4.4 KiB
Roll-Your-Character Build Flow — Implementation Spec
This is the guided, dice-driven character creation flow referenced in the build prompt. It should work for both a DM building a character for a player and a player building their own, and the UI must tell the user exactly which die to roll at each step (this is the whole point of the feature — it should feel like rolling at a physical table, not filling out a form).
Model this as a state machine on Character.buildStage (see Prisma schema) with
the in-progress rolls/choices held in Character.buildState (JSON) until the
build is finalized, at which point the real columns (species, characterClass,
ability scores, proficiencies) get set and buildStage becomes COMPLETE.
Step 1 — Roll Species (d6)
Tell the player: "Roll a d6." Then offer the choice(s) that result maps to. Most rolls offer 2 species to pick between; keep the flavor text short.
| d6 Roll | Choose between |
|---|---|
| 1 | Human or Half-Elf |
| 2 | Elf or Gnome |
| 3 | Dwarf or Halfling |
| 4 | Dragonborn or Tiefling |
| 5 | Half-Orc or Orc |
| 6 | Wildcard — pick any species |
If the player rolls Half-Elf, immediately prompt for which two abilities (other than Charisma) get the flexible +1 — this choice has to happen here, not be silently defaulted (see GAME_RULES_REFERENCE.md).
Step 2 — Roll Class (d8)
Tell the player: "Roll a d8."
| d8 Roll | Choose between |
|---|---|
| 1 | Fighter or Barbarian |
| 2 | Rogue or Ranger |
| 3 | Wizard or Sorcerer |
| 4 | Cleric or Paladin |
| 5 | Bard or Warlock |
| 6 | Druid or Monk |
| 7 | Reroll once, keep either result |
| 8 | Wildcard — pick any class |
Step 3 — Roll Motivation (d6, optional flavor)
Tell the player: "Roll a d6" (optional — DM can skip this step for the whole campaign via a campaign setting).
| d6 Roll | Motivation |
|---|---|
| 1 | Revenge for a past wrong |
| 2 | Seeking fortune or wealth |
| 3 | Protecting someone they love |
| 4 | Redemption for a past mistake |
| 5 | Driven by curiosity or knowledge |
| 6 | Duty or oath to a cause or order |
Store this as free text on the character (a motivation field, or fold it into
notes) — it's flavor, not a mechanical input.
Step 4 — Roll Ability Scores
Standard method: roll 4d6, drop the lowest die, sum the remaining 3 — six times, once per ability (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA). Let the UI roll these (server-side, so results can't be tampered with client-side) and then let the player assign each of the six results to an ability score of their choice. Show the running math live (base roll → + species bonus → final score → modifier) as they assign, using the calculation module from GAME_RULES_REFERENCE.md — don't let this drift out of sync with the sheet view.
Step 5 — Skill & Save Proficiencies
Present the 18 skills with their governing ability (seed-data/skills.json) and
let the player check proficiencies — respect each class's normal "choose N
skills from list" limits if you want to be strict, or keep v1 permissive (DM can
always correct it). Saving throw proficiencies are not a choice — they're
fixed per class (seed-data/classes.json) and should just be set automatically.
Step 6 — Starting Equipment
Pull startingItemCount and startingSpellCount from the campaign's settings
(DM configures these when creating/configuring the campaign — see
Campaign.startingItemCount / Campaign.startingSpellCount in the schema).
Let the player pick that many starting items from the campaign's weapon/item
pool and, if their class has spellcasting, that many starting spells from the
campaign's spell list.
Step 7 — Finalize
Compute and freeze HP max (currentHp = hpMax on finalize), AC, initiative, and
all derived stats via the calculation module. Set buildStage = COMPLETE. From
this point the character sheet is editable directly (level up, stat changes,
inventory, notes) rather than walking the dice flow again.
UI Notes
- Every step should show a big, obvious "Roll d_N_" button that triggers a server-side roll (never trust a client-submitted roll result) and animates/ displays the die result before revealing the choice(s) it maps to.
- The DM should be able to build a character for a player using this exact same flow (same component, different "who is this for" context) — don't build two separate builders.
- Players building their own characters need the same flow, gated to campaigns they're a member of.