[StormFront] PbP Character Thread

[dougbass68]

DougP-

when you say you're working on your character's story line, what exactly do you mean? are you talking about coming up with a kind of biography of his life experiences/family ancestry/ that sort of thing? i've played d&d before (about 20 years ago!) and we never really got into the role-playing aspect of it. so, is that what you're taking about? developing a history/personality/etc?

Jay-

thanks for the pointer on picking skills, etc for my ranger - i'll take a look at the player's handbook. i might be willing to change my character to another race if you think we have too many humans. elven might be a good choice, or half-elf.

DougB

 

[Mirth]

Jay, do you think I should change my skills and feats? Except for Heal, the skills and feats I selected are ALL different from the "Starting Package" on p. 43. My thinking was that I could make money with Weaponsmithing and Armorsmithing. Obviously, I put considerable skill points in Heal and chose Concentration with the thought that I may need to heal myself/someone in battle and do not want my spell to "fizzle." Knowledge (religion) seemed like something a Pally would need, but I don't know why yet -- it just "seemed" right. However, I struggled with that one because it is an INT skill and my INT is low, so I wasn't sure whether I should have chosen that one. Sense Motive was another one of those "it just sounded good" kind of choices. I'm imagining that the game will proceed something like the DM telling us we have come across some NPC and we need to know whether the NPC means us harm/good/wealth/etc. Hence, I figured someone needed to know their motive. Again, I don't know where to start, so I'm "imagining" how the game will proceed without any basis of fact. As for feats, the PHB suggested Weapon focus (longsword) and Improved initiative. I selected Power Attack and Toughness for no other reason than I figured I will be a main combatant and need offensive skills. I am going to purchase the recommended armor, weapons and gear. But do you think I should change or adjust my skills/feats? I've been working on my story line, but it's becoming obvious to me that my player stats need more work. Be patient with me. Just remember, my INT is low, but my WIS is high. Lol. I'll get it eventually.

DougP,

All these questions might be answered by a good character concept and an educated guess at where Chris is going to take this campaign.

Offhand, I would say that your character isn't going to be doing much smithing in the game, so those skills are probably wasted. You're going to make most of your gold from killing monsters. However, if the background that you are creating for your character included the idea that he grew up an orphan whose foster father was a blacksmith, then the smithing skills make perfect sense.

Heal is good to have, but remember that you will have magical healing through your ability to lay on hands as well, and your main focus is as a warrior not a healer. Again, if your character was once saved from death by a magical stranger who used a potent mixture of herbs, then Heal might make sense for him.

Concentration is really wasted right now. You won't even begin casting spells until you are 4th level and then it will only be 0-level ones. You don't need it and if you want it later you can get it.

If your character is very involved in the day-to-day workings of his church and the ritual involved in its ceremonies, then Knowledge (religion) makes sense. Otherwise, drop it.

Sense Motive is a good one IF we are going to be doing a lot of role-playing. However, if it's going to be mostly dungeon crawls and hack & slash, then it's wasted. I have a feeling you'll get to use it playing with Chris, but you might want to ask him. In either event, the situation rarely comes up in which you use this skill, but when it does you better pray you have it.

As for Feats, both of those are fine. Just so you know, Power Attack is offensive, but Toughness is defensive. As a Paladin you will probably have plenty of hit points, so you probably don't need Toughness. You might want to pick another, but you don't have to.

Hope all of this helps. Now on to the other Doug.

Jay

 

[Mirth]

DougP-

when you say you're working on your character's story line, what exactly do you mean? are you talking about coming up with a kind of biography of his life experiences/family ancestry/ that sort of thing? i've played d&d before (about 20 years ago!) and we never really got into the role-playing aspect of it. so, is that what you're taking about? developing a history/personality/etc?

Jay-

thanks for the pointer on picking skills, etc for my ranger - i'll take a look at the player's handbook. i might be willing to change my character to another race if you think we have too many humans. elven might be a good choice, or half-elf.

DougB

DougB,

I always find that coming up with a strong character concept (description, background, motivation, etc.) helps to smooth the process of transcribing him in statistical terms for the game (see my suggestions to DougP above).

I don't think that we have too many humans, either. I was making a gaming joke about the fact that most of the other races have low-light vision or darkvision, but humans can't see anything without a torch. Many times, there will only be one human in a party and he will ruin it for the rest, because he has to carry around this big flaming target for all the monsters in the area (ie. a torch).

Make the character you want. If you feel like playing Legolas, then play an elf. If you want to be one of the Merry Men, play a human. Do whatever feels right. It's all for fun right? Just post a character & ask questions and I'll do my best to help you make it into the actual guy you want to play.

Jay

 

[Bulsarra]

Where is the DM?

Hi Guys,

Just so you know I'm still here and keeping up with the posts.

I'd talked with Jay awhile back about helping me out with getting things rolling and while he's doing a lot more than I would have asked, I greatly appreciate it. So while he can't make any rulings he can certainly give loads of advice that will probably help you out.

I've been MIA mostly due to the "Big Living Room Move '02". I'm also prepping the campaign and tweaking the first couple of encounters. I have loads of cool stuff planned...we'll see if your characters can find out what that stuff is. (In other words, your actions will dictate a good deal of what happens.)

Anyway...the "Move" will be done by Wednesday night (10/16) so I'll be sending and posting campaign prep by the following Monday. This MIGHT cause you to alter your characters in MINOR ways. If you want to, I'll allow it. If you don't see the need then we'll get to Chapter One.

Vann...? Clayton...? Helllllll-ooooooo???

 

[Idsquare]

Thanks, Jay, for all the help and info. I've learned a lot. I don't know what direction Chris is taking the game. In response to Doug B's question, I thought we were role playing our characters and we were suppose to create a story line of ancestry, life experiences, etc. Maybe I was imagining too much, but I've created a small story that sort of introduces my character and begins his development. I followed the guidelines of chapter 6 of PHB. Since I don't know how to play D&D, I'm not sure if I'm suppose to do this or not, but I've got it if I need it.

In any event, rethinking my character after reading the various posts by Jay, I've modified my character. Jay, take a look at this and let me know if you think it needs further tweaking. Unless you see something glaring, I stick with this:

Xyffor, Lawful Good (Servant of Heironeous, god of valor, with aspiration to be Prestige Class of Templar)
Male, Age = 16, 6'1" 185 lbs.
HD 1d10+1 (Paladin); HP 10, Init +1; AC 11; Speed 30; Base Attack Bonus +1
STR 21, DEX 12, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 16
Fort 6, Reflex 4, Will 6, Melee 6, Ranged 2
Skills:
--Climb +5.5 (Str +5, Rank +0.5)
--Diplomacy +4 (Cha +3, Rank +1)
--Gather Information +3.5 (Cha +3, Rank +0.5)
--Heal +5 (Wis +3, Rank +2)
--Knowledge (Religion) +3 (Rank +3)
--Listen +3.5 (Wis +3, Rank +0.5)
--Ride +2 (Dex +1, Rank +1)
--Search +0.5 (Rank +0.5)
--Sense Motive +3.5 (Wis +3, Rank +0.5)
Feats:
--Endurance
--Weapon Focus: Longsword
Gear:
--Weapon: Longsword
--Weapon: Shortbow
--Weapon: Arrows (50)
--Shield: Large, wooden
--Armor:Hide
--Goods: Backpack
--Goods: WAterskin (full)
--Goods: Rations, trail (1 day)
--Goods: Lantern, hooded
--Goods: Oil (3 pints)
--Goods: Bedroll
--Goods: Flint & Steel
--Goods: Holy Symbol, wooden

And there you have it, guys. Short of an adjustment by Jay or Chris, Xyffor is ready to kick some arse.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Revised Character Stats

Xyffor, Lawful Good (Servant of Heironeous, god of valor, with aspiration to be Prestige Class of Templar)
Male, Age = 16, 6'1" 185 lbs.
HD 1d10+1 (Paladin); HP 11, Init +1; AC 17; Speed 20; Base Attack Bonus +1
STR 16, DEX 12, CON 12, INT 8, WIS 15, CHA 14
Fort = 5, Reflex = 3, Will = 4, Melee = 4, Ranged = 2
Skills:
--Diplomacy 4 (Cha +2, Rank +2)
--Heal 4 (Wis +2, Rank +2)
--Knowledge (Religion) +3 (Int -1, Rank 4)
--Ride +3 (Dex +1, Rank +2)
--Sense Motive +3 (Wis +2, Rank +1)
Feats:
--Endurance
--Weapon Focus: Longsword
Gear:
--Weapon: Longsword (equipped)
--Weapon: Shortbow
--Weapon: Arrows (50)
--Shield: Large, wooden (equipped)
--Armor: Scale Mail (equipped)
--Goods: Backpack
--Goods: Waterskin (full)
--Goods: Rations, trail (5 days)
--Goods: Lantern, hooded
--Goods: Oil (5 pints)
--Goods: Bedroll
--Goods: Flint & Steel
--Goods: Holy Symbol, silver
--Goods: Healer's Kit
Money:
SP = 4, GP = 46

 

[Mirth]

DougP,

OK. A few comments.

You definitely should have a character background, decription, etc. And you should post it. I haven't posted mine, because I was waiting for a few specific setting and campaign notes from Chris to work in to my character's story. But if you've got yours worked out, then please go ahead and post it.

As has been said before, no human can start at 1st level with a 21 strength. The highest you can roll is 18 and since you get no racial bonuses, you are stuck with that maximum. Talk with Chris about adjusting your abilities.

As it stands now, your AC would be 16 (Dex +1, Hide Armor +3, Shield +2). See note below for your actual starting gold, though. Your equipment list might change.

As for your skills, I wouldn't put just 0.5 in any cross-class skill. Class skills you pay for on a point-to-point ratio. Cross-class skills are a two-to-one ratio, so you pay double for every one of those skills. A half-point doesn't give you any bonus at all, so either get a full point in it or nothing. Remember, what you are trying to do is roll the highest you can on a d20 and every rank you have in a skill adds to the chance of success. If you roll a 15 and add a 0.5 to your roll, you still have a 15.

Also, skills like climb, listen and search are better left to rogue and ranger types. Climb is really not useful to your character, because he will probably be in heavy armor most of the time, which would negate any bonus he might get for the skill. If you want to be a Templar, I would go ahead and get your max ranks of 4 in knowledge (religion), since you will eventually need 8 ranks to be eligible for that class.

As a final note, unless Chris says otherwise, in most games all 1st level characters get max HP and max starting gold. So your HP would be 11 and your starting gold would be 240 gp.

Keep working at it.

Jay

 

[dougbass68]

dumb question?

ok, my character, ranstaad has a 16 in wisdom, which is a good thing for a ranger. however, if i were to personally rate my own self in the wisdom department, i certainly wouldn't give myself a 16 - probably a lot less. so, how am i going to role-play a character who is wiser than i am?

 

[Mirth]

STR: 13
DEX: 10
CON: 12
INT: 13
WIS: 16
CHA: 9

DougB,

If I were playing your Ranger, I would rearrange your stats like this:

STR: 13
DEX: 16
CON: 13
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 9

You're going to need better stats in the physical (Str, Dex, Con) and you'll need a better Wis when you cast spells later (although it may still be better than yours is in Real Life, just kidding). However, all of this may be moot, because I'm talking with Chris about all of our stats and how they all probably need to be adjusted. More on this later...

Jay

 

[Bulsarra]

Character Stat Rebuild v1.0

Hi,

The ability scores are way out of balance with each other, so we're going back to the drawing board. We're changing to a point buy system. All stats begin at 8. You have a total of 32 points with which to buy your stats. Here are the costs:

Point Buy System:

Score Cost
9 1
10 2
11 3
12 4
13 5
14 6
15 8
16 10
17 13
18 16

For example: You start with 8 strength and want it to be 18. That would cost you 16 points, leaving you with 16 points in your pool to spread to your other stats.

If you wish to play a race other than human, you can recieve pluses and minuses to these stats, but they are applied AFTER the point buy. Also, you would lose the bonus feat and skill points you get for being human. Please repost your characters with your revised stats and all adjustments to skills, AC, HP, etc. when you are done.

Don't be distressed by this, even if you think your character is significantly weakened. By the numbers it may be true but as a party, you will be stronger.

Any questions?

 

[Bulsarra]

Response to D-Bass's Wisdom Question

Doug,

Think about it terms of perception. Your character doesn't live in our world, he lives in his (well, MINE, mwhahahahaha-sorry DM powertrip). Assume that as players you all go in knowing more-or-less the same amount of information about the setting. From that point YOU determine what your character would or wouldn't know (intelligence may come into play here also) and how he would react. A low wisdom may mean he allows himself to be too trusting, stuff like that.

In general, however, it comes down to the numbers. I expect role playing to be as in-line with your stats, class, etc as possible but in the end, I can always roll against your stat(s) for just about anything.

That help?