The right choice for you?

[Elric101]

Hello everyone, this is my first post in the roleplaying section of LO. I've been playing D+D 3.5 for a few years now with 3 friends. Our group's problem is we can never get past level 3. We are continuously changing characters and can never find that one, perfect character. It would be great to know how other roleplayers choose their characters.

e.g. do you decide on race or class first, do you choose a character that is alot like you or different.

Any advice about how you find is the best way to choose a character will be much appreciated.

P.S. If you have something to say just type it , ANY advice will be welcome.

[andrewthotep]

It's a credit to your GM/s that he/she/they is/are getting enough variety into your game that no one class or character type prevails. :-)

I think the first thing you have to acknowledge is that there is no perfect character. In D&D each character class is designed to excel at one aspect of the game, be OK at a couple more, and needs others' help in one or more. For instance, the fighter is great at thumping things, can normally hold its own in survival/travel and possibly leadership, but sucks at dealing with magic, healing and traps. D&D is designed around the character party, which will consist of enough character types to cover all these bases adequately.

Before you start your next campaign, get the group together and discuss what the game is going to be about and how you want to split up the character types / party roles. When this is decided, each of you should design your character to /own/ that role. The GM should then design the campaign to give each role equal importance, or at least a fair amount of screen time. By this I mean if one of the characters ends up a specialist healer, for instance, it should have more interesting things to do than just patching up the fighters after every fight.

There are two main notions towards choosing character roles. If your game is predominantly tactical or problem-solving, then treat the exercise like putting together a Warhammer army - work out what you're likely to be challenged by, and design characters to cover this range. For instance, a couple of fighters and/or clerics, a mage and a thief will make a balanced party to start with.

If your game is more about the story and the setting, get the GM to tell you what would work best in the game. The setting itself might offer cyeul character types. For instance, an Arthurian game about questing knights will obviously work best for characters who are knights (or aspiring squires), and players who choose instead to play gnomish assassins are obviously not going to fit in as well, forcing the GM to work harder to incorporate them. For such a setting the GM would probably downplay the importance of magical prowess and thievery and make healing available through NPCs, focusing plots on the sorts of things that knights are good at.

Finally, love your characters. They're not just collections of numbers through which you interact with the game world and try to collect the cyeulest powers the fastest: they're characters in the setting, the central characters in the legend you are building, and you should not be afraid to let them have histories, personalities, quirks, hopes and fears. Do work with the GM to build your characters' pasts, because this will often lead to plot hooks that the GM can use for plot ideas, and it's only polite (it's the GM's world after all). Acknowledge that D&D characters are going to start off puny (even comical) and have the patience to watch them grow into legends.

Or failing that, start the next characters in a later phase of their lives, say at 5th or 8th level. That way they'll be appreciably competent, which can often be satisfying in itself.

Hope this helps. :-)
Andrewthotep

[dr_nick22]

When I create a character, I have to have a concept in mind that I'd enjoy playing, otherwise I find it nigh on impossible to create one. Concepts will often come to me during the week, then when I play a game on the weekend where I have to create a new character, I choose the one I think I would like to play the most.

When I was younger and less experienced in roleplaying, I would make characters that were just cheesy because I thought that's what it was all about, making the most powerful character, but now I realise you can have the most uber character in th world, but if you don't enjoy playing it, there's no point in it.

[Visitor Q]

Talking of Uber characters there is a very funny book called 'How to be a munchkin' (the authors use munchkin to mean power gamer) its obviously a spoof book and well worth reading.

[dr_nick22]

Talking of Uber characters there is a very funny book called 'How to be a munchkin' (the authors use munchkin to mean power gamer) its obviously a spoof book and well worth reading.

I have two that are quite good, D&D for Dummies (more of an instructual book than comedy, although cartoons do pop up now and then) and 'The Slayers guide to Rules Lawyers' - man that book is funny

[Ickebeebon]

My group is very much like yours elric, in that we change characters like some people change their underwear(hopefully).

But one time it was like magic, everyone liked their characters, everyone was having fun, everyone was useful, everyone was getting the stuff they wanted, everyone was working together, etc. It was perfect. What it was, was the campaign. The DM is key. If the DM makes an incredible campaign, the players will find their niche and will grown to like their characters and role they play in the party.

I would recommend advising your DM to brush up on rules, look at some premade adventures, check out some adventure seeds, and just brainstorm in general. Have your DM do something different.

Another helpful thing my group does is roleplay. Yes i realize it is a very nerdy thing to do, but you wouldnt believe how much it adds to the D&D experience. Something as simple as chatting it up with the barkeep, or something as complex as the arguments your characters have over what to do with the captured orc chieftan. It improves the experience leaps and bounds and helps you to emphathise with and care for your character more. But if you do consider roleplaying, make sure everyone is acceptant of it and is willing to try it, nothing kills it more than someone saying "This is stupid" and then just giving up on it.

Anyways, these tips helped for my group, and since this i have learned to grow and improve as a DM and our party is currently working up through the levels. Hope this helps! good luck!

P.S- if your DM is desperate for help, check out some premade adventures, most are written very well, and can give some great ideas!

[Visitor Q]

Having your adventures set in cities and involving quitemundane things like murder investigations makes for better roleplaying.

[Rogue-Angel]

Perfect characters don't just depend on races, classes, skills, and feats. They also depend on personality, interaction with the other party members and with the world, and with the history they have (both before and during the campaign).

Example: My current character, a halfling rigue/thief-acrobat, sucks ass in combat, but he's one of the greatest characters I've ever played, only because of the party I'm in.

All of the above can only be done if your DM is good enough...

[Visitor Q]

Also the game system can make the characters better for example in Call of Cathulu fighting is pretty much secondary (the monsters wil win evertime and you can be armed with heavy machine guns in that game). The game is more about investigating and making sure you don't have to fight that means you have to have characters that are good at interaction. In fantasy games it is far easier to have an impersonal barabrian and still beat everything.

[Andusciassus]

There seems to be very different cultures when it comes to playing RPGs, where I'm fromit has always evolved around roleplaying. Even when we have used the D&D rules.
I think one of the best ways of geting people to like their characters is to have the campain evolve around them. Their background is very important in this scenario.
When you are not to save a faceless princess but the beloved of the Knight (PC) he'll like it better. And if the others are playing his friends, not just some people he met in the tavern while asking around for dungeons and horrible monsters to kill, they'll get the same feeling of importance.
RPG is very much lik elife in that way, we all like to be needed and apriciated for who we are. The thief could be a servant and the mage a scolar from the family, maybe a failed cousin or something. Failed in chivalerian terms that is, weak and no rider.
It's also important to have a somewhat flawed character, not 18 all-around, and some things in his background or personality. The not very brave knight as an example, or the big mouthed magician who always gets to drunk and ends up in a fistfight.