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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3963269" data-attributes="member: 198">In the thread <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=213908" target="_blank">Why I hate puzzles</a>, a couple of people made the following comments, asserting that roleplaying your character goes out the window when it comes to combat:In both cases I disagreed and argued that while that could be the case, it isn't necessarily so, and certainly not the case with all players. A player can certainly make tactical decisions in combat, and create the character build before combat, purely based on the player's skill in creating and running an effective character. But a player can also make tactical decisions in combat based on the personality and capabilities of the character, and build the character on the basis of the PC's personality. The assumption in the above quotations is that characters will always be played for maximum effectiveness in a fight and (to a slightly lesser extent) built accordingly, but again I don't think that's necessarily the case. And it's certainly not the case for myself or for a number of people I game with.Personally, I can power-game with the best of them, but I don't think I've ever created a character who's mechanically as effective as could be. Partly because there are many things I won't introduce into a game since I think they're too powerful, and partly because my choices are always based on the character's background, experiences and personality. I'm currently in three tabletop games as a player and in 13 PbP games, and that's true of every PC. For example, in one tabletop game (as I noted in the Puzzle thread) I'm playing a lying, womanizing, cheating, cowardly shugenja. He happens to have the Eschew Material Component, Still Spell and Silent Spell feats, even though they provide him essentially no help in combat. It's just that as a character being able to pour a woman a drink without lifting a finger or evidently casting a spell is really important to him, plus they're really handy for distracting an irate husband who catches him in flagrante delicto with his wife. Does my knowledge as a player tell me that'll make the PC significantly less effective in a fight than could be otherwise? Sure. But that doesn't stop me from making the choices. The same goes for combat. What tactical choices I make are heavily dependent on the PC personality involved. The same shugenja will always make tactical choices that (in decreasing order of importance) keep him safe, conserve his resources, make him look useful, help the party. Whereas my warforged barbarian/cleric will always try to make himself the main target for the enemy and focus on keeping his allies safe, especially his best friend. And my 18th lvl crusader of the goddess of beauty will rush headfirst into a fight because she's convinced that nothing can stop her, and will completely flip out if someone musses up her hair. And my gnome beguiler will spend fights with a telepathic bond up and keep making exceptionally good tactical suggestions to his allies, because he is a genius. And even with him I don't use my tactical abilities to the full, the only character I've done that with being a middle-aged, high-level mage who had a 24 Int and an 18 Wis (so I felt justified in pulling all the stops out with him). Part of that may be a result of DMing too, since my NPC builds and tactics are also heavily mediated by their personalities.And, as noted above, I'm hardly the only one. A number of people I play with both create their characters and run them in combat based heavily on personality, even if the choices may not be the expedient one.So, in short, do you think that combat and building a character in expectation of combat are necessarily all about player skill and not about the character? In your experience, does roleplaying and character personality stop mattering when the dice are rolled? And a bonus question - from a DM perspective, are there particular ways in which you can emphasize roleplaying during combat and encourage players to run their PCs (in combat) based on character personality and not only player skill?</blockquote>

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