Why would you want to play *that*??

[Kanegrundar]

Why would someone play an off-the-wall character? Because they think it will be fun, perhaps? Just because it doesn't seem fun to you doesn't mean that it wouldn't for someone else. Wanting to play a half-dragon whatever doesn't mean that player is automatically a power-gamer either, that's just pigeon-holing and borders upon elitism, which this hobby can do without. Plus, if the group is a bunch of power-gamers in a game ran by a DM with that in mind and is up for throwing the party into adventures that challenge the group, what difference does it make if they are having fun?

There are MANY ways to play D&D. NONE of them are more right or wrong than any other.

 

[Agent Oracle]

If I made a half-dragon/half-celestial with 7 PrC's you'd want me to rp it, right?

So can I make a fighter 17 and just not rp in your game?

If the answer is no, I have to ask, why the double standard? If I play D&D, I expect to RP whatever I make, not just one with non-standard powers.

Well Duh! everyone has to roleplay. it's just that people with a whole mess of "backround modifiers" have to play a little bit Differently. I mean, what kind of home life could a half-fire elemntal have had? Which parent raised the half-dragon / half celestial? What led to the choice of prestiege classes? What kind of swinger was your dad for you to have a half-sister who is half-giant?

People allways forget how much their parents screw them up. My family was almost perfectly nucular. mom, dad, big sister and a dog. I grew up to play D&D. that speaks volumes!

 

[sword-dancer]

Given the commonality of such things as half-dragon paragon dwarven clerics of whatever, fiendish tiefling rogue/rangers, stonechildren scouts or reticulated yellow-bellied water diggers, I have to ask WHY?

Because it`s high fantasy and interesting, out of the box...
In myth God/demons/angels have mated with humans and sired children, their children were often more powerful than normal men, line of Kings started so, Gilgamesch and most of the northern kings e.g. the Völsungen were of Odins line, part animal part human like the hero Enkidu Gilgameschs friend.

In the Rhapsody saga aman anda dragon loved each other and mated, their offspring bears the dragon in their blood, it isn`t so unfitting that adragon had a half offspring, and the idea of a paladin with demonic blood has it`s flavor.

I have never had a player ask for more than one template or prestige class. Whenever I see four or more collective templates, unusual races, prestige classes in an "ohmygosh" post, I have to beleive it's eitehr a mockery or an exception..

Easy esample the tiefling paladin served as a member of the order of Solammnia and rose asa knight of these PrC, knioght of the crown, sword ... then he is considered and trained to take commanding rank as say captain of a company of knights and so took the PRC of commander, that made the characters classes Palx/kco x/kos/Xcommander x easily plaisible.

Another combo is a character who wants to max out e.g. his archery skills so he combines arcane archer and peerless archer.

 

[Seeten]

Well Duh! everyone has to roleplay. it's just that people with a whole mess of "backround modifiers" have to play a little bit Differently. I mean, what kind of home life could a half-fire elemntal have had? Which parent raised the half-dragon / half celestial? What led to the choice of prestiege classes? What kind of swinger was your dad for you to have a half-sister who is half-giant?

People allways forget how much their parents screw them up. My family was almost perfectly nucular. mom, dad, big sister and a dog. I grew up to play D&D. that speaks volumes!

Right, everyone has to roleplay, so why say, "And I expect you to roleplay it, too!" about someone's half-dragon. Since Half-Dragon's BLOW for powergaming, the ONLY reason to play one is for rp/concept. They are not a "Powergamers wet dream" or something. They are terrible.

So if these people THINK they are powergaming, they arent. If YOU think they are powergaming, they arent. They might be into the cool powers, but they have cool powers that are MUCH worse than the cool powers of the real powergamers, the divine metamagic cleric, the metamagicked wizard, the natural spell druid. Nothing with a +6 la is powergaming. All it is is a foreign/different concept that is substandard for power level with unusual(ie, not run of the mill) powers.

So lets set aside this, "They are doing it for leet powers" thing. We can say they are doing it for powers that are not usual, but they are not GOOD powers. If we set that aside, we are left with the RP idea. If they prove incapable of rping a half-dragon, suggest to them that in D&D, the most powerful characters are human spellcasters, and give a little advice on how to play a Druid.

Or, you could do what my group does. If someone doesnt rp, we dont invite them back. Half-Dragon munchkin? lol.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Right, everyone has to roleplay, so why say, "And I expect you to roleplay it, too!" about someone's half-dragon. Since Half-Dragon's BLOW for powergaming, the ONLY reason to play one is for rp/concept. They are not a "Powergamers wet dream" or something. They are terrible.

Oh for pity's... look, I don't powergame, so I can't quote the 3.5 variant race and / or template which instantly becomes grossly overpowered if it gets classes X Y and / or Z added to it's starting abilities. So don't quote me for my choice of "half dragon / half celestial". quote me for my choice of "Everyone has to be able to roleplay, at least a little."

Frankly, i think being able to play as a Ranger / Paladin (thanks to a feat from the CAd) is a darn nifty way to play the game, though now that the PHII is out, i'm rethinking my position to play as a Ranger / Knight.

(besides: +8 bonus to starting strength? Natural breath weapon with infinite uses / day (barring the 1d4 round "lag" between shots, even if it is a 4-level adjustment, Lots of other nifty draconic abilities? starting 5th level as a caster class with a +8 melee from strength alone is a darn fine shade of impressive. Getting +10 from being a 1st level fighter with weapon focus is that much better.)

 

[Voadam]

Yes, I suppose it is, but it's also perfectly valid of me as a DM to require actual role-playing from such a character.

As a DM don't you often roleplay non-humans?

 

[blargney the second]

der_kluge, are you a method actor by any chance?
-blarg

 

[RigaMortus2]

Given the commonality of such things as half-dragon paragon dwarven clerics of whatever, fiendish tiefling rogue/rangers, stonechildren scouts or reticulated yellow-bellied water diggers, I have to ask WHY?


I HAVE to believe that people who play these things have no desire to come at them from a role-playing perspective. When I see something that is the cross between an earth elemental and a mortal, the roleplayer in me dies a little bit. "How would I even approach something like that as a role-playing concept?" "What is the motivation of such an individual?"

I don't even role-play elves very often because they seem so foreign to my mindset. When I play halflings or gnomes, I try hard to not make them stereotypical. I rarely play dwarves because I think it would be too difficult not to play them at least somewhat stereotypical.

But I have to believe that people who play such mind-boggingly bizarre character concepts ONLY approach them as a collection of statistics. For example, do people who play Warlocks choose them because they would make an interesting role-playing challenge, or do people play Warlocks because they have a lot of phat k3wl special abilities?

For my money, I would be content if I could play nothing more than fighter, wizard, rogue or cleric for the rest of my natural life. I can think of an infinite number of possibilities within just those guidelines. Why the need for all the bizarre character concepts?

Have people lost site of the fact that this is a ROLE-playing game?

It's a challenge. It takes some imagination to roleplay bizzare races and race/class combos. Some people are good at it, and apparently some people (like you) are not.

 

[Voadam]

I fully admit my position is not easy to defend. I ignored posts because I didn't have a good response for them. I'm not finding it terribly easy to put my thoughts into words with regards to this topic. Yes, it's fine if people want to play those things, but I'm trying to understand their motivation.

Are people playing Warlocks (for example) because they want to explore the sorcerous angst and natural disdain of a character and they have a great concept for a backstory, and want to work out a really interesting story - or do people play a Warlock because they can blast things forever, and get really cool abilities, and have damage reduction, and are just really kewl!

If I owned CA I would be all over warlocks. Simple mechanics, no tracking spell slots, no slowing down time while I pick which spells from a large list to prepare, just dive into the adventure and be ready to go both as a player and as a PC.

I'm not too fond of the infernal flavor and they are a little weak but it would be nice to play a magical character without the resource tracking aspects of the core vancian casters.

I don't even take power attack or expertise for my warrior characters because I just want to go, not have to stop and figure out situational dependent tactical choices about math probabilities.

 

[ChristianW]

But I have to believe that people who play such mind-boggingly bizarre character concepts ONLY approach them as a collection of statistics.

I tend to wonder the same thing myself. It's a reason why I am hesitant to join a new group. For me, it comes down to this: Play the setting, not the rules.

A DM should give clear guidelines to the players on the scope and theme of the campaign, explaining what race/class combos will be accepted. A DM who does not do this is just asking for Tiefling Ninjas and Ogre Barbarians.