What comes first - character building

[Ferret]

I've hear some differing veiws concerning character building. So which do you do?

 

[Crothian]

Concept first and then construct the character to fit. Even with rolling dice, I've never seen someone not be able to create their concept.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I think of a character that might be fun. I have a few preferences though, I tend to play healing classes (I include the bard and ranger) because there are rarely games where an extra cure light wounds is unwelcome. Beyond that I just try to think of something that might be fun. For example, my half-orc barbarian/cleric is an absolute blast, but he's far from being the most powerful guy in the party.

Compare that to a buddy of mine who has gone through three characters trying to find a "niche". That doesn't always work because you never know when someone else might do your job just as good or better.

Once I have a character concept down, I pretty much turn into a full-on powergamer. Attributes, skills, equipment, and feats are all carefully selected for maximum efficacity. Hey, I wanna have fun during combat too you know!

 

[haiiro]

Point buy. Generally with a concept first, but sometimes the concept starts as "I want to play a character with a high Charisma."

 

[doctorjeff98]

I always think of a character first then create it. However, usually, after I've played it a few times it 'develops' a completely different personality than what I originally intended.

 

[fba827]

I use both methods more or less equally. It just depends on the campaign situation/etc.
I tend to prefer working with concepts first but really some of my most enjoyable experiences have been by roll of the dice and coming up with the concept as the dice rolls ended up suggesting...

 

[Cedric]

I would have to say that I compromise. I develop several character concepts, then go with the one that the dice favor the most.

If my die rolls just suck completely, but I have one quasi-decent stat (a single 14 maybe?). I stick that in charisma and go with a sorcerer.

Cedric

 

[takyris]

Concept first, then Point Buy, usually.

 

[Nifft]

As above: concept, then point buy.

-- N

 

[Cedric]

I violently oppose point buy...I oppose it to the point that I would almost tell a friend to go jump in a lake before I would play in a game if he ran it as point buy.

If I wanted to play point buy based games, I would play something like Hero.

Cedric