Character Creation in 4ed D&D

The PHB spells out how to create a character in a multi-step process, which was pretty easy for the most part. (My 3.x experience kept getting in the way.) I was finding that I had to search for a few of the calculations for AC, Fort, Ref, and Will, in the then not so obvious places.

So, to help out any newcomer also having trouble finding:
Defense Scores - page PHB 275
Attack Bonuses - page PHB 274

The book explains this next part, but I was confused at first. The strange damage codes 1[W], 2[W], 3[W], etc. mean multiple rolls for weapon damage. The first number is the multiple. So, 3[W] for a 2d4 damage becomes a total of 6d4 damage.

Hit Points are found in the section for your chosen character class, which uses your character's constitution SCORE (not the modifier) to add to hitpoints. This blew away my bf when he created his 1st level warlock having 30HP, and my 1st level paladin had only 27HP.

it took me a while to understand 3.5 character creation, this will help when i do update to 4th ed.

Thanks for the info. This should be helpful for those trying to create their first few characters.

I've not attempted to make a 4e character yet as I still feel I haven't read enough of the game.

Good post! I had the same problem with my past D&D knowledge getting in the way. Adding Con Score to my hitpoints at first level was also a common problem in my gaming group...we were all trying to think of a reason why our characters had so few hp compared to the pregens in Keep on the Shadowfell....then my fiancee who has only played twice figured it out by reading that it was the Con SCORE not the modifier. Again great post!

good post, regardless of whether i'll eventually play 4e or not.

HeroForge has some great 4ed Character sheets with dropdowns for easy character creation.
http://www.nzcomputers.net/heroforge/default4e.asp
These are in MS Excel and in Openoffice.

We did the same thing for one session.

Thoth-Amon

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Originally Posted by Tamerath

Good post! I had the same problem with my past D&D knowledge getting in the way. Adding Con Score to my hitpoints at first level was also a common problem in my gaming group...we were all trying to think of a reason why our characters had so few hp compared to the pregens in Keep on the Shadowfell....then my fiancee who has only played twice figured it out by reading that it was the Con SCORE not the modifier. Again great post!

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We did the same thing for one session.

Thoth-Amon