L anguages                                                                Tika an d A rtem is: A lig n m en t
Tika Waylan is neutral good, fundamentally good-hearted
Your race indicates the languages your character can                      and striving to help others where she can. Artemis is lawful
sp eak by default, and your backgrou n d m ight give you                  evil, unconcerned with the value o f sentient life but at least
a c c e s s to on e or m ore additional languages o f your                professional in his approach to murder.
ch oice. Note th ese languages on your character sheet.                     As an evil character, Artemis is not an ideal adventurer. He
   C h o o se your languages from the Standard Languages                  began his career as a villain, and only cooperates with heroes
table, or c h o o s e on e that is com m on in your cam paign.            when he must— and when it’s in his own best interests. In
W ith your D M ’s perm ission , you can instead c h o o s e a             most games, evil adventurers cause problems in groups
                                                                          alongside others who don’t share their interests and objectives.
language from the E xotic L an guages table or a secret
                                                                          Generally, evil alignments are for villains and monsters.
language, such as thieves’ cant or the tongue o f druids.
   S o m e o f these languages are actually fam ilies
o f languages w ith m any dialects. For exam ple, the                    P erso n al C h a r acter istics
P rim ordial language in cludes the Auran, Aquan, Ignan,
                                                                         F lesh in g out your character’s personality—the array o f
and Terran dialects, on e for each o f the four elem ental
                                                                         traits, m annerism s, habits, beliefs, and flaws that give
planes. Creatures that sp eak different dialects o f the
                                                                         a p erson a unique identity—w ill help you brin g him
sa m e language can com m u n ica te w ith on e another.
                                                                         or her to life as you play the gam e. Four categories o f
                                                                         characteristics are presented here: person ality traits,
St   a n d a r d      La   n g u a g e s
                                                                         ideals, bon ds, and flaws. B eyond th ose categories,
 Language                           Typical Speakers         Script      think about your character’s favorite w ord s or phrases,
 Common                             Humans                  Common       tics and habitual gestures, v ices and pet peeves, and
 Dwarvish                           Dwarves                  Dwarvish    w hatever else you can im agine.
 Elvish                             Elves                    Elvish         E ach backgrou n d presen ted later in this chapter
 Giant                              Ogres, giants            Dwarvish    includes su ggested characteristics that you ca n use
 Gnomish                            Gnomes                   Dwarvish    to spark your im agination. Y ou’re not bou n d to th ose
 Goblin                             Goblinoids               Dwarvish    options, but they’re a g o o d starting point.
 Halfling                           Halflings               Common
                                                                         P e r s o n a l it y T   r a it s
 Orc                                Orcs                     Dwarvish
                                                                         G ive your character tw o personality traits. Personality
                                                                         traits are sm all, sim ple w ays to help you set your
Ex   o t ic    La    n g u a g e s
                                                                         character apart from every other character. Your
 Language                           Typical Speakers         Script      personality traits should tell you som eth in g interesting
 Abyssal                            Demons                   Infernal    and fun about your character. They should b e self-
 Celestial                          Celestials               Celestial   d escriptions that are sp ecific about w hat m akes your
 Draconic                           Dragons,                 Draconic    character stand out. “I’m sm art” is not a g o o d trait,
                                    dragonborn                           b eca u se it d escrib es a lot o f characters. “I’ve read every
 Deep Speech                        Mind flayers,                        b o o k in C andlekeep” tells you som eth in g sp ecific about
                                                            ---
                                                                         your character’s interests and disposition.
                                    beholders
                                                                            Person ality traits m ight d escrib e the things your
 Infernal                           Devils                   Infernal
                                                                         character likes, his or her past accom plish m en ts, things
 Primordial                         Elementals               Dwarvish
                                                                         your character dislikes or fears, your character’s self-
 Sylvan                             Fey creatures            Elvish
                                                                         attitude or m ann erism s, or the influence o f his or her
 Undercommon                        Underdark traders        Elvish      ability scores.
E   l v is h   S   c r ip t   : S   a m p l e    A   lph a bet