Need Help with My First Pathfinder Society Character

[Mystic_Snowfang]

I started with non-socicity play and rarely play one of the core races. Now I'm making a character for socicity play, and I'm stuck. Sure I can come up with stats, but that's all. None of my PCs I've rolled up have any more life than an animated skeleton.

[Jack-of-Blades]

Well, as it stands now, only the core races are available unless you get your hands on a special event race boon, so I'd take a look over the ones you have at your disposal and pick the one you feel you can best connect with.

Next up is class, which is a lot more wide open, as a vast majority of the classes and archetypes are legal for organized play. Do you have a character concept you'd like to work with?

[Jiggy]

I could be reading way too much into your post, but it sounds like you're used to starting with a build and then filling in a personality, but the core options aren't providing the same level of inspiration that you're accustomed to getting from more exotic options.

If so, you might take this as an opportunity to explore the opposite approach:

Start with a concept/personality that you'd enjoy roleplaying.
Determine what capabilities would best support or complement that concept.
Pick a class that can grant you those capabilities.
Pick a race that can support that class.

Personally, I actually usually go build-first, but since you're clearly in a rut, shaking things up might be just what you need. Good luck!

[nosig]

taking a line off of Jiggy, try something really different. Grab a figure (one of the plastic ones would do) that you like. Now, write some notes. What's his/her equipment? Class? personality? where is she/he from? etc. Build from there...

[Sean H]

I agree with the 'personality first' approach, if you're looking for a character with more life.

[Fromper]

I tend to create characters based on the game mechanics I want to play, then give them a personality later, so I can understand that feeling when you come up with a mechanically interesting PC, then realize that they have no "life". I have a bard whose personality I'm still trying to determine.

As others have said, look outside the game mechanics for some sort of inspiration.

For instance, I made a gnome sorcerer because I wanted to try a sorcerer, gnomes are a good race for that class, and the description of wacky gnome personalities sounded fun. That typical gnome wackiness dictated his personality.

I have a halfling cleric of "Lady Luck" (Desna) who's pretty much based on a typical leprechaun. He has an Irish name, Irish accent, and travels the world spreading the luck around (Luck domain).

In another case, I saw the Tattooed Sorcerer archetype in the Inner Sea Magic book and thought it looked cool, so I made my second sorc with that archetype. But the whole tattooed familiar thing reminded me of the SyFy Channel miniseries "Tin Man", which was loosely based on the Wizard of Oz, but with the Wicked Witch as a beautiful sorceress and the winged monkeys as tattoos that came out of her cleavage. Yes, really. So I made the character human, borderline evil (technically neutral, per PFS rules), and gave her the looks and name of that Tin Man character (Azkadellia). I usually play male characters, but this just fit.

[BigNorseWolf]

How about you show us the skeleton and we'll see if we can add a little flesh...

Sometimes picking a country/geographic area helps too.

If you don't know golarion all that well, Pick a movie setting or a country in the real world setting. There's an allegory to it SOMEWHERE on golarion.

[Jack-of-Blades]

Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes a character you create will just suddenly sprout a mind of their own (at least they do for me).

For example, I have a character that I'd created with the intent to have a grim, dark, not real sociable swordsman that just sorta hung back and observed before leaping into the fray, blade at the ready.

Then, the day I introduced that character in society play, before he'd ever had the chance to say a word, someone at the table made a snarky comment about him.

"Wonderful," they said, rolling their eyes, "We've got a Dandy Devil."

From that point on, he's been the most flamboyant, outspoken, talkative character I've ever had. With a total Charisma of 8...

Yes, this may be a somewhat bad example as he is a Tiefling and, therefore, not a core race, but I meant it as an example. Don't give up on a character just because you don't have a personality for them yet.

If you don't like the start with a concept or personality and work back approach (though I do rather recommend it), try starting with a mechanical creation and seek inspiration and advice from friends, or look at characters in fiction you like or such. Dunno how much help it'd be for ya, but it's a thought.

Also, as BNW stated above, a region of origin can also help in fleshing out a character. Where'd they come from? How'd they grow up? That sorta stuff.

[Sir_Wulf]

Mystic_Snowfang wrote:

I started with non-society play and rarely play one of the core races. Now I'm making a character for society play, and I'm stuck. Sure I can come up with stats, but that's all. None of my PCs I've rolled up have any more life than an animated skeleton.

Random rolls are your friend. Pull out one of the many books with random tables out there (The Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide or my old AD&D DMG are a couple of my favorites). Roll some random personality quirks and try to play them. After an hour, they'll either feel right, or you'll start to feel like they just don't fit. Adjust as you go. By the time you've played him for a few hours, you'll know who he is. I'll often roll a random PC (with 3d6, the old-school way) to see what sort of guy I get. I then build someone with the same "feel" using point buy.

Example random rolls:
S 4, D 16, C 5, I 11, W 9, Ch 8 (Thank God I'm not keeping those!)
- On losing side of war
- wants to redeem family name
- glass eye
- is a spy

I decide that he is a dwarf who took up a life of adventuring after his clan rebelled against their ruler (let's say they lived in Cheliaxian lands). He was tortured for his part in their treason, losing an eye. Instead of blaming his tormentors for this, he blamed those who led him into the ill-conceived rebellion and secretly channels information back to Cheliax. His price for these betrayals is that his family's treason be stricken from official histories and other public records.

Character Build: Rogue
S 12, D 17, C 12, I 14, W 10, Ch 10

[Matthew Morris]

I'd also recommend stealing, er, being inspired by, an external character concept and using that as the basis.

Rey, for example, is inspired by Harry Dresden He's since then taken on more of his own personality, but is still rather snarky, because experience seperates him from his inspiration. For example, he shares Harry's love of fire, but carries more potions, wands and other doo-dads than Harry does.

[Mike Mistele]

Matthew Morris wrote:

I'd also recommend stealing, er, being inspired by, an external character concept and using that as the basis.

This is my favorite way to get a hook for a character.

For example, my PFS paladin is based on Kate Beckett from "Castle". Tough (to the point of not wanting to ever back down), no-nonsense, haunted by her mother's death.

[noswald]

I completely agree on using external characters for concepts. I made my Magus with the plan to flesh out a personality and one of my friends gave me the Elric of Melniboné series to read since he thought the personality would be perfect. I tweaked it some and made a "happy-go-lucky" version of Elric and people look at me really strange when I start "talking to myself".

[TheBigBlueFrog]

I second the idea of starting with a character concept and building a character around the "bones" of that backstory or concept. Yes, you're restricted in PFS to a smaller core group of races and classes, but that still gives you a wide variety of roles to assign to your character.

[David Bowles]

Race is almost always an after thought for me, since many backgrounds can be transferred from one race to another.