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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 7751588">Character concepts are neat, but fundamentally the game boils down to the following issue:Will my character concept be capable of doing the thing I want them to do?  Yes/No.Lets say for example, you want to be a detective.  There are specific Skills you need to have in order to accomplish that.  Lets say you want to turn into animals.  There are specific class features you need in order to accomplish that.Lets say you want to cast spells.  There are specific classes you need in order to accomplish that.Most people I would wager want their characters to be good(TM) at what they want their characters to do.  You can simulate ineptitude at tasks by choosing to take lower results.  It is within the control of the players to perform as poorly as they want.  It is not within the control of the players to perform as well as they want.So logically if you want to be a detective, you take the classes that grant you the skills that make best use of detective-like scores.  There's a reason that detective-like characters in fiction are not say, barbarians.  There's a reason why Conan is a warrior and why Batman is a ninja.Maybe YOU the DM, make allowances that are outside the purview of the rules, but within the domain of the DM to say "Yeah, this Barbarian detective idea sounds cool, even though you're no good at detective stuff, I'm gonna help you out for the sake of story."It annoys be that people are quick to position "story" against mathematically-sound character building.  "Story" is about how you play, not what you play.  I don't need D&D to have a good story, heck I don't even really need rules for that.  But if we're going to have randomized elements and rules and "game" elements to this story, I want to make best use* of those rules.  Outside of a specific character concept that the creator knows will be inept, there's no reason not to make best use of the rules.*best use here is not to mean perfect use.  There are lots of ways to build very powerful and very successful characters.  Perfect use would be say, using only the top build.  As opposed to say, the #2 or #3 build or even the #5 build.</blockquote>

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