Do you plan out your character's advancement in advance?

[EricNoah]

No, I have no clue what direction the campaign might go and if I see that we are going to be facing X opponent or Y situation or Z environment a lot I want to have the flexibility to decide each time I level up what is going to help with that. This is one of the reasons I don't like PrCs -- having to decide levels ahead of time what to put my skill points and what feats to pick just doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Always.

By 5th level I usually have the character planned out to 20th.
Then something nifty will happen in the game, or I have a really interesting roleplaying bit that changes what the character is like, and I do it all over again. I usually end up doing that 3 or 4 times for the life of a character.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

The only time I've found it desireable (actually it was necessary) to plan out a characters advancement was with psionics where failure to plan for obtaining specifically desired powers, what with all the prerequisite power structures, would mean you'd NEVER get them. That was 2E. Other than that I've not "planned" a characters advancement in my 35 years of gaming.

 

[Drowbane]

Often

... but I probably should've voted "always".

If I haven't planned a character out to 20 by 3rd to 6th level... I'm just not having fun with that character and I'm probably going to do something stupid to get them killed within the next 2 sessions

Despite what others say, this has nothing to do with 3e, I've been doing it like this for 18+ years.

WoD, WEG Star Wars, Shadowrun (2e, 3e), anything d20/D&D, Champions (3e, 4e, 5e), GURPS, Jovian Chronicles, RIFTS, Robotech, etc. I always plan ahead, not doing so just seems sloppy.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

One of my players does this. In a way I don't like it because it's just another element that causes him to focus on powergaming and not give any thought towards character development & integrating the PC in the campaign world.

While this is a nice thought, I'm not sure its always realistic... I mean sure, I could play my gladiator styled warrior without thinking too much about her mechanical future and leave myself philosophiclly open to the idea that "hey, maybe she'll have some sort of life changing religious expereince and become a cleric!"... But unless that life changing expereince comes with a Tome of Understanding +3 or better, she's still got an 8 wisdom. :\

 

[rgard]

Of my latest characters:

Swashbucker/Martial Rogue/Battlesorcerer - not planned out at all except that I knew the character would take 3 levels of swashbuckler then move on to Battlesorcerer. Needed some feats in mid-stream so I took two levels of the Martial Rogue.

Paladin of Freedom (fallen)/Wizard/Ur-Priest/Mystic Theurge planned through 20th level (9th level spell for both divine and arcane). I did change course and take the Ruathar PrC instead of straight Wizard for the last couple of levels leading to 20th.

Thanks
Rich

 

[megamania]

I said rarely but that is not entirely true.


I usually figure out what a general path of progression. If using special feats and/or Prestige classes then what do I need. Beyond that, I don't think about it much. It seems like when ever I do I end up going elsewhere.

A common example- Fighter.....I begin with Weapon Focus and reach Weapon Spec. Then we find a +3 Falchion......


So yes, I have a general idea but I try to leave room for change from treasures and game play. Once went multi-class as a fighter and cleric after I had a hell of a game dealing with undead but rolled when constantly. In character I decided to have a possible dietic spark so I went Cleric for a few levels.

 

[BryonD]

Usually yes but in a lot of ways no and I don't think I can answer with any of the provided options.

I don't pick a class combination and then aim for that. But I commonly have a concept of what the character wants to be down the line. I certainly have never (rare one shots aside) started a low level mage that had no more specific goals than to eventually be a high level mage. And if some PClass fits the concept then I will certainly take that into account early on.

In real life I didn't know what my career would be when I was a kid. But I knew I wanted to take all the hard sciences I could in high school. And I knew I wanted to go to Ga Tech, not Savannah College of Art and Design. To me taking feats and assigning skill points are intertwined with the roleplay aspects of the character and not *just* mechanical selections. So taking a feat that is a class prereq need not be a check in a box To me it is simple to imagine that character knowing that he has to spend effort mastering whatever talent the feat represents in order to get to his ultimate goal.

And then on top of that, my goal for L12 can evolve a little or into something completely different at L6 than it was at L1. So I'm planning all the way, but I think I way outside the spirit of pre-set that is implied in the OP.

 

[was]

once in a while...I usually pick prestige classes based on the history of the campaign

 

[Ruavel]

I'll think about some options for my characters, but I rarely plan them. I like to keep them pretty organic, and adapt to circumstances and events that happen to or around them.