Long-term planning for D&D characters

[Choranzanus]

You know, I think the life of an adventurer might be compared to that of a soldier during a war. Before he enlisted, he might have had all sorts of high-flying plans for his future career.

But once he is in the middle of it, his main concern will switch to the question:

"How am I going to survive this &%!$ ?"

If he survives the war, he will come out of it changed - but in ways which he didn't expect at all. And the same is probably true for adventurers - to most of them, "career planning" is a luxury.

Exactly. When I hear people brag at 1st level how badass their character will be at level 20, the evil DM in me awakens and wants to show them who is badass.

 

[Voadam]

Well, Conan is human (giving him more flexibility in the multiclass department) and generally keeps his leveling in the FTR/BBN/ROG group, all of which multiclass together very nicely.

-The Gneech

Early on, sure but he quickly moved into the dread pirate, nomad raider captain, army general, and usurper king prestige classes.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

I always plan ahead. Usually to the next PrC or feat that has prereqs. Sometime farther out.

My characters don't always get where I plan them to go. Sometimes they don't get where I had planned them to either. This may be because of something as mundane as a new book coming out or the campaign's plot twists have given me new and fun ideas.

I definately plan out my PC's level progression. That plan does not always survive contact with the campaign.

 

[Voadam]

A player who plays the same character from level 1-20 is usually built to handle things at every level. A player making a character at higher levels can make a suboptimal build at lower levels to get the prereqs to be in a good prc later without paying any of the opportunity costs of the inefficient lower level builds.

 

[Plane Sailing]

What are your thoughts on this?

I think that there are two things that make this necessary - Prestige class prereqs and feat chains.

Those are two cases in the rules where failing to make certain choices at one level may dramatically affect your available choices at higher levels.

My solution to this issue would be two-fold. Firstly, I've always used role-playing access to prestige classes (which happens to include some of the test-based prereqs that Piratecat mentioned). I bought into the 3.0e idea of prestige classes being campaign-specific groups, rather than the splatbook and 3.5e idea of PC class options/powerups/multiclass enablers. As such, it worked well for me but probably wouldn't work well for most people.

Secondly, I'd ideally remove feat chain prereqs - those are less of an issue, so I didn't bother with them in D&D, although in a sci-fi game I designed feats to be of 'equal value' so that they could be taken in absolutely any order without any problems. That could probably be done in D&D too, just by putting 'minimum level' or 'minimum BAB' requirements for some of the feats.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I had this problem with my last group. I was the DM and one of the players had his character planned out for every level. He was an Aasimar and wanted to become a half-celestial. I told him that he would have to have an 'in' game reason for starting that template, some triggering event. He told me that he felt it should just happen because he wanted it to....

We went round and round over the issue...

he viewed it like an option he had available to pick like in an MMORG...where as I viewed it as an easter egg that needed to be found.

He got upset over the issue because he had a time table....i.e. at X level he needed to start his template to munchkin the way he wanted.

It didn't end pretty....

Odd. I can think of several ways for an aasimar to create in-game opportunities that would meet your requirement. Did he not want to do any roleplaying at all?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Early on, sure but he quickly moved into the dread pirate, nomad raider captain, army general, and usurper king prestige classes.

No wonder he was so awesome, with all the save-stacking he did!

Brad

 

[rowport]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rowport
In your RL, did you not plan out your eduction goals, choose a career path, possibly earn specialized certification credit or training courses, and once there, choose opportunities for specific projects and/or jobs that would further your advancement?

Ha. This is funny.

Snarkiness aside, why is that funny? Are you saying that you find it inconceivable that folks may plan their career path in advance? From my experience it is extremely common, if not the norm, for folks to do so.

 

[Bacris]

Snarkiness aside, why is that funny? Are you saying that you find it inconceivable that folks may plan their career path in advance? From my experience it is extremely common, if not the norm, for folks to do so.

And studies show that those who do plan 5+ years out are more likely to succeed in reaching said goals

 

[Mokona]

Or should the prerequisite system be overhauled to allow for more spontaneity and variety during character advancement without obstructing future choices?

Remove prerequisites.

Change the mechanics so that multiclassing is fun instead of giving up on equal power with single class characters.

Star Wars: Saga Edition looks like it _might_ be a move in this direction.