Warpiglet
Adventurer
The return to work from the holidays is jarring. Once again, D&D is there to save me! I had a few thoughts about character development I wanted to share and would be interested in your perspective on the matter. Specifically, I would like to hear about your character development process.
Feel free to read along or ignore as always. This is a bit stream of consciousness, but thought it might be interesting to those who like to balance power and flavor (in lieu of only justifying raw power after the fact).
I thought it might be of some interest to a new player who is just starting to develop characters.
The idea of making a thread about this was prompted when I recently saw some comments about Elven Accuracy and feats that confer bonus with little perceived flavor. Some of the comments were fairly strong.
Why did this strike me? I was planning a new character and (gulp) thought about taking this feat for my half elf. Am I a min/max munchkin lord? No. And Yes. You be the judge.
Here was my recent character development process:
1. I love playing blade pact warlocks. I wanted to try the new hexblade! It looks exciting and more “blade pacty.” I like the image of a sauron (small s!) or fighter magic-user of old. My trick with warlocks is often to add odd appearance to accentuate flavor.
It occurred to me that weird amber eyes could be freaky. My other warlock, a human, has pale blue eyes like a wolf. I did not want to be too samey samey. For the first time ever, I thought about yuan ti pureblood. However, I could not get past the lack of emotion and went with half elf.
I thought of perhaps saying he was aligned with the couatl or had been “cursed” with a conscience! And that WOULD be a curse in an evil society! But I thought maybe this was a bit convoluted.
Then I considered with half drow! If you use SCAG, you could even get exra spells. But I decideded a pale character with amber eyes would better be represented by a half grey elf of 1e. In this case, image trumped benefits/power.
Extra skills for a half elf are nice. It would be cool to have stealth for example and couple that with some warlock abilities like misty visions etc. More on that shortly.
2. OK. Background. I recently had a lot of fun with a character who styled himself “reverend.” So I wondered about another fun title/roleplay hook? Baron. Yeah, we will make this guy a baron or a count because it sounds cool. Noble was selected. I am hoping the party calls him "the Baron" like my other party refers to "the Reverend."
History skill is not a favorite, but it’s OK for flavor. I also thought that if he was a medieval baron, there was a good chance he would know a bit about arms and armor. Really a baron is one step up from knight. So I like how it is fitting with class abilities…I did not want to totally shoe horn armor onto a sage.
3. What is his hook? He lost his barony. His family was killed or exiled. He is a baron in name only! But what about this warlock stuff? I decided that he was friends with the wizard/advisor of his father. He was a good student but too ambitious and too quick to experiment with dark stuff.
After his family and this teacher are killed, he tries to contact them and obsesses about their spirits. Some in our world say it is bad to play with Ouija boards…well, he thinks he can handle staring into and calling into the darkness with his fledgling wizardly knowledge. An inky black shape, humanoid but devoid of features, calls back to him!
He thinks perhaps he has contacted his family member or an old friend! But let’s leave this question “open.” He starts getting some advice. He now sees with some encouragement that true power lies in life and death. He starts to get into necromancy if you will. His goal is ultimately to reestablish his demesne and now he is starting to see how it might be done!
4. So we have an armor wearing young baron with weird eyes who is into magic. I think a connection with the shadow plane makes sense given his death issues. We don’t know if this is a friend he has contacted or not but the baron’s personality now is really in the driver’s seat.
His ambition means that if his lands are gone and his people have fled he should establish his line to honor his family and destiny. All this should be done while trying to contact his deceased love ones.
He is honorable and a good ally, but he is getting into some dark things. He has a low wisdom as do many of my warlocks.
Why? I think it is a good fit for a headlong dive into dangerous powers. I also prefer putting a low stat in wisdom vs. intelligence. I am biased against dumb characters (personal preference). Now for the munchkin in me: he is proficient in wisdom saves so it is a balance. Plus, I notice as a half elf he is harder to charm and put to sleep!
Here are his stats, in order: 12, 14, 14, 12, 8, 17. These are point buy with half elf modifiers.
Note: these are not “optimized.” I just do not like thinking about him being weak if he fought with knights. Also he is really ambitious and at least somewhat intelligent (again, not into dumb spell casters of any sort).
His scores make sense in my mind’s eye. Well-built but not hulking…His mission in life is to reestablish some sort of rule. He will make a new barony with his own hands (sword and spell!).
5. Skills…again, a leader from the front…so athletics for the battlefield…history and persuasion for background. I took Arcana for class since he researches magic and had rudimentary wizardly instruction. I chose intimidation over deception since he is more straightforward. He has a sense of honor. He will try to convince you with persuasion but can get very angry and intimidate if rebuffed…
Lastly, I choose stealth. This does not exactly fit the history per se, but I was thinking of using misty visions and minor image to hide. Stealth would help! And if I stick with medium armor, might not even be at disadvantage. Good for escape and adventuring…a nice fit for dark vision too…I could almost make him a f/M-U/Thief of old if I try!
I also started thinking about skills. By being proficient here it does not mean he is really well practiced at sneaking but perhaps that he is starting to learn to be sneakier in concert with new powers! It might be a destination and not his past we are talking about...
6. We have class, race, skills, background. What about the future? With warlocks there is much, much more to consider with invocations, spells, and so forth. And that does not touch feats!
I am planning on misty visions at low level perhaps with false life at-will for escape and survivability respectively. But soon after I will be wanting to take eldritch smite and the thirsting blade invocation for two attacks! I want this guy to fight well.
Other considerations…maybe devil’s sight for fun with darkness but maybe not. With shadows of moil the darkness trick might only be used for a few levels. We will think about it.
At higher levels we can consider the speak with the dead invocation. It is not something I would normally take, but think it fits with his death obsession/flavor. Lastly, I like minions of chaos after level 9.
For spells I like Toll of the dead for a cantrip. It fits with all this death stuff. And later, so does dance macabre! I like the new creepy demon and devil summoning spells too! The chaos they can create! Plus, the baron believes other beings should respect his authority. Obey!
What about eldritch blast? It is a "must take," right? I am not so sure.
I will be so tight on invocations with a martial hand to hand focus. I don’t want to give up all utility (e.g. misty visions) for just another way to cause damage…if I do take eldritch blast it would be with the idea of adding repelling blast later to escape from grapples! I took athletics, true, but the character is not he-man. Repelling would be a good back up and would not waste a spell slot on using misty step to escape. Anyway, not convinced about eldritch blast. I might (gasp) skip it.
First level we are taking minor illusion and toll of the death cantrip. At 5th when we add another, I am more likely to take eldritch blast.
I am starting to see a focus on commanding and summoning where possible. This guy thinks others should listen since he is a baron and he knows best. His low wisdom says he has trouble recognizing when he does not. His quest for power is taking some shape. I can see him demanding some level of compliance and respect whether or not it is always justified.
7. Feats…this is where my original question begins. I want to be a melee-focused guy in armor with a wicked sword. We will start with a longsword, often used two handed because of Elric coolness. Later when pact of the blade kicks in, we will go greatsword because it does big damage and I just saw the sword they think William Wallace used. It was badass in the movie too. I like big blades. I was excited to see some of them in use in the 1300s which fits my imagery of D&D combat...
We will go great weapon master at level 8. What about level 4? I want to bump charisma to 18 as it is now an all the time attack stat. Elven accuracy will do it. Not only that, but if I have advantage, it will make it more likely that a crit might happen. And that, with eldritch smite will be some good damage. I am not truly a fighter, but I can come through in some pivotal fights! It fits my vision of a fighting baron on the front.
Great weapon master will fit quite nicely too. And after? Or in place of GWM? Here I am torn. I have thought about toughness to get those precious hit points up since he will be a second line fighter. But also have thought about resilient (con) or warcaster. If I do as much summoning as I plan, I will want to make some concentration rolls.
This is more crunch than fluff…but how else can I describe the will to keep spells up? He is very driven, very motivated and a very “physical” caster I suppose. It does not seem cheesy to me.
It is such a tight dance. My other thought was to use magic initiate to get find familiar for a flavor consistent raven. (In his background, the baron often believes that the ravens he seems to attract are a sign from his deceased wizard friend or ARE his deceased friend!). If he had a familiar, he would be convinced it was his old friend manifesting and would get counsel from it that only he can hear!
8. Alignment. Well this probably fits in with personality/background but it is here now. The way I see it, the baron was a good son and a loyal vassal. He has been honorable in many ways but is entitled, ambitious, has a lot of hubris--thinks he is right…always. He wants to honor his family name but also claim what is due him.
He and his father were fair if strict nobles. They did try to protect their people. It was their job and duty. I am thinking lawful neutral. He might sweet talk and threaten, but is less inclined to use deception as a straight forward act is more his style (unless you consider battlefield deceptions). He can charm but if rejected, it is as the veneer has been worn down. Here his amber eyes and anger become unsettling.
He is not probably a duke or a courtier but a fair manager/protector and judge closer to the ground level than some (gets his hands dirty and carries a sword).
He is out for his family name and power. A dark being is trying to influence him to some end now too. He is ever surer he should ascend to power even as he is distracted by his losses. There is sorrow, anger and character flaws aplenty…
Conclusion: I hope that if you were bored, you enjoyed reading about my character development process. I wonder how similar it is to that of other players. I also hope that it is clear that there is a mix of character development (fluff) but also an eye toward making a good adventurer (crunch).
Sometimes we are too quick to judge the playstyle of others. But in game, I see this character as doing what he can to take care of friends (honor) while also feeling it is his right to use dark powers to make his will manifest. Afterall, he knows what is best and he can handle dark powers. They are dangerous for those who lack ability and authority. But he “knows what he is doing.” I do not think he would be disruptive in most adventuring parties.
I want to FREELY ADMIT to being torn between powering up my character vs. increasing flavor. My experience tells me that flavor leads to character longevity and enjoyment! But my desire to kick butt is hard to tame. Hence some tension....
There is more to explore here, but I think this will give me a good start!
So am I a shameless munchkin? Is there too much that is under powered here? Interested in what you think but also in hearing about your character development process as well!
Feel free to read along or ignore as always. This is a bit stream of consciousness, but thought it might be interesting to those who like to balance power and flavor (in lieu of only justifying raw power after the fact).
I thought it might be of some interest to a new player who is just starting to develop characters.
The idea of making a thread about this was prompted when I recently saw some comments about Elven Accuracy and feats that confer bonus with little perceived flavor. Some of the comments were fairly strong.
Why did this strike me? I was planning a new character and (gulp) thought about taking this feat for my half elf. Am I a min/max munchkin lord? No. And Yes. You be the judge.
Here was my recent character development process:
1. I love playing blade pact warlocks. I wanted to try the new hexblade! It looks exciting and more “blade pacty.” I like the image of a sauron (small s!) or fighter magic-user of old. My trick with warlocks is often to add odd appearance to accentuate flavor.
It occurred to me that weird amber eyes could be freaky. My other warlock, a human, has pale blue eyes like a wolf. I did not want to be too samey samey. For the first time ever, I thought about yuan ti pureblood. However, I could not get past the lack of emotion and went with half elf.
I thought of perhaps saying he was aligned with the couatl or had been “cursed” with a conscience! And that WOULD be a curse in an evil society! But I thought maybe this was a bit convoluted.
Then I considered with half drow! If you use SCAG, you could even get exra spells. But I decideded a pale character with amber eyes would better be represented by a half grey elf of 1e. In this case, image trumped benefits/power.
Extra skills for a half elf are nice. It would be cool to have stealth for example and couple that with some warlock abilities like misty visions etc. More on that shortly.
2. OK. Background. I recently had a lot of fun with a character who styled himself “reverend.” So I wondered about another fun title/roleplay hook? Baron. Yeah, we will make this guy a baron or a count because it sounds cool. Noble was selected. I am hoping the party calls him "the Baron" like my other party refers to "the Reverend."
History skill is not a favorite, but it’s OK for flavor. I also thought that if he was a medieval baron, there was a good chance he would know a bit about arms and armor. Really a baron is one step up from knight. So I like how it is fitting with class abilities…I did not want to totally shoe horn armor onto a sage.
3. What is his hook? He lost his barony. His family was killed or exiled. He is a baron in name only! But what about this warlock stuff? I decided that he was friends with the wizard/advisor of his father. He was a good student but too ambitious and too quick to experiment with dark stuff.
After his family and this teacher are killed, he tries to contact them and obsesses about their spirits. Some in our world say it is bad to play with Ouija boards…well, he thinks he can handle staring into and calling into the darkness with his fledgling wizardly knowledge. An inky black shape, humanoid but devoid of features, calls back to him!
He thinks perhaps he has contacted his family member or an old friend! But let’s leave this question “open.” He starts getting some advice. He now sees with some encouragement that true power lies in life and death. He starts to get into necromancy if you will. His goal is ultimately to reestablish his demesne and now he is starting to see how it might be done!
4. So we have an armor wearing young baron with weird eyes who is into magic. I think a connection with the shadow plane makes sense given his death issues. We don’t know if this is a friend he has contacted or not but the baron’s personality now is really in the driver’s seat.
His ambition means that if his lands are gone and his people have fled he should establish his line to honor his family and destiny. All this should be done while trying to contact his deceased love ones.
He is honorable and a good ally, but he is getting into some dark things. He has a low wisdom as do many of my warlocks.
Why? I think it is a good fit for a headlong dive into dangerous powers. I also prefer putting a low stat in wisdom vs. intelligence. I am biased against dumb characters (personal preference). Now for the munchkin in me: he is proficient in wisdom saves so it is a balance. Plus, I notice as a half elf he is harder to charm and put to sleep!
Here are his stats, in order: 12, 14, 14, 12, 8, 17. These are point buy with half elf modifiers.
Note: these are not “optimized.” I just do not like thinking about him being weak if he fought with knights. Also he is really ambitious and at least somewhat intelligent (again, not into dumb spell casters of any sort).
His scores make sense in my mind’s eye. Well-built but not hulking…His mission in life is to reestablish some sort of rule. He will make a new barony with his own hands (sword and spell!).
5. Skills…again, a leader from the front…so athletics for the battlefield…history and persuasion for background. I took Arcana for class since he researches magic and had rudimentary wizardly instruction. I chose intimidation over deception since he is more straightforward. He has a sense of honor. He will try to convince you with persuasion but can get very angry and intimidate if rebuffed…
Lastly, I choose stealth. This does not exactly fit the history per se, but I was thinking of using misty visions and minor image to hide. Stealth would help! And if I stick with medium armor, might not even be at disadvantage. Good for escape and adventuring…a nice fit for dark vision too…I could almost make him a f/M-U/Thief of old if I try!
I also started thinking about skills. By being proficient here it does not mean he is really well practiced at sneaking but perhaps that he is starting to learn to be sneakier in concert with new powers! It might be a destination and not his past we are talking about...
6. We have class, race, skills, background. What about the future? With warlocks there is much, much more to consider with invocations, spells, and so forth. And that does not touch feats!
I am planning on misty visions at low level perhaps with false life at-will for escape and survivability respectively. But soon after I will be wanting to take eldritch smite and the thirsting blade invocation for two attacks! I want this guy to fight well.
Other considerations…maybe devil’s sight for fun with darkness but maybe not. With shadows of moil the darkness trick might only be used for a few levels. We will think about it.
At higher levels we can consider the speak with the dead invocation. It is not something I would normally take, but think it fits with his death obsession/flavor. Lastly, I like minions of chaos after level 9.
For spells I like Toll of the dead for a cantrip. It fits with all this death stuff. And later, so does dance macabre! I like the new creepy demon and devil summoning spells too! The chaos they can create! Plus, the baron believes other beings should respect his authority. Obey!
What about eldritch blast? It is a "must take," right? I am not so sure.
I will be so tight on invocations with a martial hand to hand focus. I don’t want to give up all utility (e.g. misty visions) for just another way to cause damage…if I do take eldritch blast it would be with the idea of adding repelling blast later to escape from grapples! I took athletics, true, but the character is not he-man. Repelling would be a good back up and would not waste a spell slot on using misty step to escape. Anyway, not convinced about eldritch blast. I might (gasp) skip it.
First level we are taking minor illusion and toll of the death cantrip. At 5th when we add another, I am more likely to take eldritch blast.
I am starting to see a focus on commanding and summoning where possible. This guy thinks others should listen since he is a baron and he knows best. His low wisdom says he has trouble recognizing when he does not. His quest for power is taking some shape. I can see him demanding some level of compliance and respect whether or not it is always justified.
7. Feats…this is where my original question begins. I want to be a melee-focused guy in armor with a wicked sword. We will start with a longsword, often used two handed because of Elric coolness. Later when pact of the blade kicks in, we will go greatsword because it does big damage and I just saw the sword they think William Wallace used. It was badass in the movie too. I like big blades. I was excited to see some of them in use in the 1300s which fits my imagery of D&D combat...
We will go great weapon master at level 8. What about level 4? I want to bump charisma to 18 as it is now an all the time attack stat. Elven accuracy will do it. Not only that, but if I have advantage, it will make it more likely that a crit might happen. And that, with eldritch smite will be some good damage. I am not truly a fighter, but I can come through in some pivotal fights! It fits my vision of a fighting baron on the front.
Great weapon master will fit quite nicely too. And after? Or in place of GWM? Here I am torn. I have thought about toughness to get those precious hit points up since he will be a second line fighter. But also have thought about resilient (con) or warcaster. If I do as much summoning as I plan, I will want to make some concentration rolls.
This is more crunch than fluff…but how else can I describe the will to keep spells up? He is very driven, very motivated and a very “physical” caster I suppose. It does not seem cheesy to me.
It is such a tight dance. My other thought was to use magic initiate to get find familiar for a flavor consistent raven. (In his background, the baron often believes that the ravens he seems to attract are a sign from his deceased wizard friend or ARE his deceased friend!). If he had a familiar, he would be convinced it was his old friend manifesting and would get counsel from it that only he can hear!
8. Alignment. Well this probably fits in with personality/background but it is here now. The way I see it, the baron was a good son and a loyal vassal. He has been honorable in many ways but is entitled, ambitious, has a lot of hubris--thinks he is right…always. He wants to honor his family name but also claim what is due him.
He and his father were fair if strict nobles. They did try to protect their people. It was their job and duty. I am thinking lawful neutral. He might sweet talk and threaten, but is less inclined to use deception as a straight forward act is more his style (unless you consider battlefield deceptions). He can charm but if rejected, it is as the veneer has been worn down. Here his amber eyes and anger become unsettling.
He is not probably a duke or a courtier but a fair manager/protector and judge closer to the ground level than some (gets his hands dirty and carries a sword).
He is out for his family name and power. A dark being is trying to influence him to some end now too. He is ever surer he should ascend to power even as he is distracted by his losses. There is sorrow, anger and character flaws aplenty…
Conclusion: I hope that if you were bored, you enjoyed reading about my character development process. I wonder how similar it is to that of other players. I also hope that it is clear that there is a mix of character development (fluff) but also an eye toward making a good adventurer (crunch).
Sometimes we are too quick to judge the playstyle of others. But in game, I see this character as doing what he can to take care of friends (honor) while also feeling it is his right to use dark powers to make his will manifest. Afterall, he knows what is best and he can handle dark powers. They are dangerous for those who lack ability and authority. But he “knows what he is doing.” I do not think he would be disruptive in most adventuring parties.
I want to FREELY ADMIT to being torn between powering up my character vs. increasing flavor. My experience tells me that flavor leads to character longevity and enjoyment! But my desire to kick butt is hard to tame. Hence some tension....
There is more to explore here, but I think this will give me a good start!
So am I a shameless munchkin? Is there too much that is under powered here? Interested in what you think but also in hearing about your character development process as well!
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