Using Dungeons and Dragons class roles when writing Fantasy

Dungeons and Dragons (more commonly known as DnD or D&D to players) is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game (or tabletop RPG). This means that there is no board, no video, and no controllers. Dungeons and Dragons is a game played predominantly in the imaginations of the players.

A group of people (six being the best, with five players and one Dungeon Master) gather together. The Dungeon Master serves as the game’s referee and storyteller, while also maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur and playing the role of the inhabitants. The players then make decisions on behalf of their characters.

The game is great because, as a player, you can do almost anything you want, though for most actions, a toss the die is required. But that is a discussion for another time.

I won’t go into all the detail of the game itself here, because there’s (literally) enough to fill a novel. Instead I’m just going to talk about one aspect of the game, that being character creation.

It’s enough to say that each player will create a character, and that character will be one of many different species, and, more importantly, one of many classes.

The classes of DnD each have their own skillset; things that class can do that other classes cannot.

I’m not going to run through each class here because there are about twenty four (last time I checked). I’ll limit myself, then, to five of the main classes.

These are namely the Cleric, the Fighter, the Ranger, the Rogue, and the Wizard.

The Cleric is a holy warrior, calling on the divine power of his (or her) gods to aid him in battle. The cleric is also a healer, and can bolster his companions, uplifting their spirits and allowing them greater strength. Miranda Lyonette, of the ‘Eli Monpress’ books by Rachel Aaron could be classed as a Cleric.

The Fighter is exactly what you think he is: an expert in armed combat. He relies on his muscle and skill with weapons to see him through. Excellent in close combat, and extremely difficult to kill, the fighter is generally the “tank” of the group. Wyeth, from my own novel ‘Alfakyn’, can be loosely classed as a Fighter.

The Ranger is a wilderness warrior; an expert tracker and scout. He excels at hit-and-run fighting and is a master of both the blade and the bow. He can vanish into the woods like a ghost, and bring down his foes before they even know he’s there. Aragorn (as Strider), from Tolkien’s ‘The lord of the Rings’ is a Ranger.

The Rogue is a thief, scoundrel, and jack-of-all-trades. A rogue can slip in and out of the shadows at whim, flit through the battlefield without fear of reprisal, and appear from nowhere to put a blade in the enemy’s back. Nico, again from the ‘Eli Monpress’ novels by Rachel Aaron, could be called a rogue.

The Wizard is a master of potent arcane powers, spurning physical combat in favour of awesome magic. The wizard can cast spells that change the battlefield, and research arcane rituals that can alter space and time. Gandalf, from Tolkien’s ‘The lord of the Rings’ is probably the best example of a wizard.

Of course, each of these classes can be mixed and matched as much as the writer desires. Each can inspire an entire series of adventures, and can seriously shorten the amount of time you spend on character creation.

The class of your characters can also inspire conflict in your story. If your Fighter-like character needs to get into the palace without being seen, he might have a slightly more difficult time than a rogue. At the same time, your rogue-like character could get stuck in the woods, facing a troop of enemies all by himself. He wouldn’t really be able to sneak around because all of the attention would be on him.

In any given DnD game, these five classes would be among the first chosen, as they possess most of the skills a party of players would need in any given situation. That does not mean, however, that your novel has to be the same.

Writing a party of five characters can be challenging as they all need to interact equally with both one another and the story. Choosing two or three of the classes and mixing them around a bit could be one solution. You could create a mix between the Cleric and the Rogue, not only allowing that character to fulfil both roles, but also creating a really interesting contrast between the thief and holy warrior.

Another solution could be to simply leave out certain classes. This could heighten tension when your party comes across a situation that they aren’t really equipped to handle.

I have barely scratched the surface here, and I strongly suggest that any aspiring Fantasy author take a closer look, not only at the character creation aspect of the game, but also at the game itself. Gather some friends, choose your characters, create your adventure, and explore your imagination. I guarantee you will thank me.

 

(You can find most of the important information in the ‘Player’s Handbook’ and the ‘Dungeon Master’s guide’, both of which are available on Amazon. A brief internet search will certainly set your feet firmly on the road as well.)

Author Bio

My name is Michael Mountain. I’m twenty two years old and I live in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the cradle of Humankind. I am the author of ‘Alfakyn’, a Fantasy novel about a man who is betrayed by his brother, and his quest for revenge. The novel is available for download as an eBook here.

When I was eleven years old, I was not into reading at all. As far as I was concerned, it was boring. The books that I was given to read at school barely held my attention for five minutes, and I was a whole level behind every other child in my grade.

Then one day, I fell ill with the flu. It was a nightmare. For three weeks I didn’t even have the energy to get out of bed. I was on holiday at the time too, so I didn’t even have the thought that I was missing school to console me. I would just sit in my PJ’s all day watching T.V.

For a little kid who just wanted to go outside and play in the sun with his friends, it was terrible. Then one afternoon, about a week into this torture, I was lying on the couch with my mom and my dad, and my dad said something that would change my life. He said that we should take a drive to the closest mall and buy a book.

I wasn’t interested at all, but I wanted out of the house. So I got dressed, did my best to tame my mop of hair an off we went. We browsed the bookstore for what felt like ages, and soon I began to regret coming out. I wasn’t interested in the books, I wanted to go back home and play playstation. My mom was standing in the kids section, reading the blurb on the back of the first Harry Potter book. I walked up to her, my head hanging, sighing as loud as I could.

My dad joined us there soon after and decided that he would buy Harry Potter, if only because my mom wanted to read it. I didn’t choose a book, I didn’t want one.

When we got home, I flopped onto the couch and began looking for a movie I hadn’t seen yet.

My mom nagged at me to read Harry Potter, and after an hour or two of this, I caved. I was bored, there was nothing else to do, and I secretly wanted to prove to myself that this book was just like any other. I knew that I wouldn’t enjoy it, and so I (rather masochistically for an eleven year old) sat down to read it. And then everything changed.

I loved it. It was the most amazing book I had ever read, and even though it took me three days to read nineteen pages, I was hooked. I finished the book and begged my parents to the buy the second and the third. Two months later, the fourth book came out and I dragged my parents along to the midnight release at our local mall.

I began to read other books, looking for things similar to Harry Potter, and before the year was out I was two levels up in my reading at school.

I remember thinking one day, about two years later, that it would be the coolest thing on Earth to write books for a living. Not because I thought it was easy, or because you can do it from home, but because I wanted to do for others what J.K. Rowling did for me.

I went through school, keeping my dream a secret, afraid of what the adults would say. When I was sixteen, I eventually told my principle that I wanted to be an author. He pushed me to take journalism instead because “It’s pretty much the same thing right? Except journalism is a real job.”

I did what he said. I stopped writing and focused on school. I excelled in English, and all my teachers agreed that I would make a fine journalist. I forced myself to be happy every time I heard them say it, and after a while it worked. I would smile and nod and describe my plans to study journalism as soon as possible.

Then I finished school. I decided to take a gap year, maybe do a few courses, and learn some new skills, before jetting off to varsity. The first course I did was a creative writing course through the University of Cape Town and Random House-Struik.

After the first module, I realised that that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. All of my assignments were praised and I was told by my tutor that if I kept at it, I would be published someday.

I dropped the idea of journalism, and told my parents that I was going o be an author. They were a little horrified I think.

For three years, I wrote, trying my best to perfect my novel. Sometimes I would stalk away from my computer in disgust, lamenting my failure as an author and a human being. Other days I would sit at my keyboard for five or six hours and the words would just flow.

I sit here now, and I look back at that eleven year old boy, and I think about how far I’ve come. I may not have worked constantly toward my dream, but I never forgot it. And neither should you.