Character Creation

What is the D&D Adventurers League?

The D&D Adventurers League is an ongoing official organized play campaign for Dungeons & Dragons®. It uses the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, and features the Forgotten Realms® setting. You can play D&D Adventurers League games anywhere. You can create a character and bring that character to any D&D Adventurers League game. D&D Adventurers League games can be public, in-person play events, but they can also be played at home or in another private setting of your choosing. Typical venues for these events are game and hobby stores, conventions, public-accessible game day events, libraries, your home, or anywhere you gather to play a D&D Adventurers League game.

How to Use This Guide

The D&D Adventurers League Player’s Guide is a comprehensive guide to all the rules used by players for official games. When there are differences between the rules and guidelines here and in other sources, the rules here take precedence for D&D Adventurers League play.

What You Need to Play

In order to participate in D&D Adventurers League games, you’ll need the following:

How to Sign up for a New DCI Number Online

Character Creation

To create a character for the D&D Adventurers League, follow the steps below. All characters begin play at 1st level.

Beginning in Season 9, tier 2 pregenerated characters are available for Adventurers League play. The official tier 2 “pregen” characters are the only tier 2 pregens available for use.

Steps 1: Choosing a Race and Class

You may use all options found on this website with regard to race and class, in order to build and advance your character (check with the DMs for any marked DM Approval). For example, if you are playing a human, you are allowed to use the Variant Human Traits.

You may also choose to use one other resource from those listed below to build your character. If you do so, please indicate your chosen additional resource on the first ‘Notes’ entry of your character’s logsheet. As new player resources become available, they will be added to this list.

NOTE: Race options that grant a fly speed at 1st level are not allowed for D&D Adventurers League play at this time. Additionally, options presented in other resources, such as the Death Domain found in the Dungeon Master's Guide, or content from the various Unearthed Arcana articles, are not allowed for play unless you possess specific campaign documentation that indicates otherwise. Some Season 9 characters can develop wings at 5th level.

In addition, your character must belong to a season. This choice grants your character additional rules that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to such as racial or class traits, or other rules unique to the season.

Step 2: Determine Ability Scores

You have 27 points to spend on your ability scores. The cost of each score is shown on the Ability Score Point Cost table. For example, a score of 14 costs 7 points. Using this method, 15 is the highest ability score you can end up with, before applying racial increases. You can’t have a score lower than 8. You can use the Ability Score Generator if desired.

Ability Score Point Cost

Step 3: Describe Your Character

Describe your character and choose a background from this list. Use some of the below questions to help write a few paragraphs about the characters backstory.

Alignment

D&D Adventurers League play focuses on creating a welcoming, fun environment. Though we recognize that most players are able to portray characters who run a wide range of motivations, we’ve decided to restrict alignment choices to keep groups from becoming too self-destructive. You may not play characters with either the neutral evil or chaotic evil alignments in the D&D Adventurers League. However, you may play a character with the lawful evil alignment, but only if you are a member of either the Lords’ Alliance or Zhentarim factions.

Deities

Whether or not your character is a cleric, if they worship a deity, you may choose only from those deities listed in the Deities of the Forgotten Realms and Nonhuman Deities tables in the Player’s Handbook or any of the deities listed in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide.

Step 4: Choose Equipment

When you create your D&D Adventurers League character for the current season, take starting equipment as determined by your class and background. You cannot roll for your starting wealth.

Trinkets. You can begin play with one trinket of your choice from the table in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook or the Basic Rules, or you can roll randomly to determine your trinket.

Purchasing Items. You can purchase any equipment found here.

Step 5 (Optional): Select a Faction

At any time you’d like during your character’s adventuring career, you can choose to become a member of a faction. Joining a faction is completely optional. Each faction is distinct, and offers adventurers a chance to earn prestige within its ranks through the acquisition of renown by completing adventures and tasks that further that factions’ interests. Factions persist from storyline to storyline, and are woven into the fabric of current and future narratives in the D&D Adventurers League. Factions each have their own goals, but are not overtly hostile to one another. Faction members might have a dislike of other factions, but they are civilized enough to keep from being completely antagonistic. If you have your character join a faction, the following rules apply.

One Faction Only. You can be a member of only one faction at a time. If you ever switch factions or decide to become unaffiliated, you lose all benefits and renown associated with your former faction. The factions don’t appreciate traitors or deserters.

No Undermining Other Characters. Adventurers are brought together by common cause, and during an adventure, they’re expected to work together to overcome challenges. Though certain factions might find others distasteful, individuals will put that aside and become a team when put in dangerous situations. In short, play nice with each other when things get deadly.

Safe Haven background feature. Your character can be a member of a faction only if they have the Safe Haven background feature. This does not change the background for the character, but replaces the background feature normally gained. Members of a faction receive an identifying insignia of their faction: a pin, a brassard, or special coin. In addition, they can also identify themselves in other ways, such as clothing, tattoos, or secret handshakes.

The Adventure Logsheet

In addition to your character sheet, you need an adventure logsheet to keep track of your character’s rewards from adventure to adventure.

Downtime and Lifestyle

Downtime activities and lifestyle maintenance occur outside the scope of adventures you play, and can have an impact on how others perceive your character. If you want your character to engage in a downtime activity between episodes or adventures, you have a number of options available to you.

Recording Downtime

To record your downtime activity, simply deduct the days from your total on your adventure logsheet. Make a note of your downtime activity and the total number of days used toward it in the adventure notes section. For example, if you wanted to train to learn the Gnomish language and you spent 10 days doing so, you’d write Training: Gnomish (10) after the first time you spent downtime toward this activity, and deduct 10 days from your downtime total. If you spend 5 days later on, you’d write Training: Gnomish (15) in your notes section, and deduct 5 more days from your downtime total.

Exchanging Wealth

You can’t give another character gold or mundane equipment. However, you can pay for some or all of the cost of services that help another character, such as the cost of a raise dead spell. In order to donate funds toward services for another character, you must be in the same party (at the same play table) unless otherwise specified by the adventure.

Character Rebuilding

We recognize that many players start out with a pregenerated character, or might try out a character class, race, or other option, and then decide later on that it wasn’t the play experience they were looking for. As such, characters in the first tier (levels 1–4) can be rebuilt after any episode or adventure. A player cannot change a character’s name, but can rebuild the character using the rules as presented in this document. The character keeps all experience, treasure, equipment, magic items, downtime, and faction renown earned to that point. The character replaces the old starting equipment (along with any gold earned from selling it) with the new starting equipment. If a character’s faction is changed, that character loses all renown earned with the former faction, and starts at 0 with the new faction. Characters that are level 5 or higher cannot be rebuilt.

Leveling and Tiers of Play

Adventures for the D&D Adventurers League are broken into four tiers of play

Your character’s level determines which tier of adventures you can play with that character. You cannot play adventures outside your tier. You can level your character after completing a long rest, or at the end of an episode or adventure.

A character who earns enough rewards to advance a level does so at the end of a long rest or at the end of an episode or an adventure. A character who earns enough renown to advance a rank in his or her faction does so at the end of an episode or an adventure. Note your new level or rank on your character sheet and in the notes section of your adventure logsheet.

Hit Points at Higher Levels. Whenever you gain a level, use the fixed hit point value shown in your class entry. You cannot roll your hit points.

Customization Options. You can use the options provided in your allowed resources for advancing your character. This includes multiclassing and feats.