As a DM I have noticed (for me) it is a little easier to make pre-gen characters for the players of the AP's. Each concept has goals to accomplish and wants and dreams. This gives more life and less Munchkin. The characters are plotted out from 1st to 20th. Then the players get to pick. Does anyone else do this?
The characters I have come up with are:
Elven scout/warmage
Human rogue/scout
both are working together as Big Game hunters trying to get into the spell component market.
Female human Favored Soul of Wee Jas/Sorcerer/Mystic Thurge
Female human Paladin of Wee Jas
Favored Soul is believed to have been born as a living Avatar of Wee jas and is sent into the world as test. The paladin is a protector as well as an eye of the church.
Male human Warlock- His blood line is tainted by that of Demogorgon and he is fighting for his soul.
Male elven Swashbuckler- Trying to aquire his own ship.
I prefer to let my players build their own characters. I helped build each one-on-one using the backdrop article to find their "niche" in the town. We then discussed what the characters dreams, ideals, and ambissions where and where they were headed in life as well aswhy they would be interested in the adventuring lifestyle. So far it has worked out rather well with alot of memorable/iconic characters.
As a DM I have noticed (for me) it is a little easier to make pre-gen characters for the players of the AP's. Each concept has goals to accomplish and wants and dreams. This gives more life and less Munchkin. The characters are plotted out from 1st to 20th. Then the players get to pick. Does anyone else do this?
I don't.
Every single player in our group is completely opposed to the idea of pregenerated characters; I'm guessing this is true of the majority of players.
Jack
What our group does, to help ensure that both the DM and the players will be satisfied with the characters that are created for a new campaign, is a type of group brainstorming.
Basically, the DM starts with a few hints as to what to expect from the campaign - then the players and DM discuss together (and privately, as well) what each would like to do - and how it could work within the framework of the campaign. Therefore, the DM gets to make a lot of suggestions and nudging in the right direction - but the players also get to come up with ideas that both spark their interest and have some sort of chemistry with one another.
A few examples, for each of our adventure paths:
I was DM-ing the Shackled City, and let it be known that the campaign featured two main elements - a very strong emphasis on life within a single city, which would be featured from beginning to end; and also a fair degree of extraplanar travel, at key points in the story.
What we ended up with, was the concept of three PC's who were all loners and outsiders to the town, each misunderstood in their own way, while trying to reach out to the community and become accepted.
The first PC was a Warforged Artificer, who ended up becoming Lord of Occipitus, while also starting up a magic item construction shop in Cauldron and becoming a hero to the local children.
The second was a Neraph Mummy Cleric of St-Cuthbert, who tried to unify the churches of Cauldron, only to be betrayed by Wee Jas. He also worked hard on the reconstruction of the city after disaster struck it late in the campaign.
Finally, a Tiefling Wizard with something like five eventual Prestige Classes - including Archmage, who built a school of magic in Cauldron, eventually became mayor of the city, and got married to Celeste. He is now apprentice to Manzorian in our Age of Worms campaign.
Altogether, they were known as the Outsiders - and the campaign was a phenomenal success, ending with the party choosing to help redeem Adimarchus.
(Further details at shackledoutsiders.blogspot.com)
The brainstorming process has also seemed to work well for our other campaigns.
Age of Worms was said by its DM (not me this time) to be less focused on a single city, as well as featuring a significant number of Undead. What did we end up with from that?
The "Harbingers of Faith":
Human Deathwalker/Cloistered Cleric/True Necromancer
Human Favored Soul/Divine Oracle/Contemplative of Wee Jas
Human Cleric/Radiant Servant of Pelor
Human Ranger/Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker (fav.enemy undead)
Elven Ranger/Sorcerer/Arcane Archer
All of them have different religious beliefs, and hold constant discussions of their faiths - but also hold a common purpose in trying to stop what they see as the impending end of the world. This campaign is currently in its third chapter, and going quite well.
(Further details at wormslayers.blogspot.com)
Finally, for Savage Tide (as mentioned in the Rival Captains thread), I let my players know that it would feature pirates and ocean-bound adventure - as well as a number of surprises along the way which I would not divulge just yet ;)
What I've ended up with is likely to be:
Human Rogue/Dread Pirate
Human Scout/Legendary Captain
Human Swashbuckler/Duelist
(other roles are likely to be filled by crewmen and cohorts - since all three of them will be taking a Leadership feat)
(Further details in the Rival Captains thread)
So, all in all, what we do is practically "Creation by Commitee" - and it has worked nothing but wonders for us so far. I can't imagine my players being as into their characters if they had no say in their actual design.
I may try what Markus is talking about instead.
I wish a players guide would come out about a month before the first adventure. I think this would help the DM's and players.
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I am getting ready to DM Savage Tide when our group finishes AoW (I'm a player in that one so I stay out of the AoW board) and I also was a player in the SCAP.
If I made characters and gave them out I would have a mutiny on my hands. It seems like in our group coming up with characters is something very important for the players (it certainly is for me). Having said that I do think it's useful to explain the gist of a campaign to the players. When we were playing the SCAP some characters had a strong wilderness theme and they did not fit in as well. They ended up changing mid-campaign into urban ranger-types. It was not very satisfying.
The DM for AoW worked with every player individually to make sure that their concepts worked within the campaign. I plan on doing the same thing. The players then communicated with each other to make sure they had a balanced party.
you know- I think the best charecter for this campaign would be- a war-forged ninja especially if the campaign has guns.
ninjas? yep.
pirates ? sure!
Dinosaurs? ok!
guns? of course!
Robots? bingo!
Monkeys? Boy does it ever!
