Anyone who plays D&D has to have a character with a Race and Class. In a group, its good to have everyone playing different PCs.(player characters)





Races



There are six main races to choose from: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Halflings and Humans, but there are also many other races to choose from, you can also use one that you made up if its reasonable.



Dwarves: Live up to 350 years; Find it easy to learn languages; Are intelligent; Are experts in hand to hand battle; Resistant to magic and poisons; Have infra vision (can see in the pitch black); Never use magic.



Elves: Live up to 1200 years or until they think its time; 90% resistance to all charm spells; Have good dexterity; Have infra vision(can see in pitch black); Can see hidden entrances easily (This occurs a lot in quests); Can use magic and weaponry; are light-footed; sensitive hearing.



Gnomes: Live up to 350 years; Can use magic and weaponry; Resistant to magic; Have infra vision; Excellent tunnelers.



Half-Elves: Live up to 160 years; Mixture of Human and Elven blood; Have the greatest range of choices for character class; Have some Elf and Human abilities (you choose which ones).



Halflings/Hobbits: Live up to 150 years; Talented with thrown weapons; Resistant to magic and poisons; Gain bonuses when surprising opponents; hard leathered feet; sensitive hearing.



Humans: can Live up to 90 years; Are great leaders; Can be any class; Can rise to any level; great muscle mass.





Classes





Warrior-



Fighter: Can have any alignment; Fantastic strength; Can have soldiers and household guards; Good attack bonuses.



Paladin: Can detect evil; Gets saving throw bonuses; Immune to all diseases; Can heal wounds; can cure diseases; Surrounded by an aura of protection; Can cast "Undead" and "Friend" spells; Can cast priest spells; Never has wealth; Can't have more than 10 magical items; Must give money away; Can only employ lawful good henchmen.



Ranger: Wise; Can talk to animals and make friends with them; Can spy well; Can use any weapon; Can learn priest spells; attracts followers; Has a code of behavior; can survive in the wild; always traveling.





Wizard: are very powerful at a high level (ex:6); they hardly ever get hurt; can't use armor or any weapon (except for blunt weapons); have low hit points; they may become the most powerful player.



Mage: Can use a limited number of every wizard spell



Specialist Wizard: Can use a large number of specific wizard spells; some of all other kinds, and none of the opposite kind of school that they are studying in. For example, a specialist in the school of Conjuration/Summoning Can get lots of those spells, some of all the others and none of Greater Divination (Predicting the future by talking with the dead). This is all outlined in the the Player's Handbook.



Illusionist: Like an extreme specialist wizard that can have all other normal spells, except for Abjuration, Necromancy, or Invocation/Evocation. They receive an extra illusion spell per spell level. Not player level!





Priest-



Cleric: Wise; Can use only a few weapons, but any kind of armor; Uses a fair amount of magical items; Has major access to all spheres of influence, except for elemental, animal, plant, and weather spheres; Can cast "Undead" spells; Has power over the undead; Has help from their god.



Priests of a Specific Mythology: Basically the same as a cleric, except they get to carry weapons according to their mythologies beliefs.



Druid: Can only use light armor, (ex: leather, glass ect...); Major access to animal, plant, healing and weather spheres; Light combat weapons allowed; Immune to charm spells; Learns animal languages; Can identify plants, animals and pure water with perfect precision at third level; Can change shape into an animal; Cannot cast turn "Undead" spell; At very high levels, a druid can survive in different elemental planes, hibernate, and start to live much longer than their race normally could.





Rogue-



Thief: Can hide in shadows; gets an amazing advantage when back-stabing; Can pick pocket, climb high walls, ect... (everything a normal thief can do); Wears no armor; Caries light weaponry; At high levels, they can use a small amount of priest spells.



Bard: Uses a fair amount of wizard spells; Can wear any armor & use any weapon; Is basically a "Jack-Of-All-Trades", (masterful in anything); Has almost all thief abilities; When singing, they can boost the group's morale, thus making them fight better; Able to counter effects of songs and poetry used as magical weapons; drinks do not effect the bard very easily.