I just started playing Dungeons and Dragons?

Question

I'm just wondering if you can play as any miniatures? Could you play as a golden dragon or play as a giant or anything or is it only the orcs, humans and such? I will give best answer to the first person to answer my question!

Answer 1

It's D&D; you can play whatever you like.

As a technical matter, monsters are now given statistics to add character levels, so technically they can be played.

Realistically, unless your DM has worked a balanced campaign around playing monsters, it can quickly lead to unbalanced sessions as most materials, modules, magic items, etc., are designed around playing humanoids.

Still, there is no reason why a creative DM couldn't develop a giant-based campaign defending the dwindling giant homeland against the intrusions of pesky human settlers and unruly orc hordes while trying to negotiate a peace between rival clans.

(A 2nd edition module was made long ago that allowed characters to play the monsters in a dungeon where those annoying adventurers came tromping in. May not develop into a lasting campaign but might be fun to run something like this once in awhile!)

Answer 2

Are you asking if you can use any miniature no matter what type of character you are playing? For instance, you would be playing a Dwarf but you really like this dragon miniature and would like to use that to indicate your Dwarf, instead of a Dwarf miniature...

If that is what you mean then there should be no reason why you can't do that, so long as the dragon miniature is not too big so as to ruin the scale. It would be hard to use a miniature of a dragon to indicate your Dwarf when the dragon miniature is 5x the size of all the other miniatures on the board.

If you mean can you play a dragon INSTEAD of a Dwarf as a character, then it is completely up to the DM. You can always check out the 'Book of Humanoids' for alternate races that have already been officially approved by the makers of D&D.

Answer 3

Like M P said: It's D&D; you can play whoever you want. There are many races that are playable characters, and many more races that aren't meant to be playable, but certainly could be made that way, DM permitting. You can play as a giant. There are a few different types, like the Hill Giants and Storm Giants. I wouldn't recommend playing anything larger than a medium or large character. The Half-giants in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (for D&D v. 3.5) are good for fighting, because they get the Powerful Build special ability/trait that allows them to weild weapons for a character one size catagory larger, but they're still only medium characters. Plus, they get the size bonus for grapple checks as though they were large-size, but they don't take the -1 to AC. And if you talk to your DM, you might be able to come to a compromise about dropping the Psi-like abilities, heat resistance, and darkvision to take the level adjustment to +0 from +1 while keeping the racial ability score bonuses and Powerful Build.

Answer 4

The answer to that is yes.

In Monster Manual 1 there are a series of rules that allow you to play as any monster class you want.

It usually isn't worth it though, since player levels are SO much more powerful than what 90% of a monster's racial bonus whould give it. Take two level 10 chracters. A charcter with 10 levels of warrior will almost certainly be more dangerous than a gaint with 4 levels of gaint and 6 levels of warrior. In the end magic items can make the difference in stregth be a minor mone, and all the extra feats those 4 levels give make the warrior a lot more flexable.

Generally, level penalties over 2 aren't really worth it unless you want to role-play the race, combat-wise it isn't worth it unless you are very creative with your bonuses.

Answer 5

Normally you cannot play a dragon. But if you have a creative DM who wants to create attributes for a dragon I suppose you can.