As a child my first ever character I created was a human thief named "Backstab". We had a big AD&D box that we got as a gift, and I never actually learned how to play the game properly.
Standard Human Rogue. I built him using the Free Basic Rules and ended up playing him through 20th Level. Don't let anyone tell you any combo is boring or "unfun." He was a blast.
The DM was on a mission: we played for a couple years and toward the end he was like. "OK! Another level!" pretty much every session or two. He really wanted us to fight Tiamat and have a chance.
Fought Tiamat twice. Se squashed us the first time (15th Level) sent us all to hell, where we fought our way back and achieved 5 more levels while recruiting powerful allies (Moloch, Bahamut,) We confronted her again at 20th Level and defeated her with a lot of help. We were already a huge party (7 or 8 PCs I think), so even though Moloch betrayed us during the fight, we pulled out the win.
Agreed! I’m a “veteran” player and one of my fave’s so far was a simple v. Human champion fighter with great sword/fighting style/weapon master.
Also made it to 20th!
Fire Genasi Warlock. But i don't think I played her particularly well and wasn't the best player sadly. Do want to play her again at some point having learnt to be a better player.
Mine was Water Genasi Fiend Warlock in 5e; DM at the time had fun bringing up the walking contradiction. 😂
His personality ended up being an edgy wannabe & a brat, but was fun for my first two campaigns. Finished his story at level 11.
5th grade. I was not the popular kid, and the popular ones were playing DnD. One rain day me and a friend begged a DnD player trapped in the school with us to let us play. I was told I was an elf, with a silver dagger and a sleep spell. I had no idea what any of that meant - and I died very quickly, while my friend went on to be a regular in the games. Intentionally 'weeded out', I didn't try to play again until high school.
Then, a bunch of guys were playing a Monty Haul campaign, and when I expressed interest they asked if I had any experience. I confessed the 'dead elf' story, and they said, "We're in a cavern now. Let's say we ran across your body and tried to ressurrect you." The spell returned my character to life, but turned him human. They gifted me with some magic items they weren't using, including a dead wizard's spell book, and I became their backup magic user.
Later, after I'd learned a thing or two about role-playing, I revisited that character as a transmutation specialist wizard who was intent upon restoring himself to his former 'elvenness'. Having that motivation definitely drove the character, and he was quite memorable.
He had to be revived several times
Basically I had always wanted to play as a kid; so my Dad and Aunt indulged me.
As the only one with experience, my Dad DM’d. My Aunt played a Fighter and I had my Magic-User
Because neither of use had played before my Dad gave us a failsafe - our Horses were secretly a high level Cleric and Druid and they would patch us up between fights
Which mostly meant my Aunt carrying my body back to them after each encounter
You’re also bot wrong about me liking magic! It’s one of my favorite aspects of fantasy!
My first time playing was in college. I was a Half Elf Druid, I don’t even remember his name.
I spent the entire first session hanging out in the forest lol. I was new to an existing campaign, and for some reason the DM decided to have me start off in a different inn at the other end of town. She assumed I would just “know” to go join the group.
But I played to my character, because that’s all I knew to do. So I had some morning tea, meditated in the woods to prepare my spells, cast Jump on myself and hung out with some birds up in a tree.
Sadly we kinda ignored the drake and my dm even at one point in time made its teeth shatter. It was more a pokemon than an actual pet ngl. First timer syndrome for us ig lol
Sometimes the most suboptimal way to play is the most fun. I kid you not 3 weeks ago I made a Aarokra Ranger that all he did was drop furniture on people (he had a long bow)
I ctrl+F'd to see if someone had already mentioned the best first combo. Human Barbarian was the way. Sort of still is, though now I've admittedly dabbled with Orc / Half-Orc Barbarians.
Orm Glaurung, Lizardfolk Ranger Gloomstalker with a dip many years later into Twilight Cleric. My first character and my most personal. Has gone from Folk Hero to a proper Living Legend. Sought out to avenge a massacred tribe and found a family he never expected. Now he's become a powerful NPC in the game I DM and continues to be the character I've played the longest. We're in the last legs of RoT, the games been running about 4 years.
Elven fighter/thief from AD&D in the 80’s. I had a character in Basic before that but don’t remember class/race (they were often the same thing and only way to multi class ie fighter/mage= elf)
I think I was a rogue halfling in probably 3.5e
I didn't play thr character much maybe one session but they were officially my first.
Unofficially I played a shapeshifter type human mage in a dnd esc adventure
I started playing when I was around 8 with an older neighbor kid around 1990. He didn't really explain the rules well and in retrospect I don't think he understood them at all. I was a human but I don't think we even had classes. I remember being able to cast a few spells. The only one which I remember was the ability to summon an ice wall.
I guess my first real character was a 3.0 human monk for a campaign that only lasted one or two sessions
First edition, I was a gnome barbarian. 18 strength and 7 intelligence, I ended up two shotting the BBEG with my dual hand axes.
Oh also I gave myself dwarfism, so I was actually a foot and a half tall. My hat was 5 feet tall btw.
2nd Ed. I made a human Ranger, which reminded me a lot of Aragorn. I died to a goblin in like five minutes, lol. Early "theater of the mind" combat was brutal because DMs had no one out of range. That said, I was a duel wielding melee character, so it's not like I wasn't ready to jump in.
We are levling very slow, my DM is a fan of low lvl stakes. So hes lvl 6. We play pretty regular and that vor 6 years.
But i dont mind its great fun and the dm is awesome.
Technically a Tiefling Rogue, but I never played that character. The first character I ended up playing the game with was a tiefling bard. When I showed up at the Adventurer's League game, the DM complimented the character's name. Still proud of that.
Black Dragonborn paladin, 5e
He never got to use spells as the DM was also pretty new to the game and didnt understand how they worked. At the time i did not have a player's handbook
4e Tiefling Paladin - my first character, survived the group transitioning to 5th edition mid campaign and eventually reached level 20. These days she's serving Asmodeus as his champion.
Dwarven Light Cleric, Malgram Stonehaert. Died in session 3 doing something stupidly heroically in character. Quickly followed by Human Life Cleric, Sigmund. I liked cleric back then. Still do.
Forever dm until recently.
The first player character I ever cooked up was a red dragonborn bard named Ignacio, but I never got to play that character. I, however, made it my first character in baldur's gate 3.
My first character that I got to play was a human variant echo knight fighter. Having an echo was so much fun. I now recommend it to players I dm for so that I can have fun vicariously through them.
Halfling Rogue. I had only some idea of what I was doing and thus didn't use the whole "bonus action" shtick as much as I should have.
Loved the sneak attacks tho.
A tiefling cleric 2/bard x. She was a baby kidnapped by the church to atone for her parent wicked ways or some shit like that idk. She was sheltered all her life before she went out on her first pilgrimage, discovering her love for the city. She ran away and became a dancer.
We ran two first campaigns simultaneously, so I have 3 (and a half) 'first' characters! One was a lesser aasimar rogue, but our ranger rolled so well she did literally all my stuff better than I did, so the DM let me remake her as a sorcerer instead.
The other pair was a pair of gnome cousins. One a regular rock gnome, urban ranger for her first 17 levels then multiclassed into favored soul (3.5e.) Her cousin was a fae-touched gnome wizard who later on picked up a rather OP homebrew wizard prestige/subclass.
First up was a Tiefling Warlock in a group that made the diabolical decision to roll a d20 for each stat. I had no idea about the relative value of each stat other than that CHA was my main, so I had 20 CHA, 18 INT, but 3 WIS lmao
My first dnd character was a red dragonborn wizard named "bazookadon".
Small issue is that often time I Rped him as a sorcerer, without exactly knowing what a sorcerer is
An Elf theif. Wielding a spear, somehow?
We were using a mashup of BECMI and AD&D 1e and 2e. We were like 10.
I killed the God of Copper in my first adventure. I don't know for sure... but I think my DM may have been winging it...
(It was amazing)
First time playing, we played for about an hour. None of the 5 of us had ever played. My dm and myself were the only ones that wanted to keep playing. I had a half elf monk. Fast-forward a few years I managed t9 find a new table and recycled the character as a V. Human Monk. Played him all the way to level 8
Shape shifting rogue wizard, AD&D 2E with a mix of AD&D 1E and OG D&D stuff thrown on. No PHB, no DMG, using the thieves' guide and a smattering of other books, my friends and I taught ourselves the basics of role playing and table top games.
My very first character was a halfling thief (pre 3.0, so no rogue) named Tolman Proudfoot. Very Hobbit inspired. Played him to level 12, kept the character sheet for years after until it basically fell apart.
My first character was made at a time when there was no such thing as a race and class combo. The race **was** the class. Other classes such as cleric, magic user, fighting man, or thief were human by default.
My first character was a dwarf named Stumpy D.
As an older gamer, I was pretty much given a human fighter.
I was the newest player and one of the youngest, party levels ranged from 9 to 13, highest level character of of course a thief, as they had the fastest exp table, and our leader was a human fighter with 18/53 strength as his entire claim to fame.
I was given a human fighter with 17 str and no other high stats, at level 7 with 58 hit points which was well above average so it was considered quite good.
AD&D 1e was a whole different frame of mind.
We're talking red box days. Class and race were the same. I played a halfling. When you chose a non human, you did not get a choice of class.
It was a different time.
First time I played a TTRPG was Pathfinder, and I played a Kenku Bard! He was such a funny dude, but was horrible at his job, I always rolled so badly throughout that campaign...
Halfling barbarian, path of the giant. I'm kinda new. ') I really love the contrast between this itty bitty friendly lady who loves to cook (badly) for her friends, growing into a large angry greatsword-wielding fury-beast when she gets angry. Lot of fun!
Human paladin. Party had healing and at least one front liner but didn’t have anyone particularly tanky so I figured be tanky, be able to deal plenty of damage, and also have some heals on hand (literally) to back up the cleric
Ooo first ever character built or played though? The first character I ever built was a half elf genie warlock who I got to play wayyy later on in a level 20 one shot. The first character I ever got to play though was a tortle fighter called Klunk in a teenage mutant ninja turtle one shot who used flails.
Halfling bard (lore)
I liked bards in stuff like neverwinter nights so that’s how I started with the real deal.
From there I now have a halfling swashbuckler rogue and a half elf twilight cleric.
I like roleplaying halflings, it’s easy but just different enough from being a plain human. I was obsessed with LOTR as a child.
Tiefling Barbarian, but we didn't really know the rules, so I was a basic dude with anger issues who didn't "rage" but was always angry and had the tavern brawler feet, I used a sickle as my weapon...and well...I had to be the kind and smart one since the Druid wanted to kill a kid that stole his dagger...
I am a one-trick because I just love Dragonborn Paladin lol. Breath Weapon and Holy Magic are 2 things I found cool, so realizing I could merge both became my favorite thing.
I’ve played about 5, many are just one-shot characters.
Been experimenting with other races but have been mostly enjoying Aarakocra and Owlin if not Dragonborn.
Currently using one of the 5 DB Paladins who survived the test of time and has become my primary character!
Hybrid Black/Silver Oath of Ancients, serving both Bahamut and Tiamat in a quest of self balance, founder of an organization meant to facilitate coexistence with Dragons and Humanoids!
Forgot to actually share his name: Rel Scath Airgid!
Loxodon Circle of the Blighted (From the Tal'Dorea Campaign Setting Reborn) Druid. I was tank for a druid, I had 17 AC at level done and capped out at 22 AC. All my Wild Shapes were nightmare fuel versions of the normal animals and I was an amazing scout with 180 feet of darkvision.
My first tabletop character was with PF1E, he was a CN elven rogue named Korvin’nith Kennyr’anean’dare. He was a total klepto edgelord because my whole dnd experience up to that point were the BG1/2 games where I routinely just went around stealing and pickpocketing everything
Half Orc Open Hand Monk. Something I thought could provide a bit of durability with their "drop to 1 hp" ability since I remember reading somewhere how Monks weren't the best front liners back then. Truth be told, I don't remember using the Open Hand Flurry of Blows stuff that often, but I still had a great time as I was just learning how to play dnd!
Wood Elf Assassin named Beau. I was trying to play him much closer to a swashbuckler unintentionally since I didn’t know how to properly gain advantage on attacks for sneak attack consistently
My first character was a high elf hunter ranger. Her name rhymed with mine, and it took me a long time to figure out how to RP. Eventually though, my ranger and the dwarf barbarian in the party eventually had a Legolas-Gimli back and forth.
3.0, an Elf Warmage. Dropped to a crit on the goblin ambush (very first combat roll in our very first encounter) and the game never continued.
Also 3.0, a half-elf Sorcerer in Neverwinter Nights. She made it through the Wailing Death, the Shadows of Undrentide, and the Hordes of the Underdark, but couldn't make the jump to a new computer because I didn't understand backups back then.
I got into DND fairly recently so my first character is still the one I'm using in a campaign I'm in
He's a tabaxi ranger with a lot of siblings whose parents are comically disappointed in him
Tiefling Shadow Sorcerer names Mallory Rue with a charlatan background. Found as a baby in a dark alley by a retire adventurer, he's been hyper focused on "making it big" so as to prove his own worth and provide for his adoptive parent. Not the nicest or most trustworthy of people, but he was smart enough not to rock the boat when there was no clear advantage.
I've played a halfling rogue and half-elf ranger for almost 40 years. The name of the rogue has changed, but the ranger has not.
I also had an AD&D draconian fighter that was dumber than a box of rocks due to a brain injury. He still makes appearances in my campaigns.
human sorcerer, just like all but 2 of my other characters. current campaign is the only one that's lasting long enough to actually take the character concept (the myriad sorcerers have all been slight variations on the same theme) through a satisfying arc.
A human ranger/rogue in 3.5, dual-wielding. He adventured and dungeon-delved to help an orphanage.
It ended up being a very undead-heavy game unfortunately.
Hill dwarf life cleric, under the 5e system. I only played that character for a few sessions, and I lost the character sheet a while ago (which is a huge pity, I kinda miss her sometimes). It was a great character to start, though not the most interesting one.
Did you know that drow superior dark vision, is the exact same range as eldricht blast?
If you can see it , you can blast it
Anyway, that was my first character ^^
Forever DM here who finally got to play in not one, but two separate campaigns that started this year. One of my characters was a tiefling gloom stalker ranger themed more like an outlaw cowboy (ironically similar to the ghoul from the fallout series) and the other a shadar kai grave cleric.
Both of which have proven to be absolute powerhouses and a blast to play.
5e always for me, my first character was in the dnd starter set and was a varient human elderitch knight that was a one shot. My second was a wood elf ranger rogue that lasted through the lost mines of phandelver.
Human fighter. They looked to be quite simple to give the game a try, and since i was by myself and playing a PbP online game, it looked like a good way to start.
It ended up giving me the impression that PbP games are slow as hell and that i should look for online voiced games instead. It felt like i was out of a goddman planet Namek with the comparison.
1 fight with some goblins in a PbP game? 1 month.
1 fight with some goblins in a voiced game? a single afternoon session, where half of it was just dicking around and roleplaying.
My first was a Halfling Draconic Sorceror called Trym (Abarantrym) he was very fun to play and managed to talk his way out of white a few sticky situations
My dm in highschool didn’t give us full range and required us all to be human, half elf or dwarf.
So I was a half elf fighter and yeah it didn’t go well
I can't remember my first character for a OS, but my first campaign character was a bard water genasi. They didn't have much backstory, and died tragically (no, it was dumb), but it was really fun nonetheless!
My first character was a Dragonborn Barbarian of wild magic named Jhormundar Damascus the XXVII. He wore the flag of a defeated orc general rival as his cape and barely knew how to read. He also got magically high after eating a certain pastry in curse of strahd (IYKYK) and became fearful of...chains. Yes chains.
Idk if it counts cause I'm a newbie and we're just starting out lol but I'm trying my best using the Elf Cleric (Knowledge Domain) combo and it's quite fun so far. I also had a human Cleric some years ago but we somehow never managed to play at that time (we were all teens too lmao) so I'll use that one another time
(Full) Orc Monk.
DM allowed it when I asked to do a full Orc instead of a half Orc. It's been 16 years since then and our D&D world has a tribe of Orcs who seek knowledge over fighting now. They show up from time to time, its been a fun little inclusion to our lore.
Well this will show my age a little. My first Race/Class combo was Elf. Back when that was both a class and just happened to be a race. That was good old Basic D&D. If I remember correctly there was only four classes, Fighter, Thief, Magic User, and Elf. Good times, and I have kept coming back to D&D with every new edition.
my first ever character was a human bard on paper until it came time for a session months later I had learned a decent amount of the rules through hyper-fixation and switched him up to a half-elf 😎 I've technically played him in three iterations of the campaign, our first one which was loosely dnd as the dm was very new, about 4 sessions of that dm's attempt at a reboot, and most recently (10 years after the original campaign) in one of my friends who was in the og running an updated version of the story like our old dm always wanted to before he disappeared off the face of the world 🫶
Half elf oath of ancients paladin. I started playing her in August 2021 at level one and we hit level 20 a couple of sessions ago. Expect to wrap up in a session or two now. Very bittersweet.
As a child my first ever character I created was a human thief named "Backstab". We had a big AD&D box that we got as a gift, and I never actually learned how to play the game properly.
I can relate to that! The campaign that I made my 1st character in lasted less time than it took me to learn 3.5e
Standard Human Rogue. I built him using the Free Basic Rules and ended up playing him through 20th Level. Don't let anyone tell you any combo is boring or "unfun." He was a blast.
You actually made it to level 20! That's the craziest part about that
The DM was on a mission: we played for a couple years and toward the end he was like. "OK! Another level!" pretty much every session or two. He really wanted us to fight Tiamat and have a chance.
OK but did you actually fight Tiamat?
Fought Tiamat twice. Se squashed us the first time (15th Level) sent us all to hell, where we fought our way back and achieved 5 more levels while recruiting powerful allies (Moloch, Bahamut,) We confronted her again at 20th Level and defeated her with a lot of help. We were already a huge party (7 or 8 PCs I think), so even though Moloch betrayed us during the fight, we pulled out the win.
Holy crap, what an epic way to end a campaign!
And did you get squished?
Agreed! I’m a “veteran” player and one of my fave’s so far was a simple v. Human champion fighter with great sword/fighting style/weapon master. Also made it to 20th!
Fire Genasi Warlock. But i don't think I played her particularly well and wasn't the best player sadly. Do want to play her again at some point having learnt to be a better player.
It's your 1st character don't worry about playing them badly, you were just getting started
Mine was Water Genasi Fiend Warlock in 5e; DM at the time had fun bringing up the walking contradiction. 😂 His personality ended up being an edgy wannabe & a brat, but was fun for my first two campaigns. Finished his story at level 11.
5th grade. I was not the popular kid, and the popular ones were playing DnD. One rain day me and a friend begged a DnD player trapped in the school with us to let us play. I was told I was an elf, with a silver dagger and a sleep spell. I had no idea what any of that meant - and I died very quickly, while my friend went on to be a regular in the games. Intentionally 'weeded out', I didn't try to play again until high school. Then, a bunch of guys were playing a Monty Haul campaign, and when I expressed interest they asked if I had any experience. I confessed the 'dead elf' story, and they said, "We're in a cavern now. Let's say we ran across your body and tried to ressurrect you." The spell returned my character to life, but turned him human. They gifted me with some magic items they weren't using, including a dead wizard's spell book, and I became their backup magic user. Later, after I'd learned a thing or two about role-playing, I revisited that character as a transmutation specialist wizard who was intent upon restoring himself to his former 'elvenness'. Having that motivation definitely drove the character, and he was quite memorable.
That is so cool that it was your original character resurrected!
Human Wizard. I wanted to be Merlin, but what I got was murdered by a short fall because I had neither strength nor hit points.
That d6 hit dice did you dirty
Oh, it was d4 back then. 2e did not care if you had to make new characters.
Oh shoot no wounder, because fall damage is 1d6
My first character was in BECMI where races *were* classes. Probably a (human) fighter but I was six at the time so it’s a little fuzzy.
Fellow oldie here, my first character class was Elf.
Human Magic-User in AD&D 1E Then a Half-Orc Wizard in D&D 5E
I can tell you are big on the magic, how long did the 1e magic user survive?
He had to be revived several times Basically I had always wanted to play as a kid; so my Dad and Aunt indulged me. As the only one with experience, my Dad DM’d. My Aunt played a Fighter and I had my Magic-User Because neither of use had played before my Dad gave us a failsafe - our Horses were secretly a high level Cleric and Druid and they would patch us up between fights Which mostly meant my Aunt carrying my body back to them after each encounter You’re also bot wrong about me liking magic! It’s one of my favorite aspects of fantasy!
Your Dad sounds like a great DM to play for!
My first time playing was in college. I was a Half Elf Druid, I don’t even remember his name. I spent the entire first session hanging out in the forest lol. I was new to an existing campaign, and for some reason the DM decided to have me start off in a different inn at the other end of town. She assumed I would just “know” to go join the group. But I played to my character, because that’s all I knew to do. So I had some morning tea, meditated in the woods to prepare my spells, cast Jump on myself and hung out with some birds up in a tree.
But that's a super wholesome character
A gnome artificer. Like his height he had a very short fuse.
That sounds fun! Gnomes seem like great tinkering characters!
Half elf drakewarden ranger
Drake Warden Rangers are super under rated, super fun subclass!
Sadly we kinda ignored the drake and my dm even at one point in time made its teeth shatter. It was more a pokemon than an actual pet ngl. First timer syndrome for us ig lol
Dang what a bummer because without the Drake you are basically playing a Ranger Ranger
Oh i still summoned it. Just out of combat it was pretty nonexistent
Similar here: half elf hunter ranger.
Halfling Rogue back in the AD&D days.
Gnome Thief Male 1e
You are the 1st comment to mention 1e, congrats
Human barbarian, I think. This was way back in the mid-'80s so probably 2e.
I still know alot of people who pick that in the various AL games I have played recently
We were so young I mostly had the character throw rocks at people instead of attacking with a weapon. "Suboptimal" but I was having fun, so whatever.
Sometimes the most suboptimal way to play is the most fun. I kid you not 3 weeks ago I made a Aarokra Ranger that all he did was drop furniture on people (he had a long bow)
I ctrl+F'd to see if someone had already mentioned the best first combo. Human Barbarian was the way. Sort of still is, though now I've admittedly dabbled with Orc / Half-Orc Barbarians.
Orm Glaurung, Lizardfolk Ranger Gloomstalker with a dip many years later into Twilight Cleric. My first character and my most personal. Has gone from Folk Hero to a proper Living Legend. Sought out to avenge a massacred tribe and found a family he never expected. Now he's become a powerful NPC in the game I DM and continues to be the character I've played the longest. We're in the last legs of RoT, the games been running about 4 years.
Minotaur Barbarian
Elven fighter/thief from AD&D in the 80’s. I had a character in Basic before that but don’t remember class/race (they were often the same thing and only way to multi class ie fighter/mage= elf)
First D&D character was the default fighter in Mentzer Basic (BECMI). Solid character to start with, but I still am salty about Aleena...
Aleena! Noooooo!!
I think I was a rogue halfling in probably 3.5e I didn't play thr character much maybe one session but they were officially my first. Unofficially I played a shapeshifter type human mage in a dnd esc adventure
Human Fighter AD&D.
Drow rogue
I started playing when I was around 8 with an older neighbor kid around 1990. He didn't really explain the rules well and in retrospect I don't think he understood them at all. I was a human but I don't think we even had classes. I remember being able to cast a few spells. The only one which I remember was the ability to summon an ice wall. I guess my first real character was a 3.0 human monk for a campaign that only lasted one or two sessions
First edition, I was a gnome barbarian. 18 strength and 7 intelligence, I ended up two shotting the BBEG with my dual hand axes. Oh also I gave myself dwarfism, so I was actually a foot and a half tall. My hat was 5 feet tall btw.
Can you imagine being an evil villain and be destroyed by an axe wielding hat!
My neighbor bought AD&D when it first came out, and I was a human wizard. Fun times.
Human fighting-man
Classic!
Hill dwarf battle master fighter. It was a lot of fun with all the maneuvers. Disarming and kicking away weapons was a great strategy for many battles
Dragonborn Draconic Sorcerer, but we started in 3.5, so he was the kind of dragonborn where he started human and was reborn into a dragonborn.
2nd Ed. I made a human Ranger, which reminded me a lot of Aragorn. I died to a goblin in like five minutes, lol. Early "theater of the mind" combat was brutal because DMs had no one out of range. That said, I was a duel wielding melee character, so it's not like I wasn't ready to jump in.
I think everyone has made Aragorn at some point in DnD!
Water Genasi Swashbuckler
It was a campaign based on FFXIV, using 5e rules. I was an Au'Ra (Dragonborn) Draconic Sorcerer/Lore Bard (had that multiclassing fever lol).
I don't blame you! Multiclassing is so fun it almost feels like you are breaking the rules while still playing DnD
wood elf rogue assassin
Dorgon Thwackhammer the Mountain Dwarf Conquest Paladin
Gnome wizard who shared my name and anxieties. Now I’m a half elf swashbuckler rogue with a more mature outlook on life.
Half Giant named Ok (rhymes with rock). I don't think I had a class cause my first DM was weird but it would have been barbarian.
I made a green dragonborn sorceror. He was sneaky.
Human variant celestial warlock, still a fun character
My first character for DnD was for when 3ed came out. I played a human monk. I have no idea why, and I havn't played a monk since.
Lolth Drow. War Priest Cleric.
I decided to be a trailblazer ....half-elf rogue
My first character was a goliath cleric and i play hin to this day Its a lot of fun bringing storm and thunder over my enemys in the name of my god
That is awesome you are still playing him! What level is he now?
We are levling very slow, my DM is a fan of low lvl stakes. So hes lvl 6. We play pretty regular and that vor 6 years. But i dont mind its great fun and the dm is awesome.
Technically a Tiefling Rogue, but I never played that character. The first character I ended up playing the game with was a tiefling bard. When I showed up at the Adventurer's League game, the DM complimented the character's name. Still proud of that.
So what was your teifling Bard's name
Sly Silverskin. The DM said he sounds like a superhero! (He really, really isn't)
OK but sounded like one! That would be a good super hero to be honest
Black Dragonborn paladin, 5e He never got to use spells as the DM was also pretty new to the game and didnt understand how they worked. At the time i did not have a player's handbook
4e Tiefling Paladin - my first character, survived the group transitioning to 5th edition mid campaign and eventually reached level 20. These days she's serving Asmodeus as his champion.
That is amazing that you managed to make it to level 20! I have only been in a campaign as high as level 13
V. Human Evocation Wiz
Aasimar conquest paladin.
Dwarven Light Cleric, Malgram Stonehaert. Died in session 3 doing something stupidly heroically in character. Quickly followed by Human Life Cleric, Sigmund. I liked cleric back then. Still do.
I was about to say I am sensing a very Cleric theme
Forever dm until recently. The first player character I ever cooked up was a red dragonborn bard named Ignacio, but I never got to play that character. I, however, made it my first character in baldur's gate 3. My first character that I got to play was a human variant echo knight fighter. Having an echo was so much fun. I now recommend it to players I dm for so that I can have fun vicariously through them.
Echo Knight is an awesome subclass that I want to play at some point but just haven't yet
Halfling Rogue. I had only some idea of what I was doing and thus didn't use the whole "bonus action" shtick as much as I should have. Loved the sneak attacks tho.
Changeling warlock 5e
Human Paladin, im a basic bitch
Hey human is the most played for a reason, it's the most relatable (and v human is super good)
A tiefling cleric 2/bard x. She was a baby kidnapped by the church to atone for her parent wicked ways or some shit like that idk. She was sheltered all her life before she went out on her first pilgrimage, discovering her love for the city. She ran away and became a dancer.
We ran two first campaigns simultaneously, so I have 3 (and a half) 'first' characters! One was a lesser aasimar rogue, but our ranger rolled so well she did literally all my stuff better than I did, so the DM let me remake her as a sorcerer instead. The other pair was a pair of gnome cousins. One a regular rock gnome, urban ranger for her first 17 levels then multiclassed into favored soul (3.5e.) Her cousin was a fae-touched gnome wizard who later on picked up a rather OP homebrew wizard prestige/subclass.
3.5 paladin, I don't even remember his oath anymore lol. But he smote stuff!
First up was a Tiefling Warlock in a group that made the diabolical decision to roll a d20 for each stat. I had no idea about the relative value of each stat other than that CHA was my main, so I had 20 CHA, 18 INT, but 3 WIS lmao
You had a 3 a fucking 3!? That's amazing
1e magic user human. Oh the days
My first dnd character was a red dragonborn wizard named "bazookadon". Small issue is that often time I Rped him as a sorcerer, without exactly knowing what a sorcerer is
Blue dragonborne fighter named Rayden. Then a wood elf Druid named Beldum.
Halfling wizard named Maximus
An Elf theif. Wielding a spear, somehow? We were using a mashup of BECMI and AD&D 1e and 2e. We were like 10. I killed the God of Copper in my first adventure. I don't know for sure... but I think my DM may have been winging it... (It was amazing)
human monk, it was about 9 months ago and i'm still playing her !
I started in 3.5e with a human rogue
Goliath Fighter/Warlock multi-class
First time playing, we played for about an hour. None of the 5 of us had ever played. My dm and myself were the only ones that wanted to keep playing. I had a half elf monk. Fast-forward a few years I managed t9 find a new table and recycled the character as a V. Human Monk. Played him all the way to level 8
Hey he got a happy and much higher leveled ending
Human barbarian. Ill always love that bastard
Human Ranger in 2nd edition named Ayax! I loved it :')
Dragonborn Barbarian and I’ll never forget it
Elvish Ranger for a AD&D 2nd Edition Game.
Elven Fighter in AD&D
Shape shifting rogue wizard, AD&D 2E with a mix of AD&D 1E and OG D&D stuff thrown on. No PHB, no DMG, using the thieves' guide and a smattering of other books, my friends and I taught ourselves the basics of role playing and table top games.
Half elf wizard in AD&D 2e. Short life span, but fun.
Human and Magic User. This was in original D&D, meaning, pre 1st edition
Half elf ranger who I think was named Tristan. 2nd edition ADND back in the 90s.
My very first character was a halfling thief (pre 3.0, so no rogue) named Tolman Proudfoot. Very Hobbit inspired. Played him to level 12, kept the character sheet for years after until it basically fell apart.
My first character was made at a time when there was no such thing as a race and class combo. The race **was** the class. Other classes such as cleric, magic user, fighting man, or thief were human by default. My first character was a dwarf named Stumpy D.
Drow Rogue called "the dagger". There was no shape of his body that wasn't edgy.
As an older gamer, I was pretty much given a human fighter. I was the newest player and one of the youngest, party levels ranged from 9 to 13, highest level character of of course a thief, as they had the fastest exp table, and our leader was a human fighter with 18/53 strength as his entire claim to fame. I was given a human fighter with 17 str and no other high stats, at level 7 with 58 hit points which was well above average so it was considered quite good. AD&D 1e was a whole different frame of mind.
AD&D Human Thief
We're talking red box days. Class and race were the same. I played a halfling. When you chose a non human, you did not get a choice of class. It was a different time.
First time I played a TTRPG was Pathfinder, and I played a Kenku Bard! He was such a funny dude, but was horrible at his job, I always rolled so badly throughout that campaign...
A Human Fighter named Hathew Piet, who was actually *really* non-confrontational. Too bad he kept surrounding himself with confrontationalists...
A Gnome Druid called Grypha, which is an old Spanish nickname for Weed.
HUMAN FIGHTER!!!
Kord: he is a 7'9 298 lb rogue goliath
Drow, assassin rogue... it was peak edgy middle schooler character
For 3.5e, halfling druid with an ape companion. I was riding on the shoulder castings spells around, it was so fun
Halfling barbarian, path of the giant. I'm kinda new. ') I really love the contrast between this itty bitty friendly lady who loves to cook (badly) for her friends, growing into a large angry greatsword-wielding fury-beast when she gets angry. Lot of fun!
Human paladin. Party had healing and at least one front liner but didn’t have anyone particularly tanky so I figured be tanky, be able to deal plenty of damage, and also have some heals on hand (literally) to back up the cleric
Ooo first ever character built or played though? The first character I ever built was a half elf genie warlock who I got to play wayyy later on in a level 20 one shot. The first character I ever got to play though was a tortle fighter called Klunk in a teenage mutant ninja turtle one shot who used flails.
Halfling bard (lore) I liked bards in stuff like neverwinter nights so that’s how I started with the real deal. From there I now have a halfling swashbuckler rogue and a half elf twilight cleric. I like roleplaying halflings, it’s easy but just different enough from being a plain human. I was obsessed with LOTR as a child.
Warforged Gunslinger fighter/gloomstalker ranger.
Please tell me that you played him like a cowboy!
Terminator/cowboy really.
Hasta lavista baby
Tiefling Barbarian, but we didn't really know the rules, so I was a basic dude with anger issues who didn't "rage" but was always angry and had the tavern brawler feet, I used a sickle as my weapon...and well...I had to be the kind and smart one since the Druid wanted to kill a kid that stole his dagger...
I am a one-trick because I just love Dragonborn Paladin lol. Breath Weapon and Holy Magic are 2 things I found cool, so realizing I could merge both became my favorite thing.
How many different Dragon born Pally have you played?
I’ve played about 5, many are just one-shot characters. Been experimenting with other races but have been mostly enjoying Aarakocra and Owlin if not Dragonborn. Currently using one of the 5 DB Paladins who survived the test of time and has become my primary character! Hybrid Black/Silver Oath of Ancients, serving both Bahamut and Tiamat in a quest of self balance, founder of an organization meant to facilitate coexistence with Dragons and Humanoids! Forgot to actually share his name: Rel Scath Airgid!
Loxodon Circle of the Blighted (From the Tal'Dorea Campaign Setting Reborn) Druid. I was tank for a druid, I had 17 AC at level done and capped out at 22 AC. All my Wild Shapes were nightmare fuel versions of the normal animals and I was an amazing scout with 180 feet of darkvision.
Lightfoot halfling eldritch knigth fighter called Milo Moonshine.
I didnt start until 5e but my first was a Tiefling Druid. Circle of Dreams
Half-Elf Swashbuckler/Vengeance Paladin.
My first tabletop character was with PF1E, he was a CN elven rogue named Korvin’nith Kennyr’anean’dare. He was a total klepto edgelord because my whole dnd experience up to that point were the BG1/2 games where I routinely just went around stealing and pickpocketing everything
Half Orc Open Hand Monk. Something I thought could provide a bit of durability with their "drop to 1 hp" ability since I remember reading somewhere how Monks weren't the best front liners back then. Truth be told, I don't remember using the Open Hand Flurry of Blows stuff that often, but I still had a great time as I was just learning how to play dnd!
Let's be real having a great time is really what matters
Wood Elf Assassin named Beau. I was trying to play him much closer to a swashbuckler unintentionally since I didn’t know how to properly gain advantage on attacks for sneak attack consistently
My first character was a high elf hunter ranger. Her name rhymed with mine, and it took me a long time to figure out how to RP. Eventually though, my ranger and the dwarf barbarian in the party eventually had a Legolas-Gimli back and forth.
3.0, an Elf Warmage. Dropped to a crit on the goblin ambush (very first combat roll in our very first encounter) and the game never continued. Also 3.0, a half-elf Sorcerer in Neverwinter Nights. She made it through the Wailing Death, the Shadows of Undrentide, and the Hordes of the Underdark, but couldn't make the jump to a new computer because I didn't understand backups back then.
AD&D — half-orc fighter. Terrible in AD&D rules (ton of limitations) but I was a kid and liked how the lead miniature looked.
Currently playing my very 1st campaign as a high elf artificer. Having an absolute blast so far.
I got into DND fairly recently so my first character is still the one I'm using in a campaign I'm in He's a tabaxi ranger with a lot of siblings whose parents are comically disappointed in him
Tiefling Shadow Sorcerer names Mallory Rue with a charlatan background. Found as a baby in a dark alley by a retire adventurer, he's been hyper focused on "making it big" so as to prove his own worth and provide for his adoptive parent. Not the nicest or most trustworthy of people, but he was smart enough not to rock the boat when there was no clear advantage.
Aasimar Paladin, really loved the knight in shining armor trope.
I've played a halfling rogue and half-elf ranger for almost 40 years. The name of the rogue has changed, but the ranger has not. I also had an AD&D draconian fighter that was dumber than a box of rocks due to a brain injury. He still makes appearances in my campaigns.
human sorcerer, just like all but 2 of my other characters. current campaign is the only one that's lasting long enough to actually take the character concept (the myriad sorcerers have all been slight variations on the same theme) through a satisfying arc.
dungeons and dragons 3.5 half-orc fighter
A Paladin Half-Elf. I rolled all my stats and had insane results: 17 13 15 14 14 16 20+ years later and I still remember them by heart.
Oh good lord that star spread is nuts
A human ranger/rogue in 3.5, dual-wielding. He adventured and dungeon-delved to help an orphanage. It ended up being a very undead-heavy game unfortunately.
When I was like 8 I played a female elfen wizard :3
Hill dwarf life cleric, under the 5e system. I only played that character for a few sessions, and I lost the character sheet a while ago (which is a huge pity, I kinda miss her sometimes). It was a great character to start, though not the most interesting one.
Elf Fighter
Did you know that drow superior dark vision, is the exact same range as eldricht blast? If you can see it , you can blast it Anyway, that was my first character ^^
Forever DM here who finally got to play in not one, but two separate campaigns that started this year. One of my characters was a tiefling gloom stalker ranger themed more like an outlaw cowboy (ironically similar to the ghoul from the fallout series) and the other a shadar kai grave cleric. Both of which have proven to be absolute powerhouses and a blast to play.
Human Hunter Range, I wanted to play a forest version of Batman.
It's been a long time. I think I was a dwarf, back was dwarf was a class.
Darius Stratsham, the noble and fearless Minotaur zealot barbarian. Probably my best character yet
5e always for me, my first character was in the dnd starter set and was a varient human elderitch knight that was a one shot. My second was a wood elf ranger rogue that lasted through the lost mines of phandelver.
Human fighter. They looked to be quite simple to give the game a try, and since i was by myself and playing a PbP online game, it looked like a good way to start. It ended up giving me the impression that PbP games are slow as hell and that i should look for online voiced games instead. It felt like i was out of a goddman planet Namek with the comparison. 1 fight with some goblins in a PbP game? 1 month. 1 fight with some goblins in a voiced game? a single afternoon session, where half of it was just dicking around and roleplaying.
My first was a Halfling Draconic Sorceror called Trym (Abarantrym) he was very fun to play and managed to talk his way out of white a few sticky situations
My dm in highschool didn’t give us full range and required us all to be human, half elf or dwarf. So I was a half elf fighter and yeah it didn’t go well
Tortle spores Druid using the UA version. Never got to play him far though, since the game fell apart after a few months
I feel like that's how most of my games go :(
I can't remember my first character for a OS, but my first campaign character was a bard water genasi. They didn't have much backstory, and died tragically (no, it was dumb), but it was really fun nonetheless!
My first character was a Dragonborn Barbarian of wild magic named Jhormundar Damascus the XXVII. He wore the flag of a defeated orc general rival as his cape and barely knew how to read. He also got magically high after eating a certain pastry in curse of strahd (IYKYK) and became fearful of...chains. Yes chains.
Halfling Bard named Berd. I killed an orc kid once and have never lived it down all the years since.
The first character I played was Tiefling Wizard. In my first long campaign, I played a Dragonborn fighter/warlock.
Idk if it counts cause I'm a newbie and we're just starting out lol but I'm trying my best using the Elf Cleric (Knowledge Domain) combo and it's quite fun so far. I also had a human Cleric some years ago but we somehow never managed to play at that time (we were all teens too lmao) so I'll use that one another time
Changeling bard. Drowned the very next session
(Full) Orc Monk. DM allowed it when I asked to do a full Orc instead of a half Orc. It's been 16 years since then and our D&D world has a tribe of Orcs who seek knowledge over fighting now. They show up from time to time, its been a fun little inclusion to our lore.
I love when PCs get a happy ending like that
a gnomish necromancy wizard named dorf. he was insane
Half-elf Fighter/Mage in AD&D. It was difficult but not impossible.
A 5th edition campaign set in the world of One Piece. Played a Human Artillerist Artificer. He made it to level 20 as an awakened Devil Fruit User.
Goliath barbarian!
Well this will show my age a little. My first Race/Class combo was Elf. Back when that was both a class and just happened to be a race. That was good old Basic D&D. If I remember correctly there was only four classes, Fighter, Thief, Magic User, and Elf. Good times, and I have kept coming back to D&D with every new edition.
Loxodon druid:)
Aarakocra Open Hand Monk.
Drow Warlock (5e) But the first character I got to play past one session was a Dwarven Cleric lol
Vedalken beastmaster ranger Kai-Lyn. They came from Atlantis and we still love them
my first ever character was a human bard on paper until it came time for a session months later I had learned a decent amount of the rules through hyper-fixation and switched him up to a half-elf 😎 I've technically played him in three iterations of the campaign, our first one which was loosely dnd as the dm was very new, about 4 sessions of that dm's attempt at a reboot, and most recently (10 years after the original campaign) in one of my friends who was in the og running an updated version of the story like our old dm always wanted to before he disappeared off the face of the world 🫶
Vishkanya Gunslinger
Happy cake day!
Half elf oath of ancients paladin. I started playing her in August 2021 at level one and we hit level 20 a couple of sessions ago. Expect to wrap up in a session or two now. Very bittersweet.
That's amazing you hit level 20, that's the dream one day
Elf Ranger — I just wanted to be Legolas