Pathogen's D&D Crash Course
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The Bare Basics of D&D
The Core Mechanic
Whenever you attempt an action that has some chance of failure in Dungeons & Dragons, you roll a twenty-sided die (d20). To determine if your character succeeds at a task you do this:
-Roll a d20.
-Add any relevant modifiers.
-Compare the result to a target number.
If the result equals or exceeds the target number, your character succeeds. If the result is lower than the target number, you fail.
Dice
Dice rolls are described with expressions such as 3d4+3, which means roll three four-sided dice and add 3 (resulting in a number between 6 and 15). The first number tells you how many dice to roll (adding the results together). The number immediately after the d tells you the type of die to use. Any number after that indicates a quantity that is added or subtracted from the result.
Percentile dice work a little differently. You generate a number between 1 and 100 by rolling two different ten-sided dice. One (designated before you roll) is the tens digit. The other is the ones digit. Two 0s represent 100.
Modifiers
A modifier is any bonus or penalty applying to a die roll. A positive modifier is a bonus, and a negative modifier is a penalty.
Stacking
In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the same type or come from the same source (such as the same spell cast twice in succession). If the modifiers to a particular roll do not stack, only the best bonus or worst penalty applies. Dodge bonuses and circumstance bonuses however, do stack with one another unless otherwise specified.
That's the fundamental mechanic of D&D, the d20 roll.
Crash Course Part I: Races.
Basic D&D features seven playable races. They are:
The Human. Self-explanatory. Humans get a bonus feat at 1st level and gain skill points as if their Intelligence were 2 points higher than it actually is, making them very favorable from a power-gaming stand-point.
The Dwarf. Short, stereotypically gruff and warrior-like. If you've seen a Lord of the Rings movie, you know the D&D idea of most dwarves. +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma.
The Elf. Short (but not as short as dwarves), and agile. Fairly close to nature and magic, usually free-spirited, and almost immortal. +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution.
The Gnome. Think of those folk tales about strange little creatures that do your chores at night, but get mad if you don't leave milk out for them. Now imagine that sort of strange, supernatural, free-wheeling creature as part of a vast civilization. Gnomes are probably the most genial of all the races, and have commonalities with both dwarves and halflings. +2 Constitution, -2 Strength.
The Half-Elf. Half-human, half-elven, accepted by neither.
The Half-Orc. Half-man, half-orc, very brutish, but a bit on the slow side. +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma.
The Halfling. Think Hobbits. -2 Strength, +2 Dexterity.
Each race has its own role-playing style, as well as game balance (though I've never felt that half-orc or half-elf were balanced very well). Some races are better at some character classes than others. In order to get the full skinny on each race, you should consult the Player's Handbook or the SRD at http://www.d20srd.org/srd/races.htm (though the SRD doesn't include much in the way of descriptive text, which is another reason that a PHB is superior).
Crash Course Part II: Classes.
Basic D&D features twelve core character classes. They are as follows:
Barbarians. Powerful, savage warriors of great strength, who typically lead uncivilized lives of survival in the wilderness.
Bards. Loremasters gifted with the power of song and its inherent magical powers.
Clerics. Champions of the deities who wield powerful divine magic and heal the injured.
Druids. Champions of the wild, who wield strong nature magic and can shape-shift into animal form.
Fighters. Skilled warriors who have mastered the finer arts of combat above all else.
Monks. Enlightened warriors who fight unarmed, using their inner ki and unusual combat skills to defeat enemies.
Paladins. Warrior champions of order and goodness, given divine gifts.
Rangers. The ultimate survivalists, more skilled than anyone at living in the wild, as well as tracking and hunting. Skilled in both archery and martial combat.
Rogues. Stealthy assassins, thieves, diplomats, and sometimes even acrobats, the most skilled of all heroes.
Sorcerers. Magic users of natural talent, blessed with supernatural blood-lines or other mysterious gifts that give them arcane powers.
Wizards. Magic users who learn their craft from ancient books and secret lore.
Choose what seems like it would be the most fun to play, not which seems most powerful. All of them are reasonably well-balanced.
http://www.timothyd.com/rpg/index.php/D%26D_Class_Guide
Crash Course Part III: Ability Scores
Every character and monster is governed by the same six ability scores. Each ability score is tied to certain skill checks.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/theBasics.htm#abilityScores
Your ability score determines your ability modifier, which is a bonus to all rolls involving that ability score.
Ability Score/Modifier:
1: -5
2-3: -4
4-5: -3
6-7: -2
8-9: -1
10-11: +0
12-13: +1
14-15: +2
16-17: +3
18-19: +4
20-21: +5
An ability score of 10 is considered average. 18 is the best ability score any character can begin with, before racial modifiers.
Where each character puts his 72 ability points is extremely important to his effectiveness (see the first post in this thread), and the class guide I've posted deals with that in-depth
Crash Course Part IV: Skills.
Skills are probably the most complicated part of the D&D system.
At 1st level, every character gets a number of skill points according to his class and Intelligence modifier.
For Fighters, for instance, this number is (2 + Int mod) x 4. If the Fighter has an Intelligence of 12, then (an Int mod of +1), he then gets 12 skill points at first level.
Every time the Fighter puts 1 point into one of his class skills, he gains 1 rank in that skill. Each class has a certain number of class skills, as indicated in the PHB. All other skills that are not class skills are called cross-class skills. To get a rank in a cross-class skill, you must spend 2 skill points instead of 1.
These 12 skill points can go into any skill that the Fighter chooses, but he is limited to a maximum number of points in any one skill equal to his level + 3. So at 1st level, you can only have four ranks in any one skill.
The purpose of putting ranks in a skill is to improve the bonus to your skill checks. A skill check is 1d20 + your ranks in the skill + the skill's ability modifier. So if I have 4 ranks in Climb and a Strength bonus of +4, my Climb bonus is +8 total.
Crash Course Part V: Feats
Feats are one of the most important aspects of any character. A feat is a special ability that you choose for your character. A character's collection of feats are what makes him unique from every other character, including other characters that may even share his race and/or class. Feats are very powerful.
At 1st level, every character gets one feat. Humans begin with two. Some classes also gain additional bonus feats on top of this, but these must always be of a certain kind, as specified by the class.
In order to buy a feat, you have to qualify for it, usually by having a minimum ability score, a number of ranks in a certain skill, a certain number of levels in a spellcasting class, or most often, certain other feats. There are several "trees" of feats for characters to climb up, especially for warriors.
Crash Course Part VI: Description
Your character's actual description is the first part of what makes your character more than just a collection of numbers (the other part being you).
The most significant part of your character's description is his alignment, which determines his sense of morality. Dungeons & Dragons is largely principled on the eternal battle between good and evil, and to some degree, the struggle between order and chaos. There are nine alignments.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/description.htm#alignment
Other parts of your description consist of your character's deity, as well as age, height, and weight.
Most characters are assumed by the Player's Handbook to worship one deity in particular, though any character is free to worship multiple similar deities or none at all, if he so chooses. Because we are in a Norse campaign, we will use Norse deities, referred to collectively as the Asgardian Pantheon. I will produce information on them soon. Worship of a deity is most important to clerics, who draw their powers from the gods.
Height and weight aren't the most terribly important of statistics, but it does come in handy from time to time, and in order to better visualize your own character. D&D uses a fairly complex system to determine this, but it's just as easy to make the numbers up by yourself, keeping in mind that some races are taller and heavier than others.
