How do you make your characters?
For me i pick the race and class i want to play then do my background. After that i pick the traits that fit my background. Depending on what style of stat generation used for the character my ability scores will vary but i dont see any stat as a dump stat so i want to have them all above 10. For feats i generaly stay within my character theme and wont take feats that are inapripriate for the area i am in or where i come from like a person from mendev takeing dervish dance. I will build to be effective in combat but not op in it.
So how do you build your characters do you like to build effective but fun or is everything there to maximise your character to be the very best like no one ever was.
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It differs, depending on whether I'm playing or GMing.
When GMing, I will often have a 'problem' that needs solving, in-game (such as, to pick a really basic scenario, an isolated town is often raided by goblins in winter). If I have to stat up NPCs for that town, the questions that raises are "What sort of person would live in a place like this?", "What skills would a person likely learn, if they lived here?", "What kind of person would the locals value enough, to make their head?".
Needless to say, that results in a higher than normal incidence of barbarians, druids and rangers. Knowledge (local), Survival, Handle Animal, all of these then become common to many of the inhabitants.
The local wizard will have learnt darkvision, to deal with the nocturnal raids, and has learned how to bottle this in potion form.
The headman/warleader is a ranger, with Favored Enemy (goblinoids), a melee combat style, and Blindfighting.
The former is not metagaming, it's a natural result of being brought up there.
Archery style may be more 'optimal', and the blindfighting may now be redundant, but it's important to think how the feats and abilities would have been acquired organically. Just because he gets first refusal on the shaman's darkvision potions now, wasn't always the case, and he had to learn to defend himself in the night, when he could barely see beyond ten feet away.
* Ask GM about prohibited classes/races
* If I'm late to the party, ask what the party needs
* Take several days struggling to come up with some concept that I'm excited about (I can get terrible block at this stage)
* Rough out a tiny amount of backstory, get the GM to ok it
* Get out a couple character sheets and start crunching numbers, pondering specifics of backstory while I'm at it
Depends on the GM style tbh. If there's a clear story with a pre set history and a stereotypical or iconic type of character that would be most appropriate, then I roll with that. If it's more of a sandbox "find your adventure" kind of game, then I go buck wild and come up with something I think people will find interesting. Most recently for a 3.5 game I came up with Milo the Alchemist, a Transmuter Halfling. He's really fun to play, but far from min-maxed.
As a player, I usually create my character in response to what the others are playing.
Someone really want to play a sorcerer and the other a barbarian? Well then, one divine spellcaster with some sneaking ability coming up (Oracle with Seeker archetype and Trait Wisdom in the Flesh [stealth]).
We have a Paladin, a Cavalier and a Cleric? My, my, my... Um... Wow. Gonna need some kind of Rogue. Paladin can be a good party face. Healing is pretty much covered. The Paladin won't be able to smooze with the unsavory locals, so a under-cover party face might be needed. Some combat buffs would go a long way... Ah! Bard with either Archaeologist archetype or Detective.
Truth is, I have a bit of a difficulty settling on one particular character to play as I am aware of a vast amount of things I can do with each character. Building in response helps me narrow down my imagination and limit the ceiling as to which I like to build power towards.
Otherwise, I'd play something like:
Human [Silvered Tongue, Focused Study]
Oracle 1 (Seeker archetype, lame curse, Lore myster, Words of Power)
Alchemist 2 (Rage Chemist, Vivisectionist, Words of Power)
Sorcerer 1 (Crossblooded/Wildblooded [Draconic/Primal], Seeker archetype, regular casting)
Witch 1 (Winter Witch, Words of Power)
Dragon Disciple 10 [Boosting Sorcerer spells]
Feats would look like:
Improved Caster level (x2) [3rd party]
Skill Focus [Knowledge: Planes, Diplomacy and UMD] (bons from focused study
Eldritch Heritage (improved and greater) For access to Pit-Touch, Abyssal and Envenomed bloodlines (Already crossblooded, whats a few more?)
Intensified spell (for blasty/blasty word of power spells with level 1 spell slots)
Maybe some Extra Discoveries or Extra Hexes as the need calls.
Yeah, that is why I build in response to other players and their current need.
Well, it depends on the DM's style really. I typically ask if this is going to be a high-story or low-story campaign, combat or social, so on and so forth. If it's a low-story campaign, I come up with a brief (for me) two to five page background, if it's a high story campaign it's not uncommon for me to write up an entire short-story for a background (during which I ask the GM a ton of questions). Before that though I suppose I think of a concept that's interesting to me at the time, weather it's a mechanic or a bit of fluff.
From there, I just build around the concept. For example, I've got a character I want to throw into a light hearted game, the grey kobold sorcerer w/ draconic bloodline that, thanks to amnesia, thinks he's the ultimate final epitome of dragon evolution. All mechanics chosen are pulled from optimizing the 'dragon' theme, from across all colors.
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I prefer character creation be done as a group so players can sit together and work together on filling roles and making pre existing connections between characters.
Otherwise, when making a character I try to find a "hook", something that makes for an interesting character. A hairless dwarf (why is he hairless? Maybe he shaves it all off as penance for a terrible crime or mistake. Ooh, that makes a great monk or inquisitor concept, and so on). Basically I try to break the stereotypes of character types wherever possible.
I ask the DM what sort of setting we'll be getting into. Then I pick a "theme" I want to explore with the character. Afterwards, I pick the class I think would be most interesting within that general theme, and the race that'd make the most sense with it, or seems the most interesting at the moment. Afterwards, I jot down a quick backstory (the majority of my character's pasts are generally thought up on the spot, or explored in greater detail at the table - I'm of the opinion that story is fine and dandy, but it's unimportant unless it directly impacts the game; like shaping how a character behaves) and come up with 9-10 things to list on the character's personal "code of ethics". These're things he/she believes strongly in.
Like, I had a Witchguard Ranger who's code of ethics (abbreviated here) consisted of "Always assume spellcasters facing persecution are victims of the ignorant masses, unless there's solid evidence." "First in, last out." and "Humans first, always." - The group's spellcasters loved him for constantly having their backs, and everyone generally respected him for taking the brunt of the combat and allowing them to escape successfully several times (also for being the one to have spine enough to be the first to brave uncertain circumstances). But the fact he regularly looked for opportunities to belittle and berate the group's elf made them a liiiittle uncomfortable.
But, hey. A little tension is nice.
If I'm reaaaally slow on the uptake, I'll just pick whatever the group needs. But I've been playing PnP games for almost a decade more than everyone else in my regular group, so I generally have the first 2-3 things on this list done before everyone else is finished picking their class.
1. Choose basic concept. Determine skills and abilities roughly, since the nature of the game precludes being too specific early on.
2. Figure out how the character acquired those abilities and his motivation for doing so.
3. Look through various game elements attempting to find the combination that comes closest to the skills and abilities in my concept. Often, things need to be dropped and things I didn't really care for included. Such is a class system.
4. Buy ability scores, spend skill points.
5. Slap one of the few races I like on it. Usually trying for beneficial stat adjustments, but if not, oh well.
6. Buy gear.
7. Whatever may be left (spells known, class feature choices, etc)
8. Fill out the character sheet proper.
9. Go.
I'm all over the place in this.
Most commonly I've reading over classes, feats or such and have a cool idea spark from a mechanic. The idea is not necessarily mechanical. Sometimes I see a synergy between two abilities and think it would be fun to play. When I start mechanically I always make a point to have a great backstory and strong personality and tone/theme.
Sometimes I see a theme and go with that - right now working on a Ranger/Witch (gestalt) that is a Werewolf, has a wolf puppy (fox) as his familiar, and will get a wolf animal companion (the start of his pack). His approach and personality are coming together well.
Other times I want to emulate something I've seen in the source literature. I build a gestalt (I play solo so we always gestalt) that is bouncing between three classes, but he really works as a
Chinese wandering hero from Wuxia films. The mechanics support that mood and approach.
Sometimes I come up with personality and goals. I know I wanted to play a character that is the ultimate arcane spellcaster - so getstalt wizard sorcerer with some interesting prestige class stuff going on later.
I assume we're talking about PC building.
When I sit down to build a PC, I try to figure out what sort of role I want to perform in a party. Do I want to perform massive amounts of damage? Buff my allies? Debuff my enemies? Do I want to use magic or am I a martial character? What does the party already have? Basically, I start by figuring out my niche.
Once I have a niche in mind, I sit down and I try to take that niche and figure out a fun, flavorful concept that I want to try to build for. "I want to use ranged weapons," or even "I want to use firearms," isn't good enough for me. How do I want to do those things? I usually brainstorm old movies, look at what the party already has, or review cool ideas that I've written down in my notebook. (I also keep a computer file of interesting character builds that I sometimes draw upon.)
Once I have a niche and I have a style for that niche, I try to build my character to match that style. I review tons of sources and tons of different abilities. The d20pfsrd.org website is now my best friend, because I have narrowed down key words to search for. Where the site might have have 20+ pages of content to look for when I search "firearms," searching for "dual wield firearms" brings me fewer hits, or it allows me to know what I'm looking for when I make my build.
Finally, with the cornerstones in place I build my character from Level 1 to Level 20. This gives me a sense of progression and goals to work towards when I build my character. Knowing the abilities I'd like to take allows me to foreshadow them in my RP. For example, if I'm building up to take Improved Unarmed Strike and Vicious Stomp next level (I totally am), I would roleplay my character learning and practicing kickboxing and look for logical reasons why my character would do this. GMs LOVE when your power gamed build makes sense from a story perspective!
I come up with what I think is a rad idea
Then, I adapt the mechanical crunch choices to fit that idea
I do not care if a trait or feat is flavored, only about the mechanics of it
Then, when I have my concept
I play it to the hilt and stay true to it
I get to play PF so infrequently - I usually run games - I play a character I've already built. When I build PCs, it's about either concept or mechanics first. One gives me the spark, and the other half comes later.
Occasionally I worry about filling a role.
5 steps to my character building
step 1: read some feat or option get unreasonably excited about it
step 2: build character at lvl6 and decide if i like it or if its garbage
step 3: (hard part) decide if he/she/it is going to be good(a possible DMPC whom i could play but will never shine and take longer to be in the game) or evil(a possible villain whom i can use to full power to attack my players only to die)
step 4:rebuild at proper level
step 5:build back story(good) or epic encounter(evil)
Lately, I've been in the habit of combing Google for cool fantasy images and I build characters based on whatever I pick out.
deviantart is good for this too
As DM, I usually create a "Character Generation" document numbered 1 - x and e-mail it to all players. This shows any specific house rules, which stat generation system we're using, any limits on class and race, etc.
I suspect my more experienced players just kind of gloss over this doc to make sure they're following the (house)rules, and just do the steps in whatever order seems best to them.
Personally as a player, I pick a concept that seems to be something the party needs, usually based loosely on some real person I know (at least appearance and personality wise) and then start throwing class, stats, etc at it until it's a functional character.
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Depends on what GM's game I am making this character for.
If I am playing in "M's" game for example I know combat and roleplay will be mixed but also he won't be pulling any punches in combat. So I know I need a well thought out character someone with a place in the world and a defined personality... But I will also need to be a solid combatant probably from day one.
- I check with the others to see if they have their hearts set on some specific concept first. Then I toss some ideas of my own into the mix and we all settle on our combat roles.
- Next I take the combat role I settled on and examine the setting we will be playing in. I may notice for example the neighboring nation has an established tradition with the combat role I will be using. So I outline a role play concept around an ex-patriot of the neighbor nation, giving her motivations and goals but stopping there.
- I check in with the others again. What backgrounds have they set up so far? Two of us have the same national origin and so we start working to intertwine our characters. We settle on siblings and we modify each of our family backgrounds to match each other. With some minor exceptions... for example his background shows his father as a real tyrant someone who he could never please, while mine shows a doting father who would do anything for his little girl. We decide to keep these the way they are turning father into a complex individual someone who treated others with an iron fist except where it came to his wife and the daughter who so resembled her. This also sets us up for a nice bit of sibling rivalry. We also decide to mesh our backgrounds with another player who has detailed ties to the border region between our nations. We conspire to better flesh out the situation that caused two of us to switch sides and become part of this neighboring country. The others have also meshed their background over a massacre that happened near the border when the nation us two sibling came from committed a war crime against the villagers of the nation we will be adventuring in. So we all decide this event will be the pivotal moment when we all became friends and the bonding moment between two other characters and the real reason why my sibling and I defected.
- Now that our backgrounds all match up I start stating her out. What sort of feats compliment the build and background I have? I place my stats and put the finishing touches on my starting gear. I also double check with "M" since it is his game and as a power gamer he might have good insights on feats or options that would greatly help my character. Since this is "M's" game I know we all get a minor starting magic item that fits our background and with a smile at the extra rivalry this will create I select a magic weapon given to me by father himself. I finish her build at this point as well pre-planning for her build that is necessary in any d20 game.
- Finally I take what I have made so far and begin molding her personality. I decide on a bit of a trouble maker. Since she is daddy's little princess I decide that she uses that to get her rival brother all riled up when things get boring. And she will also keep her attention open to things that she might use to rile up others as well. I also decide this is just fun and games for her and that when the chips are down she will be her brothers biggest ally. And by extension a strong supporter of her other allies as well.
- We all compare notes again on personalities and two of the others modify their own backgrounds a little to reflect the personality I have built. I also modify my background to become best friends with another PC who has made a truly misunderstood hero... a hero with horrible luck and always ends up looking like the villain. She agrees and we decide my character feels sorry for her and as a result she is never the target of my trouble making, we have each others backs whether the chips are down or not.
- The GM reviews what we have made and builds our various backgrounds into his sub plots.
Damn it, Danit! I…
… sorry, my early Rocky Horror conditioning took over there for a minute…
I don’t think I have just one way or even a half dozen of coming up with characters.
Most of the time if I’m joining a game, I’ll see what the group needs and then come up with something from there. Crunch then fluff, usually. (This is how I ended up with an inquisitor with a level dip in Pathfinder Delver).
Sometimes if I’m coming in on a campaign from the ground up, I’ll build it from whatever fluff information the GM sends out and try to see what other folks are doing as well to make sure we’re not at loggerheads (ie paladin vs. assassin).
Sometimes I’ll want to see what an old PC or favorite NPC would be like in whatever game I’m currently playing (this usually ends in tears or a realization that 20 levels is not enough for some concepts).
Sometimes I play with a group with odd char gen or play rules and end up with a weird meta character of something I had previously planned / played. (Gestalt agent of Mengkare character I’m looking at you).
Sometimes I’ll say, “wow, this seems like it would be fun/neat/horrible/interesting” to play and make a character around it (my now deceased Arcane Trickster was a good example of “seems interesting”).
Sometimes I’ll read something and say, wow, I should SO make a character from this area or in conflict or alliance with these things (most of my PFS characters came about this way).
Every so often a GM will say, hey, I have this campaign idea, but it needs certain kinds of characters… this is especially true for one-offs or very short arcs.
Sometimes I’ll read a book/watch a movie/ have a dream that doesn’t involve anyone leaving in peace or harmony together/be traumatized by a commercial and think “I could do a character about that / in spite of that / as a protest towards the existence of that” (soon to be unleashed alchemist from 3am commercials about invention patents I’m looking at you).
For PFS I put together a variety of character classes as expect insane-O table variation and use them to see how some things run and to try new things with new folks.
TL;DR – depends on the game and what side of the table I’m on.
-TimD
I'm all over the place in this.
Most commonly I've reading over classes, feats or such and have a cool idea spark from a mechanic. The idea is not necessarily mechanical. Sometimes I see a synergy between two abilities and think it would be fun to play. When I start mechanically I always make a point to have a great backstory and strong personality and tone/theme.
Sometimes I see a theme and go with that...
Other times I want to emulate something I've seen in the source literature.
...
Sometimes I come up with personality and goals [first].
...
It's essentially the same with me.
First, naturally, I need to see what my options are.
Usually I try to work in a character concept I already have bouncing around my head. If none of them would work for the setting, I'll make something up then-and there. If I don't have an idea for some aspects of the character already (sexuality, gender, religion, etc.), I'll roll for it.
I don't usually think too much about party mechanics when I'm coming up with a PC. Whatever happens I have faith the GM will work it out for the best.
First of all, I want to know a bit about the setting and the kind of adventure that the GM is planning to run. If the GM has put together a player's guide, all the better!
From there, I'll try to think about what I have been told about the campaign, and try to come up with an interesting character concept that will fit. I usually come up with the look of the character in my mind first, then what the character should do, his or her role in the campaign, and the character's general personality.
It's generally only after I've figured these things out before I start working on the game mechanics, stats, abilities, etc.
For example...
Example #1: Cat-Man (Champions 4th Edition)
Several years ago, the GM wanted to run a superheroes game using Hero System. He said he wanted to run it as a moderately high-powered game, in a fictional U.S. city with a "four color / Silver Age" comic book feel. I decided that I wanted to play close to genre and would create a character that was modeled after a well-known Silver Age superhero, with some kind of interesting twist. I settled on a Batman-like gadget-and-martial-arts vigilante-type of character. Someone wealthy enough to be able to build/buy his gadgets. But what's the twist? How about that he also has some actual super-powers: Maybe the powers of an animal that stalks the night. Like a cat! The concept became "Cat-Man", a Batman-like character but with Spider-Man-like powers: Night vision, retractable claws, danger sense, superleap, damage resistance, and a big variable gadget pool. Only son of the founder of the Murphy Financial Group, Felix Murphy wanted little to do with finance, and became a genetic biologist. While working for a govenrment subcontractor working to develop a super-serum, Dr. Felix Murphy accidentally exposed himself to Feline Mutagen #9, mixing his own DNA with that of a wildcat, giving him the relative speed, strength, senses, and tenacity of a mountain lion. Cat-Man now prowls the night, stalking evildoers in the shadows. With that background in mind, I crunched the numbers to make a character that fit the concept.
Example #2: Baron Drax von Stryker (D&D 3.5)
The GM said that the PCs would be the King's Guard in the kingdom's second-largest city. A city actually ruled by the Duke, who had his own guardsmen also watching over the city. The game would be episodic, where the PCs would be solving crimes, defending the city from attack, and generally keeping an eye on the Duke, who was known for his excesses. I thought about the kind of person who would join the King's Guard in such a circumstance, and came on the idea of the eldest son of a disgraced nobleman-- someone who had a title, but few resorces or allies to back it up. Someone originally raised in luxury, but was now somewhat impoverished. A young man with dark hair and a short-cropped beard, with noble bearing and a grim attitude. Someone whose personal mission was to restore his barony to the good graces of the King and to his own subjects. I also thought it would be cool to have his grandfather's sword-- a legendary weapon that would increase in power with the PC. I thought it would be even cooler if his grandfather had been a legendary hero of the Realm, who had achieved his own greatness by dealing with dark powers. With that background, I built a character: Lawful Good aristocrat 1 / fighter 3. He had the "Educated" feat, granting him two Knowledge skills as class skills (History and Nobility). I also took the "Ancestral Weapon" feat for the sword-- a bastard sword. Other than that, I built a pretty standard "sword-and-board" fighter-- someone noble at heart, but not afraid to get his hands dirty if he needed to.
Example #3: Del Squallburble (PFRPG)
I'm just designing this character now for a "Skull and Shackles" game. In this case, I was thinking of an unlikely pirate-- someone you wouldn't expect to be a pirate. A woman drawn the sea by some mysterious force or spirit or calling. Someone of a race not normally associated with the sea... like a gnome! That's it! A blue-haired female gnome whose skin has a slight greenish tint. And the forces that drew her to the sea were mystical, unleashing the magical powers within her... like a sorcerer! Of the aquatic bloodline. With that, I then built the character's stats.
Character creation is not something that I approach with a checklist. I consider it more of a process that evolves as I learn more about the game setting and think more about what sort of character I want to play.
Based on conversations with other gamers in my group, my approach is a more personality based approach than most people. In other words, I don't really think in terms of "I want to play a paladin" or "I want to play a wizard." Instead I mostly think about what sort of personality I want to crawl inside and roll around in for the next game session. That may or may not have an impact on the character's mechanical choices.
Once I've got a basic personality in mind, I'll start contemplating what races I am interested in. Generally speaking, I prefer playing counter to stereotypes as opposed to in alignment with them. So, for example, my most outrageously bellicose and belligerent character is my halfling bard. If at all possible, I will pursue custom race creation. I love creating custom races. I'd say that about 35% of my characters of the past fifteen years have been custom races.
Finally, once I have the personality and race figured out, I'll start thinking about what role I want to play. This is when I start really paying attention to the rest of the party. As the longest-playing member of our group, I tend to choose roles that are "gap-filler" roles, allowing the newer players the chance to play what they want first. In general that means I end up with supporting character roles (my last three characters were druid, witch and bard for example).
By "role" I don't mean "class" by the way. "Healer" does not mean "cleric". And usually there are a couple of gaps that need attention so that my character is a healer/buffer or battlefield controller/diplomat or something like that. Once I've figured out the role(s) my character will fill, then I start looking at classes and archetypes.
Eventually I'll have narrowed the classes and archetypes down to a few, and that's typically when I generate the mechanical attributes for the character. On occasion the statistical results will be a sort of tie-breaker between a couple of final round concepts and I'll go with the elf over the human because the concept benefits from specific elf attributes. Other times I just make the stats work with whatever I've already decided I want to play. Last time, for example, I was pretty firmly committed to the halfling detective bard before the point-buy was applied.
Then I'll work on backstory developing a history and detailed personality for the character that explains why the character is available at this point in their lives for adventuring.
Finally I'll start working on the mechanical details of feats, skills, spell selection, gear, weapons, etc.
I decide what abilities I want for my character (feats, skills, spell selection, whatever) and then pick a suitable class; race is usually human, but I might go elf if it plays to the strengths of my design. Background fluff comes last.
One step for me is to visit the quote mine; visit quote websites, look at books and collect anything that strikes me as "that looks like something my character might say!" Do it long enough or deep enough and I've fleshed out a persona with likes, dislikes and opinions, including ones different from my own so I don't just default to that. Then I can used those opinions and likes and dislikes and chose a race class, etcetera that fits what I've come up with after I build flesh around that structure of quotes and opinions.