Do you have/use pre-built, ready-to-use characters?

[Greywander]

Usually, when starting a new campaign you would discuss with the DM what sort of campaign it will be so you know what to prepare for, and coordinate with other players to make sure you have a well-balanced team. Sometimes, this might not be an option. In particular, I'm thinking of times when you're joining a new group you've never played with before, possibly in the middle of an existing campaign. Maybe it's a last minute invite, and you don't want to bog things down crafting the perfect character.

For such situations, it seems like it would be a good idea to have a few stock characters that you've pre-built and can pull out at a moment's notice. Ideally, you want something that could fit into just about any campaign with any party, and doesn't rely on homebrew or third party sources, or even some of the more controversial official sources (UA, multiclassing, flying races, Booming Blade, Oathbreaker paladin, etc.).

I've been thinking about this, and I think one such stock character I could use would be a hill dwarf cleric. Specifically a Knowledge domain cleric, but I can be flexible and swap domains depending on the specific needs of the campaign or party. Almost every party can use a cleric, even if they already have one, and this build doesn't contain any controversial options. In fact, it's so run-of-the-mill that it might come off as bland. Which is actually kind of handy, as it let's my character stay in the background and provide support when needed rather than hogging the spotlight with a convoluted backstory to justify a collection of eclectic character options.

After reading some of the lore regarding Moradin, I've also come to like him as a deity, so I think that also fits well.

Normally, I'd like to play a wizard, but wizards are complex and require you to know both your DM and how they'll handle magic that is more open to interpretation, such as illusions, and your party to make sure you can work together as a team. Just as many parties see clerics as nothing more than healbots, many parties see wizards as nothing more than blasters. Blasting is often one of the least useful things a wizard can do, though.

Likewise, I'd rather not play a CHA character with a new group, as I'm an introvert and wouldn't be comfortable RPing with a new group. Once I've gotten to know the group and am more comfortable, then I can pull out that paladin or warlock build to use.

I'm considering rogue as another option for a stock character, but I'm still unsure on race and subclass choices, or whether to go for range or melee. Range might be better so I can sidestep a possible BB controversy. Might go AT, though, which would push me toward using BB.

How about you? What sort of stock characters do you have ready to go? Have you ever had a chance to play them?

[Pex]

I want to play the character I make, not what someone else made. Premades always have build choices I would never make and don't want to play. Other people may enjoy things I don't. That's good for them, but when given a premade I'll be wanting to make changes.

[JumboWheat01]

I have so many character plans ready to go for the next game I play that it's not even funny. I do have a few I'd probably play first regardless if I can, like my plans for a gnome trickery cleric or a dwarf bard, but I have more than enough variety that if something like that's not a good fit, from ranged to melee, martial to arcanist to divine. So many options.

Plus, it never hurts to have back-up plans for when your dice are just plain mean. I'd rather not have "Bob Bobsson the Fourth" be what I'm currently playing.

[FrancisBean]

I want to play the character I make, not what someone else made. Premades always have build choices I would never make and don't want to play. Other people may enjoy things I don't. That's good for them, but when given a premade I'll be wanting to make changes.

I think the question was about whether you keep some of your own pre-made characters around, ready to play, not about whether DMs should have some ready for players on short notice.

For me, I don't get to start new characters often enough to need pre-mades, although that used to be the case. On the other paw, one friend of mine had the same 2 characters he always played. Sometimes he'd change the names... Sometimes he wouldn't even bother. (A Halfling Rogue and a Half-Orc Barbarian.)The only time I saw him play anything else was on a dare, and that character didn't even survive the first session. (Chugging dwarven spirits, turning green and hurking onto Erythnul in an interdimensional bar, well....)

That said, I've been having an itch lately to try to make a strength-based rogue using a whip and darts for reach and range on SA, on the grounds that most of your damage comes from SA anyway.... I might keep him around for the next opportunity. Then again-- hey, look, squirrel!

[Potato_Priest]

I don’t, but I do have a “standard” character I roll up to use when it’s me in the situation of needing a character fast.

It’s a variant human fighter with high dex, the archery fighting style, and the healer feat. It’s good at support and in-combat, very flexible, and incredibly simple to build and play.

[Lunali]

I keep several in my head, some I build out completely, but usually I save that for if I'm going to actually play them, as that part only really takes a few minutes.

[leogobsin]

I really love making characters and have had very few chances to be a player, so I've got I think eight or so characters that I've made up rough character sheets that I could tweak specifics (starting level, ability score method, etc.) to fit into a campaign basically at a moment's notice. Not all of them would fit into any campaign (like, one's a Warforged, one is using Revised Ranger), but there's enough variety in the selection that I've probably got something that could fit into any given game I'd be playing.

[Crgaston]

I use a character builder app on my phone. There are several available, but I really like the one by Walter Kammmerer.

I just counted and I have 26 different characters stored in there, to say nothing of all the ones I've built and then discarded.

Once you have a concept, it doesn't take very long to build one... like seriously less than 10 minutes. Spell lists take longer, obviously.

[birdboye713]

I started this recently, but I made a character I've started using for short-notice games, especially with newbies. I have a Half-Elf Lore Bard. I chose mostly support and control spells and take a back seat to the others. Occasionally I step up into the front and cast charm person or friends, because it somehow took me multiple years of playing to realize that charm spells are really useful (at least with my dm). This character is especially useful, as these games typically have very "spontaneous" and "wacky" characters and I use this character to be the voice of reason.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

I am the Forever DM.

I have DOZENS of prebuilt characters. For that one day. That magical, paradise day...