D&D: Five Ways to Add Some Spice to Your Next Character
So it’s time to roll up a new character, but this time you want to add a little spice instead of the ol’ same old same old. We’ve got you.
Character creation in D&D is a time of infinite possibilities. You can pull from untold combinations of peoples and character archetypes. And yet, somehow, the same things always end up repeating themselves. Like replaying your favorite RPG and telling yourself this time you’re not going to make all “good” choices or romance the same character.
And yet, humans are as much creatures of habit as they are social animals. But with a little help, you can add a bit of spice to the next character you roll up. Get yourself out of the well-trod grooves and into an exciting new time.
Play a New Alignment
Alignment may not do much, mechanically, in D&D, outside of determining whether or not a sword thinks you’re cool. But for roleplaying your character, it can make all the difference. After all, a Lawful Good and a Chaotic Good character look very different from one another. To say nothing of playing in the other waters of the spectrum. Lawful Neutral, maybe even an Evil alignment—as long as you can reconcile “playing an evil character” with “D&D is at its core a cooperative storytelling game that doesn’t work if the players involved are constantly at war with one another.”
But still, even if all you do is change that CG to an LG and try to follow the rules a liiiiittle bit more, you’ve got yourself the makings of a different dynamic. And variety is the spice of life, and also characters.
Swap Party Roles
Here’s a more mechanical way to shake up who you are at the tabletop. Play a role you’re less familiar with. It could be as simple as switching from a melee character to one who fights at range (either with a bow or spells). But it could be switching from damage dealing to healer to tank or the like. There are plenty of different ways to define what you do in a fight.
Switching up what that is can be a fantastic way to make your next character stand out. If you’re figuring out how they work and what the best way to play, for you, is, you might be a lot more engaged.
Keep It Simple, Silly
Sometimes, the best way to be different is to go broad. Play a big golden retriever bf or a dark brooding goth gf. There are archetypes a-plenty out there. We’ve talked about a few, from Himbos to Nerds to Final Girls. But there are bound to be character types you’re more familiar with than you’ve always thought… what if? The simpler and more straightforward the better. You’ll find nuance as you play, we can’t help but do that.
Play Something Weird
Conversely, if you want to shake up the way you play but need less broad personality traits, go for playing something weird. Play one of the more unusual creatures, like a Kenku or a Plasmoid or an Autognome or even just a Goblin. This is your chance to be a Weird Little Guy, which is what roleplaying is all about.
Or if you want to be something boring like an Elf, maybe play a weirder class like Artificer or subclass like Phantom Rogue, or even Multiclassing. Consider this the excuse you need to try out that Gloomstalker/Assassin first-round murder machine you’ve been dreaming of.
Try a New Voice
Last but not least, sometimes all you really need to make a character stand out is to switch up the kind of voice you do. After all, if you’re speaking in character, if you start sounding different, you’ll play differently. Worried about not being able to do a voice? Here’s an easy guide to getting started.
All this can help you put a little more spice in your next character!
