Core rules only for character designs?

Are core rules enough for character design?

  • I play characters crafted entirely from DMG/PHB rules, nothing else.

    Votes: 118 51.8%
  • I've got to go to other sources to make a character I'm happy with.

    Votes: 110 48.2%

I've done the basics for 20 years. Been there, done that.

I do not have as much time to spin my own add-ons as I used to.

So no, I do not stick to the core rules and would not be excited by a game that did. Gimme add ons.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

As a DM, my players are expected to adhere to the character creation rules of the PHB, DMG, CW and CD. However, I may offer alternatives from other sources. I'm curerntly preparing for to run an urban-based swashbuckling campaign in which I plan to offer certain race and class abilities from Unearthed Arcana.
 


For character creation, yeah just Core but only because no one has wanted anything more yet.
For playing, I allow just about everything if it doesnt conflict with something else I have already allowed. :)
 

It really depends on so many things - whether the DM allows other materials, if the DM has created/introduced new core classes for his game, the flavor/ culture/history/whatever of campaign world, the character concept I want to play. So, yeah, some games I've stuck to the core rules, sometimes not.

If you are asking in theory whether I could be happy making a character with just the core rules, then my answer is yes, absolutely. But I like having other options, too.
 

In theory? Sure!
Actually I guess my longest running character was a by the book... no I take it back I was a tinker gnome druid not a rock gnome or whatnot.
In theory, definitely. In practice, not once.
My players like to play the crazy stuff, and I'm perfectly happy letting them. Unearthed Arcana was a very happy book for me, it lets you have some small neat things for "normal" characters so everybody is happy. Item creation points and totem barbarians and such made for some fun times...
so yeah, in theory, definitely. In practice... I've let too many dhampirs and dire badgers and wild mages and psionicists into my game to dare to say that the core rules are enough.
 

Umbran said:
I can, and have, stuck to only the core rules and had plenty of fun. I have also had characters that didn't stick to the core. Which is appropriate depends upon the campaign I'm in.

So, I don't always stick to the core, but neither do I always require non-core stuff. I cannot answer your all-or-nothing poll :)

And again, exactly what he said.

You're on a roll today, Umbran. ;)
 

Not problem - most of my characters use nothing but the core rules. I'll have to admit, though, since I've been using them more, I've been more excited by the 3.5 rules, and the 3.0 rules have been getting more and more bland when I look at them.

But I haven't played NEARLY enough characters to yet exhaust my possibilities with the basics.
 

For some reason, I'm never satisfied with just the PH and DMG, but that's because I'm a powergamer by nature and I like a lot of the d20 stuff out there.
 

Driddle said:
This is not a question of theory, but actual practice -- DO you stick to the core rule books?
No, I don't always stick to the core rulebooks. Though I often have. So, which is it?
 

Remove ads

Top