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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doctor Proctor" data-source="post: 5663339" data-attributes="member: 78547">As others have said, themes are what you make of them. If you have a Fighter that picks the Templar theme, but you say he's not really a Templar, that's fine. Just like if you pick some background like Dragonbound Arcanist but don't really explain any of the flavor of that background in your character's backstory, that's fine too. However, don't blame the theme or the background for not adding enough in those cases, just because you're not taking the opportunity to work with them. In an Ashes of Athas (Dark Sun) game that was being run at my local store, I decided to roll up an Ardent. I picked the Templar theme, as well as the Tyr Revolutionary background. I decided to use these not just for their mechanical benefits, but for their role playing potential as well. The adventure starts off with you meeting up with some Veiled Alliance contacts, so I made my character's backstory one of being a Tyrian Templar that was working as a double agent for the Veiled Alliance to assist in bringing down Kalak. I even, in some of the early encounters, attempted to use Bluff checks to try and assert my Templar authority to get things done (like convincing enemies that my squad and I were looking for the escapees...when in fact, we were the escapees!). These elements were created solely out of that background and theme, and really helped me build a fun character I enjoyed. Another note on themes though, that I think many people ignore. Sure, you can play a Fighter and then take the Guardian or Gladiator theme, but I think that themes can do a lot more than that. You can use themes to explore other powers and abilities beyond your normal role. The Fighter in our Ashes of Athas game, for example, took the Elemental Priest theme. So on the one hand you had this whirling dervish of a Thri-Kreen Fighter using the Arena Fighter build, but then he had these Primal powers allowing him to summon spirits to aid us. Since they're defensive in nature, they do work with his existing role as a Defender, but they're not normal Defender powers and allowed him to do something new and unique. That, I think, is the true strength of the roles. They allow you to access new power sources, or new secondary/tertiary roles for your character.</blockquote>

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