Alternative Options for Character Creation

After playing D&D for a while, playing the same combinations of races and classes from the Player’s Handbook can become boring, especially if you play in multiple games or have been playing for a long time. There are many more options than those in the Player’s Handbook, however. 

There are a variety of races outside of the basics (human, elf, half elf, gnome, dragonborn, dwarf, halfling, tiefling, and half orc) that can be found in other books, such as Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.  Here you can find a number of playable races that aren’t even mentioned in the Player’s Handbook. Some of these are races you’re unfamiliar with, such as Firbolgs, creatures that lie somewhere between giants and Fey, or subraces of already familiar races, such as Sea Elves.

As for alternative classes, there are options in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything for subclasses, secondary paths within classes that can provide extra abilities, to already existing classes. For example, in the Player’s Handbook, the Druid class has a number of subclasses, which is expanded upon in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, adding two: the Circle of the Shepherd and Circle of Dreams subclasses.

Outside of things officially published for Dungeons and Dragons, there are races and classes made by players themselves. Online, through websites such as dndbeyond.com, some players create their own classes, races, and backgrounds and share them with the rest of the online community. There are hundreds of creations that can be used to make a character that is completely unique.

Mixing it up with uncommon character details can be exciting for new and experienced players alike, giving new players a wider range of options to choose from, and keeping experienced players from getting bored and becoming stagnant in their character creations. Using these resources to make more dynamic characters can make your game more exciting, and take out some of the boring parts of building characters.