PCs your Dungeon Master loves to see gathered around their table. Half-Elf Bards and Elven Archers are a dime-a-dozen--when I see someone sidle up to the table with a highly-disciplined Half-Orc Monk, a surface-dwelling Dwarven Druid, or an upstanding Tiefling Paladin, that's when I get really excited, because I know that player's got one hell of a story they want to tell.

"What Does My PC Fear?"

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Every one of us has fears: sometimes ordinary, sometimes deep-seated, sometimes completely irrational. Deciding what it is that scares your character lends an extra dimension to their depth, and can also create some amusing and creative obstacles for the other members of the party to overcome.

Readers of a certain age may remember the television show The A-Team, where Mr. T played "B. A. Baracus", a tough-talking, hard-hitting, fool-pitying badass who, nevertheless, is so terrified of flying that he falls into a catatonic state when airborne. Any time the team needs to travel by air, they have to trick, coerce, or otherwise force B. A. into the plane because he won't go willingly. Obviously this doesn't come up in every episode, but when it does it creates a conundrum for the group. How do you get a 255-pound trained killing machine to go somewhere he isn't interested in going?

It also created an opportunity for the character to push past his fear when, for instance, his mother's life was threatened and air travel was the only way to reach her in time. No drugs, no blow to the head, no hypnotism was necessary. B. A. pushed past his fear because his love for family was more powerful.

Think about this with your own character. The fear isn't meant to be paralyzing or to hinder the rest of the party constantly, but it should create circumstances where she maybe isn't willing to be the first one to volunteer for a mission. Maybe she's afraid of deep water because she nearly drowned as a child. Maybe she's afraid of large fires, because the forest where she lived was torched by a rival race. Maybe she's claustrophobic, or agoraphobic, or harbors a distaste for some specific creature...

Source: Giphy.com

A fear like this isn't meant to derail a story, it's meant to provide opportunities for character growth and excitement in the campaign. A cardinal rule of improv is that one actor never says "No" to something suggested by another actor, they're trained instead to say, "Yes, and...!" to continue building on the scene. Don't use your character's phobia as an excuse not to do something, rather use it as a springboard to feel the fear and do it anyway. That, after all, is what heroes are supposed to do.

"What Makes My PC Angry?"

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This question is important, because what makes us angry is usually what pushes us to action instead of sitting back and hoping someone else takes care of the problem. There are varying degrees of anger, so this question isn't about the lesser slights that accost us in our day to day lives. It's annoying when the corner store is sold out of your favorite candy bar, or you're stuck behind a guy who can't get his car out of second gear, but that's not what this question is about. There are also things which would trigger anybody: someone breaking into your home at three o'clock in the morning or stealing your car is going to piss you off even if you're the literal reincarnation of the Buddha. This question isn't about those things either.

The question is really more about what ordinary thing or things ignite your fuse when most people would shrug them off, or what instances or events instantly cause you to blow your stack. Be specific. Concepts like 'injustice' or 'the deaths of innocents' are too broad. Everybody hates the idea of children being tortured for entertainment, animal cruelty, or their loved ones being sold into slavery. "It really sets me off when someone empties a chamber pot on me," breaks no new ground.

In some cases, your race, class, or background can be a source of ideas. A Bard, for instance, usually hates hecklers or being mocked during a performance. A Cleric or Paladin won't take kindly to the ridicule of their faith. Everybody knows Dwarves and Elves don't trust one another. These often fall into trope territory (the gruff Dwarf, the uptight Paladin, the prissy Bard, etc...). Look beyond them.

Maybe your life among the nobility soured your impression of the wealthy, and drives you to invest instead in the common man. Or maybe it makes you despise urchins and beggars, who should be working for a living instead of scamming or stealing from those who do. Maybe you hate skeletons because a group of them slew a childhood friend, and this pushed you to train with blunt weapons so you'd never be at a disadvantage when fighting them. Rats were always getting into your cellar and, as a child, your father always made you go down there to fetch him a tool. Maybe you grew up too poor to heat your home, and adventuring in chillier climates sets your blood boiling (especially when the damn Wizard won't share his Prestidigitation-heated blankets with you).

Not everything that makes you angry has to send you into HULK SMASH!! mode, but for everything that truly upsets your PC, you should have an explanation of why it does and, more importantly, what steps he takes to mitigate those circumstances when they arise. Anger triggers can inform your character's gear as well: someone who hates being cold will likely pack extra clothing, a blanket, and a tinderbox; someone who hates thieves will spend time reinforcing the bottoms of their backpacks and use metal chains instead of cloth or leather wrappings to secure their coin purse. You're not looking for excuses to break the DM's campaign or be an asshole to the other PCs, you're looking for ways to expand your emotional range beyond "normal" and "stabbing it with my trident".

"What Does My PC Desire?"

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You could rephrase this as, "Why is my PC an adventurer?", because they're nearly the same thing. Something motivated her to leave the relatively safe environment of her town, her forest, or her underground cavern and take up the dangerous life of adventuring. "My character's an adventurer because without being an adventurer there isn't any adventure!" isn't the answer we're looking for. I know why you rolled up an adventurer. You know why you rolled up an adventurer. I want to know, in her own words, why she is an adventurer.

Some classes lend themselves obvious answers to these questions: Bards typically adventure because that's how they earn acclaim and learn new stories to tell around the campfire; Clerics and Paladins often adventure in the name of their Temple or their chosen deity; Rogues adventure because it's usually unwise for them to settle in one location for too long. But ignore the obvious--these are tropes for a reason, and there's nothing wrong with using them, but think outside the box.

For some, adventuring might be their only option for clawing their way out of desperate circumstances: a noble cast out of her home and a street urchin trying to survive may turn to adventuring for the same reason even though their backgrounds are complete opposites of one another. Han Solo in A New Hope takes Obi-Wan, Luke, C-3PO and R2-D2 aboard the Millennium Falcon because they've offered him a ridiculous sum of cash to take them to Alderaan, and he sees it as a way to pay off his debt to Jabba the Hutt. Your PC may have similar mercenary attitudes--an adventurer can make in one week what two years' worth of hardscrabble ordinary life can provide. Your Fighter may not be paying off a debt to a crime lord, she might be trying to ease the burden on the family farm after one or two lean years.

But if you ask me, the most important classes to whom this question applies are the squishier spellcasting ones: the Wizard, the Sorcerer, and the Warlock. Adventuring, even at higher levels, is far more dangerous for these classes than it is for the others: they typically lack the ability to use heavy armor, they have lower hit point totals, and unlike a Fighter who can swing the same sword round after round, they only have a limited amount of magical energy they can draw on before they have to rest and replenish it. Why, in a world where she could apprentice herself to a higher-level mage and live a life of relative safety and security within their home or tower, doing research and taking classes, would your first-level Wizard step into a dungeon?

Answering this gives your character her motivation for doing what she's doing instead of literally anything else. If your Cleric is out adventuring because part of "paying her dues" in the faith is to smite evil and preach to new lands, that's going to impact how you play her. Maybe her temple sends every 1st-level Monk out into the real world as a sort of trial-by-fire test to see if they have what it takes to survive. Maybe she's apprenticed herself to a Wizard who uses her to find the spell components or research materials that aren't available from the local herbalist or library. Maybe she was dishonorably discharged from the military and no other organization will hire her, but the only life she knows is that of front-line combat. Something motivated your character to pick the hard road--figure that out, and she'll be that much richer for it.

"Who or What Does My PC Love?"

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Back to Han Solo for a moment, there's a great moment in A New Hope where Leia realizes he could care less about the Empire, the Rebellion, or even their lives. "I'm not in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you, Princess," he tells her in the Falcon's cockpit. "I expect to be well-paid--I'm in it for the money."

"You needn't worry about your reward," she replies with the sort of diplomatic, icy tact mastered by the nobility. "If money is all you love, then that's what you'll receive."

So...who or what does your PC love, because the answer to this will say a lot about why he is who he is and does what he does. This can relate to a specific person, even if that person doesn't love him back, and just about everybody's going to love his family or his brothers-in-arms or fellow members of the order, but don't limit 'love' to just the idea of relationships. Think also about goals: Solo loves money because right now that and his quick reflexes are the only thing keeping him alive. Your 'love' can be for homeland, or it can be a specific action you hope to accomplish like revenge for some real or perceived slight. "Killing the orcs that drove me out of my homeland" is a perfectly serviceable motivation for a Dwarf, for instance, but your PC might be interested in establishing a beachhead against an invading force, opening up a new frontier for their church, or protecting a specific area of wilderness.

Your PC may be striving to keep a promise to a relative, friend, or other loved one. He may quest for the status that comes with successful adventuring, which will allow him to move in different social circles. He might be attempting to clear his name, rebuild familial reputation, or escape persecution. Maybe he's disillusioned with life or lost his honor and now seeks a noble death. Maybe he's trying to atone for a mistake from his past which can never be corrected. Or maybe he just likes the finer things in life too much, and adventures to have the money to partake of them as often as possible. Who or what your PC loves gives you a compass, it determines the direction from which they approach every obstacle in their path...whether that obstacle is 'how to win the prince's hand in marriage' or 'how to stop the undead from overrunning the countryside'.

"What Gives My PC Hope?"

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A PC who has no hope is either cornered by superior forces, or has given up on life. Hopes are similar to goals and loves, but they can be different as well. If a goal is exactly what you want to happen, a hope is a belief that a specific action or actions taken will result in hastening the approach of that goal. In the film 300, Leonidas and the Spartans had a goal of stopping the Persian incursion, but their stand at Thermopylae wasn't meant to accomplish this goal. Instead, it was their hope that a massive display of force by a small number of troops utilizing terrain advantage would provoke the rest of the Greek city-states (especially Athens, who had repelled a Persian invasion ten years previously) into assembling a united military capable of countering Xerxes's forces.

Hopes are usually short-term, while goals are long-term. So what your PC hopes for is usually circumstances that will translate favorably into another stepping stone to the achievement of their goals. If a Wizard sets out with the goal of becoming an Archmage and opening a College of Wizardry, then it would be surprising if her hopes didn't include the discovery and rescue of arcane books, the acquisition of magical items, and the accumulation of enough wealth, prestige, and favors to start building.

Some hopes are obvious: every PC hopes she won't get killed or robbed of all her equipment. All Rogues hope they can pull off the heist as planned. Bards hope everybody down at the tavern loves their songs and stories. Don't think about those. Think, instead, about how the Rogue hopes nobody on her team is actually a double-agent, or the Sorcerer hopes they don't come up against a White Dragon because most of her magic is cold-based and would be useless. A Monk may hope the next combat can be ended without loss of life, or a Fighter hope the walls are strong enough to repel a third wave of Trolls. The Wizard may hope she finds a scroll with Find Familiar so she can add it to her arcane library. A Ranger may hope that's the last she sees of that family of Hill Giants. Identifying these hopes can guide your character to specific and realistic in-game actions, and give you a reason for doing something even if it's not immediately obvious to the rest of the party. Change them often, and don't neglect them.

"What Does My PC Live For?"

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Obviously everybody has a built-in desire for self-preservation. It's rather important for perpetuation of the species that one survives long enough to reproduce. But this question isn't about why your PC wants to keep breathing. Rather, this is an important question because it determines why he bothers getting out of bed in the morning. We've all had days where the alarm clock went off, and we just laid there staring at the ceiling, wondering what the point of it all was, and if it would change anything at all if we didn't go in to work, or go to class, or do any of the myriad chores required around the house. Regardless of those questions, we generally manage to look at what's required or expected of us and do it anyway. Should your PC be any different?

What your character lives for isn't the same thing as his hopes or goals. Most of us don't live for the accumulation of wealth or material possessions, we live for the times in our life that we feel best give our lives meaning. Most of us work to live, rather than living to work. In other words, we live for whatever happens after we've done the responsible thing for the day and gone to the office, attended class, or taken care of the children. As Tyler Durden reminded us in Fight Club, we are not our jobs.

Your PC lives for something. Maybe multiple somethings. They may be obvious: a Druid who lives for Gardening, a Barbarian who lives for the thrill of battle, or a Necromancer who lives to plunder new graveyards. They may be not-so-obvious: an Elf who lives to learn new languages, a Warlock who lives to fulfill the terms and conditions of his dark pact, a Gnome who lives to see the world. What your PC lives for can be a literal life-or-death choice, but normally this question is more along the lines of specific enjoyments or hobbies. Think "collecting trophies" as opposed to "stomping out evil wherever it may lurk".

Your Sorcerer may live to bring smiles to the faces of children, unable to resist putting on a small magic show with Mage Hand, Control Flames, and Prestidigitation whenever he's in town. Your Rogue may live to inflict misery on specific merchants by plundering their inventory and defeating the new traps and pitfalls laid out to prevent that from happening. Your Bard may be obsessed with collecting musical instruments from all over the world, intrigued by various craftsmanship techniques used by masters of different regions. Your Fighter may live for the adrenaline rush that comes from placing himself in harm's way to protect an ally, or from taking down a superior foe. What your character lives for is an important facet of his being. If it plays to type, that's fine. If it plays against type, then so much the better.

"What Would My PC Die For?"

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Perhaps more important than knowing what your character lives for is knowing what is so sacred in her heart that she is willing to die for it. There are many things in life that make us angry, that motivate us to action, that can drive us to stand up for ourselves at the risk of potential injury (either or body or to pride). But while most of us might be willing to argue with someone who overcharged us for a service, most of us are not willing to stake our lives on the matter. If the mechanic who failed to fix our car pulled a gun on us and ordered us to leave the shop, we're likely to run away and call the cops. On the other hand, most of us have an intrinsic belief about what situations are worth standing to the bitter end in defense of, and that's what this question is all about. Because while it doesn't have the same impact in the real world, character death in D&D is still a big deal, and even the most cowardly person on the face of the planet has some line in the sand across which they will not allow the rest of the world to encroach.

Your PC has one of those lines herself, where crossing it is guaranteed to override her desire for self-preservation. Where is that line, and what is she willing to do when someone or something in the world sees fit to step across it. In storytelling terms, this is the situation (or situations) where the mercenary declines payment and does the job anyway because "This time, it's personal".

This isn't to be confused with the idea of fighting because it's the last option or the only option. If the evil demilich is going to take over the Material Plane and ascend to godhood, and the only thing standing in the way of it is your party, that's an entirely different story. Being backed into a corner where surrender isn't an option should provoke all but the most witless of creatures into fighting back with whatever resources are at their disposal. We're talking here about those times where escape, surrender, or retreat is not only possible, but probably a more intelligent or tactically advantageous choice, yet your PC is going to stand her ground anyway, or go charging into the fray regardless of how many of her allies have fallen.

It's entirely possible you won't have any idea what this is upon creation, and that's OK. None of us is born knowing what we're willing to endure before we stand up and punch back. But at some point, your PC's personality should be firm enough in your mind that you can start making those calculations. Your Monk may be willing to die for her temple. Your Druid may be willing to die to protect a sacred grove. Your Dwarf may be willing to die in battle if the alternative is losing her clan's homeland. Your Cleric may be willing to give her life in a battle against the avatar of a rival deity.

Draw those lines, and don't be afraid to stick by them. Death may not always be noble or meaningful, but in real life as in fiction, it's always better to go out on your own terms. In Alien 3, the residents of the maximum security prison on Fury-161 are rousted to action against the creature walking among them by a rousing speech by their fellow inmate Dillon, played by Charles Dance:

What has to happen for your character to face death on her feet instead of begging on her knees? When you answer that, you'll have a deeper understanding of your PC than you ever thought possible, and you're one step closer to giving her the three-dimensional depth to which all truly outstanding players aspire.