Of all the civilized races, humans are the most adaptable and diverse. Human settlements can be found almost anywhere, and human morals, customs, and interests vary greatly.

Play a Human if you want...
to be a decisive, resourceful hero with enough determination to face any challenge.
to have the most versatility and flexibility of any race.
to be able to excel at any class you choose.

Humans come in a wide variety of heights, weights, and colors. Some humans have black or dark brown skin, others are as pale as snow, and they cover the whole range of tans and browns in between. Their hair is black, brown, or a range of blonds and reds. Their eyes are most often brown, blue, or hazel.
Human attire varies wildly, depending on the environment and society in which they live. Their clothing can be simple, ostentatious, or anything in between. It’s not unusual for several distinct human cultures to live side by side in a particular area and mingle, so human armor, weaponry, and other items incorporate a variety of designs and motifs.
Humans average life spans of about 75 years, though some venerable members of the race live as long as 90 or more years.

PLAYING A HUMAN

Humans are decisive and sometimes rash. They explore the darkest reaches of the world in search of knowledge and power. They hurl themselves into danger, dealing with consequences as they arise. They act first and ponder later, trusting their will to prevail and their native resourcefulness to see them through perilous situations.
Humans always look to the horizon, seeking to expand their influence and their territory. They chase power and want to change the world, for good or for ill. Their settlements are among the brightest lights in a dark and untamed world, and humans constantly seek to explore new lands and settle new frontiers.
Their self-reliance and bravery inclines humans toward martial classes such as fighter, warlord, and rogue. They often prefer to find hidden reserves of strength in themselves rather than trust to the magic of wizards or clerics.
That said, humans tend to be a pious race, worshiping the whole pantheon of gods. Their myths name no god as the creator of the race. Some tales say the gods worked together to create them, infusing them with the best qualities of each race that had come before. Other tales say that humans were the creation of a god whose name is no longer known, a god killed in the war against the primordials or perhaps assassinated by another deity (Asmodeus and Zehir are often accused of the deed).
Humans are tolerant of other races, different beliefs, and foreign cultures. Most human settlements are diverse places where different races live together in relative peace. The human empire of Nerath, the last great world power, united many different peoples. Most of the human towns that have survived the empire’s fall are fortified bastions against the encroaching darkness. When elven forests are razed or dwarven mines overrun, the survivors often flee to the nearest human town for protection.
Despite the far reach and power of Nerath, humans in the present day are a scattered and divided people. Dozens of small kingdoms, fiefdoms, and free cities have arisen from Nerath’s ruins, and many of these realms are petty, weak, or isolated. Tensions and misunderstandings among them often precipitate skirmishes, espionage, betrayal, and even open warfare.

Human Characteristics: Adaptable, ambitious, bold, corruptible, creative, driven, hardy, pragmatic, resourceful, territorial, tolerant

Descended from both elves and humans, half-elves are a handsome race in whom the best features of each people often appear.

Play a Half-Elf if you want...
to be an outgoing, enthusiastic leader.
to be a charismatic hero equally at home in two different cultures.
to be a member of a race that favors the warlord, paladin, and warlock classes.

Half-elves tend to be sturdier of build than elves but more slender than most humans. Half-elves have the same range of complexions as humans and elves, and like elves, half-elves often have eye or hair colors not normally found among humans. Male half-elves can grow facial hair, unlike male elves, and often sport thin mustaches, goatees, or short beards. Half-elves’ ears are about the size of human ears, but they are tapered, like the ears of their elven ancestors.
Half-elves usually adopt the dress and hairstyles of the society they spend the most time with; for example, a half-elf raised among a barbaric human tribe dresses in the furs and skins favored by the tribe and adopts the tribe’s style of braids and face paint. However, it would not be unusual for half-elves raised among humans to seek out articles of elven clothing or jewelry so that they can proudly display signs of their dual heritage.
Half-elves have life spans comparable to humans, but like elves they remain vigorous well into old age.

PLAYING A HALF-ELF

Half-elves are more than just a combination of two races—the combination of human and elf blood produces a unique race with qualities all its own. They share some of the natural grace, athleticism, and keen perceptiveness of elves, along with the passion and drive of humans. But in their own right, they are charismatic, confident, and open-minded and are natural diplomats, negotiators, and leaders.
Half-elves like to be around people, the more diverse the better. They gravitate toward population centers, especially larger settlements where members of many races mingle freely. Half-elves cultivate large networks of acquaintances, as much out of genuine friendliness as for practical purposes. They like to establish relationships with humans, elves, and members of other races so they can learn about them, the way they live, and how they make their way in the world.
Half-elves rarely settle down for any length of time. Their wanderlust makes them natural adventurers, and they quickly make themselves at home wherever they end up. When their paths take them back to a place they have visited before, they track down old friends and renew old contacts.
Ultimately, half-elves are survivors, able to adapt to almost any situation. They are generally well liked and admired by everyone, not just elves and humans. They are empathetic, better at putting themselves in others’ shoes than most.
Half-elves naturally inspire loyalty in others, and they return that feeling with deep friendship and a keen sense of responsibility for those who place themselves in their care. Half-elf warlords and generals do not order their followers into danger that they would not face themselves, and they usually lead from the front, trusting their allies to follow.
Half-elves have no culture of their own and are not a numerous people. They usually bear human or elf names, sometimes using one name among elves and a different one among humans. Some are anxious about their place in the world, feeling no kinship with any race, except other half-elves, but most call themselves citizens of the world and kin to all.

Half-Elf Characteristics: Accommodating, adaptable, charming, confident, gregarious, open-minded.

Heirs to an ancient, infernal bloodline, tieflings have no realms of their own but instead live within human kingdoms and cities. They are descended from human nobles who bargained with dark powers, and long ago their empire subjugated half the world. But the empire was cast down into ruin, and tieflings were left to make their own way in a world that often fears and resents them.

Play a Tiefling if you want...
to be a hero who has a dark side to overcome.
to be good at tricking, intimidating, or persuading others to do your will.
to be a member of a race that favors the warlock, warlord, and rogue classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Tieflings’ appearance testifies to their infernal bloodline. They have large horns; thick , nonprehensile tails that range in length from 4 to 5 feet; sharply pointed teeth; and eyes that are solid orbs of black, red, white, silver, or gold. Their skin color covers the whole human range and also extends to reds, from a ruddy tan to a brick red. Their hair, cascading down from behind their horns, is as likely to be dark blue, red, or purple as more common human colors.
Tieflings favor dark colors and reds, leathers and glossy furs, small spikes and buckles. Tiefling-crafted arms and armor often have an archaic style, harkening back to the glory of their long-vanished empire.

PLAYING A TIEFLING
Hundreds of years ago, the leaders of the human empire of Bael Turath made pacts with devils to solidify their hold over its enormous territory. Those humans became the first tieflings, and they governed their empire in the name of their infernal masters. In time, Bael Turath came into conflict with Arkhosia, the ancient empire of the dragonborn, and decades of warfare left both empires in ruins. Bael Turath’s grand capital was thrown down in ruin.
Tieflings are the heirs of the surviving noble dynasties that ruled the empire. Their bloodline is tainted by their diabolical connections, passing to their descendants through all generations. In many ways, they are human; they can have children with humans, for example, but their offspring are always tieflings.
Centuries of other races’ distrust and outright hatred have made tieflings self-reliant and often too willing to live up to the stereotypes imposed on them. As a race without a homeland, tieflings know that they have to make their own way in the world and that they have to be strong to survive, and they are not quick to trust anyone who claims to be a friend. However, when a tiefling’s companions demonstrate that they trust him or her, the tiefling quickly learns to extend the same trust to them. And once a tiefling gives someone trust and loyalty, the tiefling is a firm friend and ally for life.
Although the nobles of Bael Turath subjugated themselves to devils, most tieflings of the present give little thought to gods or patrons of any kind, preferring to look out for themselves. Therefore, tieflings do not often follow the path of the divine; tiefling clerics or paladins are rare.
Tieflings are not numerous. Sometimes a tiefling merchant clan that is descended from a Bael Turath dynasty settles as a group in a land where wealth can purchase safety and comfort. But most tieflings are born outside such hidden dynasties and grow up in the roughest quarters of human cities and towns. These tieflings often become swindlers, thieves, or crime lords, who carve out a niche for themselves amid the squalor of their surroundings.

Tiefling Characteristics: Cunning, disquieting, imposing, mysterious, proud, rebellious, self-reliant, sinister, sly, unconventional

CREATED AS SOLDIERS for a war that spelled the end of an age, warforged are artificial beings that display a human level of intelligence and self-awareness. Warforged sentience developed as a side effect of their creators’ desire to have fully functional, adaptive battlefield units. With no great war to fight, no ancient legacy to claim, and only the vestiges of a culture developed within the past century, warforged are an emergent people. Integrated into the societies of peoples more numerous than they, warforged are famed for their endurance and focus, in labor as well as combat.

Play a Warforged if you want...
to be strong, tough, and built for battle.
to play a nonliving hero with a magical origin.
to be a great defender, particularly a fighter.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Warforged are bulky humanoids fashioned of plates of metal and stone. Supported by a skeleton of similar material and a muscular system of leathery, woody fiber bundles, warforged possess an internal system of tubes filled with bloodlike fluid that nourishes and lubricates their systems. Their powerful arms end in two-fingered, thumbed hands, and their feet each have two broad toes.
Warforged heads have simple humanlike features, and they have heavy brows and hinged jaws with no teeth. None have noses. Their eyes sometimes glow when they experience certain intense emotions, and their foreheads and pates bear runic whorls. Each warforged has a unique rune on its forehead, much like humans have unique fingerprints. This rune is known as a “ghulra,” a word that means “truth” in Primordial.
Warforged have an obviously artificial and sexless shape. They can’t reproduce themselves like other humanoids. However, their sense of pain seems limited to actual injury, allowing them to modify their own bodies more easily. Such physical modifications allow warforged to be as varied in appearance as other races.

PLAYING A WARFORGED
Often limited in experience, used to being occupied with various duties, and built for killing, a warforged has a straightforward emotional range. It likes working, takes pride in doing its assigned tasks well, and dislikes idleness and falling short of a goal. Pain and the threat of death, which a warforged often sees as the equivalent of oblivion, can motivate it to fear. Attachment to comrades and acquaintances can emerge as a gamut of emotions, not the least of which are joy and loyalty. Like any other being, a warforged can be driven to anger when that which it loves or desires is threatened, and it can come to hate those who are the sources of pain, fear, or other negative experiences. A warforged is often, however, a literal-minded being with simple and reserved feelings, along with reactionary passions.
None of this is meant to suggest that all warforged are naïve, emotionally crippled, or lacking in introspection, although all these can be true. If anything, a warforged can be more curious about the whys and wherefores of life and existence than those born in more “natural” ways. A few warforged develop deeply sophisticated observations and philosophies about what they perceive and learn. Others create an endless list of goals and chores to occupy themselves. Still others fall in with beings of a similar mindset, or become enamored of established creeds or religions. Some warforged have even lived long enough to develop a deep personality.
War and military conditioning color warforged behavior. Many warforged have keen insight when it comes to conflict, chain of command, and other elements of war and soldierly life. Further, most warforged are single-minded and efficient with their undertakings, especially in combat.
Issues of gender are unique among warforged. As sexless beings, many warforged never consider issues of gender, and they find such issues among other races curious or even worrisome. Other warforged adopt habits they find admirable or amusing, without considering gender or disregarding any possible incongruity. A few warforged develop a personality that is decidedly female or male.

Warforged Characteristics: Aggressive, alert, brave, curious, forthright, industrious, loyal, methodical, naïve, practical, reserved, simple

Carved from the bedrock of the universe, dwarves endured an age of servitude to giants before winning their freedom. Their mighty mountain fortress-cities testify to the power of their ancient empires. Even those who live in human cities are counted among the staunchest defenders against the darkness that threatens to engulf the world.

Play a Dwarf if you want...
to be tough, gruff, and strong as bedrock.
to bring glory to your ancestors or serve as your god’s right hand.
to be able to take as much punishment as you dish out.
to be a member of a race that favors the paladin, cleric, and fighter classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Dwarves average about 4½ feet in height and are very broad, weighing as much as an adult human. Dwarves have the same variety of skin, eye, and hair colors as humans, although dwarf skin is sometimes gray or sandstone red and red hair is more common among them. Male dwarves are often bald and braid their long beards into elaborate patterns. Female dwarves braid their hair to show clan and ancestry. Dwarven attire and equipment, including weapons and shields, are decorated with bold geometric shapes, natural gems, and ancestral faces.
Although they reach physical maturity at roughly the same age as humans, dwarves age more slowly and remain vigorous well past 150 years of age, often living to see 200.

PLAYING A DWARF
Proudly proclaiming they were made from the earth itself, dwarves share many qualities with the rock they love. They are strong, hardy, and dependable. They value their ancestral traditions, which they preserve through the ages as fiercely as they defend the carved structures of their mountain homes.
Dwarves believe in the importance of clan ties and ancestry. They deeply respect their elders, and they honor long-dead clan founders and ancestral heroes. They place great value on wisdom and the experience of years, and most are polite to elders of any race.
More so than most other races, dwarves seek guidance and protection from the gods. They look to the divine for strength, hope, and inspiration, or they seek to propitiate cruel or destructive gods. Individual dwarves might be impious or openly heretical, but temples and shrines of some sort are found in almost every dwarven community. Dwarves revere Moradin as their creator, but individual dwarves honor those deities who hold sway over their vocations; warriors pray to Bahamut or Kord, architects to Erathis, and merchants to Avandra—or even to Tiamat, if a dwarf is consumed by the dwarven taste for wealth.
Dwarves never forget their enemies, either individuals who have wronged them or entire races of monsters who have done ill to their kind. Dwarves harbor a fierce hatred for orcs, which often inhabit the same mountainous areas that dwarves favor and which wreak periodic devastation on dwarf communities. Dwarves also despise giants and titans, because the dwarf race once labored as the giants’ slaves. They feel a mixture of pity and disgust toward those corrupted dwarves who still have not freed themselves from the giants’ yoke—azers and galeb duhrs among them.
To a dwarf, it is a gift and a mark of deep respect to stand beside an ally in battle, and a sign of deepest loyalty to shield that ally from enemy attack. Dwarven legends honor many heroes who gave their lives to save their clans or their friends.

Dwarf Characteristics: Acquisitive, brave, hardworking, loyal, organized, stern, stubborn, tenacious, vengeful

Halflings are a small race known for their resourcefulness, quick wits, and steady nerves. They are a nomadic folk who roam waterways and marshlands. No people travel farther or see more of what happens in the world than halflings.

Play a Halfling if you want...
to be a plucky hero who is all too easy to underestimate.
to be likable, warm, and friendly.
to be a member of a race that favors the rogue, ranger, and warlock classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Halflings stand about 4 feet tall and weigh about 80 pounds. They resemble small humans and are proportioned like human adults. Halflings have the same range of complexions as humans, but most halflings have dark hair and eyes. Halfling males don’t have beards, but many have long, full sideburns. Halflings of both genders often wear complicated hairstyles, featuring complex braiding and weaving.
Halflings typically dress in clothes that match their surroundings and prefer earth tones and various shades of green. Their clothing and gear feature woven textures and stitching. Birds, river patterns, boats, and fish are common images in halfling art and decoration.
Halflings have life spans comparable to humans.

PLAYING A HALFLING
Halflings are an affable, warm, and cheerful people. They survive in a world full of larger creatures by avoiding notice or, barring that, avoiding offense. They appear harmless and so have managed to survive for centuries in the shadow of empires and on the edges of wars and political strife.
Halflings are practical and down-to-earth. They concern themselves with basic needs and simple pleasures, harboring few dreams of gold or glory. Adventurers are no more rare among halflings than among other races, but they usually pursue the adventurer’s life for reasons of community, friendship, wanderlust, or curiosity. Halfling adventurers are brave and faithful companions, relying on stealth and trickery in battle rather than raw might or magic.
Tight-knit halfling communities are found near the settlements of other races, often along or even on the surface of a body of water. Halflings have never built a kingdom of their own or even held much land. They don’t recognize any sort of royalty or nobility of their own, instead looking to family elders to guide them. This emphasis on family and community has enabled halflings to maintain their traditional ways for thousands of years, unaffected by the rise and fall of empires.
According to halfling legend, Melora and Sehanine created the halflings together, giving the race a love of nature and the gift of stealth. When their interest waned, Melora and Sehanine stopped looking after the race, or so the legends go, and halflings made their own way in the world. They say Avandra, the god of luck, admired their resourcefulness and adopted them, favoring them with good fortune. Not all halflings worship Avandra, but nearly all breathe a prayer of thanks to her when fortune favors them.
Halflings are fond of stories and legends such as the myth of Avandra, and their culture is rich in oral tradition. Few members of other races realize that halfling folktales contain a vast amount of lore about people and places long past. Many halflings are able to dredge up knowledge about the history, religion, or culture of other races, but that knowledge is usually wrapped in a fable.

Halfling Characteristics: Brave, curious, determined, down-to-earth, friendly, good-natured, lucky, nimble, optimistic, practical, resourceful, warm

Creatures of magic who have strong ties to nature, eladrin live in shining cities in the twilight realm of the Feywild. Their cities lie close enough to the world that they sometimes cross over, appearing briefly in mountain valleys or deep forest glades before fading back into the Feywild.

Play an Eladrin if you want...
to be otherworldly and mysterious.
to be graceful and intelligent.
to teleport around the battlefield, cloaked in the magic of the Feywild.
to be a member of a race that favors the wizard, rogue, and warlord classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Eladrin are of human height. They are slim, and even the strongest simply look athletic rather than muscle-bound. They have the same range of complexions as humans, though they are more often fair than dark. Their straight, fine hair is often white, silver, or pale gold, and they wear it long and loose. Their ears are long and pointed, and their eyes are pearly and opalescent orbs of vibrant blue, violet, or green, lacking pupils. Eladrin can’t grow facial hair and have little body hair.
Eladrin children grow much as human children do, but their aging process slows to a crawl when they reach maturity. They enjoy youth and health for most of their lives and don’t begin to feel the effects of age until the middle of their third century. Most live for over 300 years, and even at the end they suffer few of the infirmities of old age.

PLAYING AN ELADRIN
Eladrin society straddles the boundary between the Feywild and the natural world. Eladrin build their elegant cities and towers in places of striking natural splendor, especially where the veil between the worlds is thin—isolated mountain vales, green islands along wild and storm-wracked coasts, and the deepest recesses of ancient forests. Some eladrin realms exist mostly in the Feywild, only rarely touching the world, while others appear in the world at sunset each day, only to fade back into the Feywild at dawn.
Long-lived and strongly tied to the Feywild, eladrin have a detached view of the world. Eladrin often have difficulty believing that events in the world have much importance to them, and they consider courses of action that can last for centuries.
Their general detachment from the world can make eladrin seem distant and intimidating to other races. Their fey nature also makes them simultaneously alluring and a little frightening. However, eladrin take friendships and alliances to heart and can react with swift fury when their friends are endangered. Combined with their intellect, bravery, and magical power, this loyalty makes them powerful and respected allies.
Eladrin live by an aesthetic philosophy common to the Feywild and personified by Corellon, the god of beauty and patron of the fey. Eladrin seek to exemplify grace, skill, and learning in every part of life, from dance and song to swordplay and magic. Their cities are places of stunning beauty that shape and guide their natural surroundings into elegant forms.
Eladrin are close cousins to the elves and are occasionally called high elves or gray elves. Eladrin favor the Feywild and arcane magic more than elves do, but the two races hold each other in high regard. They share a burning hatred for the third branch of their race—the drow.
The Feywild’s most powerful eladrin, called noble eladrin, become so infused with their realm’s inherent magic that they transform into entirely new creatures. These noble eladrin take on characteristics of the seasons and other natural phenomena.

Eladrin Characteristics: Aesthetic, deliberative, detached, free, graceful, magical, otherworldly, patient, perceptive

Wild and free, elves guard their forested lands using stealth and deadly arrows from the trees. They build their homes in close harmony with the forest, so perfectly joined that travelers often fail to notice that they have entered an elven community until it is too late.

Play an Elf if you want...
to be quick, quiet, and wild.
to lead your companions through the deep woods and pepper your enemies with arrows.
to be a member of a race that favors the ranger, rogue, and cleric classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Elves are slender, athletic folk about as tall as humans. They have the same range of complexions as humans, tending more toward tan or brown hues. A typical elf’s hair color is dark brown, autumn orange, mossy green, or deep gold. Elves’ ears are long and pointed, and their eyes are vibrant blue, violet, or green. Elves have little body hair, but they favor a wild and loose look to their hair.
Elves mature at about the same rate as humans, but show few effects of age past adulthood. The first sign of an elf’s advancing age is typically a change in hair color—sometimes graying but usually darkening or taking on more autumnal hues. Most elves live to be well over 200 years old and remain vigorous almost to the end.

PLAYING AN ELF
Elves are a people of deeply felt but short-lived passions. They are easily moved to delighted laughter, blinding wrath, or mournful tears. They are inclined to impulsive behavior, and members of other races sometimes see elves as flighty or impetuous, but elves do not shirk responsibility or forget commitments. Thanks in part to their long life span, elves sometimes have difficulty taking certain matters as seriously as other races do, but when genuine threats arise, elves are fierce and reliable allies.
Elves revere the natural world. Their connection to their surroundings enables them to perceive much. They never cut living trees, and when they create permanent communities, they do so by carefully growing or weaving arbors, tree houses, and catwalks from living branches. They prefer the primal power of the natural world to the arcane magic their eladrin cousins employ. Elves love to explore new forests and new lands, and it’s not unusual for individuals or small bands to wander hundreds of miles from their homelands.
Elves are loyal and merry friends. They love simple pleasures—dancing, singing, footraces, and contests of balance and skill—and rarely see a reason to tie themselves down to dull or disagreeable tasks. Despite how unpleasant war can be, a threat to their homes, families, or friends can make elves grimly serious and prompt them to take up arms.
At the dawn of creation, elves and eladrin were a single race dwelling both in the Feywild and in the world, and passing freely between the two. When the drow rebelled against their kin, under the leadership of the god Lolth, the resulting battles tore the fey kingdoms asunder. Ties between the peoples of the Feywild and the world grew tenuous, and eventually the elves and eladrin grew into two distinct races. Elves are descended from those who lived primarily in the world, and they no longer dream of the Feywild. They love the forests and wilds of the world that they have made their home.

Elf Characteristics: Agile, friendly, intuitive, joyful, perceptive, quick, tempestuous, wild

Shifters are fierce hunters strongly influenced by their animal nature. Though they can’t fully change shape as their lycanthrope ancestors can, shifters do become more bestial during the heat of battle, calling on the primal power of the beast within.

Play a Shifter, Razorclaw if you want...
to tap into bestial strength or speed in battle.
to be a character in tune with your primal savage nature.
to be a member of a race that favors the druid, fighter, ranger, and warden classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
In broad strokes, shifters resemble humans with animalistic features. Their bodies are lithe and strong, and they often move in a crouched posture, springing and leaping along the ground. Their faces have a bestial cast, with wide, flat noses, large eyes and heavy eyebrows, pointed ears, and long sideburns. The hair of their heads is thick and worn long. Shifter skin and hair are usually some shade of brown.
Longtooth shifters claim werewolves as ancestors and have a vaguely canine cast to their features that becomes much more pronounced when they use their longtooth shifting power. Razorclaw shifters are descended from weretigers and are more catlike, particularly when using razorclaw shifting.
Shifters live about as long as humans.

PLAYING A SHIFTER, RAZORCLAW
Shifters are strongly influenced by their animal natures. They think and act like predators, conceiving of most activities in terms of hunting and prey. Longtooth shifters are drawn to a pack of companions, whether that’s a family group or an adventuring party. They work well as part of a team in combat, coordinating their attacks with their allies and coming to the aid of beleaguered friends. They’re drawn to the leader and defender roles, and they make excellent clerics, fighters, paladins, and wardens.
Razorclaw shifters are more independent, self-reliant, and adaptable. They’re no less devoted to their adventuring companions, but they trust their allies to take care of themselves, and they strive to carry their own weight in the group. They’re more inclined to be strikers or controllers, and they favor classes such as avenger, druid, ranger, and rogue.
Historically, most shifters dwelled in nomadic bands in plains and forests far removed from cities and towns. Since the fall of Nerath, however, the increasing dangers of the wilds have driven many shifters into closer proximity to human and elf communities. Some shifters have adapted smoothly to this change, carving niches for themselves as trappers, hunters, fishers, trackers, guides, or military scouts. Others have a much harder time fitting in. Shifters who feel alienated from the plains and forests they love sometimes take up the adventuring life as a way of escaping the confines of city walls and returning to nature. Some shifters, though, turn to a life of crime, preying on the residents of their new homes like the hunters they are.

Shifter, Razorclaw Characteristics: Active, alert, fierce, freespirited, intuitive, perceptive, predatory, self-reliant, unrestrained, wild

Male Names: Ash, Brook, Claw, Cliff, Flint, Frost, River, Rock, Storm, Thorn, Tor.

In the Feywild, the best way for a small creature to survive is to be overlooked. While suffering in servitude to the fomorian tyrants of the Feydark, gnomes learned to hide, to mislead, and to deflect—and by these means, to survive. The same talents sustain them still, allowing them to prosper in a world filled with creatures much larger and far more dangerous than they are.

Play a Gnome if you want...
to be curious, funny, and tricky.
to rely more on stealth and deception than on brute strength and intimidation.
to be a member of a race that favors the bard, sorcerer, warlock, and wizard classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Gnomes are smaller even than halflings, rarely exceeding 4 feet in height. Apart from their size, they resemble elves or eladrin, with pointed ears and chiseled facial features such as high cheekbones and sharp jaws. They have a more wild look than eladrin do, though, particularly in the hair that sprouts from their heads in random directions. Some male gnomes sprout tufts of hair from their chins, but they otherwise lack body hair.
Gnome skin tone ranges from a ruddy tan through woody brown to rocky gray. Their hair can be virtually any color, from stark white to blond and various shades of brown to autumnal orange or green. Their eyes are glittering black orbs.
Gnomes are as long-lived as eladrin, living over 300 years, but they show more of the effects of age. A gnome over the age of 100 has gray or white hair and skin that shows the wrinkled and weathered lines of a century of laughter, but even the oldest gnome retains the strength and agility of youth.

PLAYING A GNOME
In quiet forests of the Feywild and remote woodlands in the world, gnomes live out of sight and mostly beneath the notice of larger races. Gnomes dwell in homes dug among the roots of trees, easily overlooked and cleverly concealed by camouflage and illusion. They are fond of the burrowing mammals that share their habitat, such as badgers, foxes, and rabbits, and have a sense of kinship with these small animals that share their forests.
Unobtrusiveness is a virtue among gnomes. They grow up on games of stealth and silence, in which the winner is the last to be discovered. An adult gnome who draws attention in a crowd is considered dangerously rude. Gnome folk heroes are not mighty warriors, but tricksters who slip out of captivity, play great pranks without being detected, or sneak past magical guardians. They deflect both aggression and attention with humor, and they guard their thoughts with friendly laughter.
Gnomes also value a quick mind and the ability to come up with a clever solution to any problem. They appreciate witty conversation, especially rapidfire repartee. They are inventive and resourceful, although they have little interest in or aptitude for the kind of technology found in human cities. They have an innate talent for magic and a love of illusion, music, poetry, and story.
Eager to see what the world has to offer and willing to be awed by its wonders, gnomes greet the world with open curiosity. Gnomes who are drawn to adventure are most often driven by curiosity and wanderlust above any desire for wealth or glory.
Gnomes were once enslaved by the fomorian rulers of the Feydark, the subterranean caverns of the Feywild. They regard their former masters with more fear than hatred, and they feel some degree of sympathy for the fey that still toil under fomorian lashes—particularly the spriggans, which some say are corrupted gnomes. Gnomes are not fond of goblins or kobolds, but in typical gnome fashion, they avoid creatures they dislike rather than crusading against them. They are fond of eladrin and other friendly fey, and gnomes who travel the world have good relations with elves and halflings.

Gnome Characteristics: Affable, clever, crafty, curious, funny, guarded, inconspicuous, inventive, secretive, sly, tricky

Deep in the recesses of memory, devas recall what they once were: immortal servitors of the gods of good, spirits who chose to bind themselves to the world in mortal flesh. For millennia, their souls have been reborn to wage an endless war against the forces of darkness. Most devas are fiercely committed to the cause of good, because they fear what they might become if they turn to evil: A deva whose soul becomes corrupted risks being reborn as a rakshasa.

Play a Deva if you want...
• to have dimly remembered connections to a thousand heroic lifetimes.
to embrace the cause of good and strive for perfection in all you do.
• to be a member of a race that favors the avenger, cleric, invoker, and wizard classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
In appearance, devas are very similar to humans, but with an unearthly beauty and an uncanny stillness about them. They are almost as tall as dragonborn, but much more slender.
Devas’ coloration distinguishes them most strongly from humans. All devas have patterns of light and dark colors on their skin. The light portions are chalk white or pale gray, and the dark areas range from blue or purple to dark gray or black. In any individual deva, either light or dark can be dominant, with the opposite shade appearing in simple, elegant patterns on the face, chest, and shoulders. A deva’s hair is typically the same color as these skin patterns.
When sitting or standing at rest, devas remain almost perfectly still, except for the occasional blink of the eyes. They don’t fidget or twitch, and their eyes move only when they are actively examining something.
Devas do not have children. When a deva dies, his or her spirit is reincarnated in a new, adult body that appears in some sacred place, such as a mountain peak, a riverbank, or a desert oasis. The new deva retains enough memory of past lives to speak and understand multiple languages and offer the proper prayers and sacrifices to the gods of good.

PLAYING A DEVA
Devas are refined and polite. They follow the highest moral standards, but they are not afraid of violence. They believe that the pursuit of good is an eternal war with the forces of evil, embodied in rakshasas, demons, devils, and the evil gods and their servant angels. Devas wage that war in their hearts as well, constantly vigilant lest evil take root and corrupt their souls, transforming them into the creatures they most despise.
Because they remember, at least dimly, a life in the Astral Sea spent in close company with the gods, most devas are devout worshipers of the gods of good, especially Bahamut but also Moradin and Pelor. Devas seek to achieve a personal connection with the gods rather than approach them through temples and priests. They worship at meals in their homes, setting an empty place for the absent gods, and strive through meditation and prayer to become more like the gods they serve. Deva adventurers are commonly avengers, clerics, and invokers, who savor the experience of divine power flowing through them without any intermediary.
Devas do not have cities or societies of their own, and their numbers are so small that a deva can spend entire lifetimes without ever meeting another of his or her kind. They live among other races and, at least to some extent, adopt their ways. However, all devas remember elements of the life they had before their incarnation in flesh and the beginning of their cycle of rebirth, and they share some common cultural elements of dress, religion, and habits. Devas favor flowing clothes of fine silks, polished metal armor with winglike shoulder ornaments, and headdresses or helmets that suggest crowns or halos. In other ways, they prefer to live simply, without extravagance.

Deva Characteristics: Dedicated, devout, elegant, enlightened, introspective, mystical, refined, righteous, spiritual, thoughtful

Born to fight, dragonborn are a race of wandering mercenaries, soldiers, and adventurers. Long ago, their empire contended for worldwide dominion, but now only a few rootless clans of these honorable warriors remain to pass on their legends of ancient glory.

Play a Dragonborn if you want...
to look like a dragon.
to be the proud heir of an ancient, fallen empire.
to breathe acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison.
to be a member of a race that favors the warlord, fighter, and paladin classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Dragonborn resemble humanoid dragons. They’re covered in scaly hide, but they don’t have tails. They are tall and strongly built, often standing close to 6½ feet in height and weighing 300 pounds or more. Their hands and feet are strong, talonlike claws, with three fingers and a thumb on each hand. A dragonborn’s head features a blunt snout, a strong brow, and distinctive frills at the cheek and ear. Behind the brow, a crest of hornlike scales of various lengths resembles thick, ropy hair. Their eyes are shades of red or gold.
A typical dragonborn’s scales can be scarlet, gold, rust, ocher, bronze, or brown. Rarely do an individual’s scales match the hue of a chromatic or metallic dragon, and scale color gives no indication of the type of breath weapon a dragonborn uses. Most dragonborn have very fine scales over most of their body, giving their skin a leathery texture, with regions of larger scales on the forearms, lower legs and feet, shoulders, and thighs.
Young dragonborn grow faster than human children do. They walk hours after hatching, reach the size and development of a 10-year-old human child by the age of 3 and reach adulthood by 15. They live about as long as humans do.

PLAYING A DRAGONBORN
To a dragonborn, honor is more important than life itself. First and foremost, honor is tied to battlefield conduct. Adversaries should be treated with courtesy and respect, even if they are bitter enemies. Caution and discretion are key to a warrior’s survival, but fear is a disease and cowardice is a moral failing.
The drive to behave honorably extends into the rest of a dragonborn’s life: Breaking an oath is the height of dishonor, and attention to honesty extends to every word. A commitment made must be carried out. Ultimately, a dragonborn takes responsibility for his or her actions and their consequences.
A continual drive for self-improvement reveals an additional aspect of dragonborn honor. Dragonborn value skill and excellence in all endeavors. They hate to fail, and they push themselves to extreme efforts before they give up on something. A dragonborn holds mastery of a particular skill as a lifetime goal. Members of other races who share the same commitment find it easy to earn the respect of a dragonborn.
The dragonborn dedication to honor and excellence sometimes leads others to view dragonborn as arrogant and proud. Most dragonborn share a great pride in their race’s past and present accomplishments, but they are also quick to admire the accomplishments of others. Even though the tiefling empire of Bael Turath was the enemy of the ancient dragonborn empire of Arkhosia, dragonborn recognize tieflings as worthy companions or opponents, admiring their strength and tenacity as friends or enemies.
Dragonborn seek adventure for the chance to prove their worth, win renown, and perhaps become champions about whom stories will be told for generations. To win everlasting glory through mighty deeds, daring exploits, and supreme skill—that is the dragonborn dream.

Dragonborn Characteristics: Driven, honor-bound, noble, perfectionist, proud, reliable, reserved, rooted in ancient history

Goliaths are mountain-dwelling nomads who see life as a grand competition. Their scattered bands have never been major players in the politics of the lowland world, but they have wandered the mountain ranges of the world since the primordials first shaped the peaks and valleys. Tall and massive, goliaths revere the primal power of nature and use it to enhance their own strength.

Play a Goliath if you want...
to be tougher and stronger than nearly anyone else.
to master the rugged mountain slopes.
to be a member of a race that favors the barbarian, fighter, and warden classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Goliaths tower over even dragonborn, standing between 7 and 8 feet tall. Their skin is gray or brown, mottled with darker patches that they believe hint at some aspect of each goliath’s fate or destiny. Their skin is speckled with lithoderms, coin-sized growths of bone that appear like pebbles studding their arms, shoulders, torso, and head. A bony ridge juts over their gleaming blue or green eyes. Male goliaths are bald, and females have dark hair they typically grow long and wear in braids.
Goliaths have life spans comparable to those of humans.

PLAYING A GOLIATH
Goliaths are driven by a fierce love of competition. Anything that can be conceived as a challenge invites goliaths to keep score, tracking their progress against both their comrades and themselves. A goliath fighter might remark on how many times he has drawn first blood in battle within a particular dungeon compared to the party’s rogue, and he’s certainly mentally tracking his own performance against his last adventure. This competitiveness takes the form of good-natured rivalry among goliaths. As a race they have no patience for cheaters, gloaters, or sore losers, but goliaths can be very hard on themselves when they fail to measure up to their own past accomplishments.
Daring that borders on foolhardiness is also a common trait among goliaths. They have no fear of heights, climbing sheer mountain cliffs and leaping great chasms with ease. Their nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering instills in them an inquisitive interest in whatever lies over the next ridge or at the head of a canyon. To a wandering hunter’s mind, that curiosity can lead to better hunting grounds or a good water source that would otherwise go undiscovered.
Goliaths respect and revere the natural world, and goliath adventurers commonly draw on the primal power source. Druids and shamans are more common among them than clerics, and goliath priests—called skywatchers—invoke the spirits of nature and their ancestors far more often than they call on the distant gods of the Astral Sea. Some goliath tribes also honor Kord, Melora, and Avandra, particularly those tribes that have frequent contact with other races. Tribes that regularly trade with dwarves sometimes offer sacrifices to Moradin as well.

Goliath Characteristics: Competitive, daring, driven, inquisitive, powerful, reliable, restless, trusting

An obscure legend claims that when Corellon put out Gruumsh’s eye in a primeval battle, part of the savage god’s essence fell to earth, where it transformed a race of humans into fierce half-orcs. Another story suggests that an ancient hobgoblin empire created half-orcs to lead orc tribes on the empire’s behalf. Yet another legend claims that a tribe of brutal human barbarians chose to breed with orcs to strengthen their bloodline. Some say that Kord created half-orcs, copying the best elements from the human and orc races to make a strong and fierce people after his own heart. If you ask a half-orc about his origin, you might hear one of these stories. You might also get a punch in the face for asking such a rude question.

Play a Half-Orc if you want...
to be big, strong, and fast.
to harness anger into resilience and combat power.
to be a member of a race that favors the barbarian, fighter, ranger, and rogue classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Half-orcs favor their human lineage in appearance, but are distinguished by skin that tends to various shades of gray, broad jaws, and prominent lower canine teeth—though these are still a far cry from the jutting tusks of orcs. On average, they are taller and stronger than humans as well. Their hair is usually black, though it grays quickly with age. Most half-orcs who live among humans favor human styles of clothing and hairstyle, but a few adopt orc traditions, tying small bones or beads into long braids or bunches of hair.
Half-orcs don’t live quite as long as humans do. They mature quickly, reaching adulthood at about 16 years, and rarely live past the age of 60.

PLAYING A HALF-ORC
Half-orcs combine the best qualities of humans and orcs, though some would argue that the good qualities of orcs are few and hard to find. From their orc blood, half-orcs inherit great physical strength and toughness. They are fierce warriors, fleet of foot as they charge into battle.
Their human blood makes half-orcs decisive and bold, resourceful and self-reliant. They are adaptable and able to make their way in almost any circumstance. Although half-orcs often live on the fringes of society in human towns and cities, they still find ways to prosper in a world to which they don’t fully belong.
For all their good qualities, many half-orcs exhibit characteristics that polite society finds uncouth or undesirable. Half-orcs have little patience for complicated rules of etiquette or procedure and find little value in hiding their true opinions in order to spare someone’s feelings. They enjoy the simple pleasures of food and drink, boasting, singing, wrestling, drumming, and dancing, and they don’t find much satisfaction in more refined or sophisticated arts. They’re prone to act without much deliberation, preferring to overcome obstacles as they arise rather than consider every possible outcome and make contingency plans. These qualities lead some members of other races to consider them rude or crass, but others find their brashness refreshing.
Half-orcs generally live among either human or orc cultures—some in bustling human towns or cities, others among remote human or orc tribes. Most half-orcs have two half-orc parents, but sometimes half-orcs marry and have half-orc children with humans or orcs. Orcs show grudging respect to half-orcs for their considerable strength and for their cunning intelligence, which sometimes allows halforcs to rise to leadership positions in orc tribes.
Although possessed of many strengths, half-orcs frequently encounter prejudice in human communities. Thus, most half-orcs gravitate to careers involving physical labor or violence. For some, the life of an adventurer is either a natural extension of that trend or a way to throw off the weight of prejudice. The adventuring life also means finding a place in a group of allies and equals—a simple pleasure that is all too hard for many half-orcs to find in the world.

Half-Orc Characteristics: Brash, ferocious, hedonistic, impulsive, short-tempered, tough, uninhibited

Genasi are an inherent contradiction. Each genasi embodies the potential chaos of air and fire, the order of earth and water, or the ferocity of thunder and lightning. Genasi manifest one of these facets of their elemental soul at all times. Their race is passionate and nearly as diverse as humans. Genasi can be found almost anywhere.

Play a Genasi if you want...
to struggle or experiment with the order and chaos of your existence.
to look for adaptability in personality and physical appearance.
to be a member of a race that favors the
swordmage and warlord classes.

PHYSICAL QUALITIES
Every genasi constantly manifests an element (Genasi have no neutral, nonelemental state.) All genasi are born with one elemental manifestation, a genetic trait that is handed down from his or her parents. Some genasi learn an additional manifestation in late adolescence or adulthood, and a rare few have several.
Genasi are of roughly the same size and proportions as humans, though they tend toward broader physiques that are evidence of their physical strength. A genasi’s body is etched with energy lines that glow in a color associated with the element that the genasi is manifesting. The energy lines on a genasi’s body appear in a pattern that is common between members of the same family and sometimes between natives of the same area. The specific configuration of energy lines on each genasi’s face and head is distinctive, varying between individuals the way fingerprints differ between humans. Even when genasi change their elemental manifestation, each one retains his or her unique facial energy lines. To show off the energy lines etching his or her body, a genasi often wears clothes that leave at least some portion of his or her body uncovered.
Genasi skin tones and “hair” also vary depending on which element an individual is manifesting. Genasi don’t have actual hair—the substance that appears to cover their heads during different manifestations is a magical expression of their elemental nature.
The physical qualities that genasi display when using different elemental manifestations are summarized below.
Earthsoul: Brown skin; golden energy lines and eyes; bald with golden energy lines glowing on the head.
Firesoul: Ruddy bronze skin; fiery orange energy lines and eyes; flickering flames coming out of the energy lines on the head.
Stormsoul: Purple skin; silvery energy lines; glowing crystalline silver spikes on the head.
Watersoul: Seafoam green skin; bright blue energy lines; bald with blue energy lines glowing on the head.
Windsoul: Silver skin; light blue energy lines; glowing blue and gray ice crystal spikes on the head.
Genasi have an average life span comparable to that of humans, roughly 75 years. Some members of the race can live to the age of 90 or 100.

PLAYING A GENASI
Generalities about a genasi’s elemental manifestation are sometimes contradicted by the race’s changeable nature. In most regions where genasi live, the dominant manifestation is the one most closely associated with the region’s environment. The most extreme example of this truism occurs in underwater communities, where it’s essentially impossible for a genasi to survive without the watersoul manifestration.
In a city whose construction features a number of elevated features and possibly a lot of earthmotes (such as Airspur, the capital of Akanûl), the vast majority of genasi have the stormsoul or windsoul manifestation. In a hot climate or a place where creatures of flame hold sway (such as the city of Memnon in Calimshan), firesoul is the most prevalent manifestation. Genasi are noted for their presence in Akanûl, Calimshan, and Returned Abeir, but smaller pockets of genasi can be found most anywhere.
Genasi who have more than one manifestation think of themselves as having multiple personas. A genasi who is quick-tempered and passionate while manifesting firesoul might be a much more deliberate person while manifesting earthsoul. When free from the demands of travel or conflict, genasi who have multiple manifestations sometimes change manifestation as a method of expressing their mood or their intentions.
Genasi philosophers believe that genasi were created as a compromise between chaos and the world’s divinely crafted forms. A few genasi internalize that contradiction and struggle to eliminate one or the other of their natures, becoming maniacs of chaos or disciples of order, but those genasi are the exception. Most simply enjoy the connections that their elemental nature gives them to the world.
As children, genasi express only a single manifestation. In all but a few areas of Faerûn, however, genasi know family members and childhood friends who have manifestations other than their own, so that they grow up knowing the diverse elements their race is connected to.
Ambition and pride have strongly influenced genasi culture. Genasi are constantly aspiring to improve their station. Their societies bubble with a constant pressure for recognition of true strength and competence. In consequence, genasi social structures are nowhere near as stable as those created by other races.
Genasi have no longstanding animosity toward any other races. Neither can they be said to be sure friends of any other race—not even their own. In human cities, some genasi prefer to deal with one group of friends while manifesting one element and keep a different circle of friends in another manifestation. Other genasi find friends who can deal with all their forms.

Genasi Characteristics: Capricious, exotic, free-spirited, haughty, headstrong, impulsive, independent, passionate, quick-tempered, quixotic

Role: Controller. You exert control through magical effects that cover large areas—sometimes hindering foes, sometimes consuming them with fire.
Power Source: Arcane. You channel arcane forces through extensive study, hidden knowledge, and intricate preparation. To you, magic is an art form, an expressive and powerful method by which you seek to control the world around you.
Wizards are scions of arcane magic. Wizards tap the true power that permeates the cosmos, research esoteric rituals that can alter time and space, and hurl balls of fire that incinerate massed foes. Wizards wield spells the way warriors brandish swords.
Magic lured you into its grasp, and now you seek to master it in turn. You could be a bespectacled sage searching for dusty tomes in forgotten sepulchers, a scarred war mage plying foes with fireballs and foul language in equal measure, a disgruntled apprentice who absconded with your master’s spellbooks, an eladrin upholding the magical tradition of your race, or even a power-hungry student of magic who might do anything to learn a new spell.
A cloak of spells enfolds you, ancient rituals bolster your senses, and runed implements of your craft hang from your belt. Effervescing arcane lore pulses through your consciousness, a constant pressure craving release. When will you know enough magic to storm the ramparts of reality itself?

CREATING A WIZARD

Wizards have a range of powers, but tend to specialize in one of two character builds: control wizard or war wizard. Every wizard relies on Intelligence for attack powers, and secondarily on Wisdom, Dexterity, and sometimes Constitution.

CONTROL WIZARD

Your favorite powers restrict your enemies in various ways—crushing them in the coils of a lightning serpent, trapping them in a cloud of noxious vapor, or encasing them in ice. Intelligence drives your attack powers, so make it your highest ability score. Wisdom can help you maintain control over your enemies if you choose the orb of imposition form of Implement Mastery, so it should be your second-best score. Make Dexterity your third best score. Putting a good score in Constitution can help you stay alive by increasing your hit points and healing surges, as well as contributing to your Fortitude defense. If you choose the staff of defense form of Implement Mastery, your Constitution can also help your other defenses. Select powers that help you control the battlefield and make the best use of your high Wisdom score.
Suggested Feat: Improved Initiative (Human feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, Insight, Nature
Suggested At-Will Powers: cloud of daggers, thunderwave
Suggested Encounter Power: icy terrain
Suggested Daily Power: sleep

ILLUSIONIST WIZARD

Your mysterious powers cloud the mind and assault the senses. The imaginary landscapes and phantasmal creatures you create impede, distract, and redirect your foes. Nothing is what it seems when you’re in control.
Intelligence should be your highest ability score, since it governs your attack powers. A high Charisma score lets you enhance some illusion effects. Choose powers that have the illusion keyword, and take the Orb of Deception form of Arcane Implement Mastery to get the most out of them.
Class Feature: Orb of Deception
Suggested Feat: Phantom Echoes
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, Dungeoneering, Insight
Suggested At-Will Powers: illusory ambush, phantom bolt
Suggested Encounter Power: grasping shadows
Suggested Daily Power: horrid whispers

SUMMONER WIZARD

Terrifying creatures obey your call, and you order them to aid you and to fight for you. In addition to binding these monsters, you are skilled at conjuring objects made of magical energy to impede or harm your foes. You must use your own actions to control your summoned monsters, so your role in combat is quite different from that of other wizards.
As with other wizards, a high Intelligence score is crucial to attack rolls and damage rolls. Your summoned creatures’ hit points depend on your own, and many conjuration spells deal additional damage or have improved effects that depend on Constitution, so make that your second-highest score. Use the Tome of Binding form of Arcane Implement Mastery, since it improves your summoning spells. Select daily powers that have the summoning keyword, and encounter and at-will powers that have the conjuration keyword.
Class Feature: Tome of Binding
Suggested Feat: Careful Summoner
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, Insight, Nature
Suggested At-Will Powers: scorching burst, storm pillar
Suggested Encounter Power: astral wasp
Suggested Daily Power: summon fire warrior

WAR WIZARD

Your delight is in powers that deal damage—lots of damage, to many foes at a time. Enormous bursts of fire, searing bolts of lightning, and waves of caustic acid are your weapons. Intelligence is your most important ability score. Dexterity should be your second-best score, and it is important if you choose the wand of accuracy form of Implement Mastery. Make Wisdom your third-best score. You might instead choose the staff of defense form of Implement Mastery, which lets your Constitution aid your defenses against some attacks. Even if you don’t, Constitution increases your hit points, healing surges, and Fortitude defense. Select powers that deal lots of damage and that make the best use of your high Dexterity score.
Suggested Feat: Expanded Spellbook (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: magic missile, scorching burst
Suggested Encounter Power: burning hands
Suggested Daily Power: acid arrow

CLASS TRAITS
Role: Controller. You invoke the power of a god to blast your foes from a distance, leave them unable to defend themselves, and scatter them to the four winds. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you lean toward either leader or striker as a secondary role.
Power Source: Divine. You practice an ancient form of divine magic, wielding the power that the gods themselves used in their battle against the primordials.

At the dawn of time, the gods who inhabited the Astral Sea warred with the primordials of the Elemental Chaos, the mighty beings who shaped the world out of formless void. The greatest of the gods' mortal agents in that war were invokers, imbued with a fragment of the gods' own might to fight alongside them. No other mortal servant of the gods can claim the same kind of power. Through rites of investiture, avengers, clerics, and paladins gain the ability to manifest echoes of that power, uttering careful prayers and channeling divine energy through their holy symbols. You, however, channel your god's power directly. No mere symbol can contain it, for you speak the words of creation, shaping the universe to your and your god's will.
Perhaps you were trained in a secret monastery, or you studied in a library where the universe's oldest lore was preserved. Or perhaps you experienced the presence of your god firsthand and took a shard of divine power into yourself. You might even be an immortal born into flesh, slowly awakening to the awesome divine power that is your birthright. Whatever your past, you are among the gods' most trusted servants, bound to a covenant in which you swore to use divine power with great care. To what end will you wield that might?

CREATING A INVOKER

Invokers rely on Wisdom -- as an expression of their link to the divine will -- for the accuracy and potency of their attacks. Each invoker enters into a covenant with a god, a sworn pact in which the invoker agrees to fulfill certain duties in exchange for the divine power he or she will use to carry out those duties. The two most common covenants -- the Covenant of Preservation and the Covenant of Wrath -- lend themselves to two common invoker builds. Even though you must choose a covenant, you can choose any powers you like to help you fulfill it.

PRESERVING INVOKER

You defend your allies, combining defensive magic with prayers that hinder or prevent your enemies' attacks. Wisdom should be your highest ability score, followed by Intelligence, since you need foresight and cunning to protect your allies. Choose powers that grant defensive benefits to your allies or penalties to your enemies. The preserving invoker leans toward leader as a secondary role.
Class Feature: Covenant of Preservation
Suggested Feat: Insightful Preservation
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, History, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: sun strike, vanguard's lightning
Suggested Encounter Power: blades of astral fire
Suggested Daily Power: binding invocation of chains

WRATHFUL INVOKER

You are an instrument of divine wrath, smiting those who have the temerity to doubt the reach of your god's power. Make Wisdom your highest ability score, followed by Constitution, since your physical durability allows you to withstand and channel divine wrath. Focus on powers that bring ruin to your foes. The wrathful invoker leans toward striker as a secondary role.
Class Feature: Covenant of Wrath
Suggested Feat: InvokerRole: Controller. Your beast form gives you access to powers that provide control at close range, while your humanoid form allows you to hinder your opponents from a distance. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you might lean toward either leader or striker as a secondary role.
Power Source: Primal. You have gained your powers through a careful study of and communion with the natural world. Defense
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Insight, Intimidate, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: avenging light, grasping shards
Suggested Encounter Power: thunder of judgment
Suggested Daily Power: purging flame

Role: Controller. Your beast form gives you access to powers that provide control at close range, while your humanoid form allows you to hinder your opponents from a distance. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you might lean toward either leader or striker as a secondary role.
Power Source: Primal. You have gained your powers through a careful study of and communion with the natural world.

Secretive and enigmatic, druids call the wilderness their home. They are capable of running with a wolf pack, speaking with the most ancient trees, and watching thunderstorms from atop the clouds themselves. They regard challenges as tests, both of their fitness and of their connection with the wild places of the world. And though many druids project an outward calm, they have the cunning of the beast and the fury of the storm.
Whether you were born to the wilds or retreated from civilization, whether you chose your path or answered a call that whispered in your heart, you share a bond with the primal spirits of nature. You are neither their servant nor their master, but winds, trees, and beasts heed your words, for they recognize you as kin.
Call to the spirits, and they will entangle your foes or smite your enemies with the storm. Unleash your own spirit, and you will become the Primal Beast, uncaged and untamed.

CREATING A DRUID

Druids rely on Wisdom, Dexterity, and Constitution for their powers. You can choose any powers you like, but many druids choose powers that complement their choice of Primal Aspect.

GUARDIAN DRUID

As a guardian druid, you are a protector of the land and those who rely on it. Yours is the magic of earth, forest, and sky, the enduring aspects of nature that outlive any mortal tyrant. Your powers incline you toward leader as a secondary role. Wisdom should be your highest ability score, since your attack powers rely on it, but make Constitution your second-best score to heighten your endurance and your guardian powers.
Class Feature: Primal Guardian
Suggested Feat: Primal Instinct
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Heal, Insight, Nature
Suggested At-Will Powers: call of the beast, chill wind, grasping claws
Suggested Encounter Power: frost flash
Suggested Daily Power: fires of life

PREDATOR DRUID

As a predator druid, you hunt down and destroy those who despoil the natural world. Yours is the magic of the bared fang, the stalking wolf pack, and the blood-red moon. Your powers make striker your secondary role, with a focus on dealing significant damage along with your control effects. Make Wisdom your highest ability score to get the most out of your attacks, followed by Dexterity to enhance your predator powers.
Class Feature: Primal Predator
Suggested Feat: Primal Fury
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Nature, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: flame seed, pounce, savage rend
Suggested Encounter Power: darting bite
Suggested Daily Power: savage frenzy

Role: Defender. You are a melee combatant who uses spells to fight better.
Power Source: Arcane. You study ancient magical traditions and practice swordplay, developing arcane powers that work well with your physical attacks.

Swordmages apply the arcane arts to melee combat. The combat skills they possess are enhanced by the magic they wield. The flourish of a swordmage’s blade not only bites with steel, but also with fire, lightning, or other powerful forces.
You studied and practiced for years to master your skills. You mastered the fundamentals of arcane magic and combined this academic study with endless hours of physical training. You might be a young eladrin in search of your fortune, a stranger to the wider world outside the seclusion of your homeland; a self-trained genasi sellsword, gifted with an affinity for elemental magic; the scion of a disgraced noble human family, taught by the finest tutors in your youth but now a footloose expatriate; or a half-elf arcane champion, rigorously trained in a war magic academy to serve in the armies of your homeland.
Magical barriers of force swirl around you, protecting you from harm. The blade you carry is an extension of your being, both body and mind. It pulses with eldritch energy as you prepare to defend your allies and unleash magical fury against your foes.

CREATING A SWORDMAGE

The swordmage has two builds: assault swordmage and shielding swordmage. Intelligence plays into all your attacks, but you might emphasize either Strength or Constitution for added benefits.

ASSAULT SWORDMAGE

Your style of combat focuses on flashy attacks that call up elemental forces and throw your opponents around the battlefield. This method of aggressive swordmage combat spread from Returned Abeir to Toril through the heritage of the anarchs of Shyr. Your attacks use Intelligence, so that should be your primary ability score. Strength should be your second-best ability score, since it enhances your assault powers and keeps your base attack bonus high. Constitution helps your survivability and can be useful if you want to try some shielding swordmage powers. Most assault swordmages use a two-handed weapon (such as a greatsword or a falchion) to deal more damage, though they have a lower AC as a result.
Suggested Feat: Escalating Assault (Human feat: Weapon Focus)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Diplomacy, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: greenflame blade, sword burst
Suggested Encounter Power: flame cyclone
Suggested Daily Power: burning blade

ENSNARING SWORDMAGE

Appears in Arcane Power
You are a sly hunter who closes in on your prey, punishing an enemy for any missteps, and hounding it until it is vanquished. As an ensnaring swordmage, you are a clever defender who gains the tactically advantageous ground in a fight. You circle opponents and entrap them with careful swordplay, entangling spells, and cunning feints. You might also charge a foe to try to gain the advantage or to keep the creature from your allies.
Your use of spells to ensnare opponents requires physical and mental endurance. Intelligence should be your primary ability score, because it determines the accuracy and potency of your spells. You should also have a high Constitution score to strengthen your ensnaring spells.
Class Feature: aegis of ensnarement
Suggested Feat: Grasping Ensnarement
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Endurance, Insight
Suggested At-Will Powers: foesnare, stalker’s strike
Suggested Encounter Power: fox’s feint
Suggested Daily Power: dragon’s teeth

SHIELDING SWORDMAGE

You protect your allies with magical shields of force—and by keeping enemies away from them. This heritage is embodied by the Coronal Guard tradition, a discipline thatcan be traced over a thousand years to the armathors, the elite guards of the coronal of Myth Drannor. Intelligence powers your attacks, so it should be your highest ability score. Constitution applies added effects to many of your attacks, so it should be your second-highest score. A good Strength lets you take advantage of assault swordmage powers (giving you some added offense) and keeps your basic attack decent. You’ll want to keep a hand free to get your AC bonus from Swordmage Warding class feature, so you should use a one-handed weapon such as a longsword or a scimitar.
Suggested Feat: Retributive Shield (Human feat: Student of Sword Magic)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, History, Insight
Suggested At-Will Powers: booming blade, lightning lure
Suggested Encounter Power: chilling blow
Suggested Daily Power: frost backlash

Role: Leader. You channel arcane power into items that empower your allies and hinder your enemies.
Power Source: Arcane. The cryptic formulas of arcane magic and the complex recipes of alchemy appeal to you. You are especially knowledgeable about magic items.

Artificers treat mastery of magic like a technical skill. They see a pattern in energy and matter, and they develop an understanding of how to manipulate the flow of arcane energy in and around material objects and creatures. Artificers learn to channel magic into items by using complex chains of sigils and diagrams or by using magical materials. With their skills, they can assemble the perfect magical object for any situation.
As an artificer, you might have learned your craft through a variety of means. You could be a formal student of arcana who became interested in magic items and artifacts. Maybe you’re a tinkerer who devised magic tools in a musty basement. Or perhaps you are an explorer who found your knowledge in forgotten places.
With a bandolier slung across your chest, you carry an arsenal of alchemical compounds, magical implements, mundane materials, and tools. You mix reagents, drink potions, and craft items. And you use your knowledge to infuse yourself and your allies with arcane power. One day, your magical skills will carry you into legend.

CREATING A ARTIFICER

This article features the battlesmith. As a battlesmith, you focus on healing allies and strengthening allies with your spells. You infuse allies’ weapons and armor with magic, creating effects that shield friends while harming enemies. Your spells rely on Intelligence for accuracy and Constitution for potency.

BATTLESMITH

Improved healing and powers that improve allies’ abilities are the focus of this build.
Suggested Feat: Durable (Human feat: Toughness)
Suggested Skills
Suggested At-Will Powers:
Suggested Encounter Power:
Suggested Daily Power: Durable (Human feat: Toughness)
Skills: Arcana, Heal, History, Perception, Thievery

Role: Defender. You are extremely durable, with high hit points and the ability to wear the heaviest armor. You can issue bold challenges to foes and compel them to fight you rather than your allies.
Power Source: Divine. You are a divine warrior, a crusader and protector of your faith.

Paladins are indomitable warriors who’ve pledged their prowess to something greater than themselves. Paladins smite enemies with divine authority, bolster the courage of nearby companions, and radiate as if a beacon of inextinguishable hope. Paladins are transfigured on the field of battle, exemplars of divine ethos in action.
To you is given the responsibility to unflinchingly stand before an enemy’s charge, smiting them with your sword while protecting your allies with your sacrifice. Where others waver and wonder, your motivation is pure and simple, and your devotion is your strength. Where others scheme and steal, you take the high road, refusing to allow the illusions of temptation to dissuade you from your obligations.
Take up your blessed sword and sanctified shield brave warrior, and charge forward to hallowed glory!

CREATING A PALADIN

Paladins rely on Strength, Charisma, and Wisdom for most of their key abilities and powers. Constitution is useful as well, although no paladin powers are specifically based on Constitution. Paladins start with two common builds: the avenging paladin and the protecting paladin.

AVENGING PALADIN

You burn with the desire to punish the wicked and smite the unbelievers. In your view, the best way to safeguard your allies is to destroy your enemies with divine power and overwhelming attacks. Choose Strength as your highest ability score, since your most damaging attacks are based on Strength. Charisma should be your second-best ability score, and Wisdom your third. Consider wielding a big two-handed weapon such as a greatsword or greataxe, and choose powers that deliver the highest amount of damage.
Suggested Feat: Power Attack (Human Feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Heal, Intimidate, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: holy strike, valiant strike
Suggested Encounter Power: radiant smite
Suggested Daily Power: paladin’s judgment

PROTECTING PALADIN

You emphasize defense, guarding your allies, and healing and bolstering them with a few of your powers. You do not deal as much damage as the avenging paladin, but you are better at dealing with a wider array of situations. Your best ability score should be Charisma. Choose Strength for your second-best score (you’ll want a few Strength-based attacks), and Wisdom as your third-best score. The protecting paladin works best as a shield-carrying warrior, so you should probably use a heavy shield and a one-handed weapon such as a longsword or a warhammer. Select powers that help your allies, along with a few damage-dealing powers for when the need arises.
Suggested Feat: Healing Hands (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Diplomacy, Heal, Insight, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: bolstering strike, enfeebling strike
Suggested Encounter Power: shielding smite
Suggested Daily Power: radiant delirium

Role: Defender. You are very tough and have the exceptional ability to contain enemies in melee.
Power Source: Martial. You have become a master of combat through endless hours of practice, determination, and your own sheer physical toughness.

Fighters are determined combat adepts trained to protect the other members of their adventuring groups. Fighters define the front line by bashing and slicing foes into submission while reflecting enemy attacks through the use of heavy armor. Fighters draw weapons for gold, for glory, for duty, and for the mere joy of unrestrained martial exercise.
Regardless of your level of skill and the specific weapons you eventually master, your motivations determine who you defend and who you slay. You could be a noble champion who pledges your blade to gallant causes, a calculating mercenary who cares more for the clink of gold than praise, a homeless prince on the run from assassins, or a blood-loving thug looking for the next good fight.
Your future is yours. When you unsheathe your weapon, what battle cry flies from your lips?

CREATING A FIGHTER

You can choose any fighter powers you like for your character, but fighters naturally fall into four groups: the battlerager fighter, the great weapon fighter, the guardian fighter, and the tempest fighter. All fighters rely on Strength. Fighters also need Constitution, Dexterity, or Wisdom, depending on which weapon they favor. See “Fighters and Melee Weapons” for more information.

BATTLERAGER FIGHTER

You’re an unpredictable warrior who trusts the adrenaline rush of battle to pull you through as much as heavy armor does. Few aspects of life give you the charge that being in the heat of battle does, and you build up a fury when your enemies manage to hurt you. You thrive on taking it to those foes by wielding highly damaging weapons such as axes, maces, hammers, and picks. Strength is your focus, allowing you to make powerful attacks. You rely on Constitution to give weight to your attacks and to keep you in the fight. Like any other soldier, you count on brutal instinct to help you win the day, so Wisdom is important to you as well. The Battlerager Vigor class feature is designed to complement this build.
Suggested Feat: Power Attack (Human feat: Durable)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: brash strike, crushing surge
Suggested Encounter Power: bell ringer
Suggested Daily Power: knee breaker

GREAT WEAPON FIGHTER

You’re interested in dealing out the most damage you can. You prefer big two-handed weapons such as the greatsword or greataxe. You’re more interested in fighting hard than fighting smart. Your best ability score is definitely Strength. A good Constitution improves your ability to use high damage weapons, such as axes and hammers. Plus, extra hit points always help. Select powers that work well with two-handed weapons to make the most of this build.
Suggested Feat: Power Attack (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: cleave, reaping strike
Suggested Encounter Power: spinning sweep
Suggested Daily Power: brute strike

GUARDIAN FIGHTER

To fight better, you fight smarter. You’re willing to trade offense for superior defenses and better ability to control the battlefield around you. You fight with a heavy shield and a good one-handed weapon, such as a longsword, flail, or battleaxe. Like the great weapon fighter, you make Strength your best ability score. After that, prioritize your Dexterity to take advantage of weapons that can be improved by Dexterity-based feats, or your Wisdom to make the most of the combat superiority class feature. You’re hard to hurt and hard to move away from. Select powers that make use of your one-handed weapon and shield, as well as take advantage of your higher Dexterity score.
Suggested Feat: Weapon Focus (Human feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Heal, Intimidate, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers: sure strike, tide of iron
Suggested Encounter Power: covering attack
Suggested Daily Power: comeback strike

TEMPEST FIGHTER

Rather than a shield or a big weapon, you have specialized in fighting using a weapon in each hand. You see it as the best of both worlds—given the right training, you can deliver good damage and make up for the lack of a shield with deft parrying. Strength remains any soldier’s bread and butter, and good battlefield awareness—Wisdom—is a must. You also rely on speed, maneuverability, and agility—Dexterity—to get your dirty work done. Constitution is a tertiary ability for you, granting useful staying power against foes not so easily fooled by your fancy footwork and feints. The Tempest Technique class feature is designed to complement this build.
Suggested Feat: Two-Weapon Fighting (Human feat: Two-Weapon Threat)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers: dual strike, footwork lure
Suggested Encounter Power: funneling flurry
Suggested Daily Power: tempest dance

Role: Defender. You are sturdy and resilient, and you can assume bestial or treelike forms to destroy your foes. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you lean toward either controller or striker as a secondary role.
Power Source: Primal. You are a primal champion, a guardian of the natural world and custodian of all living things.

As mountains stand fast against the buffeting wind and trees bend but do not break in the storm, wardens are stalwart protectors who draw on the primal spirits of nature to defend the natural world from those who would corrupt or destroy it. Some wardens use the power of earth and stone to shield their allies from harm, whereas others summon the primal strength within themselves to increase their ferocity and tenacity.
As a warden, you might be the staunch defender of a tribe, chosen by the spirits to be your people’s champion. Perhaps you were visited by spirits at a sacred grove and charged with protecting it against a spreading corruption. You might have been raised by a bear or nurtured by dryads, chosen from infancy to stand fast against nature’s enemies.
Primal power waits in the ground beneath your feet, surges with every beat of your heart, and flows through your lungs with every breath. The world cries out to you, calling for a champion to defend it. Will you heed its call?

CREATING A WARDEN

You can choose any warden powers you like for your character, though many wardens focus on powers that complement their choice of Guardian Might. All wardens rely on Strength. Wardens also benefit from a high Constitution or Wisdom, depending on which expression of warden they favor.

EARTH WARDEN

You draw primal power through a link with the land, and the power of the earth strengthens and sustains you. Make Strength your highest ability score, followed by Constitution, which increases your AC as well as your hit points if you choose the Earthstrength version of Guardian Might. Select powers that channel primal energy through the land around you, hindering your foes’ movement or knocking them prone. You lean toward controller as a secondary role.
Class Feature: Earthstrength
Suggested Feat: Crushing Earthstrength
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Heal, Nature, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: earth shield strike, strength of stone
Suggested Encounter Power: thunder ram assault
Suggested Daily Power: form of the willow sentinel

WILD WARDEN

Your blood is a medium of primal power; nature’s vigor pulses in your veins. Strength should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom, which increases your Armor Class if you choose the Wildblood version of Guardian Might. Select powers that awaken the primal power within you, turning you into a vicious predator. You lean toward striker as a secondary role.
Class Feature: Wildblood
Suggested Feat: Wildblood Cunning
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Nature, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: thorn strike, weight of earth
Suggested Encounter Power: wildblood frenzy
Suggested Daily Power: form of the relentless panther

Role: Leader. Your spells inspire and invigorate your allies. Your spells also include significant control elements, making controller a natural secondary role.
Power Source: Arcane. You channel magical power through words and music, studying long and hard to master the power contained in the lore and sagas of old.

Bards are artists first and foremost, and they practice magic just as they practice song, drama, or poetry. They have a clear sense of how people perceive reality, so they master charm magic and some illusions. Sagas of great heroes are part of a bard’s repertoire, and most bards follow the example of many fables and become skilled in a variety of fields. A bard’s artistic ability, knowledge of lore, and arcane might are widely respected, particularly among the world’s rulers.
Art and magic share a sublime beauty, and, as a bard, you seek the place where the two meet. You might be a naturally talented wanderer who casts impressive spells almost instinctively, a student of a bardic college who learned ordered systems of magic and epic poetry, a warrior skald who mixes skill at arms with thundering music, a dashing performer known for putting on a good show even for your enemies, or a perfectionist who seeks the consummate formula that blends art and magic into a higher force.
A steady rhythm beats in the back of your mind as you brandish your sword. Your eyes and ears pick up the motion of the villains that surround you, and one glance tells you everything you need to know to defeat them. You whistle three staccato notes, letting your allies know the symphony of battle is about to begin.

CREATING A BARD

Your choice of ability scores, class features, and powers suggests one of two builds based on the storied virtues of cunning and valor. All bards use Charisma for their attacks. Intelligence increases the effect of tricky attacks, and Constitution is best for powers that inspire allies.

CUNNING BARD

The heroes of the past whom you hold as exemplars overcame adversity and escaped danger using their wits, by tricking their foes and concocting cunning stratagems. You seek to emulate those heroes, combining your winning personality with a keen intellect. You use Charisma for your attack powers, so make it your highest score, followed by Intelligence to improve the effects of your tricky powers. Constitution is a good third score. Look for powers that let you put your cunning to work. Most cunning bards focus on ranged attack powers, using a wand from a safe distance to orchestrate the flow of battle.
Class Feature: Virtue of Cunning
Suggested Feat: Advantage of Cunning
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Intimidate, Perception, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers: misdirected mark, vicious mockery
Suggested Encounter Power: blunder
Suggested Daily Power: stirring shout

PRESCIENT BARD

You have the foresight to navigate the twisting roads of luck and fate, emulating those heroes who were able to sense the truths beyond mere reality. By manipulating luck and glimpsing the future, you help your allies exploit every advantage, attacking your enemies’ weakest defenses and avoiding mishaps in combat. You wield a ranged weapon, with which you can cast spells at enemies from a distance while inspiring allies. As with other bards, you use Charisma for your attack powers, so it should be your highest ability score. Choose Wisdom as your second-highest score, since it enhances the effects of powers that use the Virtue of Prescience. A decent Intelligence score is useful for improving your Armor Class and Reflex defense, as well as boosting the knowledge skills that you often use.
Class Feature: Virtue of Prescience
Suggested Feat: Extended Prescience
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Diplomacy, History, Insight, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: guiding strike, jinx shot
Suggested Encounter Power: prophesied strike
Suggested Daily Power: arrow of warning

VALOROUS BARD

To your mind, the ancient heroes most worthy of emulation are those whose courage in the face of overwhelming odds carried them to victory. Your own fortitude and forceful personality inspire similar valor in your allies. Your highest ability score should be Charisma, since you use it for attack powers, followed by Constitution to improve your powers of inspiration. It’s a good idea to make Intelligence your third score. Choose powers that emphasize valor and endurance in the face of adversity. Most valorous bards focus on melee and close attack powers, wielding a sword in the thick of battle and leading by example.
Class Feature: Virtue of Valor
Suggested Feat: Strength of Valor
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: guiding strike, war song strike
Suggested Encounter Power: shout of triumph
Suggested Daily Power: slayer’s song

Role: Leader. You lead by shielding allies with your prayers, healing, and using powers that improve your allies’ attacks.
Power Source: Divine. You have been invested with the authority to wield divine power on behalf of a deity, faith, or philosophy.

Clerics are battle leaders who are invested with divine power. They blast foes with magical prayers, bolster and heal companions, and lead the way to victory with a mace in one hand and a holy symbol in the other. Clerics run the gamut from humble servants of the common folk to ruthless enforcers of evil gods.
As a cleric, the deity (or deities) you choose to revere goes a long way toward defining you, or at least how other people in the world see you. You could be a platinum-garbed envoy of Bahamut seeking justice throughout the land, a shadowy follower of Sehanine with a roguish streak, a burly disciple of Kord who believes the virtue of strength is sufficient for all challenges, or a dwarf cleric of Moradin bringing honor to the denizens of your mountain home.
Will you protect what is sacred to your god, quest for legendary holy artifacts, pursue a life of evangelical adventuring, or attempt all these deeds and more?

CREATING A CLERIC

The cleric has two basic builds to start: the battle cleric and the devoted cleric. Clerics rely on Strength for their melee attacks and Wisdom for their healing and non-melee prayers. Charisma also aids their abilities.

BATTLE CLERIC

If you choose to concentrate on melee, you find a good assortment of strikes to your liking. To achieve this build, make Strength your primary score. Make Wisdom your secondary score and assign Charisma as your tertiary score. Make sure to concentrate on powers that work with melee attacks, since these play to your key ability scores.
Suggested Feat: Weapon Focus (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Diplomacy, Heal, Insight, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: righteous brand, priest’s shield
Suggested Encounter Power: wrathful thunder
Suggested Daily Power: avenging flame

DEVOTED CLERIC

With this build, you choose to stand back and concentrate your abilities on keeping your fellow adventurers healthy and optimized. To this end, choose powers that grant bonuses and healing, such as divine glow and beacon of hope. Assign your highest ability score to Wisdom, with Charisma secondary and Strength tertiary. Make sure to concentrate on powers that use Wisdom for attacks, since this is your highest ability score.
Suggested Feat: Channel Divinity feat associated with your deity (Human feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Heal, History, Religion
Suggested At-Will Powers: lance of faith, sacred flame
Suggested Encounter Power: divine glow
Suggested Daily Power: beacon of hope

Role: Leader. You are an inspiring commander and a master of battle tactics.
Power Source: Martial. You have become an expert in tactics through endless hours of training and practice, personal determination, and your own sheer physical toughness.

Warlords are accomplished and competent battle leaders. Warlords stand on the front line issuing commands and bolstering their allies while leading the battle with weapon in hand. Warlords know how to rally a team to win a fight.
Your ability to lead others to victory is a direct result of your history. You could be a minor warchief looking to make a name for yourself, a pious knight-commander on leave from your militant order, a youthful noble eager to apply years of training to life outside the castle walls, a calculating mercenary captain, or a courageous marshal of the borderlands who fights to protect the frontier. Regardless of your background, you are a skillful warrior with an uncanny gift for leadership.
The weight of your armor is not a hindrance; it is a familiar comfort. The worn weapon grip molds to your hand as if it were a natural extension of your arm. It’s time to fight and to lead.

CREATING A WARLORD

Some warlords lean more on their Charisma, while others rely on Intelligence, but Strength is important to every warlord.

BRAVURA WARLORD

You lead through a combination of daring attacks and aggressive tactics. Using your powers is risky, but the rewards for success are great. You help your allies find the nerve to profit from bold maneuvers and punch into enemies head-on. Compared to other warlords, you’re oriented more toward handling heavy fighting yourself, and your attack powers rely mainly on Strength. Charisma is your second priority, for it lets you get away with your audacious stunts yet maintain the respect of your comrades. Mental acuity and quick reflexes in battle are valuable to any warlord, so Intelligence is also important to you. The Bravura Presence class feature is designed to complement this build.
Suggested Feat: Improved Bravura (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Heal, History, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: brash assault, furious smash
Suggested Encounter Power: luring focus
Suggested Daily Power: fearless rescue

INSPIRING WARLORD

You lead by exhortation, encouragement, and inspiration. Your powers help your allies find new surges of courage and endurance within themselves, helping them heal, shrug off debilitating conditions, and defend themselves from attack. Your attack powers rely on Strength, so that should be your best ability score. The benefits you give your allies, though, depend almost entirely on Charisma, so make that second best. Intelligence is your best third choice, so you can dabble in other warlord powers and to help your Reflex defense. Select powers that make the best use of your high Charisma score.
Suggested Feat: Inspired Recovery (Human feat: Toughness)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Diplomacy, Heal, History
Suggested At-Will Powers: commander's strike, furious smash
Suggested Encounter Power: guarding attack
Suggested Daily Power: bastion of defense

RESOURCEFUL WARLORD

You don’t limit yourself to a particular set of tactics, instead adapting to the mistakes and openings your enemies provide and endeavoring to create opportunities. You lead through a diverse selection of shouted commands, ongoing stratagems, martial stances, and flexible plans. Allies can expect help in a wide variety of circumstances. As is typical for a warlord, Strength is your primary ability, but your powers make use of Intelligence and Charisma, encouraging you to pick and choose among the powers that other traditions have to offer. The Resourceful Presence class feature is designed to complement this build.
Suggested Feat: Improved Resources (Human feat: Durable)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Diplomacy, Endurance, Heal
Suggested At-Will Powers: commander’s strike, opening shove
Suggested Encounter Power: hammer formation
Suggested Daily Power: calculated assault

TACTICAL WARLORD

Your leadership takes the form of quick commands, cunning strategies, and tactical superiority. Your powers guide your allies to extra and more powerful attacks, as well as helping them move quickly in combat situations. You also assist your allies by moving your enemies around or knocking them prone. You use Strength for your attack powers, so make that your best ability score. Intelligence is secondary, because your Intelligence determines just how effective a leader you are. Charisma should be your third best score, so you can dabble in other warlord powers and to improve your Will defense. Select powers that make the best use of your high Intelligence score.
Suggested Feat: Tactical Assault (Human feat: Weapon Focus)
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Heal, History, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: viper’s strike, wolf pack tactics
Suggested Encounter Power: warlord’s favor
Suggested Daily Power: lead the attack

Role: Leader. Your spirit companion bolsters and heals your nearby allies, and you can evoke other spirits to aid your allies and harm your foes. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you lean toward either defender or striker as a secondary role.
Power Source: Primal. The spirits of the natural world give you power and manifest on your behalf.

Shamans are inspiring and dangerous battle leaders. They command powerful spirit guides, and through them lead their allies. These nature spirits bolster their allies’ attacks and offer protection and healing when needed.
In a rite of passage or initiation, you pledged yourself to the spirits, to be their voice and hands in the world. Through ancient song and sacred ceremony, you have called a powerful spirit companion to your side. The primal spirits of nature affirm your will, guide the actions of your allies, and deal mighty attacks against your foes. You might be a venerable advisor to a tribal leader, a young traveler seeking to bring tales of a wider world back to your people, or a scholar devoted to the pursuit of nearly forgotten lore.
The spirits and voices of nature guide your every step. Their power flows through you, calling you to lead, to fight, and to triumph.

CREATING A SHAMAN

All shamans rely on Wisdom, and they also benefit from a high Constitution or Intelligence. You can choose any shaman powers you like for your character, though many shamans favor one of two different builds, letting their power choices be shaped by the form of their spirit companions.

BEAR SHAMAN

You excel at protecting your allies and preserving life. Make Wisdom your highest ability score, followed by Constitution so that you can better lend health to your allies. You’ll want a good Intelligence score to improve your AC as well. Choose powers that help guard your allies against attacks, restore hit points, or provide temporary hit points. Your secondary role is defender.
Class Feature: Protector Spirit
Suggested Feat: Shared Healing Spirit
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Heal, Nature, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: defending strike, protecting strike
Suggested Encounter Power: thunder bear’s warding
Suggested Daily Power: spirit of the healing flood

PANTHER SHAMAN

You wield the spirits’ power to see events before they unfold and to shape them as you like, guiding your allies’ actions in battle. Wisdom should be your best ability score, then Intelligence so that you can increase your allies’ tactical advantage. A high Constitution will improve your hit points and Fortitude. Choose powers that support your allies in melee, particularly allies who seek combat advantage and who relish quick movement. Your secondary role is striker.
Class Feature: Stalker Spirit
Suggested Feat: Stalker Spirit Adept
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Heal, Nature, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: stalker’s strike, watcher’s strike
Suggested Encounter Power: twin panthers
Suggested Daily Power: wrath of the spirit world

Role: Striker. Your attack powers are highly damaging and often weaken or hamper the target in some way. You can elude attacks by flying, teleporting, or turning invisible.
Power Source: Arcane. You gain your magical power from a pact you forge with a powerful, supernatural force or an unnamed entity.

Warlocks channel arcane might wrested from primeval entities. They commune with infernal intelligences and fey spirits, scour enemies with potent blasts of eldritch power, and bedevil foes with hexing curses. Armed with esoteric secrets and dangerous lore, warlocks are clever and resourceful foes.
However you came to your arcane knowledge, you need not accept the poor reputation warlocks sometimes endure. You could be a libram-toting scholar captivated by ominous lore, a foot-loose wanderer searching for elusive ultimate truths, a devil-touched hunter using infernal spells to eliminate evil, or even a black-clad mercenary who uses sinister trappings to discourage prying strangers and unwanted attention. On the other hand, you could be a true diabolist using your gifts to tyrannize the weak—some warlocks unfortunately are exactly that.
The pacts are complete. The rites have concluded. The signs are drawn in blood, and the seals are broken. Your destiny beckons.

CREATING A WARLOCK

The two basic builds of warlock are the deceptive warlock and the scourge warlock. Warlocks rely on Charisma, Constitution, and Intelligence. No warlock powers or class features depend on Strength, Dexterity, or Wisdom.

DECEPTIVE WARLOCK

You prefer spells that deal a little less damage, but that inflict a variety of penalties and negative conditions on your foe. You’d rather fight at range and avoid getting caught in close-up battles. Most of your attack powers depend on Charisma, so that should be your best score. Many of your powers receive a bonus if you have a good Intelligence score, so that should be your second-best score. Constitution should be your third choice since you might want to choose some Constitution-based powers. You need it for a good Fortitude defense anyway.
Deceptive warlocks should choose the fey pact or the star pact (see “Class Features”).
Suggested Feat: Improved Misty Step (Human feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Insight, Thievery
Suggested At-Will Powers: eldritch blast, eyebite
Suggested Encounter Power: witchfire
Suggested Daily Power: curse of the dark dream

SCOURGE WARLOCK

No subtlety here—you want to deal damage. You’re tougher than the deceptive warlock, and you’ve got powers to help you attack and defend in melee, as well as excellent ranged attacks. Your best attack powers depend on Constitution—make that your best ability score. Choose Intelligence second because it provides special bonuses to many of your powers and improves your Reflex defense and AC, too. Charisma is clearly your third choice.
Scourge warlocks should choose the infernal pact or the star pact (see “Class Features”).
Suggested Feat: Improved Dark One’s Blessing (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Arcana, History, Intimidate, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers: eldritch blast, hellish rebuke
Suggested Encounter Power: vampiric embrace
Suggested Daily Power: flames of Phlegethos

ELDRITCH PACT
You have forged a pact with mysterious entities that grant you your arcane powers. Choose one pact. The pacts presented in the Player’s Handbook are the fey pact, the infernal pact, and the star pact.

Dark Pact
You have forged a pact with the dark beings that lurk in the shadows of the drow civilization. Spells of darkness, poison, madness, and spite fill your mind. You might turn your powers to noble ends, but you always face the temptation to enhance your spells by hurting your friends—just a little.

Fey Pact
You have forged a bargain with ancient, amoral powers of the Feywild. Some are primitive earth spirits, grim and menacing; some are capricious wood, sky, or water spirits; and others are incarnations of seasons or natural forces who roam the faerie realm like wild gods. They bestow magic that ranges from feral and savage to wondrous and enchanting.

Infernal Pact
Long ago a forgotten race of devils created a secret path to power and taught it to the tieflings of old to weaken their fealty to Asmodeus. In his wrath, Asmodeus destroyed the scheming devils and struck their very names from the memory of all beings—but you dare to study their perilous secrets anyway.

Vestige Pact
You have forged relationships with vestiges—the remnants of powerful forces and entities that once exercised great authority or demonstrated awful capabilities. These remnants are diverse in their backgrounds and motives. As a vestige pact warlock, you can choose from between two or more vestige pacts to fuel your arcane power.

Role: Striker. You channel powerful magical energy through your body, exerting control over wild arcane magic to blast foes. You lean toward controller as a secondary role.
Power Source: Arcane. Arcane magic is in your blood, as a touch of either ancient draconic power or untamed chaos energy, and you unleash it through sheer force of will and physical discipline.

The sorcerer is the arcane antithesis of the wizard. Wielding raw, barely contained magical power, sorcerers channel bursts and blasts of arcane energy through their bodies. They gain their power not through rigorous study of esoteric tomes, but by harnessing magic in their blood, waiting to be tapped and shaped. If wizards wield magic as fighters wield swords, a sorcerer’s magic is the arcing greataxe of a raging barbarian.
You might be a proud dragonborn scion of ancient Arkhosia, calling on the draconic power of your heritage, or perhaps you were bathed in dragon blood as an infant to fill you with that power. You might have been born in a place where planar forces converged in strange eddies, infusing you with chaos, or perhaps you survived implantation of a slaad embryo, which left the taint of chaos upon you.
Magic pulses through your veins, calling on you to give it expression. As it grows ever stronger, will it consume you or transform you into magic incarnate?

CREATING A SORCERER

Charisma, Dexterity, and Strength are the most important ability scores for a sorcerer. You can choose any powers you like, but many sorcerers choose feats, skills, and powers to complement their Spell Source choice.

CHAOS SORCERER

Like the arcane power you wield, you can be reckless and hard to control. Charisma should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity. Select powers that use your high Dexterity to move your enemies, deal extra damage, or impose penalties on your foes.
Class Feature: Wild Magic
Suggested Feat: Arcane Spellfury
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Endurance, Insight
Suggested At-Will Powers: chaos bolt, storm walk
Suggested Encounter Power: bedeviling burst
Suggested Daily Power: dazzling ray

COSMIC SORCERER

Your blood moves in tune with the phases of the moon, the passing seasons, and the circling stars above. Charisma is your primary ability score, since you use it to attack and deal damage. Strength is your second-highest score, giving you better damage and adding special effects to your attacks. Dexterity is your tertiary stat choice.
Class Feature: Cosmic Magic
Suggested Feat: Student of the Cosmos
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Endurance, Insight, Nature
Suggested At-Will Powers: blazing starfall, burning spray
Suggested Encounter Power: ray of the moon
Suggested Daily Power: cosmos call

DRAGON SORCERER

You command the ancient arcane power that flows through dragons. Make Charisma your highest ability score, followed by Strength. Select powers that use your high Strength to deal extra damage, grant yourself a bonus, or hinder your enemies.
Class Feature: Dragon Magic
Suggested Feat: Implement Expertise
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Athletics, History, Intimidate
Suggested At-Will Powers: burning spray, dragonfrost
Suggested Encounter Power: tempest breath
Suggested Daily Power: lightning breath

STORM SORCERER

You embody the fury and power of a thunderstorm. Charisma is your primary ability score, since you use it to attack and deal damage. Dexterity is your second-highest score, contributing to your AC and Reflex and adding special effects to your attacks. Strength is your tertiary ability score.
Class Feature: Storm Magic
Suggested Feat: Tempest Magic
Suggested Skills: Arcana, Bluff, Intimidate, Nature
Suggested At-Will Powers: lightning strike, storm walk
Suggested Encounter Power: whirlwind
Suggested Daily Power: howling tempest

Role: Striker. Your oaths bring divine wrath upon the enemies of your god. With methodical devastation, you eliminate one foe at a time. You lean toward controller as a secondary role.
Power Source: Divine. You practice mysteries forgotten or forbidden by most religious orders, yet the power you wield is a gift from your god.

In secret temples far from bustling cities and priestly hierarchies, orders of esoteric warriors train their initiates in ancient traditions now forgotten or forbidden by most religious organizations. The champions of these orders are avengers—deadly weapons in the hands of their gods, imbued with divine power through secret rites of initiation. In battle, avengers swear to execute divine vengeance, entering a mental state that gives them unerring focus on a single enemy.
As an avenger, you were trained in a monastery, initiated through secret rites, and imbued with the power to smite your god’s foes. You might be a disciple of Ioun, sworn to hunt and exterminate the minions of Vecna until you one day face the Maimed God. You could be an agent of the Raven Queen, bringing death to those who would defy your mistress. Or perhaps you serve Bahamut as an agent of justice, bringing ruin to tyrants and oppressors. The organizations devoted to your god might view you as a heretic or a hero, but you answer only to your god and to the vows you swore upon your initiation as an avenger.
Where will those vows lead you? One thing is certain: Doing the will of your god is never easy and never free of peril.

CREATING A AVENGER

The three key ability scores for an avenger are Wisdom, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Avengers typically choose feats, skills, and powers to complement the ability score related to their choice of Divine Censure.

ISOLATING AVENGER

After you swear an oath of enmity, you keep your enemy beside you and drive other foes away. Your powers help you isolate one creature at a time and bring it down quickly and let you take vengeance when that creature’s allies get past your defenses. Your attacks use Wisdom, so it should be your best ability score. Choose Intelligence for your secondbest score, reflecting your keen tactical awareness. Select powers that help you sequester your foe from its allies.
Class Feature: Censure of Retribution
Suggested Feat: Toughness
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Religion, Streetwise
Suggested At-Will Powers: bond of retribution, overwhelming strike
Suggested Encounter Power: avenging echo
Suggested Daily Power: temple of light

PURSUING AVENGER

Once you swear an oath of enmity against an enemy, you pursue that creature wherever it goes. As much as it might try to escape your wrath, your powers let you follow it and punish it for trying to flee. Make Wisdom your highest ability score, and make Dexterity your second-best score to help you nimbly pursue your foe. Select powers that prevent your foe from moving away from you or that let you shift or teleport to the foe’s side.
Class Feature: Censure of Pursuit
Suggested Feat: Invigorating Pursuit
Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Perception, Religion, Stealth
Suggested At-Will Powers: bond of pursuit, radiant vengeance
Suggested Encounter Power: angelic alacrity
Suggested Daily Power: oath of the final duel

Role: Striker. You dart in to attack, do massive damage, and then retreat to safety. You do best when teamed with a defender to flank enemies.
Power Source: Martial. Your talents depend on extensive training and constant practice, innate skill, and natural coordination.

Rogues are cunning and elusive adversaries. Rogues slip into and out of shadows on a whim, pass anywhere across the field of battle without fear of reprisal, and appear suddenly only to drive home a lethal blade.
As a rogue, you might face others’ preconceptions regarding your motivations, but your nature is your own to mold. You could be an agent fresh from the deposed king’s shattered intelligence network, an accused criminal on the lam seeking to clear your name, a wiry performer whose goals transcend the theatrical stage, a kid trying to turn around your hard-luck story, or a daredevil thrill-seeker who can’t get enough of the adrenaline rush of conflict. Or perhaps you are merely in it for the gold, after all.
With a blade up your sleeve and a concealing cloak across your shoulders, you stride forth, eyes alight with anticipation. What worldly wonders and rewards are yours for the taking?

CREATING A ROGUE

The aerialist rogue, brawny rogue, cutthroat rogue, and trickster rogue are the four rogue builds. Dexterity, Charisma, and Strength are the rogue’s most important ability scores.

AERIALIST ROGUE

Appears in Martial Power
All rogues are known for their agility and daring, but you take both to the next level. Ducking under a giant’s club isn’t enough; you leap over it and cartwheel to safety. You’re a masterful mover and an expert top-story burglar, using your abilities to tumble into the fray, into high openings, and out of all sorts of tight spots. Dexterity is your primary ability score, because you rely on it for your attacks and acrobatic stunts. Charisma is secondary for you, useful in avoiding opportunity attacks if you employ the Artful Dodger tactic. Strength serves you well as a tertiary ability, helping your Athletics checks in particular.
Suggested Feat: Defensive Mobility (Human feat: Sure Climber)
Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Perception, Stealth, Thievery
Suggested At-Will Powers: deft strike, riposte strike
Suggested Encounter Power: fox’s gambit
Suggested Daily Power: handspring assault

BRAWNY ROGUE

You like powers that deal plenty of damage, aided by your Strength, and also stun, immobilize, knock down, or push your foes. Your attacks use Dexterity, so keep that your highest ability score. Strength should be a close second—it increases your damage directly, and it can determine other effects of your attacks. Charisma is a good third ability score, particularly if you want to dabble in powers from the other rogue build. Select the brutal scoundrel rogue tactic, and look for powers that pack a lot of damage into every punch.
Suggested Feat: Weapon Focus (Human feat: Toughness)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Intimidate, Stealth, Streetwise, Thievery
Suggested At-Will Powers: piercing strike, riposte strike
Suggested Encounter Power: torturous strike
Suggested Daily Power: easy target

CUTTHROAT ROGUE

Appears in Martial Power
Leave smiles and misdirection to the tricksters. Instead, you use your animal magnetism in a more beastly way, oozing menace and implying a willingness to allow those who cross you to linger in pain. A friendly manner is for the weak; you achieve your way through tough words, hard looks, and the ability to back up either. Your attacks use Dexterity, so that should be your highest ability score. Charisma follows as a close second, essential for getting your way by using Intimidate. Strength comes in third; it’s useful in delivering brutal attacks if you employ the Ruthless Ruffian tactic.
Suggested Feat: Press the Advantage (Human feat: Backstabber)
Suggested Skills: Bluff, Insight, Intimidate, Stealth, Streetwise, Thievery
Suggested At-Will Powers: disheartening strike, sly flourish
Suggested Encounter Power: termination threat
Suggested Daily Power: checking jab

TRICKSTER ROGUE

You like powers that deceive and misdirect your foes. You dart in and out of the fray in combat, dodging your enemies’ attacks or redirecting them to other foes. Most of your attack powers rely on Dexterity, so that should be your best ability score. Charisma is important for a few attacks, for Charisma-based skills you sometimes use in place of attacks, and for other effects that depend on successful attacks, so make Charisma your second-best score. Strength is useful if you want to choose powers intended for the other rogue build. Select the artful dodger rogue tactic. Look for powers that take advantage of your high Charisma score, as well as those that add to your trickster nature.
Suggested Feat: Backstabber (Human feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Thievery
Suggested At-Will Powers: deft strike, sly flourish
Suggested Encounter Power: positioning strike
Suggested Daily Power: trick strike

Rangers are watchful warriors who roam past the horizon to safeguard a region, a principle, or a way of life. Masters of bow and blade, rangers excel at hit-and-run assaults and can quickly and silently eliminate foes. Rangers lay superb ambushes and excel at avoiding danger.
As a ranger, you possess almost supernaturally keen senses and a deep appreciation for untamed wilderness. With your knowledge of the natural world, you are able to track enemies through nearly any landscape, using the smallest clue to set your course, even sometimes the calls and songs of beasts and birds. Your severe demeanor promises a deadly conclusion to any enemy you hunt.
When you catch sight of your quarry, will the transgressor perish by swift bow shots from a distance, or by the twofold blades that glint and glitter in each of your battle-scarred hands?

CREATING A RANGER

Rangers depend on Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom for most of their powers. Constitution is also useful, since it helps them stand up to damage. The three ranger builds presented here are the archer ranger, the beastmaster ranger and the melee ranger.

ARCHER RANGER

You are a master of the bow (or, rarely, the crossbow, sling, or thrown weapon). You prefer ranged attack powers, and you resort to melee only when there are no good targets left for your arrows. Most of your attack powers use Dexterity, so Dexterity should be your highest ability score. You find yourself in melee from time to time, so Strength is a good choice for your second-highest score. Wisdom should be your third-best ability score. Choose powers that reflect your preference for ranged weapons.
Suggested Feat: Lethal Hunter (Human feat: Human Perseverance)
Suggested Skills: Endurance, Heal, Nature, Perception, Stealth
Suggested At-Will Powers: careful attack, nimble strike
Suggested Encounter Power: evasive strike
Suggested Daily Power: split the tree

BEASTMASTER RANGER

Appears in Martial Power
(Excerpt from Martial Powers)
A deadly hunter, you specialize in double-teaming your enemies with the aid of a beast companion. Your beast is an extension of you, and thereby it is an invaluable member of your group. No other is needed to help you flank your quarry. Melee combat with the aid of your beast is your focus, so you favor Strength. You count on Dexterity for your AC and occasional ranged attacks, so your secondary focus is on that ability score. Wisdom, your tertiary ability score, makes you better at the Perception skill and gives you an edge with many ranger powers. The Beast Mastery class feature is designed to complement this build.
Suggested Feat: Lethal Hunter (Human feat: Improved Initiative)
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Heal, Nature, Perception, Stealth
Suggested At-Will Powers: circling strike, predator strike
Suggested Encounter Power: synchronized strike
Suggested Daily Power: partnered savaging

TWO-BLADE RANGER

You like to get up close and rely on the ranger’s famous two-weapon fighting style. Naturally, you prefer melee attack powers, and that means Strength should be your highest ability score. For your second ability, Dexterity is a good choice because it improves your AC. Make Wisdom your third choice, since it adds to your Will defense and provides a bonus to many of your powers. Choose powers that reflect your preference for fighting with two melee weapons.
Suggested Feat: Lethal Hunter (Human feat: Action Surge)
Suggested Skills: Acrobatics, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: hit and run, twin strike
Suggested Encounter Power: dire wolverine strike
Suggested Daily Power: jaws of the wolf

Role: Striker. You use powerful two-handed weapons to deal serious damage to your enemies. Your physical power and daunting presence can cause foes to cower before you, and you can temporarily increase your abilities by harnessing great bursts of terrifying rage. Depending on your choice of class features and powers, you lean toward either defender or leader as a secondary role.
Power Source: Primal. You are a primal champion, a warrior devoted to the natural world and an embodiment of your tribe’s fierce traditions.

Barbarians are savage warriors who deal out powerful blows from their mighty weapons. They charge from foe to foe and seldom feel the pain of an enemy’s strike. For barbarians’ foes, the moments of greatest terror come when barbarians call upon primal forces to lend power to their raging spirits. These rages, although temporary, give a barbarian incredible powers, a combination of skill, willpower, and a legacy of ancient tribal rituals.
As a barbarian, you have a link to powerful nature spirits and other primal forces bound to the warriors of your tribe by the songs and totems of your legacy. These spirits lend energy to your rages, transforming you into a devastating force on the battlefield. As you become more experienced, these rages transcend mortal limitations, manifesting directly as waves of elemental power or gifting you with supernatural recuperative powers.
When the heat of battle is upon you, will you respond with a sudden charge that fells with one mighty swing of your weapon, or with a prolonged rage that leaves destroyed foes in your wake?

CREATING A BARBARIAN

You can choose any barbarian powers you like for your character, though many barbarians favor one of two builds: the rageblood barbarian or the thaneborn barbarian. All barbarians rely on Strength. Barbarians also benefit from a high Constitution or Charisma, depending on which expression of the class they favor.

RAGEBLOOD BARBARIAN

You can withstand a great deal of physical punishment, especially when you are in the throes of rage. At higher levels, your powers, particularly your rages, visibly manifest the spirits sacred to your tribe. Strength should be your highest ability score, since you use it for your attacks, but make Constitution a close second. Charisma might be your third-best score, especially if you want to use some powers designed for the thaneborn barbarian build. Rageblood barbarians lean toward defender as a secondary role.
Class Feature: Rageblood Vigor
Suggested Feat: Weapon Expertise
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Endurance, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: devastating strike, recuperating strike
Suggested Encounter Power: avalanche strike
Suggested Daily Power: bloodhunt rage

THANEBORN BARBARIAN

You use primal power to fuel your mighty rages and lend power to your already imposing personal presence. Your combination of physical prowess and charismatic appeal draws allies to you as surely as it fills your foes with fear. Again, make Strength your highest ability score, followed by Charisma and then Constitution. Thaneborn barbarians lean toward leader as a secondary role.
Class Feature: Thaneborn Triumph
Suggested Feat: Rising Fury
Suggested Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, Perception
Suggested At-Will Powers: howling strike, pressing strike
Suggested Encounter Power: vault the fallen
Suggested Daily Power: macetail’s rage