Race First!

[Lord Ernie]

Totally agreed.

I just hope one day we get true race/class freedom without it making your character "sub optimal."

Ugh. I'd rather the differences be small but significant, which is pretty close to how things are now. If race made no difference whatsoever, then the racial choice as it is would be purely cosmetical, mere window-dressing.

I could see giving more freedom in stat bonuses, and letting racial feats and the racial power determine who is best at what, but with the one main stat + choice of two model they're using right now, I think we're pretty close to that model already.

 

[MarkB]

I wish that any race could be roughly equally great at any class.

The new updates go some way towards race/class versatility, at least, by giving you a choice where to assign one of your ability bonuses. It's not total freedom, but at least it'll widen the choice of "best fit" classes for each race and vice versa.

Anyway, even poor-fit classes can be fun in their own way. My Eladrin fighter was one of the earliest characters I made, and he's been great fun to play.

 

[Mad Hamish]

I find it hard to see why people would favour 4d6 on the grounds of getting more heroic characters seeing as you've got about a 43% chance of no stat of 16 or higher.

 

[Nichwee]

I find it hard to see why people would favour 4d6 on the grounds of getting more heroic characters seeing as you've got about a 43% chance of no stat of 16 or higher.

I'm with you - my group often rolls, and I am almost always below the Points-Buy totals (unless I roll for a NPC for some reason).
But I do like rolling for stats, just because it also allows outriders like having a 6 in a stat, or having a 18/18 character.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I find it hard to see why people would favour 4d6 on the grounds of getting more heroic characters seeing as you've got about a 43% chance of no stat of 16 or higher.

Depends upon what definition of "heroic" you're thinking of.

If you're thinking of a hero as someone who is going to kick ass & take names most of the time- and you can tell that just from lookin' at 'em- then no, 4d6 won't get you as many of those kinds of heroes.

However, if you're thinking of a hero as someone who succeeds possibly or even probably despite their shortcomings, as normal people who have risen to the occasion of heroism, then yes, 4d6 or 3d6 are what you're looking for.

IOW, are you looking for Gandalf & Legolas or Samwise & Frodo?

 

[Wepwawet]

Starting with the race sounds kinda nice and more roleplay oriented, and I thought about it, but I'll keep using the same method...

I always start with the class, because I want to do cool stuff and I want to choose which cool stuff I want to do (I'd hate to be stuck with a Warlord, for instance)
The class has by far more mechanical and roleplaying importance. Because you know, it's what you DO.

For the race I pick one that makes sense, preferably with matching stat boosts, but for me that's not really important. Actually I usually prefer odd builds and make them work. Gives more roleplaying opportunities

 

[Ryujin]

I always create my character concept first, exclusive of any class definitions but with race in mind, then try to work back into the mechanics. I may not end up with an optimized character this way, very often, but I always have a character that I actually want to play.

 

[babinro]

I'm probably of the minority to build around Paragon Path first. After finding one that suits me it helps determine class and race to make the most out of the concept.

For this reason, I consider the racial paragon paths to be the most fun since they don't force a class on you. Too bad there are so few of them that I'm aware of.

 

[Pickles JG]

I also think you should try rolling 4d6, drop the lowest, and come up with 2 sets of 6 numbers, but that's a different thread.

Tried this - it was rubbish

 

[Pickles JG]

IOW, are you looking for Gandalf & Legolas or Samwise & Frodo?

With a good chance you will end up with Gandalf & Samwise (or rather I will end up with Pippin while someone else is Aragorn)