Dungeons and Dragons Character Development Strategy for Writers

How can a Dungeons and Dragons character development help your writing? Creating believable characters as a writer is all about balancing strengths and weaknesses. If you want your readers to relate to your characters, make them fallible. 

Using the tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons for character development is a great way to measure your character’s strengths and weaknesses in a tangible manner.

Whether you’ve played Dungeons and Dragons before, or you have never touched a set of dice, if you incorporate it into your character development strategy, you’ll discover the benefits. 

In this post, we’ll explore how using Dungeons and Dragons character development techniques can enrich your writing process. By assigning attributes, alignments, and backgrounds, you will see how dungeons and dragons can be a valuable asset. 

Let’s get that D20 and get started!

Understanding Dungeons and Dragons Character Development Stats

To understand how to use dungeons and dragons to help with character development, you can start with exploring the character stats. These are the most important stats you will need to create a character with strengths and weaknesses. 

Every character in dungeons and dragons has six stats. Strength, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, constitution, and charisma. In the game, you start out at level one with 27 points to spend. You can decide which of these six stats will get more points and which ones will get less. 

This is how you will understand what your character excels in and what they struggle with. And if you want to keep track of character growth throughout your story, you can level them up just as you would if you were playing the game. If you are actually interested in playing the game, check out the official website of the game: Here. 

Strength

How physically strong is your character? Are they athletic? Do they play sports? Do they practice battle skills? 

Strength in dungeons and dragons is all about a character’s physical abilities. Can they lift heavy objects, climb, jump, and run? This is the first stat you can consider. You can decide how many points out of the 27 you want to spend on physical strength. 

Dexterity

Dexterity is the stat concerning agility. Is your character fast, nimble, and has good balance?

Maybe your character does a lot of yoga, and this has made them flexible and agile. Or many, they are a dancer and can balance on a tightrope. 

Another measure of dexterity is stealth. Can your character sneak around without being noticed? Is their approach often silent? Dexterous characters make great spies and sneaks. 

Constitution

How much can your character endure? This stat is all about endurance, stamina, health, and vitality. 

How long can your character hold their breath? How much can they drink? Do they possess great fortitude?

Consider what your character can withstand. Any story requires conflict and you will throw everything at your character. How will they fare? Are they the type that keeps getting up and keeps going or are they quickly ready to give up?

Intelligence

Intelligence isn’t just about whether you are smart. It’s about whether you can reason and think critically. Can your character see nuances? 

Intelligent characters are likely book smart. Maybe they can do math really well or they are good at history and recalling things. They are excellent investigators. Intelligence based characters are logical and able to deduce the meaning of things. They might enjoy mystery and academic pursuits. 

Wisdom

Wisdom is all about how well you are attuned to the world around you. Is your character intuitive, perceptive, and insightful? Characters with high wisdom are likely to be deeply spiritual, connected to nature and the natural world around them. They can be very resourceful and adaptable. 

Wisdom based characters rely on their gut instincts a lot. 

Charisma

Charisma measures your character’s ability to deal with people. How good are they at interacting with others? Can they stand up in front of a crowd of people and perform, or will even a small crowd send them running for the hills?

Charismatic characters are excellent at manipulating people. Whether for good or bad. They have a strength of character that compels people to follow them. They can be deceptive, intimidating, persuasive, and good at putting on a performance. 

Adding it all up for Dungeons and Dragons Character Development

Now that you know the six stats, you can see how your character measures up. Maybe your character is intelligent but lacks physical strength. Maybe your character is charismatic, but is good at hiding a weak constitution. Dungeons and dragons is a great way to balance your character’s basic abilities. A character cannot be excellent at everything, you don’t want to get into Mary-Sue territory (Check out my article on Mary-Sue’s) so it’s important to decide what stats are most important in your character and which ones are less important.  

Exploring Dungeons and Dragons Character Development Alignments

In dungeons and dragons, alignment refers to a character’s moral compass. What their actions and behavior portrays on where they stand morally. This is the part where you can figure out your heroes and villains and your morally gray characters. 

Lawful Good

The typical goodie-two-shoes. These characters are very law abiding and can be very rigid in their interpretation of what laws might exist around them. They can always be counted on to do the right thing and they value law and order. They are the epitome of virtue. 

Neutral Good

These characters do the best they can, but they aren’t going to beat themselves up if they falter sometimes. They are out for themselves. They will always set out to do the right thing, but they aren’t above choosing self preservation over doing the right thing.

Chaotic Good

They will do what their conscience tells them to do, regardless of whether it meets with local laws. Robin Hood is a great example of chaotic good. He was a thief who helped the impoverished. These characters possess strong moral characters and are courageous. 

Lawful Neutral

These characters lean towards the natural order of things. They might be bound to scriptures of various dogmatic religions, or they might simply be strongly spiritual and traditional.

Neutral: Alignment for Dungeons and Dragons Character Development

True neutral is rare. Everyone usually aims toward good or evil, or maybe a little of both. But these characters will be all about non-interference. It will be hard to motivate them to take action. They don’t concern themselves with moral obligations. They will simply do what’s best or convenient. 

Chaotic neutral

This character is all about personal freedom. They are often the roaming troubadour type, going where the wind takes them, living only for themselves. Chaotic neutral characters prefer to be outsiders and outcasts. They make few friends and they are mysterious. 

Lawful Evil

Now we are getting into villain territory. Lawful evil characters live by a strict code. They are methodical and strategic and they make great overlords. These characters covet power over the masses. They demand loyalty and order from their subjects and they are all about authoritarianism and oppression. 

Neutral Evil

These are the cutthroat types. They will do what they can to get away with things. Characters like these are likely to be found being thieves or taking advantage of people. They lack compassion for anyone and won’t hesitate to look out for number one: themselves.

Chaotic Evil

These characters are violent and cruel, with no rhyme or reason. They thrive off of greed and causing pain to others. They are hateful and full of bloodlust. 

Crafting Dungeons and Dragons Character Development Backgrounds

Now that you know your character’s strengths and weaknesses, and you have all your heroes and villains all figured out, it’s important to dive into backgrounds. Everyone comes from somewhere and your character is no different. Dungeons and dragons offers some background archetypes, although you can certainly come up with your own. 

Acolyte

This character has devoted their lives to religion. Whether they’ve chosen to become a nun or a priest, or maybe a Hindu guru, their beliefs are the most important things to their lives. 

Charlatan

These characters thrive around people. They understand people; they know how to manipulate them into just about anything. 

Criminal

Has your character chosen a life of crime? Can they be found in the seedy parts of town? Do they know how to operate the black market? 

Entertainer

Your character thrives at being the center of attention. They are talented at singing, performing, or anything else that gets them on stage. They love a good performance. 

Folk Hero

Maybe your character has already gained a reputation back in their hometown. Maybe they are destined for more and they know it. They strive to end tyranny and threats wherever they find them. 

Guild Artisan

Does your character have a trade? Did they go to trade school or did they inherit the family business? Maybe they are crafty and they’ve risen through the ranks of the various merchant guilds of your city. 

Hermit

Your character lives alone and rarely interacts with people. Was he always this way or does he have a tragic past that has caused him to shun humanity?

Noble

Whether your character was born a prince or princess, or they are the daughter or son of some wealthy SEO or celebrity, their life is one of luxury. Are they humble about it or do they love to live it up?

Outlander

Your character grew up in the wild. Maybe they were raised by wolves or they live deep in the forest with their elven clan. They have strong survival skills and understand how to deal with animals far better than with people. 

Sage

Your character is a student. Whether they have been admitted to a prestigious university or they grew up entrenched in scrolls and manuscripts, their life revolves around academics and the pursuit of knowledge. 

Sailor

Your character was born for the sea. Whether they are a pirate or on board an explorer ship, they are constantly setting sail for that horizon. 

Soldier

Your character’s life has been war. They have trained for battle all their lives. 

Urchin

Your character is a desperate street urchin. They grew up on the streets, learning how to survive. 

Putting Together a Complete Dungeons and Dragons Character Development Profile

Now you know how you can use dungeons and dragons to really flesh out your character’s strengths and weaknesses. By combining your character’s base stats, their alignment, and their background, you can understand who they are. You can dig deeper into character personality with my blog about Astrology for character development. And if any of this has piques your interest in the game, check out the D&D online store here.

Conclusion

So what makes your character tick? By using Dungeons and Dragons character development strategies, writers can create characters that feel well-rounded and engaging. 

So what kind of character will you make? Are they a constitution heavy chaotic neutral pirate? Or are they a benevolent lawful monk? Think about how your character’s Dungeons and Dragon stats, alignment, and background can make up the backbone of your character development strategy. Let me know in the comments what you come up with. 

And check out my articles on Mary-Sues and on Astrology for Character Development if you want to dive deeper into character development.