How much do you plan your characters?

[Li Shenron]

I plan my character only for the current level at which I'm starting, plus usually the next couple of levels.

I may look forward for future open possibilities, but don't actually plan.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Used to plan alot.

After years of gaming, it's been my experience that no plan survives first contact with the campaign. It never goes like you think it's gonna go, and so it's impossible to plan a character path all the way to 20, so I tend to just think about the next level only in terms of what I should do when modifying the character. That's a good thing, by the way. Keeps the situation intresting. It's fun to see where a character ends up versus where I suspected it might end up, not that I don't have goals, but that I accept the flexibility of possible (probable) change.

Warrior Poet

 

[Jupp]

I dont plan at all. Since I am not the DM I do not know what lies in me path and how my destiny will turn out. The only thing I do is to think about an intelligent background story that somehow fits the PC's character and knowledge. But the rest is being written by the DM's quill as I go on.

 

[NiTessine]

I let the character grow organically, molded by his adventuring experiences. I rarely start out a 1st-level character with a prestige class already in mind, unless it's something really obvious like Red Wizard of Thay for a Thayan wizard character, and even then, if campaign events render the choice unviable or present me with a better one, I never hesitate to change my mind.

My current Living Greyhawk character, the wizard Xaylen Ambedor, is a good example of a character who grew during his adventures. Originally, I geared him for survival. His beginning feats were Toughness and Rapid Reload. In the first adventure, the party just set off a trap that dropped the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark into the same dead end corridor with them. The DM gave us one round to prepare for the impact. Some guys went on full defense, a few healed themselves and I, with my spells extinguished and lacking in hit points, looked at my character sheet... looked at the battlemap, looked at the DM... and said "I find God."

The boulder rolled a one and missed me. Every other guy in the group was knocked in the negatives.

And now, over a year and seven character levels later, my character has finally got his first level of Divine Oracle of Boccob.

It's lovely when things work out that way. Prestige class prerequisites are pretty much the only thing I'm willing to plan out very far, and even that's just because they're pretty much necessary.

 

[DragonLancer]

I work out a couple levels in advance but I prefer to allow the campaign and its events to guide me, rather than going for a goal with may or may not fit what the game is doing.

 

[The Lemon Merchant]

I voted for letting my character grow organically, though that's really just a side effect of me being lazy. Depending on the character I may plan a feat or two in advance, but that is subject to change as I grow into the character and the campaign.

 

[Warrior Poet]

My current Living Greyhawk character, the wizard Xaylen Ambedor . . .

That's a great story!

Warrior Poet

 

[Kurotowa]

I'm finding it useful to have at least a rough outline from 1-20. My first 3.5 game I went in cold and towards the end of the campaign was frustrated by how many interesting avenues were closed off because of choices I'd made a year ago. Now I always want some idea of an advancement path going in. How much flexability is left really depends on the character. My straight Warlock is very flexable; no PrC worries, no feat trees, Invocations not only chosen as needed but respeced when possible. The warrior PC I start next week looks a lot less so; a PrC to work for, multiple melee combat trees to advance on, balancing skills while multiclassing.

I think that in some cases advanced forethought is demanded, but only when you want to use the advanced options. The simpler the character the more room there is to make small adjustments on the fly.

 

[Woas]

Usually I plan out in 5 level 'chunks'. If the character is starting at level 1 or so, then I will plan out till around 5th or 6th level. That way I assess where my character is at and re-evaluate where I want the character to go as new info about the campaign slowly opens up.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I don't so much set out to limit my characters to just 1 class, it just happens that way. I have yet to create a PC that acquires a PrC. I never, EVER sit down and PLAN how I am going to develop a character and never will.

Actually, I take that back. I've had a few psionic characters that I carefully planned out their acquisition of powers to be sure they could actually GET powers that I ultimately wanted them to have. But that's been a few years now, back when we played a few games of Dark Sun.

I don't NEED prestige classes, min/maxing, character optimization, or a character "Build" to create a character or make them interesting and survivable. The very thought of stooping so low as to use a character "Build" rather than just making it up as I go along makes me ill. Not that there's anything WRONG with that... It just is not how I think about the game or wish to approach it.