Just a DM Trying Her Best

I’m looking to make a character for a dnd 5e game that my friend is DM-ing. The character is a Human that isn’t human, their 2 very tightly knit dwarves friends. I was just curious as to whether or not this would be possible to create. I do recognize that the decision is up to the DM if the character would be playable, but I was just curious for your knowledge and input. Thank you!

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Characters like this are made all the time, the three gnomes/goblins/kobolds in a trench coat is a meme staple for a reason. If you wanted to play something like this, I recommend checking out some of the dnd subreddits because there are a ton of theory builds for characters like this.

I would also recommend having them being races other than dwarves. The reason is dwarves are Medium creatures, the same as humans. Remember, dwarves are, on average, only a foot to a foot and a half shorter than humans and if you are wanting to do the “two ____________ in a trench coat” approach, then you have to consider the size of what that entity would be.

Generally speaking as well, characters like this are best used in oneshots or short-form campaigns (fewer than 6 sessions) since one player playing two characters long term while everyone else has a single character will inevitably influence the flow and form of combat and roleplay.

Absolutely speak to your DM about it before building anything, but those are a few things to keep in mind.

A lot of people have an interest in DMing and just don’t know where to start. So they turn to listicles online on how to begin world building and cautionary tales of how to do things “well”.

As someone who has been creating and world building for over a decade, and as someone who studied the creative process, I can safely say that those resources online will not help you go all the way. Sure, that reddit post may be structured and really written and have a lot of great tips, but the simple fact is that for every person, it’s a process filled with trial and error.

No two people create the same. Modeling your own process off of someone else’s in the beginning can be helpful to start learning the creative flow, but sticking to a process that doesn’t fit quite right won’t benefit you in the long run. Experiment, try new things, look at free online resources like OneNote, Trello, Miro, and never be afraid of junking something that isn’t working.

I know that’s difficult advice. When creating, everything you make is precious and has been a result of effort, but there is no shame and nothing wrong with looking at something you’ve made and going “Well, that was a good idea at first, but this isn’t helpful and it isn’t good” and moving on to something new.

I’m breaking my silence with a post about character creation.

Specifically how I’ve adjusted the process to take stress and anxiety away from my players and give them more freedom.

Some things to lay the ground work. I’m not inherently against the standard array. Depending on the game, the group, and the DM’s approach, it can be a very effective tool for establishing a game quickly and with a certain degree of balance. I am, however, against point buy simply because I find it unnecessarily tedious and while the stat ranges will be the same across players, imbalance will come from player approaches. My preferred method for stat generation is rolling for stats (I have rules for that, which is a separate topic) but at the end of the day, players get stat arrays to work with.

This is where I’ve implemented a change that has increased my player’s happiness and investment in the game.

Now, it needs to be stated that as a DM, my preferred focus is on the characters rather than mechanics or combat. And since that’s my preferred focus...

I got rid of racial ability score improvements.

Rather than having my players look at their arrays, then look at the races that give stat improvements to the right abilities, I’ve taken away racial ability score improvements so my players can look instead at the character they want to play that would typically be considered subpar in regards to stats.

A goliath wizard, a gnome fighter, a dragonborn druid.

Instead of each race having specific ability score improvements, everyone gets a blanket +2 and +1 to assign to an ability score of their choice. Human variants are allowed on a case by case basis, but overall, I find this system works extremely well for my players. It encourages diversity (no more parties dominated by humans and half-elves) and it allows them to go crazy with character ideas and find something that really clicks with them. My current group is comprised of: A human paladin, a wood elf rogue, a tiefling barbarian/ranger, a centaur cleric, a gnome druid, and a goblin monk. Quite the colorful group!

I think it’s entirely possible and it really depends on your DM and how much they’re willing to work with it, it also depends on the class that you’re looking to create because that would influence how it could be balanced.

Very recently, I worked with one of my own players to make a sorcerer who was really two gnomes stacked on top of each other. Because they were sorcerers, I came up with the concept that they’re both fonts of power but they need each other to help focus it. Whoever is the “head” is the one that’s allowed to cast spells, so the player only has that spell list for that day and so on. We also discussed why the gnomes were stacked on top of each other (trying to get into a prestigious university which is biased against smaller races) and what would happen if they were found out (he’d pick one of them to continue on as as an individual).

This kind of character concept is 100000% doable, but it takes a lot of cooperation and communication with your DM. I would recommend coming up with a really solid reason why they’re pretending to be a human (maybe they’re both trickery clerics and it’s to make their god happy, as an example) and why they can’t afford to be found out. As long as the joke character is founded on a good, or interesting, story then I think it’ll be a lot easier to convince a DM to go for it. Be willing to compromise on mechanics, too.