Tyranthraxus
Explorer
When I originally created the poll I forgot Rogues. THen I decided, no Rogues in Ravenloft!
What sort of character will you build for Curse of Strahd?
Jabborwacky
First Post
Barbarian Vintner it is, then! "A meal without wine is like a day without sun." He doesn't know who said it, but they are words to live by.
Z. H. Darkstar
Explorer
I'm just imagining Fred the Baker wielding a crossbow, with numerous daggers around his studded leather apron.
"Time to make the donuts..."
Reminds me of my Far Realm-worshipping warlock, who used to quote his mind-flayer mentor: "A day eating brains is like a day without sun."
--
Pauper
KahlessNestor
Adventurer
Random rolled everything and made a half-elf moon druid with the guild artisan background. Her elven half is lythari.
jrothwell
First Post
This is something I posted in my local AL league FB page to get the players thinking:
Campaign Character Creation
I handle campaign character creation very differently than one-off character creation. For one-offs I have a little fun with my characters and this is the outlet I use for the quirky and crazy like my Mafairy (a fairy with amazing reflexes and brass knuckles). For campaign character creation I take the process a lot more seriously as this character will be my conduit to success or failure that I have to live with for 6 months to years.
Many people like to min/max their characters for optimal damage. I rarely if never do this and I have won several role-playing tournaments and awards. Instead I build my character for the adventure and the GM. I have lots of great ideas for characters and sometimes I get a setting that fits one of my ideas perfectly but most times it takes me a lot of thought to design my character. I find that building my character for the setting and the GM it is far more effective than a munchkin build. I have skills for the setting and can get more information, I can fight the kind of monsters we are up against, and I can really do my part to further the plot. Anything that helps further the plot helps the party and the GM.
The first thing I look at is the setting. Where is my character going to end up? What characteristics will best help both me and my party where I am going to be? In Curse of Strahd I know that I am going in to a gothic setting where tortured heroes and redemption are the key tropes to many of the stories. I know that the setting is most likely to take place in the land of Barovia so little to no dungeon crawling. Rather, there will be a lot of interaction between locals. The standard monsters in these kind of settings are undead, lycanthropes, and vampires. Since Strahd is in the title it is likely that he is the one we will face, however we will need items and allies to help us defeat him. I also know from previous experience with Ravenloft that Strahd likes to play with the adventurers and set them against each other. So, what can I do to be the most help to my party and get as much as we can out of the adventure and entertain the GM? Well, definitely a character that can interact with the suspicious locals, someone they would be willing to help. I would create bonds with a couple of my party members so that when the going gets tough, their first inclination would be to defend and stick by me. I would also create a character that my party likes so that they won’t sell me out to the locals or Strahd.
Next I look at classes. In Curse of Strahd I think there will be a lot of challenges beyond the fighting so a party that has a lot of variety will be useful. Turning undead and a variety of healing I think will be critical as will rogue abilities. I love to play skilled rogues, however I think someone else really wants to play a rogue so that helps to narrow down my choice. Paladins would be useful in this setting but building and playing them could be tricky as they are likely to be a shining target to Strahd. Clerics would be the best, not only can they give and take damage they can heal and turn undead and they are a class that the locals would trust. More than one cleric in the party cannot hurt especially with different backgrounds and skills. After that we should have at least one Druid or Ranger or a Human magic user that takes the Magic Initiate feat with Druid so that you have at least one character that can cast the Goodberry spell. This way if anyone of the party becomes cursed there is still healing available to them.
After that I look at race, what race will be most useful in this setting? I am going to take human. I have heard a lot of people say humans are boring but how can you go wrong with +1 to everything, that is a total of +6 to your stats! Or you can take the variant human and you get +2 to your choice and a feat of your choice. This is not a setting where darkvision will be real useful, and anything other than human will/may have difficulty getting anyone to help you. Why would you not take human? In Rage of Demons darkvision was important so elves, gnomes, and dwarves were optimal classes, in Curse of Strahd, not so much.
Backgrounds… well there I look at the skills proficiencies you are going to get. What doesn’t the party have, perception and insight I think will be prime skills. I am not going to look at contact types because they may or may not be available depending on my GM once we get to Barovia. Acolyte is one of my favourite backgrounds but I don’t think it will be of much use in this Adventure, Charlatan on the other hand… deception, a disguise kit, and a false identity might really be able to help me fit in with the locals. Entertainer looks great, these people are probably starved for new songs and stories, and it could help me win friends. I am really intrigued by the new Haunted One background as the tragic hero really appeals to me. I will look at those backgrounds that will help me form bonds with my party so I will not decide on this until I meet my fellow party members and hopefully at least one of them will be open to a shared backstory.
Once I do pick a background I will formulate a story. Why I became and adventurer, why I want to help others, why I want to get back to Faerun. My story does not have to be complicated but it will help me make the moral decisions I know I will be forced to make.
In all of this I am thinking about how I can best help the party and GM to further the story. I am not thinking about how much damage I can do or how much attention will be on me. Role-playing is a team effort that includes the GM, I make team characters and it often makes me much more successful in RPGs.
Campaign Character Creation
I handle campaign character creation very differently than one-off character creation. For one-offs I have a little fun with my characters and this is the outlet I use for the quirky and crazy like my Mafairy (a fairy with amazing reflexes and brass knuckles). For campaign character creation I take the process a lot more seriously as this character will be my conduit to success or failure that I have to live with for 6 months to years.
Many people like to min/max their characters for optimal damage. I rarely if never do this and I have won several role-playing tournaments and awards. Instead I build my character for the adventure and the GM. I have lots of great ideas for characters and sometimes I get a setting that fits one of my ideas perfectly but most times it takes me a lot of thought to design my character. I find that building my character for the setting and the GM it is far more effective than a munchkin build. I have skills for the setting and can get more information, I can fight the kind of monsters we are up against, and I can really do my part to further the plot. Anything that helps further the plot helps the party and the GM.
The first thing I look at is the setting. Where is my character going to end up? What characteristics will best help both me and my party where I am going to be? In Curse of Strahd I know that I am going in to a gothic setting where tortured heroes and redemption are the key tropes to many of the stories. I know that the setting is most likely to take place in the land of Barovia so little to no dungeon crawling. Rather, there will be a lot of interaction between locals. The standard monsters in these kind of settings are undead, lycanthropes, and vampires. Since Strahd is in the title it is likely that he is the one we will face, however we will need items and allies to help us defeat him. I also know from previous experience with Ravenloft that Strahd likes to play with the adventurers and set them against each other. So, what can I do to be the most help to my party and get as much as we can out of the adventure and entertain the GM? Well, definitely a character that can interact with the suspicious locals, someone they would be willing to help. I would create bonds with a couple of my party members so that when the going gets tough, their first inclination would be to defend and stick by me. I would also create a character that my party likes so that they won’t sell me out to the locals or Strahd.
Next I look at classes. In Curse of Strahd I think there will be a lot of challenges beyond the fighting so a party that has a lot of variety will be useful. Turning undead and a variety of healing I think will be critical as will rogue abilities. I love to play skilled rogues, however I think someone else really wants to play a rogue so that helps to narrow down my choice. Paladins would be useful in this setting but building and playing them could be tricky as they are likely to be a shining target to Strahd. Clerics would be the best, not only can they give and take damage they can heal and turn undead and they are a class that the locals would trust. More than one cleric in the party cannot hurt especially with different backgrounds and skills. After that we should have at least one Druid or Ranger or a Human magic user that takes the Magic Initiate feat with Druid so that you have at least one character that can cast the Goodberry spell. This way if anyone of the party becomes cursed there is still healing available to them.
After that I look at race, what race will be most useful in this setting? I am going to take human. I have heard a lot of people say humans are boring but how can you go wrong with +1 to everything, that is a total of +6 to your stats! Or you can take the variant human and you get +2 to your choice and a feat of your choice. This is not a setting where darkvision will be real useful, and anything other than human will/may have difficulty getting anyone to help you. Why would you not take human? In Rage of Demons darkvision was important so elves, gnomes, and dwarves were optimal classes, in Curse of Strahd, not so much.
Backgrounds… well there I look at the skills proficiencies you are going to get. What doesn’t the party have, perception and insight I think will be prime skills. I am not going to look at contact types because they may or may not be available depending on my GM once we get to Barovia. Acolyte is one of my favourite backgrounds but I don’t think it will be of much use in this Adventure, Charlatan on the other hand… deception, a disguise kit, and a false identity might really be able to help me fit in with the locals. Entertainer looks great, these people are probably starved for new songs and stories, and it could help me win friends. I am really intrigued by the new Haunted One background as the tragic hero really appeals to me. I will look at those backgrounds that will help me form bonds with my party so I will not decide on this until I meet my fellow party members and hopefully at least one of them will be open to a shared backstory.
Once I do pick a background I will formulate a story. Why I became and adventurer, why I want to help others, why I want to get back to Faerun. My story does not have to be complicated but it will help me make the moral decisions I know I will be forced to make.
In all of this I am thinking about how I can best help the party and GM to further the story. I am not thinking about how much damage I can do or how much attention will be on me. Role-playing is a team effort that includes the GM, I make team characters and it often makes me much more successful in RPGs.
Z. H. Darkstar
Explorer
I think that I'm probably going to go with my Belmont Battle Buckler build. He was born to kill vampires and the undead.
Watch me whip! Strahd say "Nay! Nay!"
Watch me whip! Strahd say "Nay! Nay!"
Inxanity
Explorer
I originally voted for Ranger, intending to do a Beastmaster, however I am thinking I might actually do a Wizard (Conjurer). I've played Beastmaster in other games, and enjoyed it (yes it has some problems, but I don't think it's as bad as everyone says), so I thought about doing something a little out of usual characters.
Knight_Marshal
Explorer
I finally made my Non-Meta-Game character!
He is a fighter, soldier and Glaive carrying card member of Badassery, Level 1. He speaks Giant as his free language and knows nothing about undead any more than the common person knows.
I am sure I will be sitting at the table tonight amongst a bunch of clerics, paladins, undead hating rangers, and a bunch of other people who knew it was their destiny to be whisked away to another dimension to fight undead.
He is a fighter, soldier and Glaive carrying card member of Badassery, Level 1. He speaks Giant as his free language and knows nothing about undead any more than the common person knows.
I am sure I will be sitting at the table tonight amongst a bunch of clerics, paladins, undead hating rangers, and a bunch of other people who knew it was their destiny to be whisked away to another dimension to fight undead.
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