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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 9252502" data-attributes="member: 8461">There is no "must" to any of this, and no one is saying otherwise. I'm pointing out that I've run into this idea of "the player has an idea for their character that overturns some aspect of the setting" before, and in my experience it's been more of a drawback than an asset. I'm sure that it can be made to work (almost anything can be, if everyone's on board and willing to put in the effort), but I don't see it as being worthwhile for the effort involved, especially when the bulk of the benefits can be reaped in other ways that are less prone to causing problems.The GM isn't overturning convention because the GM is (to make a major generalization) the one who figures out what the conventions of the setting are in the first place. World generation, in my experience, isn't a collaborative process. While a good GM will typically have a conversation with the players ahead of time about certain aspects of it, they're ultimately the ones who have to do most of the work ahead of time. If they're the ones who ultimately arbitrate, then they're not overturning anything, unless it's some aspect of a pre-fab campaign that they're altering.It's not just being unique, it's being unique in a way that has them turning some aspect of how the world works on its head. When your character is a walking demonstration that how everyone thinks the world works is not in fact the case, they're much more likely to stand out, which makes their impact outsized compared to the other party members.It's not competitive, it's comparative. If you're close friends with the first and only space alien humanity has ever seen, you're pretty much going to be defined as "that one guy who's the space alien's friend" rather than whatever your name is.Which is all the more reason why you don't need to overturn some aspect of the setting to achieve that. And I'm curious what background in 5E is explicitly predicated on you being the last mage in the world?I think I've been pretty clear about that. It's fine if no one in the group minds, but in my experience, being supporting cast members to another PC gets old, fast.Sure, they can do that. Or they can not have to do that extra work in the first place, because they're not being outshined by someone else from day one. I'm just sayin'.It might sound that way, but again, it's another thing to experience it over and over and over during the course of play.It probably has, but my impression is that it kicked into a higher gear right around the turn of the century. But that's just me.No, I like my version better. But your decision to caricature the preferences of others says more about your own outlook than theirs. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /></blockquote>

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