Advancing in a class makes a player’s character more powerful and better able to affect change in the world. It broadens their skillset and better equips them to be heroes.


Consider What “Role” You Want

Some players pick a class by flipping through the D&D Player’s Handbook until they find a picture they like. That’s fine, but you’ll have way more fun if you consider what role you want your hero to have first. Choosing a class before choosing your preferred role can lead to more “What would a typical barbarian do here?” moments than “How can I best express my character here?” moments.


Think about how you want to participate in a D&D game, the kinds of things you want your character to do or what you want their personality to be. Do you want to lay low until an opportunity presents itself? Are you constantly ingratiating yourself with people? Are you obsessive about growing stronger? Are you charismatic enough to collect a cult? How will you interact with your party and with the world your Dungeon Master presents you? This will obviously change on a case-by-case basis, yet it’s helpful to have some guiding principles in your head. For example, there are lots of different kinds of wizards—innocent and bookish or megalomaniac and chaos-driven, for example—but also, characters of two classes can have the same role: a master tactician fighter and a master tactician wizard.