D&D 4E Brainstorming 4E characters

[Dice4Hire]

I am a bit curious ....

In 3.x I spent a lot of time brainstorming characters. I would look at races, prestige classes and such, looking for what combination of classes, prestige classes, equipment and feats would make for unusual characters, and backgrounds to support these concoctions. And it mattered not at all if this were for a game or jsut a thought exercise.. I spent hours doing so, even time at work, when I had memorized enough stuff to make the mental exercise pretty effective. I imagine I spent at least a couple hours a week doing this, and it was great fun.

Even though I still play 3.x, and do a lot of 4E, I spend no tie doing this in 4E. Unless I have a game coming up and need a character, I do not think about designing characters this way. Not at all.

How about everyone else, especially those who did another game before 4E. Do you brainstorm less in 4E than your last game, or more? Especially if the game was 3.5?

 

[fba827]

I am a bit curious ....

In 3.x I spent a lot of time brainstorming characters. I would look at races, prestige classes and such, looking for what combination of classes, prestige classes, equipment and feats would make for unusual characters, and backgrounds to support these concoctions. And it mattered not at all if this were for a game or jsut a thought exercise.. I spent hours doing so, even time at work, when I had memorized enough stuff to make the mental exercise pretty effective. I imagine I spent at least a couple hours a week doing this, and it was great fun.

Even though I still play 3.x, and do a lot of 4E, I spend no tie doing this in 4E. Unless I have a game coming up and need a character, I do not think about designing characters this way. Not at all.

How about everyone else, especially those who did another game before 4E. Do you brainstorm less in 4E than your last game, or more? Especially if the game was 3.5?

Prior to 2nd ed, I didn't do this too much. I might think up a new PC or so but it was usually because I was going to play soon, or maybe the occasional just doing it for fun. but i wouldn't regularly make up PCs just for the fun of it.

From 2nd edition, through 3.X, through 4th edition, I would frequently brainstorm ideas for new PCs (even if just a brainstorming exercise/leisure rather than for something I expected to be able to play). I probably average out a new PC idea every week (some days i'll have multiple, other days i'll be busy with something else and not give it much though, etc).

So I would say I brainstorm PC ideas just as frequently in 4e as I did in 3.X.

 

[weem]

I did more character plotting in previous editions for sure. The thing is, I'm not sure that it has to do so much with the system (in my case)...

For the last few years, I have really been spending the majority of my RPG devoted time to being the best DM I can be -- and as such, thoughts having to do with PLAYING have fallen to the side.

With that said, in 3 and 3.5, I did devote a LOT of time to character plotting. I think it's because there was SO MUCH material out there, that I kept running into cool concepts that got me thinking about something new, etc.

 

[Kzach]

One of the reasons I was never satisfied with 1e/2e was because I could never make the characters I wanted. I'd spend ages creating backgrounds and personalities only to then come to the stats and feel thoroughly underwhelmed by the character on paper. They were essentially all the same but with different fluff.

Then 3e came along and I had the opposite problem; I could never fit my character to the rules and so was never satisfied with the results. Even when I could force a fit, invariably there was something 'off' about the character.

Now in 4e I'm generally finding I can fit just about any character concept I have and marry them up with abilities that either already suit or can be refluffed and since there is so much variety that they never feel the same. I have, at last count, six rogue characters and yet they all feel different and unique from each other in various ways.

So yeah, I spend ages sifting through abilities and powers and feats and builds trying to marry up the concept in my head with the stats on the page.

 

[Oompa]

I do more character plotting now than i did in 3.X

Probably cause now it is easier for me to use the character builder to create and adjust characters..

In 3.X it was all book searching and knowing where everything was.. and now it is presented in a nice program

Yes im lazy in the process..

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am sure DDI helps.

To me, it is just the lack of choices in 4E, I guess. No more 1 level of this, 3 of that to qualify for that, and then move into another thing.

Some of it remains. I like making charging, grappling, bull rushing, etc builds in 4E. There are still enough feats and magical items to make making a character built on a concept a lot of fun.

But I do it so much less.

 

[Garthanos]

Lack of choices???? .. dude you are way to stuck in the past... one month subscription to DDi is the sentence ... get yourself character builder... start trying hybrids with multiclasing mixed in and all the character types available... use the backgrounds with bite to open up the edges.

I do it all the time.

Only slightly less that figuring out how to do all the Aspects for various movie characters for the Fate rules ... cant wait for Dresden Files RPG

 

[Dice4Hire]

Lack of choices???? .. dude you are way to stuck in the past... one month subscription to DDi is the sentence ... get yourself character builder... start trying hybrids with multiclasing mixed in and all the character types available... use the backgrounds with bite to open up the edges.

I do it all the time.

I'm glad you find 4E good.

 

[Garthanos]

I'm glad you find 4E good.

I am glad you hate it so much... oh wait ... is that what you where implying?

I found character design early on to feel way more restrictive than now and somebody feeling that they arent inspired to design characters might be because they are interacting with a limited set of the rules.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am glad you hate it so much... oh wait ... is that what you where implying?

What are you talking about? I am having trouble making sense of your post.

Anyway, if you read the OP, I do play 4E. I do not in any way hate it, I was wondering if other people found themselves making characters less in 4E than previous editions (mainly) or other systems(also a good comparison) You seem not to. In no place did I imply I hate 4E. If I did, why would I be posting in this forum?