Dragon 374: Arcane Options - Character Concepts

[garyh]

Is character creation advise something to take seriously in the first place?

Well, as much as anything in this great game of ours.

 

[RefinedBean]

Is character creation advise something to take seriously in the first place?

It was the featured article that kicks off April's Dragon. So, yeah, I'd say that a lot of people will take it seriously.

The more and more I read it, the more unhappy I am with it. I gotta stop being a masochist.

At least Monday is only a weekend away.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Is character creation advise something to take seriously in the first place?

If what you were looking for was advice on how to create a character, then yes, it would probably be reasonable to take character creation advice seriously.

 

[Nymrohd]

Well it is not exactly generic character creation advise but more like how to built a character that feats a certain fantasy archetype, or at least that is what I understand. It is interesting but I don't like paying for it

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Two points make no sense to me:

1 - Why in the world would a non-star pact warlock spend stat increases and a feat to learn chain (and be slowed and have a skill penalty) when leather + Int is just fine?

Because it ain't. If she doesn't focus on increasing her INT all the time (and stats with a high INT to begin with), a magical heavy armor will eventually surpass the benefits of a light armor.

 

[wayne62682]

Is character creation advise something to take seriously in the first place?

From competent players (what most of ENWorld would call powergamers/min-maxers) then yes, it is. But from folks with a distinct track record of A) Choosing useless and/or underpowered feats and B) Not even knowing the rules of the game that they wrote, no it's not something I would take seriously.

 

[garyh]

Because it ain't. If she doesn't focus on increasing her INT all the time (and stats with a high INT to begin with), a magical heavy armor will eventually surpass the benefits of a light armor.

But the only reason this character isn't raising her Int with every stat increase is because she's raising Strength to get chain mail! And the Int was 16 to start with, which ought to be fine.

I'm not saying leather+Int would give exactly as good an AC as chain, just that I don't see the problems with chain (-1 speed, -1 to certain skills, costing a feat, "wasting" points/increases in Str, and missing out on improved Int-based effects) as being worth the point or two of AC you get out of it. And I didn't think that was a terribly controversial take on things.

 

[Runestar]

Kinda makes it hard to take the advice seriously when there are questionable elements like that.

Wotc is not known for optimization (for them to not deliberately gimp their own characters too greatly is already an achievement in itself). So yeah, you shouldn't really be taking their advice seriously. I am still wincing from their fighter-wizard multiclass article from months back.

 

[Nymrohd]

Truth be told I rather see a game balanced around average characters than optimised ones. Balance around optimisation and everything but the cookie-cutter builts becomes useless.

 

[Runestar]

Because it is wotc, I would expect a higher standard from the very designers of the game (ie: optimized PCs with compelling backstories and lots of rp potential). As of the moment, many players still seem divided into the "optimized PCs but cannot roleplay for nuts" and "you must gimp your PC to be able to roleplay" camps.

If anything, wotc should be showing that it is possible to balance both.

Or in the very least, lay off the multitude of statting errors.