Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Jan 13, 2004 12:30:57	Well, our DM is starting a new DSun campaign, and the group is composed by (so far) a half-giant brute, a thri-kreen fighter (or a elven archer - the player has not decided yet) and another kreen cleric (water). Then i thought: hey, there is a ranger, a wizard (preserver) and a psi missing there. So, i was thinking playing a Ranger/Psion. Starting at 3th lvl, i was thinking in something like Rgr 2/ Psion 1, and then going all the way up as psion. What do you all think? Should i create a pure psion, or the rgr/psion idea sounds good to? k, thats all... Burger
#2 dawnstealer Jan 13, 2004 12:58:43	Go as a psychic warrior and take the tracking feat. Personally, I randomly choose what character I'm going to be, but I haven't played in so long (lifelong GM syndrome, common these parts), that that's irrelevant. Do whatever you think you'd have the most fun with - if your GM's good, those kreen won't survive their first trip to the elven market.
#3 zombiegleemax Jan 13, 2004 18:14:19	If i were you, i would create a single class psion... like all cast/manifest classes, it hurts to take another class, but because psions, like sorcs already have a delayed progression, it hurts even more. And you wants 2nd level powers fast things like invisibility, suggestion & Brainlock are life-savers... (in my case) If not? make a psi warrior, or a ranger, with a couple of psion levels. IMO....
#4 zombiegleemax Jan 13, 2004 20:42:37	Personally, I tend to think far more in terms of character concepts, personality, and background, and then go and flesh out the mechanics that best fit with the mentality of the character. My avice then would be to think more in terms of who your character is. A pure psion and a ranger/psion are going to have very different outlooks. Decide which approach you think would be more fun to role-play. Min-maxing, while fun in its own way, tends to force you to create a mix-matched style of character where the personality is based on the numbers, instead of the other way around.
#5 nytcrawlr Jan 13, 2004 21:51:40	Originally posted by Mach2.5 Personally, I tend to think far more in terms of character concepts, personality, and background, and then go and flesh out the mechanics that best fit with the mentality of the character. My avice then would be to think more in terms of who your character is. A pure psion and a ranger/psion are going to have very different outlooks. Decide which approach you think would be more fun to role-play. Min-maxing, while fun in its own way, tends to force you to create a mix-matched style of character where the personality is based on the numbers, instead of the other way around. A-freaking-men my brother. Hence one of the reasons I'm looking to replace a few members of my old group, because of that exact same reason, just gets old after awhile.
#6 dawnstealer Jan 13, 2004 22:30:36	A friend and I, who often trade parts as GMs, have a great time making characters. I'll sometimes biff stat rolls just to have an interesting character. I've played everything from a professional farmer (the DMG NPC class) to a superstrong (and not so smart or quick) sorcerer. Sometimes playing something that's counterintuitive can lead to the most interesting role-playing. Remember, what makes this game different from a video game (something I DO love, by the way) is that it's a story. The point is not to "win" or have the toughest bastard to ever walk the face of the earth; the point is to play something interesting and put yourself in their shoes. I'd recommend going with a cleric, but make them spectacularly unintelligent. Think caveman shaman. Maybe he likes to make racecars out of his poop. Be creative.
#7 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jan 13, 2004 23:53:23	I guess I've been the opposite of a "min-maxing" gamer. I tend to like characters which are a challenge, and my characters frequently have a personality and/or statistical flaw that I have to work around. Plus I'm probably the least lucky dice roller in the world (which is one of the reasons I try not to use a dice-roll ability generation method in my games). Even without randomization in character generation, I frequently roll 4 or lower on any d20, usually those results are anywhere from 40% to 80% of my dice rolls in a given gaming session. Thank god for taking 10 . I've also rolled 10d10 a few times and ended up with it resulting in all 1's (during a Vampire/Mage campaign, which that result also ended up with me making out a brand-spanking new character a couple seconds later). My group's other GM runs a Star Wars campaign, and has implemented the rule of "if you roll a natural 1 on your attack, your weapon runs out of ammo/loses it's charge". I really, truly hate that rule, as 9 times out of 10, my Jedi's Lightsaber goes dead in the first round of combat. Now my Jedi has 20 backup batteries on a belt, and I tend to use about half to two-thirds of them each fight.
#8 dawnstealer Jan 14, 2004 0:03:11	Good lord, remind me to never bet on your dice in craps.
#9 evilrafael Jan 14, 2004 0:46:06	By the way, just informing: Burger ended up with a Ranger / Thief... he and his friends kreen and half giant live in a stinking falling apart shack in Balic, and although the half giant doesn't properly live INSIDE the shack (too big, he never enters and sleeps outside on the cold ground), they're happy. Yar'uk (Burger's character) fell in love already with a beautiful half-elven prostitute from the Crimson Rest tavern. By now it's all calm and cool, but they're engaging true dangers soon enough: the kreen is very outgoing with everybody, and he said he'd like to buy a new gythka from the elves. ;)
#10 irdeggman Jan 14, 2004 4:39:43	You should play Alternity (low is better there);) I prefer concept characters also and rather hate having onew that can do anything better than anyone else. I like gaming groups where each character has a specific role to play. While they can overlap, someone should be the charmer, somone the caster, someone the mainline warrior type, etc. That is one of the gretest things about 3/3.5 is that it is now a 'team concept' vice an everyone out for themself trying to gain exp (2nd ed). I usually start with a rough idea for a character , do my dice rolls and then see where thy can be put to give the character 'character'. One of my favorite characters was a 1st ed fighter with an 18 (09) Str, 17 Dex and 3 Int. Boom Boom Broomski. Another is Krunch (d20 Star Wars converted from West End version) - a Klatoonian soldier/scoundrel who fancies himself an actor ( have a rank in perform- acting, specializing in bad or over ) . High Str, Dex and Con but Low Int and Cha. I didn't say he was a good actor did I? He likes to 'dance' with people - what he calls using martial arts, and the sound that their heads make when he bashes them "They call out my name." Pick a theme for your character and then go from there. Look at Prestige classes too, some of them will give you a good idea of how to 'develop' your character with some sort of 'end in mind'. Do you want to play a sneaky (ranger/psion) or forthright and 'in your face' psiwarrior type of character. Its all your choice and its all good.
#11 zombiegleemax Jan 14, 2004 6:09:36	LOL, I'm in the same boat with you Xlore. Back before I was a DM, out of perhaps three dozen or more characters, I had one single crit with a natural 18 stat. One. Over 300 stat rolls and one came up tops (which was I think comeliness for a barbarian so its was entirely useless mechanically, but he was still one sezzie barbarian). My bad luck with rolling I thik also tailored my DMing into being the rat-bastardly DM that I am. My players love when I craft a BBEBG that is as cool as they come, but yet fumbles left and right during the 'climactic confrontation'.
#12 elonarc Jan 14, 2004 6:19:51	Thank you Mach2.5, so this happens to other DMs too. In my gaming group we're playing with an advanced fumble table, so that you can roll up what the fumble looks like. In the first round of the 'climactic confrontation' my Evil Overlord fumbled and I rolled straight for worst possible fumble...severe self-injury. Two lessons learned... 1) No adavnced fumble table anymore. 2) Sometimes you may ad hoc have to decide that the Evil Overlord has a pathetic and previously unknown twin. :D
#13 evilrafael Jan 14, 2004 9:50:31	As a DM and as a player, I whole-heartedly agree with irdeggman. Man, where's the fun when there's no challenge? My most powerful character ever was a chaotic good necromancer (thus non-evil) with very high ranks in diplomacy. DIPLOMACY. That's pure roleplay gentlemen. Over time I grew tired of players that knew a lot about rules and none about playing, and then there was no fun anymore in being a DM. Many (maybe all) of you will find this wrong or too weird, but I prize roleplaying over victories on the battlefield. In my games, expect a lot of XP if you roleplay a lot, has a nice character concept or at least bring situations worth roleplaying
#14 evilrafael Jan 14, 2004 9:53:50	Come to think about it, you could question me: ok but why don't you go play Vampire then? Answer 1: I do play Vampire sometimes. Answer 2: I still really love D&D
#15 nytcrawlr Jan 14, 2004 11:31:10	Yeah, unfortunatly D&D isn't built as a "roleplaying" system, but I try to run it as one anyways.
#16 zombiegleemax Jan 14, 2004 12:03:06	But evilRafael didnt say why he got high diplomacy.... Does Deck of Many Things rings your bell? Ok, nevermind. Thats not the point... But i agree with the Role-Play in first place. But lets be serious: nobody wants to play a weak character! Then, i think that somebody has to build a cool storyline, a good concept and personality to a char, but needs to worry about the dice to. What use do you have for a cool char that is DEAD?(oh, ok, i could think of something, but you all got the point). So, the thing is: worry about BOTH things... Good players can mix-it-up a good sheet with a good role. Just because you know the rules does not make you a Hack'n Slash player. You just have another tool to improve your character (and the fun of the game for you). k, thats all... Burger
#17 evilrafael Jan 14, 2004 13:17:31	First, about the Deck of Many Things: it really changed the whole approach of my former character. But the high rank in diplomacy was one of his best qualities. About hack'n'slash: I never said a good character is a weak one. But still, as a DM, since I know encouraging roleplaying in my group is quite painful, I try to keep the player characters in "human" (aka non-god-like) standards as far as I can so they really have to think their decisions and sometimes come up with creative alternatives to their problems, specially in the beginning of the game, when they're still testing their powers and roles in the team. Otherwise, I know my group: they simply "hack'n'slash" their problems. And that's when dice decide more than roleplaying. If I wanted that, I'd play Monopoly.
#18 zombiegleemax Jan 14, 2004 13:35:06	First, about the Deck of Many Things: it really changed the whole approach of my former character. But the high rank in diplomacy was one of his best qualities. Yeah, i thought that too. It became a really cool quirk for the char. About hack'n'slash: I never said a good character is a weak one. Good to know... Cause I dont like to play weak characters. But still, as a DM, since I know encouraging roleplaying in my group is quite painful, You think that is THIS painful? I guess you are overreacting, rafael. I guess there are players that keep their mouths shut during the whole game (you know who im talking about), but the rest of the group is quite reasonable. K, thats all... Burger
#19 evilrafael Jan 14, 2004 14:00:02	In my opinion, painful enough. When too powerful, most in our group will simply "hack'n'slash" situations away. Which is a shame...
#20 zombiegleemax Jan 14, 2004 14:07:03	Am I on this boat as well? And as you are so quickly answering those msgs, is there anything going on this night? :D k, thats all... Burger
#21 evilrafael Jan 14, 2004 14:23:03	Nah, we're going off topic.
#22 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jan 14, 2004 20:46:20	Originally posted by Dawnstealer Good lord, remind me to never bet on your dice in craps. The other gamers really get a kick out of it. And I have tried different dice with the same results. Of course, I've been banned from using *anyone else's* dice other than my own (everyone hides theirs from me) for fear that my bad luck is spreading. I've also been known to go through up to and including 8 different characters over a period of 3 gaming sessions, just because of really, REALLY bad dice rolls. One would think that odds would balance it out, but sheesh.
#23 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jan 14, 2004 20:49:22	Originally posted by irdeggman You should play Alternity (low is better there);) Actually, when I need to roll low, that's when I roll as high as possible. That drove me nuts in 2nd Ed. AD&D.
#24 xlorepdarkhelm_dup Jan 14, 2004 20:53:09	Originally posted by Mach2.5 LOL, I'm in the same boat with you Xlore. Back before I was a DM, out of perhaps three dozen or more characters, I had one single crit with a natural 18 stat. One. Over 300 stat rolls and one came up tops (which was I think comeliness for a barbarian so its was entirely useless mechanically, but he was still one sezzie barbarian). My bad luck with rolling I thik also tailored my DMing into being the rat-bastardly DM that I am. My players love when I craft a BBEBG that is as cool as they come, but yet fumbles left and right during the 'climactic confrontation'. Ahh yes. That's why I adopted a GMing style that minimizes dice rolls from my end. I also have had to adjust the difficulty of my encounters, as using standard CR's results in my players being able to really easily dispatch them (once again, really, really bad dice rolls).