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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RobertBrus" data-source="post: 7272458" data-attributes="member: 6916518">Balance in all thingsGood point Greg. I should have been more specific. I was really trying to make the point, clearly not very clearly, that the personality of the character should get as much thought as does the thinking that goes into the "optimizing." To further expand: There are many threads along the lines of the power of the character, which usually means the number of skills/feats/etc., and how many modifiers I can add to my die rolls. For me this misses the fundamental joy of RPG's: pretending to play as someone else. And that someone else must be more than numbers, or it becomes nothing more than a glorified game of Yatze or Farkle.I wish the "min/maxers, optimizers, power builders," call them what you will, would put in at least as much time on the whole character as they do on the damn numbers. If a person can't compete in the fantasy world thru their creative use of the character you are pretending to be, and can only succeed--bulldoze your way thru--by high stats and even higher modifiers, than maybe you have missed the whole point of RPG's. And missed out on exploring the great joy that comes from exercising your own creative/improvisational mind.Edit: I am not suggesting we create buffoons that fall over their own feet. I am suggesting that there be a balance between skills/feats/modifiers, and personality and backstory. That the weaknesses of any character are what make it worth playing and quite often the most memorable. Stage actors line up to play Hamlet not because he is so powerful--though being a duke in a kingdom ain't horsemeat--but it is the delicious flaws that make Hamlet so fascinating. Or to put it more simply: stop playing RPG's with a one-dimensional comic book mindset. The "R" stands for ROLE, not roll.</blockquote>

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