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Drustan Dwnhaedan
Learned Scribe
USA
324 Posts |
 Posted - 31 Aug 2019 : 08:09:12
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| I never really play arcane casters. They just don’t appeal to me much, and there’s usually someone else in the party that’s decided to play one. I usually wind up playing a front line meatshield of one sort or another, a healer/tank, or a rogue. My character’s are also usually the token human in the party. |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4460 Posts |
Posted - 31 Aug 2019 : 10:21:23
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quote:
Originally posted by Delnyn
In all editions, I never dumped Constitution, no matter the class or race. From ed 3.X onward, I always got feats Improved Initiative, Great Fortitude and Iron Will no matter the class.
The only time I've done so was in 4e where there was the backgrounds Born Under a Bad Sign which allows you to use your highest stat in place of Con for starting HP. And HP is fixed in 4e so really you were just hurting the amount of healing surges you had per day. |
Diffan's NPG Generator: FR NPC Generator |
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Sunderstone
Learned Scribe
104 Posts |
Posted - 02 Sep 2019 : 01:50:59
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| I've always played strongman characters. Almost always a good aligned character who typifies the "gentle giant" persona. I loved Ferdinad the Bull as a little kid and it stuck. Mostly as fighters, paladins, or barbarians but occasionally a cleric who venerates a deity with strength in their godly portfolio. If they have a commoner background, they usually were a butcher, miller, stonemason or blacksmith before adventuring. |
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VikingLegion
Senior Scribe
USA
483 Posts |
Posted - 02 Sep 2019 : 19:52:44
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| I play almost exclusively humans, for some reason. In the rare instances I have created a non-human character, I tend to range WAY out there and make something really exotic, like a hengeyokai, kobold, minotaur, or my personal favorite - a fremlin. I've always wanted to play a wemic druic or shaman, I just can't get the character concept out of my head, but have never gotten the right chance to do it. I very rarely play one of the "standard" demi-human races like elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, etc. |
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Irennan
Great Reader
Italy
3811 Posts |
Posted - 02 Sep 2019 : 21:18:09
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| Every one of my hypothetical characters has high DEX and CHA (even if their class doesn't require those stats--well, CHA; DEX is required for pretty much everything), often at the price of low STR and CON, and is skilled at some kind of art. Too bad I never get to play any of them, since I'm pretty much an eternal DM. |
Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things. |
Edited by - Irennan on 02 Sep 2019 21:21:01 |
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King Libertine
Seeker
USA
86 Posts |
Posted - 07 Aug 2020 : 22:36:42
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Everyone of my Pc's have died except for 1. That was the WoTsQ adventure. I had 4 hp left when the DM exclaimed it was over. The first game that a pc of mine lived. That pc died later the next year when we entered the Temple of elemental evil re-boot. My air genasi lived until the very end, until he died against Zuggtmoy herself. Only 1 pc lived from that entire epic game. A skinny, mutton-chopped rock gnome named Brehg Blackclay. I was pretty powerful at 16th level air genasi elemental savant sorcerer. We had a elf bladesinger, a dwarf defender of marthammor duin, a halfling rogue of brandobaris and a human druid of silvanus. We all died. lol. The only one to walk away was the dang gnome of garl glittergold. Zuggtmoy escaped unharmed and walked away with what we initially went looking for. I miss my air genasi character. R.I.P.
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36877 Posts |
Posted - 08 Aug 2020 : 00:36:44
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I'm playing in a 2E campaign, now, and I'm doing a simple dwarven fighter. So I'm finally playing that armored character!  |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
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TheIriaeban
Master of Realmslore
USA
1289 Posts |
Posted - 08 Aug 2020 : 02:43:34
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| I tend to play casters but one of the more fun characters I ran was a halfling thief. I remember one time we were in this temple that had a bunch of different colored velvet curtains so he decided to make some underwear from them. Whomever came back after we left was probably pretty mad seeing all their curtains with underwear shaped holes in 'em. |
"Iriaebor is a fine city. So what if you can have violence between merchant groups break out at any moment. Not every city can offer dinner AND a show."
My FR writeups - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/um3liz6tqsf5n/Documents
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King Libertine
Seeker
USA
86 Posts |
Posted - 08 Aug 2020 : 10:36:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I'm playing in a 2E campaign, now, and I'm doing a simple dwarven fighter. So I'm finally playing that armored character!
I love dwarves. Are you a fighter? a rogue? a cleric? |
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader
USA
3248 Posts |
Posted - 08 Aug 2020 : 13:37:06
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quote:
Originally posted by King Libertine
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I'm playing in a 2E campaign, now, and I'm doing a simple dwarven fighter. So I'm finally playing that armored character!
I love dwarves. Are you a fighter? a rogue? a cleric?
Sounds like he's playing a fighter. |
I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.
Ashe's Character Sheet
Alphabetized Index of Realms NPCs |
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Icelander
Master of Realmslore
1864 Posts |
Posted - 08 Aug 2020 : 15:10:06
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Well, let me preface this by saying that in thirty years of gaming, I've probably only played around ten PCs. I'm nearly always the GM/DM.
That being said, I usually consciously try to make my characters distinct from one another. And I try to avoid having my characters share too many characteristics, tastes or goals with myself. I view roleplaying as an exercise in pretending to be someone else, so I guess I feel that creating a character that is in any way an idealized version of myself or someone I wish to be is somehow 'cheating'.
But I suppose there are some trends, both deliberate and unconscious. One thing I deliberately do, especially as I've gained more experience and done more thinking on roleplaying, is make sure that all my characters come with inbuilt 'grommets' to attach adventure hooks. They have relationships, goals, personality quirks, flaws or all of the above that justify their association with the other PCs and make it easy for the GM to pull them into adventurous situations.
Lately, I've also begun to pre-plan dramatic arcs. Not that I decide how things will turn out, but I design the character to have a weakness of some sort that their personal story will revolve around. And when I think about it, I very rarely set things up so that my PCs are at all likely to have a happy ending.
One of my favourite characters is hopelessly in love with an NPC who was specifically designed to torment him, being psychologically damaged and herself obsessed with a major villain. The tension between the PC's selfless love for someone more likely to end up as a psychotic supervillain than anything else and my PC's strong moral compass would provide drama and motivation for various objectively insane escapades, while also ensuring that simple, boring solutions like killing villains were usually off the table. Also, while it hasn't happened yet, at least not in a final and irrevocable fashion, at some point, the PC will probably be faced with choosing between love and honour.
I guess, now that I think about it, that a commonality for all my PCs is that something generally stands in the way of them being happy, or, at least having successful romantic relationships. Maybe it's practicality, to a degree (think about how many plots would be short-circuited if fictional protagonists could avoid all the drama and 'will they, won't they' surrounding their romance), but I also suspect that while I like intelligent, sensible, competent protagonists, I don't want them to feel like Mary Sue / Marty Stu, and an easy way to avoid that is to not make them romantically successful.
Now, there are some unconscious trends as well, clearly because I have strong preferences in fictional protagonists. So, unless I consciously decide to play against type, my characters will be idealists tempered by harsh experience. They'll usually still have strong ethical principles and feel a responsibility to protect others, but they'll have enough experience of war and violence to angrily reject naive misconceptions.
Honour, to most of my PCs, means the strong protecting the weak and never using power for personal gain, it doesn't mean refusing to recognise tactical realities, perform effective scouting, value situational awareness and fight effectively. War isn't a game, 'fair' fights don't exist and ending the violence decisively is more important than glory or pageantry. A commander who doesn't understand ambushes, stealth, misdirection and striking at his opponent's weaknesses is simply engaging in killing without purpose. Command means responsility for the lives of your men and anything that risks more deaths among them needs a damn good justification.
I think over a half of my PCs have had a background as professional soldiers. Professional competence is definitely my preference and when appropriate to the campaign and setting, my PCs tend to be trained as special operations forces operators. Three of them have had a background in sniping and scouting. Despite that, my characters usually dislike killing. Not that they are pacifists, indeed, they are usually capable of ruthless and decisive action. But only to prevent worse harm. Not for pride, glory, reputation or money, nor from anger or even righteous vengeance.
Some of my characters couldn't articulate their beliefs like this, others will philosophically discuss the ethics of violence. And, of course, I played amoral and even despicable characters to deliberately play against my biases. I've even played characters who might have agreed with much of the above, but fail to live up to it. But the characters whom I find it easist to empathise with all tend to approach violence in this way. |
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Forgotten Realms fans, please sign a petition to re-release the FR Interactive Atlas
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Edited by - Icelander on 08 Aug 2020 15:22:13 |
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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1882 Posts |
Posted - 28 Aug 2020 : 16:22:42
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| Almost all of my characters, whether by design or happenstance, have ended up being gish and/or skill monkey types. Not all of them, but most of them. I just really like having a wide array of options both in and out of combat. So I naturally gravitate towards rogues and to those who can mix it up in melee and cast at least a few spells. I don't normally care about doing the most damage or landing the killing blows, so long as I can do many things with my character. |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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Zeromaru X
Great Reader
Colombia
2501 Posts |
Posted - 28 Aug 2020 : 17:40:58
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As the default DM of my friends circle, I have played a very few PCs in my 12 years of playing D&D. What they have in common is that none of they are human. At least three elves (when the DM doesn't allow anything too "exotic"), a pair of dragonborn and a warforged.
I don't like play a human because I'm already one, and there are other options I find more interesting. |
Instead of seeking change, you prefer a void, merciless abyss of a world... |
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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1882 Posts |
Posted - 28 Aug 2020 : 19:26:15
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| Yeah over half my PCs are probably half-elves with elves, dwarves and humans in fairly equal numbers behind that. I do want to play a warforged and I've played other races (gnomes, halflings, tieflings etc) but only rarely. I generally don't like exotic races but prefer demihumans to humans myself. |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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cpthero2
Great Reader
USA
2286 Posts |
Posted - 07 Nov 2020 : 19:49:59
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Master Rupert,
The most consistent thing I've done for character creation (though, bear in mind, I play about 1, maybe 2 character a decade: I DM almost 100%) is to have a very thorough background and psyche profile development that fleshes out the very real nature of the person. Their foibles, flaws, benefits, and strengths, are all fleshed out alongside having a job, some sort of family, and regular function. I haven't since I was a kid played with a character that was just sort of "out of the box" slapped together and go.
In terms of the characters, they are consistently something like a solicitor/lawyer, economist, philosopher, or something academic. I've never played a meat stick character. haha
Best regards,
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Higher Atlar
Spirit Soaring |
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GRYPHON
Senior Scribe
USA
527 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2020 : 03:04:23
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| I've only played 1 character since 1990. The thought of creating a new character under the newer rules is terrifying. I'll just stick with 2E... |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36877 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2020 : 04:37:01
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I'm playing in a 2E campaign, now, and I'm doing a simple dwarven fighter. So I'm finally playing that armored character!
My dwarf is now well-armored (AC -3), and in a recent session, got a belt of fire giant strength (STR 22), which the DM almost immediately regretted -- my guy's only 8th level, but he can hit damn near anything, and hit it hard, thanks to a combination of being strong, specialized in the battle-axe, and having a +3 battle-axe. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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cpthero2
Great Reader
USA
2286 Posts |
Posted - 07 Dec 2020 : 04:43:16
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Master Rupert,
Whew... 2e stats, that belt is a bruiser of epic proportions! I bet he was regretting it! lol
Best regards,
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Higher Atlar
Spirit Soaring |
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Every one of my characters...
