So you're saying I have levels in Barbarian?I guess I'll start with the sexism.
Male elf= dude in a silk gown
Female elf= beautiful chick in a silk gownEDIT: Also
Male Barbarian= crusher of worlds
Female Barbarian= crazy girl with anger issues
Well, you are a Demon, so that is kind of the same thing. :D
When I play a male Paladin, I like the over-arching theme of the Oath (never putting one person above your never-ending mission), but I also enjoy a Paladin who can enjoy the finer things in life - drinking fine wine (never to drunkenness), sleeping in fine inns, and enjoying the occasional fling (which he is 100% clear about before anything happens - this is one night, nothing more) with the beautiful bar maid at the local tavern before heading out the next morning.
What?? This does not strike me as "Paladin" behavior.
A non-"chaste" Paladin would be much inclined to be "Faithful Husband" (or "Faithful Wife" for that matter).
The other things you describe "drinking fine wine (never to drunkenness)" & "sleeping in fine inns" are not - in themselves - problematic, but ... "enjoying the occasional fling (which he is 100% clear about before anything happens - this is one night, nothing more) with the beautiful bar maid at the local tavern" ... is a fine example of "Chaotic Good" behavior (again for either gender).
Consider the Major Golarion Dieties (that have Paladins):
- Abadar - stable families are the building blocks of society.
- Erastil - would never have a "chaste" paladin, his paladins would be required to start a family (and be faithful to his/her vows). Family and Community are explicitly what he is about.
- Iomedae - might be okay with this kind of "fling" but I doubt it.
- Sarenrae - might be okay with this kind of "fling" if that was the custom of the land (which I doubt).
- Shelyn - might be okay with this kind of "fling", but other Shelynite Paladins would likely see this as a "betrayal of love."
- Torag - This is not the Dwarven way!
Gender would not matter here.
So you're saying I have levels in Barbarian?I guess I'll start with the sexism.
Male elf= dude in a silk gown
Female elf= beautiful chick in a silk gownEDIT: Also
Male Barbarian= crusher of worlds
Female Barbarian= crazy girl with anger issues
As does my ex.
So you're saying I have levels in Barbarian?I guess I'll start with the sexism.
Male elf= dude in a silk gown
Female elf= beautiful chick in a silk gownEDIT: Also
Male Barbarian= crusher of worlds
Female Barbarian= crazy girl with anger issues
Never! Barbarians have levels in Dark Mistress. :3
Maybe Dark_Mistress and AM BARBARIAN are related?
@Fog - what is the "roll for attractiveness" thing? Is that some alternate rule?They are likely from the 1st Edition's Unearthed Arcana
And it was called "Comeliness".but that system used 3d6 and was modified by Charisma and Race.
I guess what I'm really wondering is if Fog rolled attractiveness for male and female characters, or just female.
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I've actually started playing my first female character recently, and I'm still having a hard time getting comfortable with her. She's a cleric of Sarenrae who is known as "Sister Isabella", so I think people assume she's chaste, like real world Catholic nuns, though that's not really what I intended. But that has prevented the issue of romance from coming up, despite describing her as an attractive blonde (14 charisma - Selective Channeling FTW).
Unlike a lot of people, apparently, I think I'm generally pretty good at role playing characters who are completely different from myself. In fact, I find that easier than playing characters who are too similar to myself. Once I get the idea for the character's personality, it's just a matter of playing it out.
But for some reason, I just haven't been able to nail down a personality for Isabella. It probably doesn't help that she's also my first Lawful Good character, and I've been trying to use her to prove that Lawful Good doesn't have to be Lawful Stupid.
... Wait... the gender of your character actually affects gameplay? The heck you say? I've never experienced a difference.
Ever since I played Star Wars KOTOR for the first time, playing female characters became a closet interest to me. I always made a female character first in every RPG since then (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights and others).
When I started playing D&D, I wouldn't play female character because I felt like my buddies would feel weird, and when I mentioned interest in it I would often get promises that would disincline me to playing those concepts. -.-
I always felt that playing the opposite gender was very enlightening, as it helped me try to see the perspective of a woman. Also, with the exception of elves, I always liked the idea of being more attractive by default for the most part as well (provided my charisma was not god awful).
My two most current characters are a female fighter named Dana and a female witch named Leliadlara. Dana is a woman by all means, and her attraction is strength and courage. Normally she would not just flirt with any men, but another player in the party is a more than average charisma half-orc barbarian who impresses her to no end. My friend is male and he finds the budding relationship fun to explore without feeling awkward.
My witch is very different. She is extremely skittish around humans and elves, and even other races she is pretty reserved with the exception of half-elves whom she was raised by.
@Fog - what is the "roll for attractiveness" thing? Is that some alternate rule?They are likely from the 1st Edition's Unearthed Arcana
And it was called "Comeliness".but that system used 3d6 and was modified by Charisma and Race.
It's a carry over from an old DM we used to play with, who probably learned this from his own father when he learned to play. We had to unlearn a lot of house rules when we started up (thank GOD, some of them were horrid). You only had to roll comeliness if you wanted to use it to affect any sort of dice rolling, so it rarely came up, but for whatever reason everyone has always thought you should have to roll a d20. Depending on which of us is DMing, you add your Charisma modifier to it and/or divide the result by 2 to determine your "hawtness" index (that whole 1-10 scale thing). Funny when the number ends up higher than 10, though it's super-rare, of course. Race doesn't add or subtract anything, but it gets you a different response based on what the numbers are used for. IE: A human sees an elf with an equal comeliness score, but gets shot down because the elf thinks him/herself out of the human's 'league.'
Also: We roll comeliness for males and females both if it's used at all. My girlfriend plays with us, and she's pretty sensitive to sexism.
On the other side of this argument, I have heard stories about a male druid my girlfriend played while I was in the military. I don't remember the details, but she did it to entertain a newer female player with awkward advances and not-so-gallant "I'll rescue you!" hi-jinks. Apparently the character was pretty funny. Not sure what that says about the topic, if anything. She doesn't take the game as seriously as some of us do.
I don't think people could stop laughing if my Sasquatchesque self was trying to play a female character.
I don't think people could stop laughing if my Sasquatchesque self was trying to play a female character.
Maybe... Nobody thinks it's too crazy when I play a gnome, and I'm 6'3".
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Giving any penalties to str for being female is simply unbalancing. In the fantasy world that PF is set, females are no weaker than men. It's not earth.
If you are going to (foolishly, imho) impose a str penalty on female characters then you have to offset it with an attribute boost in dex or con to maintain any semblance of balance.
And all that does is create females and males as different races.
It's just not worth the grief to do it. If you WANT to play a female as weak, then build a character that way. Incorporating it into the game system itself is not necessary and just creates opportunities for accusations of sexism. Why even go there?
I could buy max 16 raw score for non-dwarves and a prohibition on putting a floating +2 in strength for non-half-orcs, but a flat -4 is appalling.
I couldn't abide by that. It restricts what roles a female character can have. If you can't dump everything into Str, a lot of melee builds are borked.
In fact, I went so far as to think of an explanation for why males and females are just as strong as each other in my campaign setting (long story short, the deities got tired of the gender disparity after some unintended cultural effects popped up), so as to explain why I ignore the whole biological disparity issue.
Okay, we get it, the topic is volatile. Do we have to shake the bottle by pointing that out over and over and not contributing to the conversation?
The thread will become a sexist train wreck only if sexist train wrecks post in it. Call me an optimist.
Valeros has 14 strength in 3.5 at level 1. Seelah has a 16 at level 8. I don't have any actual PF modules and the iconic stats aren't online that I'm aware of, but those are the sorts of stats PF front line fighters are meant to have, not maxed to the wall single stat monstrosities.I could buy max 16 raw score for non-dwarves and a prohibition on putting a floating +2 in strength for non-half-orcs, but a flat -4 is appalling.I couldn't abide by that. It restricts what roles a female character can have. If you can't dump everything into Str, a lot of melee builds are borked.
In fact, I went so far as to think of an explanation for why males and females are just as strong as each other in my campaign setting (long story short, the deities got tired of the gender disparity after some unintended cultural effects popped up), so as to explain why I ignore the whole biological disparity issue.
I don't see many melee builds without at least an 18 Str at first level. A lot of people like to optimize that way, and if you are in that sort of group and don't, you'll probably fall behind.
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I've played females that are petite, feminine, and innocent; females that are balls-to-the-walls gung-ho about everything they do; females that are uppity and chaste and man-hating; females that are willing to use their bodies to get what they want; females that are conniving, sneaky, and witty; females that are rough and crass and brash and bold; females that are diplomatic yet flirtatious and intelligent; females that are quiet and shy and kind and thoughtful...
I've played men that are petite, feminine, and innocent; men that are balls-to-the-walls gung-ho about everything they do; men that are uppity and chaste and women-hating; men that are willing to use their bodies to get what they want; men that are conniving, sneaky, and witty; men that are rough and crass and brash and bold; men that are diplomatic yet flirtatious and intelligent; men that are quiet and shy and kind and thoughtful...
Is it really that difficult to see people as people?
I'm a straight male and I've played straight women, gay men, and gay women. Not that it really comes up except as an after thought in most games I've played in past adolesense and the "are there any girls there?" stage.
I have a female friend who plays male characters. A few other male friends who play female characters most of the time. The only time I've ever really had an awkward situation was when my character and my brothers character accidently got married, but that was because it was my brother. Fortunately the were both NE narcassist and had a fun and mutually abussive relationship.
I'd say I'd curb my wackiness a bit, but my half-elf bard was the mastermind behind the chamber pot attack againts an evil cleric. It involved a silver chamber pot, a true strike, and a Paladin with a use of Smite left. So no, no real change.
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I've never played a female character as a player (I'm male) but I often have to portray female NPCs as a DM. As a result, I've had to portray a wide range of personality types, male and female, and I find that focusing on the character's personality and motivation rather than gender makes for more authentic roleplay.
I HAVE had to avoid romance subplots for the most part - my male players might get uncomfortable if I do too good a job playing an interested woman, and I'd feel weird offing romance subplots to my female players if I'm not doing the same for the male players.
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Being male I always play males. Reason is simple I cant even figure my wife out, who am I to believe, I can imitate and roleplay a woman believable.
Well, I can't figure out my wife, but I can't figure out my kids either, and I have a son and daughter. Does that mean I can't role play at all?
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Well, I can't figure out my wife, but I can't figure out my kids either, and I have a son and daughter. Does that mean I can't role play at all?Being male I always play males. Reason is simple I cant even figure my wife out, who am I to believe, I can imitate and roleplay a woman believable.
Was only speaking on my own behave - I have friends that are sworn to play different gender every chance they get. Fine by me and they are doing a great job - I just feel I don't have that ability.
Was only speaking on my own behave - I have friends that are sworn to play different gender every chance they get. Fine by me and they are doing a great job - I just feel I don't have that ability.Well, I can't figure out my wife, but I can't figure out my kids either, and I have a son and daughter. Does that mean I can't role play at all?Being male I always play males. Reason is simple I cant even figure my wife out, who am I to believe, I can imitate and roleplay a woman believable.
LOL, I was kidding... I suspect you would do fine if you tried. I've only role played a female twice. The first time it was because the custom race my GM and I came up with just didn't make sense with a male character (half-elf/half-dryad). So I played a female. 95% of the time there is no difference in behavior male or female. The other 5% of the time it's all still based on personality so gender is sort of just an attribute.
My other female character was more deliberately chosen just because I wanted to play a female wizard for a particular concept I had that was gender specific. But even then the vast majority of the time gender wasn't a factor in her role playing.
@Adamantine Dragon: no, it just means you have to roleplay as yourself (joke)
@DickovDK: playing a female character can be a lot of fun for a male, and can even help you figure out the female mindset a bit (though not too much. i'm convinced that men aren't wired to fully understand women, and vica verca). that said, if you don't feel comfortable with the experiment then dont. always remember the most important rule: Have fun!
We are doing gender stats? Wut. k +1 wis,dex, and cha. +1 for str and con for men. I'd probably play a girl if we followed this.
Strangely I've always found it easier to understand women than I do men.
Except when they get mad. Then everything makes no sense. They start saying things like nothing is wrong and then they randomly lash out against you. Things like that.
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Strangely I've always found it easier to understand women than I do men.Except when they get mad. Then everything makes no sense. They start saying things like nothing is wrong and then they randomly lash out against you. Things like that.
Just us men that has a stupid penalty to Sense motive I guess. Nonetheless I have tried playing a female ONCE as a player - as GM well one has to no way around it :-)
I am a woman, I seldom play male characters but when I do, they tend to be the quiet serious type. Whereas my female characters run more of a gamut of personalities (but that's also because I've played more of them, so it's more likely I've made different backgrounds for them).
On the other hand, one character I was going to play recently WAS going to be male... and be much more fun-loving--a dwarf brawler type. But I decided to make the character female at the last minute, in part because the GM often gets tongue tied with genderswapped characters ("he she you go into the tavern") and I decided to go easy on him. ;)
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Well, you are a Demon, so that is kind of the same thing. :DSo you're saying I have levels in Barbarian?I guess I'll start with the sexism.
Male elf= dude in a silk gown
Female elf= beautiful chick in a silk gownEDIT: Also
Male Barbarian= crusher of worlds
Female Barbarian= crazy girl with anger issues
Demon Princess thank you very much.
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Never! Barbarians have levels in Dark Mistress. :3So you're saying I have levels in Barbarian?I guess I'll start with the sexism.
Male elf= dude in a silk gown
Female elf= beautiful chick in a silk gownEDIT: Also
Male Barbarian= crusher of worlds
Female Barbarian= crazy girl with anger issues
Wait Barbarians are gods now?
... Wait... the gender of your character actually affects gameplay? The heck you say? I've never experienced a difference.When i play male characters I pee standing up, still about as accurate as most guys. :)
Wait, YOU pee standing up, or your character pees standing up?
One thing I make sure all my characters do, male or female, is make sure the seat is down when they are done...
I can role play air headed girls pretty well, and appearing bubbly and slightly naive can get you places. But I don't play my bubbly and naive seeming characters as stupid, I play them as calculating behind a mask of expertly feigned ignorance. So I role play characters that are role playing characters. So I can act while I act.
As a general rule though, all of my characters are asexual when it comes to preference, pan-sexual when it comes to sexual identity, and gender neutral when it comes to gender identity so that no matter what hits on my character or tries to get my character to react, my characters never bat an eye, and thus are not fun to tease. I had another dude DM nearly dry hump me while role playing a hag, trying to get me to break character. I wasn't even mad because I totally won. I am the Stephan Colbert of not breaking character at my table. *Victory Dance*