What comes first - character building

[d4]

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.

[shrug] i feel the same way about rolling for stats.

as many others have already said: concept first, then pick your stats.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Dice are evil... When used by themselves that is, if you do the "in a line method" or some of the less customable method.

Besides if you do dice you get allot of min and maximizing in my mind and not a well-rounded character that you get if you do the concept first.

 

[Cedric]

I'm tempted to start a new thread, just so we don't hijack this one. But really it's futile. This is very much a matter of opinion and how you like to play.

If I were to generalize, I would say that more of your old school players prefer rolling dice...and more of the newer players prefer point buy. Obviously that is a generalization, but I think it would hold true.

Cedric

 

[Sanackranib]

you have to know what the stats are 1st so that you know what prerec feats you qualify for and what class looks right.

 

[shilsen]

Character concept first for me. The concept may or may not include a class/race, so if it doesn't, that comes next. Stats (point buy usually) come last.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Concept first. Then, when it comes to the dice, I can work with what the mighty lords of the dice give me and make it work out.

Though, I think it might be fun to do it vice versa someday, just to see.

 

[Pseudonym]

Concept is usually paramount, though I have adjusted my concept to reflect the dice. My first 3.0 character concept was going to be a paladin, but due to some weird manifestation of the bell curve, I rolled 6 12s, so I ended up going with a halfling rogue.

In general I know what I want to play, then do the point buy to make it most effective for the campaign.

 

[Emirikol]

Here's a passage from our most holy house rules:

CHARACTER CONCEPTS
CULTURE, HOME REGION & BACKGROUND
The first step in making a character for Hyboria is to decide what country or region you want to be from. See the Thurian Cultural map. Use this homeland theme to help with background, name, race, class skills, languages, feats, weakness, and equipment selection.


ABILITY SCORE DETERMINATION
Character ability scores are determined using the “Standard Point Buy” from the Dungeonmaster’s Guide. Use 32 starting points to spend among all abilities, as listed by cost below. No ability may go lower than 8.

Amen!

jh

 

[Nifelhein]

Well I voted for dice first even though it is not exactly it... in fact I voted by accident...

I prefer to have dices give the possibility of flaw to a character and I make a lot of effort to see well developed characters, that said I prefer to have people have a general concept, roll and then adapt and develop with the set scores, my method of rolling allows you to do anything you want, not as you would want, unless you are a hell lot lucky!

Anyway that is it: concept -> dice -> Character itself.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Eh...I fall somewhere in between those two answers, so I just sort of randomly picked one. I have a very vague idea of concept first and then mold a personality into the character after ive rolled stats for it.