Basically he told me level 11, describe who you want to be and what you want to do. Then put down numbers and abilities that you think fit reasonably well with that. Don't get me wrong, I know most of the abilities in the book. But I just froze. I could tell you half a dozen things that I could have easily fit into my character, but my other friend (we're usually a 3 man team, GM included) is not so hot on character creation, so I try to keep myself even with her.How exactly do you do this? Pick out all the abilities you want for a character but not make them completely overpowered and completely and utterly break away from any system guidelines for character creation.
Well, I'd follow the guidelines the GM gave me. Come up with a concept first, and describe it.
The key is to describe it with adjectives, not with numbers. I've just been watching Blackadder DVDs, so I'll use him: He is extremely intelligent and charismatic, but weak-willed and clumsy. He's not especially strong, but he has a very high ability to withstand punishment.
This gives me my stats : INT = CHA >> CON > STR > WIS = DEX. I can put that into any point buy system the game master likes to use, this could be an INT and CHA of 16, or of 22.
His skills... well, Blackadder's not really in a fantasy universe, but he'd make a pretty good rogue. He's "one of England's finest liars," so he's got lots of social skills (but not Linguistics) : probably maxed out Bluff, Diplomacy, not so much on Intimidate. He's not a good rider or sailor but he's good at spotting valuables (Appraise). And so forth. One easy trick is simply to identify his skills and divide his available skill points (88 + 8 * INT bonus at 11th level) by that number, so if he has INT 18, that's 15 skills he could max out,... or 13 skills at full ranks and another 4 at half ranks.
Or let's go with Sir Galahad. A paladin, obviously. Very high WIS from his piety, but enough STR to beat Sir Lancelot in a duel. Again, push the high ones to whatever the GM will let you and put the rest of the points in the rest of the stats, so that might end up being 16/11/11/11/16/11 or it might be 22/14/14/14/22/14. The only real skill for which Sir G. was noted was Riding, so max that, and then scatter the rest among basic skills like Swim, Climb, Sense Motive, at one rank per.
Who else? Gandalf? He basically has no weak stats. So look at how many points your GM gives you, and divide by six. He's obviously a loremaster and a "wielder of the sacred fire." Give him every knowledge skill and any spells with the "Fire" descriptor.
Is this gestalt or is he just letting you grab anything willy-nilly (not that there's much of a difference).
If the latter is the case, then I suppose you should just grab whatever the highest and best modifier is, as is appropriate for the level.
It's level 11, so your BAB is +11. Your best save is +7. Maybe you have all good saves. If not, then the worst is +3, but why not make it two good saves? Your hit dice are d12.
Am I getting this right? Is this what you think he is saying?
If so, you might want to consult the monster creation charts in the Bestiary as well as the Core book. They break down good/bad saves and other such stats per level/HD on simpler charts than the Core does.
It might help if we knew what your character concept was. In detail.
Thing is, the GM isn't giving me points. He isn't giving me skills, he isn't giving me stats. I have no numbers here.
He's literally telling me "write down whatever you want that you feel is appropriate for this level" (not just numbers but abilities too). My stats can be whatever I want, my skills can be whatever I want, my attack and damage can be anything I want.
Well, you've got some stuff implicit in the rules themselves. 11th level gives you skill levels up to 11, and 11 hit dice of whatever size you think is appropriate for the character. Blackadder probably has d8s, Galahad d10s, Conan d12, Gandalf d6's, and so forth.
Ask him how high an "awesome" stat would be in his world. [If he doesn't answer, make up a number yourself. I tend to think in terms that 25 is awesome....] Use that number for your top stat and scale it halfway to 10 for each progressively weaker stat. Using Blackadder again, I suggested that both of his Int and Charisma were very good, so I'l go with 22 each (not unreasonable for an 11th level character with a headband, and slightly less than a single-stat character would have), then 16 for Con, 13 for Strength, and 8 each for Wis and Dex. With 22 Int, he has 8+6=14 skills to max out, so I can pick every social skill, perception and sense motive, and most of the knowledge skills. 11th level gives me about 50hp, plus 33 for Con bonus. I can read saving throws off the Rogue table, and pick appropriate talents, focusing on social abilities ; Canny Observer, Charmer, and Obfuscate Story are obvious candidates.
And make sure to take the Leadership feat to represent Baldrick and/or Percy.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Some solid advice.
I know your GM didn't give you points...but if it were me I would behave as if he had. So pick a point buy value that works for you and go from there. Remember too that he has also sort of given you a power cap to keep within by setting it at level 11 and if you build too high on attributes you may skew your power level if you go above the 25 point buy.
So using adjectives I would (as previously suggested) map out "this is better than this" etc. Then I would purchase my ability scores. I would then map out special abilities as if I were basically building a new class and choose skills accordingly. IMO skills could be the most difficult part as I never feel I have enough skill points but YMMV.
Good luck this sounds like it could be a blast!
Oh...Also if this is meant to be an exercise in role-playing don't try to make a superhuman...keep the character's flaws and failings in mind as you build the description and later in the final character build...
And Bruunwald that is what he's saying. Basically I'm not using any class. I'm selecting skills, casting ability, BAB, Saves, and special abilities for myself, as well as stats. I don't pick out feats, anything that I feel he should be able to do, he can do.
So if I wanted a master archer he'd come high dex, whatever saves I felt like, probably a good solid HD, full BAB, and all of the archery feats regardless of level or access to them.
Well,... as you pointed out, you don't really want to power game this one. So I'd suggest that following some sort of PF guideline will make a better character, precisely because it gives you weaknesses as well as strengths.
E.g., an 11th level character has good saves of +7, bad ones of +3. The only class that gets all good saves is the Monk, so your master archer probably has one bad save, probably two. Full BAB does make sense for a fighter-type, but that's +11, not +18, and there's no reason for you to take 16 feats, precisely because a character is more interesting if he can't do everything (thus forcing you to come up with creative solutions).
In superhero terms, Superman is boring. Batman's cool in part precisely because he can't do everything and has to rely on cunning and kill instead of simply saying "using his superpowers, he naturally defeated the bad guy."
Resist the temptation to be Superman. Your character is defined as much by what he can't do as by what he can.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Resist the temptation to be Superman. Your character is defined as much by what he can't do as by what he can.
This!
Also put as much thought into your character's flaws, failings or other complications as you do your "powers." It is from the aspects that make things harder for your character that drama will arise. That drama can be some of the best parts of role-playing.