I'm about to run the D&D Starter Set adventure for a few of my co-workers, and I foresee having more than 5 players. Is it possible to get extra pre-generated character sheets somewhere in the same format as the starter set ones?

How do I deal with having more than 5 players for the starter set?

The Starter Set character sheets are available for download on the WoTC website as an example of what I mean.

I realize I could make these myself, I'm just hoping to find a resource that might save me some time.

  • \$\begingroup\$ I ended up editing the Starter Set character pdf file from WoTC to modify the two fighters into a Hill Dwarf and Wood Elf. I rolled the tables in the Basic Rules to give them unique personalities. \$\endgroup\$ – Sindri Traustason Oct 3 '15 at 18:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ It's quite possible to edit the file however editing a pdf is a bit fiddly since each bit of text is in its own text box. I also had to swap out the fonts on each page since if you don't have the font in the file, Acrobat will switch to a different font for each bit you edit. \$\endgroup\$ – Sindri Traustason Oct 3 '15 at 18:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ That does sound fiddly... Maybe it would've been easier to fill in the form-fillable character sheets from scratch. Anyway, glad you found something that works for you :) Hope you guys like the game! \$\endgroup\$ – DaFluid Oct 3 '15 at 18:50

As far as official WOTC character sheets go, all can be found at this link. However, other than the ones you've linked, all the sheets contained there use the full ruleset. Not to mention none contain any story hooks to the Phandalin adventure.

As far as I know, there are no readily available pre-generated basic ruleset character sheets beyond those which you already have.

If you'd like to not waste time and don't mind a few of your players going beyond the basic ruleset, this part of the link above provides various characters with pre-generated sheets for up to lvl 10, far further than you'll need to finish Phandalin.

If you want to stick to the basic rules, you can always use a few of the sheets multiple times. The starter set is only meant as an introduction anyway, to be run up until lvl 5, so your players shouldn't be too bothered with having similar characters. If you choose to have more than two Fighters, you can actually add a bit of diversity by choosing different Fighting styles.

As far as background and personality go, the story hooks presented with the characters you already have are entirely optional. I've played the cleric with one group and am currently DM-ing with another, so I've got experience from both sides. My advice is to let your players decide whether they want to keep the existing background, personality traits and story hooks or create their own. With your more imaginative players making up their own stories, you should have no problems reusing some of the characters multiple times.

Personal experience

In the first group we all chose our own backgrounds and ended up having almost no story hooks left (except for the cleric's relation to the Rockseers). We also had two Wizards in our group, and it worked fine. We still had a lot of fun :) The Wizard is a pretty versatile class already, and their personalities were so different that it didn't at all feel like the same character was used twice.

For the second group, I've offered the players to change whatever they want, but seeing as they were all completely new to the entire concept of D&D they mostly went along with what was written, only changing a few personality traits. As a result of retaining the story hooks, this group has had more success finding/completing various side-quests that can be found in Phandalin compared to the first group. They've had a bit more trouble role-playing the characters, but they got used to them and are having lots of fun themselves :)


The downloads page at D&D Adventurer's League has pregenerated characters, with backgrounds/races specific to each season, laid out on the familiar 3-page character sheet.

On Wizards.com's Character Sheets page you'll find, below the blank sheets, more-generic characters laid out for you, in levels 1-10. However, they're in a one-sheet format that you'd have to re-set onto traditional character sheets.

Lastly, you can trawl through the pregen repository at the Wizards forums.


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