A mix of the three. Sometimes media like when I made an evil knight that looked like General Zod from Man of Steel. Sometimes mechanical wanting to try a particular class with abilities to see how it works. Sometimes thematic wanting to fit the them of the campaign like playing a paladin in a campaign against demons where we want to play holy characters fighting the darkness.
D&D 5E [POLL] What drives your inspiration behind char gen?
Thematic. Once I know what the campaign is going to be and the themes that we'll be dealing with... I create a character that fits into that world. Usually by making a "reverse special snowflake". Rather than try and create a "special" character with all kinds of weird-ass backstory, race, class, etc. that has been done to death... I like to create the most generic person in that world and then let his/her personality and what they do in the game make them special.
I don't need to make up an out-of-theme tiefling pirate bard whose parents were killed and who is secretly heir to the throne of some faraway land and I wear this mask to hide my identity until I can get revenge on the villain who did it...
...instead, he's the town butcher who is getting involved because has a drive to help people and the mayor needs volunteers.
In the Age of Mary Sue... the most boring backstory is actual less overdone and can be more special ironically enough.
I don't need to make up an out-of-theme tiefling pirate bard whose parents were killed and who is secretly heir to the throne of some faraway land and I wear this mask to hide my identity until I can get revenge on the villain who did it...
...instead, he's the town butcher who is getting involved because has a drive to help people and the mayor needs volunteers.
In the Age of Mary Sue... the most boring backstory is actual less overdone and can be more special ironically enough.
Salamandyr
Adventurer
A friend of mine told me an aphorism years ago that I've held dear ever since.
"A character's background should never be more exciting than the adventure they're about to go on."
I chose thematic, because mechanical is framed in terms of optimization.
Typically, I choose a character based on a mechanical idea that I want to try to make work -- a low wisdom cleric; a dexterity-based barbarian; a half-orc bard -- and I build a story around that. But it usually starts with trying to push a concept that the rules seem to resist.
Typically, I choose a character based on a mechanical idea that I want to try to make work -- a low wisdom cleric; a dexterity-based barbarian; a half-orc bard -- and I build a story around that. But it usually starts with trying to push a concept that the rules seem to resist.
Sacrosanct
Legend
What I meant by mechanical is something like, "I want to play a fighter. Looking at the options, maxing STR and being GWF is the way to go." or "I want to make the most effective build for X (level dipping, etc)" I based that off many of the responses here over the years in those sorts of discussions.
mellored
Legend
I go for thematic mechanics.
Like i see cunning action, then i take all the speed boosting (Aarakocra, monk, mobility, haste, long bow) options for a cowardly hit and run character.
Or i see divination wizard, so i take all the die manipulation options (halfing, lucky, bardic inspiration, bend luck) and worship the god of luck.
Like i see cunning action, then i take all the speed boosting (Aarakocra, monk, mobility, haste, long bow) options for a cowardly hit and run character.
Or i see divination wizard, so i take all the die manipulation options (halfing, lucky, bardic inspiration, bend luck) and worship the god of luck.
I chose Optimization, for that reason.
Basically, I choose a theme first, but it's always a theme that I know is going to be effective. Then I optimize the
out of it. D&D's class system makes this pretty easy to do.Sometimes this approach causes me great decision pain. Like, I'm trying to build an illusionist wizard for my next character, but most of the low-level illusionist tradition powers are kind of lame and boring. I'm contrasting it with conjurer wizard, who has a really fantastic level 2 ability. So I'm not sure yet what I'll pick there.
I should also say that on top of my response above... because of the fact I do know the rules of the game I don't tend to deliberately make choices to gimp my character, but I also won't make specific "best in slot" selections either if they are off-theme. So for instance, if I'm playing said "town butcher" above and decide to make him a Fighter via Point Buy... I'm not going to give him an 11 STR "just because", I'll still buy him a 15 STR because he *is* a Fighter after all. But I also won't automatically go the Polearm Master / GWF build (despite it being an "optimized" Fighter build)... but rather I'd probably choose a weapon most likely to make sense for a town butcher going out on his first adventure (handaxe (cleaver) perhaps to start, maybe graduating to either dual wield handaxes or up to a battleaxe after a couple fights as he becomes more competent with combat.)
wedgeski
Adventurer
I get to play very rarely, so for me it's mechanical.
I don't mean as in optimized or min-maxed (NOT that there's anything wrong with that, live the dream etc.). I simply want to try as many different types of PC as possible, and I'm quite happy for the "theme" of the PC to emerge during play.
I don't mean as in optimized or min-maxed (NOT that there's anything wrong with that, live the dream etc.). I simply want to try as many different types of PC as possible, and I'm quite happy for the "theme" of the PC to emerge during play.
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