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<blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 6011390" data-attributes="member: 336">This is a different situation than encounters which is what the OP mentioned.&nbsp; In encounters the players pick a pregen, or bring a premade character.&nbsp; I believe only one season of encounters had character building on it, and it was a disaster because character creation can be way too varied.&nbsp; The current encounters season has a character building session as a separate session at the beginning, or the DM can condense the &quot;themes&quot; available as character options for the characters to select at the beginning of the season.For creating characters for my campaigns, I followed a completely different approach.&nbsp; First I ran my group through a very short adventure with pregens so that they could get used to the system, and acquainted with the &quot;rules&quot;.&nbsp; Incidentally, this is exactly the same thing we did when we started with 3.x.&nbsp; After that session I gave them a base for what the campaign was going to encompass, and we sat down and discussed what people wanted to play in general terms.&nbsp; From that session they ended up deciding, based on their general ideas, what classes they wanted to play.&nbsp; I helped them &quot;marry&quot; their concept with the class that would achieve it best.&nbsp; We ended up with a Dwarf Warlord, an Eladrin Ranger, a Tiefling Warlock, a Minotaur Warden, a Human Barbarian, a Dragonborn Paladin, a Warforged Slayer, an Elven Rogue, and a Razorclaw Seeker.Yes, I have a large group, and the only two characters of that bunch that were unusual for the specifics of the campaign were the razorclaw, and the warforged.&nbsp; Since we sat down at the beginning and talked about character concepts, including them became a good storytelling device for the campaign and made it better.The next time they came over they had their characters done, and we sat down to play.&nbsp; We worked in themes and backgrounds at that initial game, and the game has been going great.&nbsp; My level of involvement in character creation for that group was in linking concepts to the mechanics that &quot;best-fit&quot;, and helping with their backgrounds.The characters are now 4th level, and they have changed some options from when they started.&nbsp; I had no problem at all with that because the new options work better for the execution of their initial concept.My other campaigns have used variations on that theme.&nbsp; I don't care about mechanics except to make sure that the player knows which mechanics work as they intend according to their concept and the campaign.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="D'karr, post: 6011390, member: 336"] This is a different situation than encounters which is what the OP mentioned. In encounters the players pick a pregen, or bring a premade character. I believe only one season of encounters had character building on it, and it was a disaster because character creation can be way too varied. The current encounters season has a character building session as a separate session at the beginning, or the DM can condense the "themes" available as character options for the characters to select at the beginning of the season. For creating characters for my campaigns, I followed a completely different approach. First I ran my group through a very short adventure with pregens so that they could get used to the system, and acquainted with the "rules". Incidentally, this is exactly the same thing we did when we started with 3.x. After that session I gave them a base for what the campaign was going to encompass, and we sat down and discussed what people wanted to play in general terms. From that session they ended up deciding, based on their general ideas, what classes they wanted to play. I helped them "marry" their concept with the class that would achieve it best. We ended up with a Dwarf Warlord, an Eladrin Ranger, a Tiefling Warlock, a Minotaur Warden, a Human Barbarian, a Dragonborn Paladin, a Warforged Slayer, an Elven Rogue, and a Razorclaw Seeker. Yes, I have a large group, and the only two characters of that bunch that were unusual for the specifics of the campaign were the razorclaw, and the warforged. Since we sat down at the beginning and talked about character concepts, including them became a good storytelling device for the campaign and made it better. The next time they came over they had their characters done, and we sat down to play. We worked in themes and backgrounds at that initial game, and the game has been going great. My level of involvement in character creation for that group was in linking concepts to the mechanics that "best-fit", and helping with their backgrounds. The characters are now 4th level, and they have changed some options from when they started. I had no problem at all with that because the new options work better for the execution of their initial concept. My other campaigns have used variations on that theme. I don't care about mechanics except to make sure that the player knows which mechanics work as they intend according to their concept and the campaign. [/QUOTE]

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