Dungeons & Dragons is all about your character as well as your friends’, going through fun journeys across an exciting world. That said, character creation is a complicated process because, while it’s up to the DM to decide the challenges you’ll face, it falls to you to make a character that will properly evolve throughout the story.
Thus, it’s common to feel lost as to how to make your character interesting, especially if the campaign is going to be a long one. There are quite a few archetypes people enjoy, but they’re also infamous due to how dull, lame, or annoying they can be at the table. So, let’s take a look at them and see how we can improve them.
The Edgelord
Don’t Make It Gratuitous
Adding tragedy to a backstory is a good way to make it compelling. Still, it’s common to see players who go too far, making their tragedy exaggerated, both in the backstory content and in how the character normally behaves.
The best thing you can do for the character is not to overdo it. One single, big traumatic event can be more than enough to make things go wrong, and when roleplaying, you need to remember that the character is more than the trauma they have. Or, exaggerate a lot, but play it in a near comical way, making your character a satire of the trope. Satirical characters can work in short stories.
The Lone Wolf
Fight Against It
Edgelords may or may not also be lone wolves, a common and cool trope in media. However, most players try to keep their characters as loners as much as possible, even though the game is literally about a group of people.
Play into the fact that your character is lonely. Try to socialize with the party, even if it makes your character look goofy, because they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s endearing to see them try. Almost every lone wolf in media has an arc about letting people in their lives, after all.
The Revenge Seeker
Be Vulnerable
Revenge seeking is an interesting concept. The problem is that it’s so common, it might become too simplistic if you’re just a generic “I’ll avenge my family” kind of character that only talks about that.
To make this work, it’s important to show less anger and more vulnerability. Be angry at the villain, sure, but add heartfelt moments of your character just talking about the loved ones they lost. Add or improvise some interactions you had and the specific things you miss about them. Let the moments of anger show up when they make sense.
The Stoic
Do You Know What Stoicism Is?
People love stoic characters — or they would, if it weren’t for the fact that stoicism is deeply misunderstood and misinterpreted in media and by people. Thus, making a stoic character is a challenge when our references are incorrect.
You can make your character quiet, laconic, etc. but keep in mind that this is not a character without emotions or one that needs to suppress them. Make a character that has emotions and is open about them, but doesn’t lose self-control over them, and make a character that focuses on doing what’s right.
Plus, if you want to make a serious and silent character, let the humorous ones bounce off your seriousness, like a Straight Man from a comedy show.
The Boy Scout
Being A Hero Is Not That Simple
Playing as a straight hero is very fun, even though it can feel generic at times — it’s one of the most common tropes for a protagonist, after all. Still, leaning into a person who just wants to do good for the sake of it is endearing.
Just take a look at a character like Superman, the best reference for this trope. Another fun way to make this trope more interesting is to have challenges that test your morality and force you to make hard choices, but that one is more up to the DM, so you can suggest that to them.
The Violent Character
Violence Isn’t Always The Solution
It’s hard not to get excited about combat here, given how all classes are built for it, and it’s a huge aspect of the game. Thus, it’s also valid to make a character who enjoys the adrenaline of combat and has a great time killing people.
Still, instead of just leaving at that and risking becoming a potential murder hobo, your character’s arc can be all about trying to get a hold of themselves and learn self-control — make their impulsiveness a flaw that you need to work on, rather than just their behavior.
The Amnesiac
What’s A Backstory?
Another fun trope in media is a character who knows nothing and wants to learn their past. However, this is often a lazy excuse to play with a character without writing a backstory and dropping all the responsibility of your character’s narrative on the DM.
But what has your character done since the amnesia? You can add details from the moment they woke up to when the campaign starts. You can also write stuff from before and pretend you don’t know, or, if you really want to go in-blank, you can write a few bullet points of the topics you want the DM to create, like making your previous family relevant, making your character formerly evil, etc. Just give them some guidelines.
Comic Relief
Save Joke Characters For One-Shots
While it might be funny to make a parody character who’s entirely built for a single joke, these aren’t the best characters for long stories. We recommend leaving these ideas for one shots, so you can make the joke and be done with it.
Still, longer stories still need tension relievers, so some comic relief can work great. You just need to be careful with the timing of your jokes, don’t ruin dramatic moments with them (not even yours; be serious when needed, too), and make a more grounded humor with your behavior rather than actively trying to make jokes in-character.
A general piece of advice for all of them is to make them layered and think beyond the tropes. Think of them as people, with preferences, dislikes, hobbies, and such. Otherwise, they’ll feel like characters rather than people.
- Original Release Date
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1974
- Player Count
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2+
- Length per Game
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From 60 minutes to hours on end.
- Age Recommendation
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12+ (though younger can play and enjoy)
- Franchise Name
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Dungeons & Dragons
- Publishing Co
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Wizards of the Coast
