Characters with attribute penalties

[Quickbeam]

Without posting a poll, I was just curious how many of you play PC's with attribute penalties. Is this common amongst the players in your group, or is it quite infrequent with everyone creating truly heroic characters? When it occurs, is it attributable to the point buy system or poor rolling? Do you go out of your way to design such "flawed" PC's for the extra roleplaying flavor they provide?

For my part, most of my characters have at least one attribute below 10 when they begin adventuring, sometimes by choice and sometimes because of the die rolls . I've only played one PC ever, who had two starting attributes with penalties, and he's my second favorite character of all time!!

 

[uv23]

Well not a PC, but one of my favorite all time NPCs is an elven assassin with a dex of 22 and a con of 7. I think he has 12hp. But a long as he doesn't get hit, he's a machine.

 

[Chronosome]

My gnomish Rogue/Sorcerer Squint startedhis career with a 9
Strength...then was drained by an Allip, lowering his Wisdom to 8!

I had a blast playing up those weaknesses as character traits;
he has a hard time climbing and occasionally rides the monk's
shoulders for a quick lift...and that Wisdom of 8 has made him
quite reckless and a bit of a blabbermouth...

He's since worked out and has been restored to his full
Wisdom (10), but it was a blast playing a "disadvantaged" character.

 

[Crothian]

My Current character, the Bard Tag Trickster, has an 8 strength. And that's never going to be increased.

 

[Shadeus]

Yeah, almost all my characters have one stat that's negative due to poor rolling. I don't mind them. It add something interesting to his character. I have a dwarf paladin/fighter with a 9 Cha. He swears a lot, but its against his paladin code...so he's always correcting himself.

Also played a low wisdom rogue that was an alcoholic. He used to like to get drunk before adventures ("This could be our last night alive!"). I usually just roll with it and see how things go.

 

[CRGreathouse]

My character on the IC forum, Kytess, has Wis 7 and Cha 8; the low Wis affects her strongly (much more so than the low Cha).

Still, my favorite example of a low-stat character is a paladin I've played: Cha 11 on level 1 prevented him from laying on hands or recieving divine grace until 4th level. His Int was 6, making him a slow, deliberate speaker and quite dull. (His scores were so low because he was a half-orc; though I only played him for a few sessions, he's one of my favorite characters.)

 

[der_kluge]

Like Crothian, I too have a Bard with an 8 str, and I have no plans to increase it.

Her scores are fairly average. She did get an 18 that I put into charisma, and she has a 16 intelligence. The rest of her scores are nothing spectacular.
12 Dex, 10 Wis (which I role-play as being somewhat naive), and a 14 Con, I think.

So basically, she never enters melee combat. She uses her bow.

 

[Quickbeam]

CRGreathouse:
I've seen that character, and in part, my browsings through the Rogues' Gallery prompted this thread.

Crothian & die-kluge:
I also have a bard with a low STR (9) that I play once every few months in an intermittent campaign we run. He happens to be a dwarf that prefers fighting with weapons of grace and distance, as opposed to melee clobbering implements .

Shadeus:
LOL at your two characters .

Chronosome:
Where can I get my gnome a riding monk?

uv23:
Only a 7 CON?!? Ouch, and then ouch again!!

Like I said, this post was to satisfy my curiousity more than anything else. I love roleplaying PC's with less than heroic attributes across the board, but not debilitated to the point of silliness. It helps to keep me more in character.

 

[Victim]

My current character, a cleric, has 8 dex and 9 cha. I think I have the lowest strength in a group with 2 pure arcane casters as well. Thus far, I've dove into fireballs and upset some people doing something that I thought would be a great example.

However, in both my opinion and that of our group's wizard, my character is one of the most useful, and potentially the most powerful depending on how I'm using my spells.

Having a few bad stats, IMHO, doesn't really hurt a character that badly, and usually gives lots of roleplaying ideas.

 

[Negative Zero]

i got a half-orc with a cha of 5 and a wis of 10. he's really unsure of himself and when he does speak up, he'll usually say the wrong thing! he'll very seldom talk in public or around anyone he's not familiar with. he's a lot of fun to play