|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For me, half of the fun when I dump stats is to find ways to justify them through RP. A low wis/int character rushes headfirst into traps, a low dex character keeps fumbling around... When it's integrated into a character concept that's fun for everyone at the table, even the most thoroughly min-maxed build comes to life with these little quirks.
For instance, for a one-shot evil game that I knew would involve mostly combat, I built myself a Duergar monk. As the die rolled and the racial modifier kicked in, all things told he wound up with 5 Charisma. I figured this was outstanding enough to need addressing, so I came up with this:
See, this duergar is ugly and mean-looking. No surprise there. But he also doesn't speak much. People might think "Oh, he's a monk, he took a vow of silence", but no. See, whenever he does open his mouth...
...he speaks in a high-pitched, annoying Muppet voice. Try taking THAT seriously when it tries to intimidate or charm you, I dare you!
What are YOUR negative modifier anecdotes? (A note: this thread isn't intended as a discussion of the merits and drawbacks of min-maxing, only as a place to share stories.)
I have a low wisdom and low charisma wizard that is loosely based upon Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. For the most part he is a blast.
I play low Dex as being near sighted.
I also enjoy playing to the low scores of my characters. I have a barbarian/fighter in my current game who has a 9 Cha, I don't play that as being ugly, but rather having a hard time with social interactions. He doesn't talk much (some think he's a bit shy) and when he does, he fumbles over his words a bit not knowing how to phrase things diplomatically.
To me, this is half the fun of the game, we even go so far as to allow flaws in our games so that our characters are even more human and realistic.
Low CHA can also be great by having the character always trying to communicate with innuendo and metaphors but have them absolutely suck at it.
Like have the character try to intimidate someone with some innuendo about stabbing them, but make the innuendo also sound like sex, so the DM can have the NPC get really confused.
My 7-Wis Paladin was rash, reckless, a terrible judge of character except when DE came into play, very often acted or spoke before thinking, and above all was a terrible, terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE cook.
My 8-Str Summoner (not really a dump, she's small-sized, but still a negative) regularly drops things (like her longspear) and spends more time dragging her equipment than carrying it, doubly so if her Eidolon (a bear-sized mountain of spikes with a beaky mouth, resembling a mini-Lavos from Chrono Trigger) isn't around to haul it for her.
