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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MadMaxim" data-source="post: 4631122" data-attributes="member: 15207">I've been in a somewhat heated discussion with one of my fellow players concerning crunch and fluff at character creation. Hopefully, the D&D 3.5 game her fiancé is going to run will start in the beginning of February. However, we've been discussing whether or not I'm too much of a shallow power gamer or she's just too deeply engaged with her background story to make optimal decisions for her character.I'll be playing a Cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor and she will be playing a Beguiler (from Player's Handbook 2). I'm making all my skill points count towards getting into the prestige class and looking for the best feats for my character (focusing on healing and divine feats) while making a background story that roughly fits these choices but is also a "real" story about how he grew up and became a cleric.She is seemingly making her character based more or less entirely around her background story which I haven't seen and she chooses flaws like Meager Fortitude (-3 on Fortitude saves) and Vulnerable (-1 AC) to take feats like Obtain Familiar and Spell Focus feats. Her Fortitude save is already bad due to poor progression from the class and she further hammers it through the floor with the flaw for a total starting Fortitude save of -2! I asked her if she shouldn't pick something else, because things requiring Fortitude saves are the things that kill you like poison, save-or-die spells and the like. I told her there were better things to do than get the Fortitude-penalizing flaw, but she just told me it was in character and that there are no optimal choices other than what the player thinks (where I strongly disagree).Now, I'm wondering, does one require the other? To me it doesn't. I can easily make an optimized character with just as well-written a background and personality as her while still staying competitve or useful to the party whereas she seemingly thinks that an optimized character is just what you make of it. I'd rather have a well-built character with a story attached than a well-written story with a character attached (and possibly not be of very much help to the group). What are your thoughts?</blockquote>

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