Step 5: Choose a Class

At this point, you need to decide your character's class. A class gives your character access to a suite of heroic abilities, determines how effectively they fight, and governs how easily they can shake off or avoid certain harmful effects. Each class is fully detailed in Chapter 3, but the summaries image on the right provides an overview of each. You don't need to write down all of your character's class features yet. You simply need to know which class you want to play, which determines the attribute modifiers that will be most important for your character. Character Sheet Write your character’s class in the space at the top of the first page of your character sheet, then write “1” in the Level box to indicate that your character is 1st level. Next to the attribute modifiers, note the class’s key attribute modifier, and add 1 to that attribute modifier from the attribute boost the class provides. Don’t worry about recording the rest of your character’s class features and abilities yet—you’ll handle that in Step 7.