What’s the most basic, average DnD character?

September 20, 2024 12:39 AM

I’m joining a DnD campaign with a bit of a meta setup - we play characters in one real-ish world scenario that then enter a fantasy scenario and can choose a class, race, etc to be in that world within a world. A key trait of my meta character is that they’re super average. What are the most average, basic choices they could make creating a character? Most advice is geared to optimising a character, but this is almost the opposite. If someone’s done a statistical analysis of the most commonly chosen traits that’d be a perfect solution to my problem.
posted by threecheesetrees to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total)

Proposal: go the other way for your meta character. Look at what you would have picked as an overkeen twelve year old and absolutely max yourself out for one thing, like a barbarian who is absolutely completely a tank and has the charisma, wisdom and intelligence of a damp rock, or a wizard who has fireball and nothing else to say, and play it totally straight.

Get a beige shirt from Costco and show up in that to every game.
posted by mhoye at 12:49 AM on September 20 [4 favorites]

Human Fighter or Elf Ranger? You could also set all your stats to 10, which would make you literally average in everything.
posted by Maecenas at 1:24 AM on September 20 [3 favorites]

The two sources of stats I know of:

D&D Beyond has released stats of the most common characters created online - which suggest you should be a human fighter called Bob.

Baldurs Gate 3 has also released stats, which suggest you should be a human paladin.

And this image is what they should look like - it's the gestalt most popular appearance in BG3.

For stats, you'd use the standard array, which for a fighter would be:

Strength (or Dexterity): 15
Dexterity (or Strength): 8
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 12
Charisma: 10
posted by siskin at 1:33 AM on September 20 [6 favorites]

Human Fighter
High Elf Wizard
Wood Elf Druid
Tiefling Warlock
Half-orc Barbarian
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:32 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]

paladin [wiki]
posted by HearHere at 4:49 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]

There's two different ways to interpret "average" here I think. The first is what would an "average" adventurer look like in the world you're transporting to - the player version of an NPC who the DM has barely given a name. I think that would probably be a human fighter with "standard" stats - starting with the standard array for a fighter that siskin shared.

But then there's what the "average" player would create, which is a bit more tricky because players are drawn toward, well, not being average. There's lots of different directions to go there, but if I wanted to play a basic cliche I'd probably play a street urch gloomstalker ranger/assassin rogue with a tragic past, or just rogue if I didn't want to play the OP annoying build.

(BG3 stats are influenced a bit by people avoiding companion classes and its different game meta.)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 5:45 AM on September 20 [3 favorites]

If "ordinary" is part of what you're going for, then picking an everyday job for your character could help build their essence. Like, what if your human lives in the town they grew up in, works X job, is part of Y hobby league, has 2 cats and a peanut allergy etc etc. Someone who didn't build their life around the idea that they'd need to pick up a sword and go adventuring.
posted by Geameade at 8:43 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]

The answer is going to change a bit based on the edition you're playing but for 5th Edition I think the clear choice is non-variant Human Fighter with the Champion subclass.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:43 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]

Human Fighter is so basic I find it oddly offensive when I discuss RPGs with people and find out they chose or would ever choose Human Fighter. Especially if there was literally any other choice. It is a completely unimaginative, plain, milquetoast, wallpaper of a species combo, there's nothing really to beat it on those terms.

There is a small risk of becoming a notable warrior, say for every 2 million human fighters there's one interesting and notable figure or character that can arise from the archetype, but that is easily avoided in both roleplay terms and stats. Give yourself a really inefficient stat spread, like 14 in all stats (and just discard the final point, unbecoming of such a stalwart stander). The ideal would be flat 10s but that might be a bridge too far for your particular campaign difficulty.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:52 AM on September 20 [2 favorites]

Dim memory, but in one of the DM Guides, Gary Gygax came up with real-world analogues for a couple of D&D traits.

IIRC intelligence was linked to IQ - an 18 intelligence was a 180 IQ, a 10 intelligence was a 100 IQ. An 18 strength equated to being able to lift 180 lbs in a military press-- pushing a barbell from shoulder height to arms straight and locked over your head.

I don't think he gave any others, but you might be able to cook up something, and then you *could* make your character an equivalent to yourself, if you had a sense of your own "stats." Not that I ever did this, no...
posted by martin q blank at 9:18 AM on September 20 [2 favorites]

It is a completely unimaginative, plain, milquetoast, wallpaper of a species combo, there's nothing really to beat it on those terms.

I think this says more about the limits of your imagination than it does mine. Sincerely, somebody happily playing a Human Fighter
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 6:27 AM on September 21 [1 favorite]

I haven't played in like 40 years but I would say thief. Don't fight, don't have magic, don't have religious like observances, don't really have any special powers except for being a good kleptomaniac in search of treasure wherever it may be.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:05 PM on September 21