Post by Jaegar on Feb 26, 2008 2:52:52 GMT -5
I'm gonna do my best here to write a beginners guide to playing D&D (or any other d20 based game). I would just say "go to the d20 SRD and read the basics section," but it seems that they can't put anything in plain English. I've taught quite a few people to play irl (I'm kinda a rules junkie), and it shouldn't be too hard to type it out. There's a lot of info here, so feel free to read it at whatever pace you feel comfortable. A lot of this won't make sense till you see it in play probably.
To start with, let's learn the most common abbreviations, the ones for dice. Gamers are lazy bums so we don't want to have to say (or type, or write) “a twenty sided die” every time we want to refer to a 20 sided die, so dice are abbreviated. It's really simple, just d20 (or d6, or d8, or dwhatever) If you're talking about multiple dice you just put the number of dice before the d. “two six sided dice” is abbreviated 2d6. Very simple. There is only one exception to this rule. d100 can also be called d% (spoken “percentile die”). I use both names, it doesn't matter.
Next topic! The way you “do stuff”. Most actions require no roll or anything. You just tell the DM “I'm walking over there” or “I say 'blah blah blah'”. Nothing remotely hard about that. If you want to do something that has a chance of success/failure (“I search the box of stuff for anything valuable” “I attack the orc” “I climb the wall” you get the idea) You roll a d20 and add or subtract a number from the roll then compare the total to a target number. The number being added or subtracted is called the modifier and it comes from your stats (of course). Examples
[dice=20]+6 (the character's search skill)=14 If the character gets above a 10 they found something (they did apparently)
[dice=20]+4 (the character's attack bonus)=19 If the character gets over 13 they hit the orc (hooray they did it xp)
[dice=20]+5 (the character's climb skill)=16 If the character gets over 15 they successfully climb the wall. (my example characters are doing well)
That's all there is to it. The modifier can change because the character's stats change. The target number (also called the Difficulty Class or DC) also changes based on the difficulty of the task. For example, if the wall the character in the last example was trying to climb happened to be wet, it would be harder to climb and they'd probably have to get an 18 or so instead of a 15.
Other dice are used, but none as often as a d20. Other dice do all kinds of random functions. For example, a longsword deals 1d8 damage (plus modifiers), a fighter gains 1d10 hp every level (modifiers here too), a fireball spell cast by a level 5 sorcerer deals 5d6 damage. You get the idea.
I guess the next thing would be to explain the basic stats and process of making a character. I'm going to try to ease any new people into this so I may make a character for you to play to start with. Whatever works.
The ability scores reflect your character's most basic stats. They're like str, agi, and whatever in RO. D&D has 6 ability scores, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. The first three represent your physical stats, and the last three are known as the mental stats.
Strength is the most obvious. It affects some skills (like jumping and swimming) and is also added to your attack roll and damage dealt for melee attacks.
Dexterity is the same as dexterity and agility both in RO. It increases your chances of avoiding attacks, helps with lots of skills (like hiding and rope use). Unlike RO, it doesn't affect your melee accuracy but it does improve ranged attack accuracy.
Constitution is the same as vitality in RO. It increases you HP and adds resistance to some attacks like poison and diseases (to name a few).
Intelligence is your logical abilities such as memory, logic, and junk. It's really easy to get this confused with wisdom but you'll figure it out at some point. Intelligence improves your Knowledge skills, hepls with some spellcasting classes, and gives you more skill points per level.
Wisdom represents how you perceive the world around you (it's hard to describe). It's a very subtle difference from Intelligence. Wisdom improves your perception skills (like listen and sense motive) and increases your resistance to things that attack your mind. This is another stat used by some spellcasters
Charisma is your force of personality. It represents how well you influence others. Charisma helps some skills like bluff and acting. Some people say this stat also controls your physical appearance, but I don't agree with that (I've seen ugly but convincing people and pretty but flaky people). Yet again, this stat is used by some spellcasters.
P.S. the ability scores are abbreviated Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, and Cha.
To get an idea of what the stats are like, the average human has all 10s and 11s. The most a human can have without supernatural enhancement is 18, the lowest any human can have in an ability is 3. If a stat is reduced to 0 (there are attacks that damage stats) BAD things happen (paralysis, unconsciousness, or death depending on which ability)
Most things based on your ability scores don't use the score itself, they use the ability score modifier. Positive is good, negative is bad. A quick list of scores and modifiers
1:-5
2-3:-4
4-5:-3
6-7:-2
8-9:-1
10-11:0
12-13:+1
14-15:+2
16-17:+3
18-19:+4
20-21:+5
As you can see, they follow a pattern. Every 2 points the ability score changes, the modifier changes by 1 point.
The SRD has exact info on these, I just went from memory on that.
The other things that your character will have are skills, feats, attack bonus, saving throws, Armor Class (AC) and class abilities. We'll take these one at a time in order.
Skills are the things characters do. They pick locks, jump over pits, swim across the river, forge swords, or track the enemy messenger using skills. There are many different skills that cover most of the things characters do for a full list look here. To improve skills you add skill points to get better at it. Every point spent raises your modifier with that skill by 1. You can't have more skill points in a single skill than your total level +3. You also add your ability modifier to skills, which ability modifier it is depends on the specific skill. The number of skill points you get each level is based on your class and intelligence. For example, Fighters get 2+int modifier skill points every level (that's a bit low). Also, different classes can learn different skills. Skills your class doesn't focus on are called cross class skills. You only get +1 for every 2 skill points you add to cross class skills =/
Feats are special abilities that characters learn that aren't necessarily based on their class. Every character gets one feat at first level and one additional feat every 3 levels after that (3, 6, 9 etc.). Some characters gain bonus feats because of their class or race. There are a ridiculous number of feats, you're limited only by the prerequisites of the feats and the number of feats you're allowed to learn. Speaking of prerequisites, some feats require certain things for you to learn them. For example, to lean Power Attack you have to have at least 13 str, or to learn Improved Two-Weapon Fighting you have to know Two-Weapon Fighting. Picking good feats is important to making your character. Don't worry about it too much though.
Your attack bonus is what you add to the d20 rolls you make when you attack things. It's affected by your strength (melee attacks) or dexterity (ranged attacks) and your base attack bonus (from your class). Lots of other things affect it, but the ability score modifier and base attack are the most important.
Your AC represents how hard to hit you are. It has a base value of 10, then you add your dexterity modifier and any bonuses from your armor. As with attack, other things affect it, but these are most important (especially at low level). This is effectively the difficulty class when someone attacks you. They roll a d20 and add their attack bonus, then if the result is greater than your AC they hit you.
Your saving throws are what you use to resist things. When someone attacks you, obviously it's compared to your AC, but what happens if someone poisons you? That's what saving throws are for. They resist things other than physical attacks. There are three different saves, Fortitude (physical toughness, that's what you use to resist poison), Reflex (dodging stuff), and Will (keeping things from messing with your head). To find out your saving throws you take your base saves (from your class, each save may have a different value) then add the appropriate ability score modifier (con, dex, or wis respectively). As usual other things may also affect your saves.
Your class abilities are special things you get based on the class you play. Wizards cast spells. Rogues get sneak attack (extra damage for backstabbing), fighters get bonus feats related to combat. You get the idea. Now may be a good time to go look at the classes. I could summarize them here, but I'm too lazy for that and I think the SRD does it well enough. All the class abilities will be listed in the class description. Ignore the prestige classes btw. That's complicated and only concerns high leveled characters (5+ at least). This may be a good time to note that while the D&D level progression goes to infinity in theory, anything above 20 is like a high rate RO server.
gyah O.o why can't I type that easily for school? Anyway, feel free to point out anything wrong/unclear. The edit button is my friend and you guys get to proofread (again) for me.[rand=3754641127605005803244370371733888562713877487047265803352536326]
To start with, let's learn the most common abbreviations, the ones for dice. Gamers are lazy bums so we don't want to have to say (or type, or write) “a twenty sided die” every time we want to refer to a 20 sided die, so dice are abbreviated. It's really simple, just d20 (or d6, or d8, or dwhatever) If you're talking about multiple dice you just put the number of dice before the d. “two six sided dice” is abbreviated 2d6. Very simple. There is only one exception to this rule. d100 can also be called d% (spoken “percentile die”). I use both names, it doesn't matter.
Next topic! The way you “do stuff”. Most actions require no roll or anything. You just tell the DM “I'm walking over there” or “I say 'blah blah blah'”. Nothing remotely hard about that. If you want to do something that has a chance of success/failure (“I search the box of stuff for anything valuable” “I attack the orc” “I climb the wall” you get the idea) You roll a d20 and add or subtract a number from the roll then compare the total to a target number. The number being added or subtracted is called the modifier and it comes from your stats (of course). Examples
[dice=20]+6 (the character's search skill)=14 If the character gets above a 10 they found something (they did apparently)
[dice=20]+4 (the character's attack bonus)=19 If the character gets over 13 they hit the orc (hooray they did it xp)
[dice=20]+5 (the character's climb skill)=16 If the character gets over 15 they successfully climb the wall. (my example characters are doing well)
That's all there is to it. The modifier can change because the character's stats change. The target number (also called the Difficulty Class or DC) also changes based on the difficulty of the task. For example, if the wall the character in the last example was trying to climb happened to be wet, it would be harder to climb and they'd probably have to get an 18 or so instead of a 15.
Other dice are used, but none as often as a d20. Other dice do all kinds of random functions. For example, a longsword deals 1d8 damage (plus modifiers), a fighter gains 1d10 hp every level (modifiers here too), a fireball spell cast by a level 5 sorcerer deals 5d6 damage. You get the idea.
I guess the next thing would be to explain the basic stats and process of making a character. I'm going to try to ease any new people into this so I may make a character for you to play to start with. Whatever works.
The ability scores reflect your character's most basic stats. They're like str, agi, and whatever in RO. D&D has 6 ability scores, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. The first three represent your physical stats, and the last three are known as the mental stats.
Strength is the most obvious. It affects some skills (like jumping and swimming) and is also added to your attack roll and damage dealt for melee attacks.
Dexterity is the same as dexterity and agility both in RO. It increases your chances of avoiding attacks, helps with lots of skills (like hiding and rope use). Unlike RO, it doesn't affect your melee accuracy but it does improve ranged attack accuracy.
Constitution is the same as vitality in RO. It increases you HP and adds resistance to some attacks like poison and diseases (to name a few).
Intelligence is your logical abilities such as memory, logic, and junk. It's really easy to get this confused with wisdom but you'll figure it out at some point. Intelligence improves your Knowledge skills, hepls with some spellcasting classes, and gives you more skill points per level.
Wisdom represents how you perceive the world around you (it's hard to describe). It's a very subtle difference from Intelligence. Wisdom improves your perception skills (like listen and sense motive) and increases your resistance to things that attack your mind. This is another stat used by some spellcasters
Charisma is your force of personality. It represents how well you influence others. Charisma helps some skills like bluff and acting. Some people say this stat also controls your physical appearance, but I don't agree with that (I've seen ugly but convincing people and pretty but flaky people). Yet again, this stat is used by some spellcasters.
P.S. the ability scores are abbreviated Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, and Cha.
To get an idea of what the stats are like, the average human has all 10s and 11s. The most a human can have without supernatural enhancement is 18, the lowest any human can have in an ability is 3. If a stat is reduced to 0 (there are attacks that damage stats) BAD things happen (paralysis, unconsciousness, or death depending on which ability)
Most things based on your ability scores don't use the score itself, they use the ability score modifier. Positive is good, negative is bad. A quick list of scores and modifiers
1:-5
2-3:-4
4-5:-3
6-7:-2
8-9:-1
10-11:0
12-13:+1
14-15:+2
16-17:+3
18-19:+4
20-21:+5
As you can see, they follow a pattern. Every 2 points the ability score changes, the modifier changes by 1 point.
The SRD has exact info on these, I just went from memory on that.
The other things that your character will have are skills, feats, attack bonus, saving throws, Armor Class (AC) and class abilities. We'll take these one at a time in order.
Skills are the things characters do. They pick locks, jump over pits, swim across the river, forge swords, or track the enemy messenger using skills. There are many different skills that cover most of the things characters do for a full list look here. To improve skills you add skill points to get better at it. Every point spent raises your modifier with that skill by 1. You can't have more skill points in a single skill than your total level +3. You also add your ability modifier to skills, which ability modifier it is depends on the specific skill. The number of skill points you get each level is based on your class and intelligence. For example, Fighters get 2+int modifier skill points every level (that's a bit low). Also, different classes can learn different skills. Skills your class doesn't focus on are called cross class skills. You only get +1 for every 2 skill points you add to cross class skills =/
Feats are special abilities that characters learn that aren't necessarily based on their class. Every character gets one feat at first level and one additional feat every 3 levels after that (3, 6, 9 etc.). Some characters gain bonus feats because of their class or race. There are a ridiculous number of feats, you're limited only by the prerequisites of the feats and the number of feats you're allowed to learn. Speaking of prerequisites, some feats require certain things for you to learn them. For example, to lean Power Attack you have to have at least 13 str, or to learn Improved Two-Weapon Fighting you have to know Two-Weapon Fighting. Picking good feats is important to making your character. Don't worry about it too much though.
Your attack bonus is what you add to the d20 rolls you make when you attack things. It's affected by your strength (melee attacks) or dexterity (ranged attacks) and your base attack bonus (from your class). Lots of other things affect it, but the ability score modifier and base attack are the most important.
Your AC represents how hard to hit you are. It has a base value of 10, then you add your dexterity modifier and any bonuses from your armor. As with attack, other things affect it, but these are most important (especially at low level). This is effectively the difficulty class when someone attacks you. They roll a d20 and add their attack bonus, then if the result is greater than your AC they hit you.
Your saving throws are what you use to resist things. When someone attacks you, obviously it's compared to your AC, but what happens if someone poisons you? That's what saving throws are for. They resist things other than physical attacks. There are three different saves, Fortitude (physical toughness, that's what you use to resist poison), Reflex (dodging stuff), and Will (keeping things from messing with your head). To find out your saving throws you take your base saves (from your class, each save may have a different value) then add the appropriate ability score modifier (con, dex, or wis respectively). As usual other things may also affect your saves.
Your class abilities are special things you get based on the class you play. Wizards cast spells. Rogues get sneak attack (extra damage for backstabbing), fighters get bonus feats related to combat. You get the idea. Now may be a good time to go look at the classes. I could summarize them here, but I'm too lazy for that and I think the SRD does it well enough. All the class abilities will be listed in the class description. Ignore the prestige classes btw. That's complicated and only concerns high leveled characters (5+ at least). This may be a good time to note that while the D&D level progression goes to infinity in theory, anything above 20 is like a high rate RO server.
gyah O.o why can't I type that easily for school? Anyway, feel free to point out anything wrong/unclear. The edit button is my friend and you guys get to proofread (again) for me.[rand=3754641127605005803244370371733888562713877487047265803352536326]
