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Necropolitan 04-20-06, 02:32 PM

This may seem a bit broad of a topic, but I'd like to see some different reponses to this myself; how much does style affect how you develop your characters? This has a few different facets that some don't consider: ranging from simple physical appearence to character personality and outlook. I've noticed in every one of many, many characters I've made that under standing these themes changes how you play the character dramtically. So, Rather then just a quick query, why don't we explore this a little? We'll start simple with visual style and theme, how do you view your character mentally? This goes beyond if you're necromancer has a penchant for dark robes and bones, but how do they actually carry themselves, how do they react? If your character carries his shoulders a little stiff, or if he's always flexing the first two fingers of his rigth hand - why does he do that? Perhaps he has issues with crowds, having been stabbed in one once by a presumed 'friend', thus his tense stance around other people, may be the finger tick is a outward symptom of a regenerated limb? Or maybe if he's a spellcaster, he's always going over that ONE spell he never could cast, re-tracing the somatic components over and over. Little things like this can add up to a very interesting character to roleplay with, if you're good at Always In-Continuity games, Think about little things as well in the more traditional sense; scars and slightly out of the oridnary marks can really give an otherwise bland character image some life: don't be afriad to take some minor negitives to flesh out a story - if you're character lost an eye and now wears a heavy patch over it, go with it - make the negitives part of they're persona, run with any infirmites as a building ground for bettering how he or she interacts with the party. Another thing that I don't see getting alot of attention is personal outlook when dealing with alignments; The DMG's explination of each alignment's goals isn't very good for building a character around; Not every Chaotic Evil character is a bloodletting psychopath, and not every Lawful Good character is a goody-toe-shoes panzimuffin rulemonger. The best way to get this nicely done is to think of how your character looks outwardly at the world; If you've a jaded rouge who has a fairly caustic personality and doesn't think twice about shanking someone in his way; then you could probably stay pretty well in a Neutral Evil alignment without being the sterotypical Selfish Malefactor. Moreover you're lawful good paladin doesn't have to be so stuffy the group rouge think's he a stiff-necked git; give him a unique interperation of the 'Laws' and how he deals out justice; referencing Noir styled literature is a GREAT way to get a lawful good character with a unique and un-stuffy outlook on other characters. Coming back to visual theme for a moment, think about what kind of armor you're character is wearing, or what weapons or tools he carries: are they just 'The Good Weapons' or something he'd personally use? Sure, you can use weapon finesse, Make trip attacks, and disarm people with a Spiked Chain... but would a High Elf Ranger really use one? This is really good for when the party's just gotten a ton of Loot; The Sinsiter Warrior of the group would probably be more interested in that spikey suit of black-limmed Plate Mail then the obviously heavily-enchanted white glowy Heavy Mace shaped like angel wings: Making a desicion based on what HE would want, not what's most badass, makes the character much more interesting (And the DM will probably thow the bigger monsters at the guy with the +5 Mace of Holy Buttsplosion anyways ;) ) I'm sure there are millions of other ways you can use just the style to really effect how you build and play the character, the feats and classes are nicely setup for aot of this, Particularly some of the books like Libris Mortis, Complete Divine, and so forth. If you've got you're own way to use just the overtones of a character to push away from a boring block of stat bonuses, let me know and I'll quote them in.