Gradine
🏳️⚧️ (she/her) 🇵🇸
The whole idea of making these things is one I'm still struggling with too. A lot of the more recent books have been helping me turn that corner though. Coming back here has as well. I haven't been able to play in well over a year and a half, and while I've certainly been keeping up with the books, as has been astutely mentioned several times the game plays significant differently than it reads. I've learned that actually sitting down and building a character is a lot different than just reading in the books what different powers and feats do as well, because only in the building do you get to see the synergy of different things at work. At play takes this to a larger scale; you only get to see the synergy of how your characters works with a party while playing. This is something I imagine I've missed, especially in a long-term campaign (my play experience has been limited to short campaigns and one-off adventures). Spending many months with other characters, learning their strategies and tactics, and adjusting your build accordingly is something I haven't gotten to feel yet, but I imagine makes the game all the more dynamic.
I caved in and gave rebuilding by old Inquisitive, a try, and with the crossbow builds of Martial Power 2 and the skill powers in the PHB3 I was surprised at how easily it came together. My one hang up "porting" characters from 3.x I think came from my old love-affair with Intelligence. I never made Int a dump-stat because I enjoyed having highly skilled characters, and as a result many of my characters were incredibly smart. Remaking the Inquisitive 4e required me to virtually flip my old character's Int and Dex scores, making Int a tertiary score at best (granted, with the Cunning build I should probably swap Int with Cha, seeing as how more of my powers mesh with Int than Cha, but he's got every Cha skill in the game save Diplomacy and not a single Int skill). Not having Int affect the number the skill you have drastically changes the way I used to perceive the stat, and so I've found it difficult to create "utility" characters. Skill powers are a beautiful thing, however, and add an element to the game that I'd been missing for a long time. What's more, it gave skills more combat utility than had ever been present in 3.x, which makes me down right giddy. I was almost saddened whenever I found a class utility that was just plain better than what I could get with my skills (it helps that my Inquisitive passed on Acrobatics, taking away a lot of the "best" Rogue utilities.)
Renaming and reflavoring powers has also always felt a bit like cheating to me, and it's taken a lot of trying to break out of that 4e-is-a-video-game mentality (being an avid video gamer myself, I tend to enjoy the strict structure of the rules). The more and more I see how a power could be re-flavored, though, the more opportunities I see open up.
Needless to say, my very participation in this thread has brightened the way I look at 4e, and that's without getting some actually time playing it. The more I've been delving into it recently, the more I not only find what it can do that 3.x did (and better), but also what it can do that in 3.x I could have never dreamed possible.
I caved in and gave rebuilding by old Inquisitive, a try, and with the crossbow builds of Martial Power 2 and the skill powers in the PHB3 I was surprised at how easily it came together. My one hang up "porting" characters from 3.x I think came from my old love-affair with Intelligence. I never made Int a dump-stat because I enjoyed having highly skilled characters, and as a result many of my characters were incredibly smart. Remaking the Inquisitive 4e required me to virtually flip my old character's Int and Dex scores, making Int a tertiary score at best (granted, with the Cunning build I should probably swap Int with Cha, seeing as how more of my powers mesh with Int than Cha, but he's got every Cha skill in the game save Diplomacy and not a single Int skill). Not having Int affect the number the skill you have drastically changes the way I used to perceive the stat, and so I've found it difficult to create "utility" characters. Skill powers are a beautiful thing, however, and add an element to the game that I'd been missing for a long time. What's more, it gave skills more combat utility than had ever been present in 3.x, which makes me down right giddy. I was almost saddened whenever I found a class utility that was just plain better than what I could get with my skills (it helps that my Inquisitive passed on Acrobatics, taking away a lot of the "best" Rogue utilities.)
Renaming and reflavoring powers has also always felt a bit like cheating to me, and it's taken a lot of trying to break out of that 4e-is-a-video-game mentality (being an avid video gamer myself, I tend to enjoy the strict structure of the rules). The more and more I see how a power could be re-flavored, though, the more opportunities I see open up.
Needless to say, my very participation in this thread has brightened the way I look at 4e, and that's without getting some actually time playing it. The more I've been delving into it recently, the more I not only find what it can do that 3.x did (and better), but also what it can do that in 3.x I could have never dreamed possible.
