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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 4631713" data-attributes="member: 15538">I like the idea of working from a background, and that's what I do sometimes. The problem I see with this person's character is that they don't have a lot of focus.- Meager fortitude? Unless the character is Elric or Raistlin, that's probably overdoing it. Simply not taking a Fort boost and not having a great Con is probably sufficient.- Spell focus can wait. Why does this character concept require a +2 DC on saves of a certain school? Sounds like a little min-max creeping in... "My beguiler is so beguiling she never fails."- Obtain familiar could probably wait, but if she really wants a familiar, this should be the 1st level feat. - I don't know what she spent her other bonus feat on, but I'll bet it wasn't exciting compared to -1 AC.Rather than a case of crunch vs. fluff, I see this as more a case of the Mechanical Trait Fallacy: Every important trait must be represented by a mechanical ability. It seems like focusing on the familiar, then building up other feats as she leveled would be a more balanced approach than trying to front-load the character with a bunch of feats. The end result is actually not a great RPG character, rather, a caricature.The other part of this is conceptual. It's perfectly fine to build the character you are envisioning, but you first have to ask yourself, is the character you are envisioning a good choice? No one, no mystical force, is making you play any given character, so of all possible characters, why do you think playing a fragile, combat-unready beguiler with a familiar is the best contribution you can make to the play experience? Not only is this a selfish choice, but it can be self-defeating, as a clumsily contructed character is as likely to be unsatisfying as they are to be dead. Is it possible, again, to portray the character as somewhat fragile, rather than virtually guaranteeing the character will fail every Fort save thrown her way? In GURPS, which is all about building from a background concept, this is known as the blind berserk hunchback syndrome. While you could (with difficulty) write a novel about a blind berserk huncback fantasy hero, in an RPG, it's going to be difficult to get things to line up right for that character concept to get "screen time" and to deal with the challenges set before the group. It's not necessary for the group to successfully overcome the challenge all the time, but if the characters is not challenge-ready, it's a recipe for anticlimax as the character (and possibly party) simply get waxed by something too formidable for them.</blockquote>

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