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Character Builds & Optimization
How do you Build your Character?
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<blockquote data-quote="mhacdebhandia" data-source="post: 4842808" data-attributes="member: 18832"><p>I usually start by picking a class, a choice which is usually influenced either by what would fit in well with the group or by what I've wanted to play for a while.</p><p></p><p>The next step is picking a race, which is almost entirely determined by what would be interesting in the context of the group or unusual (but not silly) for the class. Human is definitely my default; I prefer to define a character by personality rather than assuming race is a substitute for personality.</p><p></p><p>The third step is coming up with a simple "hook" for the character's personality, based on the question "what makes a person want to become a member of this class?" For instance, my first post-release Fourth Edition character, in a short-lived game, was a dragonborn rogue; I thought about what sort of experiences or influences would push someone towards that class rather than fighter, warlord, paladin, or something more fitting with the dragonborn race's overt physicality and brashness.</p><p></p><p>After that, I ask myself why this character is an adventurer, instead of sticking around his family/home town/<em>et cetera</em> and living a safer, more quiet life. This often ties into the "why is this character in this class?" question, of course, and this is also the stage at which I start thinking about other touches to the character's personality - religious, political, or philosophical opinions, for instance.</p><p></p><p>Vess, my dragonborn rogue, for instance, was devoted to the Raven Queen because of his clan's experiences (when he was very young) hiring on as mercenary soldiers in service to a wizard who turned out to be an honourless necromancer fond of raising dead foes to fight for him. His family raised Vess to have a strong distaste for people like that wizard, but Vess never became a soldier like his cousins because he was temperamentally unsuited to military discipline. Instead, he decided to align himself with the Raven Queen's goals of eliminating the undead and those who raise them.</p><p></p><p>I also decided that he wouldn't have a morbid personality - he was an extremely skilled killer, due to his training, and he intended to use those skills against the proper targets, but his attitude towards death was that its inevitability meant that people should get the most out of life that they can, albeit not to excess. His relationship with his clan wasn't very close since he made different choices than those expected of him, but he was still very proud of them and preferred to boast of their exploits rather than his own when tavern talk turned to tall tales.</p><p></p><p>I like to combine mechanically-effective characters who have a strong "niche" or "schtick" with a creative personality sketched in broad strokes like you see above, which can then be developed in play and have the details filled in. I didn't, for instance, decide how Vess felt about Bahamut, the deity followed by his clan as a whole, or about other gods, preferring to leave questions like that open to being answered in play. Nor did I decide whether or not his parents were still alive - just that the clan was now led in battle by one of his female cousins.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mhacdebhandia, post: 4842808, member: 18832"] I usually start by picking a class, a choice which is usually influenced either by what would fit in well with the group or by what I've wanted to play for a while. The next step is picking a race, which is almost entirely determined by what would be interesting in the context of the group or unusual (but not silly) for the class. Human is definitely my default; I prefer to define a character by personality rather than assuming race is a substitute for personality. The third step is coming up with a simple "hook" for the character's personality, based on the question "what makes a person want to become a member of this class?" For instance, my first post-release Fourth Edition character, in a short-lived game, was a dragonborn rogue; I thought about what sort of experiences or influences would push someone towards that class rather than fighter, warlord, paladin, or something more fitting with the dragonborn race's overt physicality and brashness. After that, I ask myself why this character is an adventurer, instead of sticking around his family/home town/[i]et cetera[/i] and living a safer, more quiet life. This often ties into the "why is this character in this class?" question, of course, and this is also the stage at which I start thinking about other touches to the character's personality - religious, political, or philosophical opinions, for instance. Vess, my dragonborn rogue, for instance, was devoted to the Raven Queen because of his clan's experiences (when he was very young) hiring on as mercenary soldiers in service to a wizard who turned out to be an honourless necromancer fond of raising dead foes to fight for him. His family raised Vess to have a strong distaste for people like that wizard, but Vess never became a soldier like his cousins because he was temperamentally unsuited to military discipline. Instead, he decided to align himself with the Raven Queen's goals of eliminating the undead and those who raise them. I also decided that he wouldn't have a morbid personality - he was an extremely skilled killer, due to his training, and he intended to use those skills against the proper targets, but his attitude towards death was that its inevitability meant that people should get the most out of life that they can, albeit not to excess. His relationship with his clan wasn't very close since he made different choices than those expected of him, but he was still very proud of them and preferred to boast of their exploits rather than his own when tavern talk turned to tall tales. I like to combine mechanically-effective characters who have a strong "niche" or "schtick" with a creative personality sketched in broad strokes like you see above, which can then be developed in play and have the details filled in. I didn't, for instance, decide how Vess felt about Bahamut, the deity followed by his clan as a whole, or about other gods, preferring to leave questions like that open to being answered in play. Nor did I decide whether or not his parents were still alive - just that the clan was now led in battle by one of his female cousins. [/QUOTE]
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