player-character.md

lang	en
title	Make a Player Character
author	Matthew T. C. Boyea
date	November, 2025
subject	Hex Divinity
keywords	hex divinity dungeons and dragons d&d dnd 5th edition 5e expansion
_style_	hex-divinity

Roll a new character quickly

Ability Scores

Roll 2d6+5 for each ability score. If player is experienced, you may allow them to switch around the order of their rolled scores.

Class

Choose the character class.

Race

Choose the character race.

Background

Choose the character background.

Name

Write down the character's name.

Personality

Give the character any number of Ideals (desire/fear), Traits (virtue/vice), and Bonds (ally/enemy).

Equipment

Select the character's equipment. Characters can carry any number of trinkets, and an amount of gear equal to their STR modifier before being encumbered.

An encumbered character faces penalties based on the amount of additional gear they carry, past their STR modifier.

• for each additional gear slot, lose 5 feet of movement
• for each 3 additional gear slots, gain disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution

Items that a character have equipped as armor or in either hand do not count towards gear slots. A character cannot carry gear that takes up more than 20 gear slots.

#/Slot	Item Size	Example
NA	Diminutive	Trinket, Parchment
10/1	Tiny	Vial, Torch, Twine, Rope, Water
1/1	Small	Weapon, Shield, Tool, Ration, Quiver, Coin Pouch, Tent (2-Person)
1/2	Small Two-Handed	Armor, Weapon (Two-Handed, Versatile), 10ft Pole, Tent (5-Person), Barrel (5 Gallon)
1/5	Medium	Barrel (20 Gallon), Chair
: Items Per Gear Slot {#tbl:items-per-gear-slot}

LV

A new character's LV is based on the highest LV among living party members.

LV	New Character LV
0 to 1	1
2 to 5	LV-1
6 to 10	LV-2
11 to 15	LV-3
16 to 20	LV-4
: New Character Level {#tbl:new-character-level}

Select skills and spells as needed for the chosen player level.

Limited Multiclassing

Multiclassing is allowed only after a character reaches LV 5 in all currently enrolled classes. The character must also have an in-world explanation for how they acquire their subclass.

Milestone Leveling

Downtime between adventures should be dedicated to training in the pursuit of gaining new skills. When a character wants to acquire a new multiclass, feat, proficiency, or any level above 10th in a given class, they must train with a skilled tutor or ally in a similar discipline. Each character must account for how they will survive during this time, often by spending their coin on food and lodging.

Combat

Combat rules have been modified to encourage speed, tactical movement, and coordination.

Flanking

When a creature and its ally can both reach an enemy and are on opposite sides of the enemy, they are flanking that enemy. When flanking an enemy, you have advantage on melee attack rolls against that enemy.

Stacking Advantage

When a creature has more than one source of advantage, any additional source of advantage gives a +2 to the roll. Each instance of disadvantage still cancels an instance of advantage.

Limited Opportunity Attacks

A creature must have a source of advantage on melee attack rolls to perform an OA (Opportunity Attack) on an enemy. Common sources include Flanking, Hidden, Spells like True Strike (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) and Ensnaring Strike (Ranger), and Abilities like Reckless Attack (Barbarian) and Steady Aim (Rogue).

Tarnished Weapons and Armor

When a creature rolls a critical failure on a skill check using gear, that gear is Tarnished. When a creature rolls a critical success to hit a targeted attack, the opponent's armor is Tarnished. If a character's armor is to be Tarnished, they may instead have a held item become Tarnished as a reaction.

Disarm Action

Using the Attack action, you can make a special attack action to knock an item from a target's grasp. If you're able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this replaces one of them.

The attacker makes a Strength (Athletics) check to contest the target's skill check. The target makes a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (with advantage if they're holding the item with two hands). If the attacker wins the contest, the target drops the item.

Hold Turn

A creature may hold their turn to decrease their initiative order. If a player is not playing out their turn within 10 seconds, they may be forced to hold their turn by the game master.

Speed Rolling

A player should roll their expected "damage" dice with their "to hit" dice at the same time.

Bloodied Condition

Creatures can tell when another creature is at or below half remaining HP (bloodied).

Death

A character dies when they have:

• 11 or more levels of exhaustion
• damage equal to double their maximum HP

Dying Condition

When a character accrues damage greater than or equal to their maximum HP, they gain the dying condition:

• While dying, you are considered unconscious
• When a dying character takes damage, they gain one level of exhaustion
• On your turn, you must roll a death saving throw (DC 10) or automatically fail it
  • A failed death saving throw gains you one level of exhaustion
  • A successful death saving throw replaces the dying condition with the recovering condition
• If a character is healed such that damage accrued is less than their maximum HP, they lose the dying condition

Recovering Condition

• While recovering, you are considered unconscious
• When a recovering character takes damage, they begin dying
• As a reaction, you may take one level of exhaustion to end the recovering condition
• In 1d4 hours, the recovering condition is removed, and damage dealt to you is reduced to one less than your maximum HP
• If a character is healed such that damage accrued is less than their maximum HP, they lose the recovering condition

Survival

Exhaustion

• For each level of exhaustion, a character recieves -1 to all d20 Rolls and Save DCs
• For each three levels of exhaustion, a character recieves -5 to their movement speed
• When a character reaches 11 levels of exhaustion, they die

See the Equipment page for the expected cost of meals and lodging.

Gear Conditions

When a creature rolls a critical failure on a skill check using gear, that gear becomes Tarnished. When a creature rolls a critical success to hit a targeted attack, the opponent's armor becomes Tarnished. If a character's armor is to be Tarnished, they may instead have a held shield become Tarnished as a reaction.

See the Equipment page for the expected cost of repairing and replacing gear.

Gear conditions are as follows:

• Pristine - The gear is protected once from being tarnished
• Tarnished - The gear is slightly less effective
• Ruined - The gear is unusable

See the Equipment page for details about gear conditions.