NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6206807" data-attributes="member: 29398">Thing is, it's every bit as possible to do this without mechanical backup. You want to play a character as a strong leader?  Go for it.  As a charming spy-type?  Go for it.Example: in the past few years I've had two magic-users, mechanically pretty similar (very high Int, decent Dex and Cha, not much else) but vastly different in non-mechanical personality...which reflects in how they play:  - one is a pompous LN type who grew up in (equivalent of) a Roman culture - her goals are to help civilize the world by ridding it of monsters etc. and bringing good Roman ideals to all, and later to become the first woman in the Senate.  In play this reflects where she will take the lead while others dither, cast in a controlled (sometimes even elegant) manner, and not tolerate dissension in the ranks. - the other is a flighty CE type who is only with the party at all because a) her friends are, and b) adventuring gets you rich.  She's a nasty <female-dog> to be around but tries not to piss off the party *too* much.  Her long-term goal is to be the evil wizard that lower-level adventurers go out to kill, and to fund her activities off what she loots from said adventurers. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  In play her personality reflects in that nobody ever knows quite what she will do next but it'll probably involve fire at some point, and if a few innocents get hurt in the process: shrug "oops".And sometimes you have to fight the mechanics.  Right now I'm playing a Dwarf Cleric in one game who is hampered somewhat by his mighty 6 of a Charisma score.  In a fight-y dungeon this wouldn't be a problem but the current adventure has so far been about 7 sessions worth of spying, information gathering, scouting etc. in a city half a continent behind enemy lines.  So how do I make Terazon relevant in this scenario?  His deity is the God of Beer, so to gather info he hits the pubs, buys beer for all, tries (maybe not very well) to be friendly, and then pretty much shuts up and listens.  It doesn't always work (and realistically, nor should it) but at least he tries. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />And now we're into what I call (though perhaps redefining the term a bit from its usual use) powergaming, seeing D&D as chess-with-personality.  This style of play, where everything is done perfectly and you always make the right choice (even without necessarily having the in-character knowledge to do so), just isn't any fun - it's too serious.  It's also not very realistic.  To me the fighter who glares into the eyes of the Umber Hulk - that's brilliant!  And if he makes his save and fights the thing it's heroic too.  And if he fails his save, well that's what experience is all about and he'll know better next time...assuming he survives.Lan-"off to worship the God of Beer later this afternoon, in fact"-efan</blockquote>

Verification