Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dorkknight23 03-01-05, 12:50 AM	Optimizing a Character with Development in Mind Introduction “Hey, have you finished your character, yet?” “Yeah, I’m going to be an angst-ridden twin-scimitar-weilding good drow ranger. What are you doing?” “Oh, I’m working on a Wizard/Ur-Priest/Mystic Theurge. Ninth level arcane and divine spells, yeah baby!” The idea of optimization (which, for the sake of this article, can be defined as building a character who is more effective through mechanical alterations to the characters [classes and prestige classes, skills, feats, etc.] at one or more abilities) isn’t necessarily a bad one; it is one of the more useful tools in the role-player’s toolbox. However, without proper character development, you’ll find yourself bored with your character and moving on to either a new character, or to extremely bored players and a bored or frustrated DM. But, optimization is not a dirty word, rather, in many cases it is a tool used improperly. A well-developed character who is also optimized will live longer and make the game fun for both player and DM alike. For this article, I’m going to be sitting down and making a new character from scratch, optimizing the character to be most effective at what it does while figuring out how to develop and roleplay the character. First off, I decide to take a racial and class combination that doesn’t have any sort of exoticism to it. There is little that’s more vanilla than a Dwarf Fighter, so I decide that that’s what I’m going to be playing. (For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to be avoiding any campaign-specific material.) Part 1: Optimization First off, I’m thinking about what I want my dwarf fighter to be good at. I want my dwarf to be exceptionally good at charging into combat in heavy armor (utilizing the dwarf’s ability to be unaffected by such a load,) barreling through anyone who gets into his way. He’ll use a traditional dwarven weapon, the Dwarven Waraxe. I’ll gloss over my stats for right now, but they are important in actualizing the kind of character you want to play; I’ll use a 32-point buy and give my fighter modified stats of Str 16, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 6. Now for feat selection (I like to figure out my feats first, to see what kinds of skills I’ll need, as opposed to what skills I want, as well as trying to fit in whatever prestige class prerequisites I might need [although I’m making a straight fighter 20.]) For figuring out these sorts of builds, the 20-level builds used by the optimization boards is an effective one. 1 Power Attack Weapon Focus (Dwarven Waraxe) 2 Improved Sunder 3 Improved Bull Rush 4 Weapon Specialization (Dwarven Waraxe) 6 Leap Attack [Complete Adventurer] Shock Trooper [Complete Warrior] 8 Combat Brute [Complete Warrior] 9 Greater Weapon Focus (Dwarven Waraxe) 10 Improved Critical 12 Heavy Armor Optimization [Races of Stone] Greater Weapon Specialization (Dwarven Waraxe) 14 Greater Heavy Armor Optimization [Races of Stone] 15 Cleave 16 Great Cleave 18 Improved Initiative Improved Toughness [Complete Warrior] 20 Toughness Looking from the feats I want, the only skill I need is Jump (for Leap Attack.) This leaves two skills open, as well as choice for alignment. These choices will be made after I think about how I wish to develop my character. Part 2: Development Next up, I think of alignment. When deciding alignment, two ways to determine alignment are to move within one step of the alignment of your race/culture or to go with an alignment somehow diametrically opposed to it. I don’t want to make my alignment too different, so I think I’ll make my fighter Lawful Neutral, an honor-bound warrior without as much concern about altruism but more towards his own personal honor. When thinking about my Dwarf, I think about either historical, cultural, or literary/mythological examples of the kind of character I want to play. When I think of a lawful neutral warrior, I think of the Samurai, and although I’m avoiding the class of the same name, I’m really intrigued by the idea of the samurai as a basis: a philosophical poet-warrior who holds his own life less than the value of his lord. So, with my description of the Dwarven “Samurai” I already know what two other skills I want him to have (Craft [Writing] and Knowledge [Religion.]) If you really want to flesh out your character, skills like Craft, Knowledge, Perform, Profession, and Speak Language can all add layers to whatever character you want to build. I also take this chance to pick a name for my character: Gorn. Before I think of a clan name for him, I think that he has been cast out (a good reason to adventure, and an adventure hook) and is wandering aboveground slightly against his will. So my Dwarven “Samurai” is called Gorn the Clanless. Now, I have two very daunting tasks ahead of me: Gorn’s history, and how to role-play Gorn. When figuring out how to role-play a character, it helps to have a pre-existing character that you’re familiar enough with to help begin your character. This doesn’t meant “use Drizz’t Do’urden and play Drizz’t,” it means use a character’s personality as a foundation and start from there. For Gorn, I look at Silverbolt, the dark but honorable Transformer from the Beast Wars sequel Beast Machines who was once good but felt tainted and unworthy of anything but the recovery of his honor. This is also a good time to look at your stats a second time with fresh eyes. I look at mine, and see a character with five stats that are better than an ordinary 10 or 11, and one stat that is extremely below average (charisma.) What does a low charisma mean? Three words: force of personality. For Gorn, I think it means, instead of being rude, he’s usually quiet, he defers to the authority of more charismatic commander-types, and doesn’t think of combat as an affair of formations and armies. For him, combat is a one-on-one affair, something sacred and important. (Another inspiration springs to mind: the Handmaiden from Star Wars KOTOR 2. I keep this in mind for future reference.) When he speaks, he’ll speak in quick sentences, clipped and short. His wisdom is slightly higher than his intelligence, so he’s more observant than he is clever, and he’s very physically fit. I imagine Gorn spiritually centering himself by composing a poem (a terse and rigidly-structured poem about combat, glory, honor, craftsmanship, and the mountains) and then engaging in ritualistic exercise and weapon’s training. When dealing with people (when he has to,) he will either look up to them or look down on them, he’d applaud efficiency and talent, and frown on incompetence and stupidity. History, in my opinion, is an important but minor part of how to properly role-play your character. I decided that, in a twist, Gorn left his clan voluntarily after feeling he lost his honor. Now the question, I’ve been avoiding: how did he lose his honor? I decided that he served his clan’s guard defending the city, but he failed somehow. I think of one of my character inspirations (Silverbolt,) and I remember he lost his honor while under the control of Megatron, and that inspires me: Gorn was possessed by a demon summoned by a goblin adept planning on invading the city. Gorn (under the control of the demon) opened the gates to the city to a goblin army. He was able to finally resist the demon and helped his city fight off the goblins. When faced with a tribunal, he was found innocent, but left anyway as an exile, feeling he was dishonored and seeks to have his honor restored to him. I’ll never mention this backstory (although I’ll tell my DM so he can fit in appropriate character hooks,) but I’ll show it by expressing great hatred towards goblins, orcs, and especially demons. Conclusions I think that anyone can make a fun, interesting, and long-lived character to play by taking the time to both properly optimize and develop your character. These tools can take any block of stone and make a masterpiece statue out of it, as long as you, the artist, take the time to construct it. I hope this helps people learn by example to create their own characters and have fun doing it.
The_Yellow_Dart_Swinger 03-01-05, 04:23 PM	Allow me to be the first to comment. First off, you should probably change the title, it has little to do with the actual topic of the article and it may and probably will, give people the wrong impression on what the article is about. [Edit: No Longer Applies] Secondly, I personally feel that you diverted greatly in what you were originally going to talk about. You show what your build is, but everything after that doesn't really reflect on the build. I believe mentioning your stats is about all that you really incorporate about the build. And much of everything else you mentioned has been covered in one way or another in someone else's article. I like the idea, but I feel the presentation is weak. So allow me to add a few of my own opinions that you can either incorporate or ignore at your choosing. Reason: As a player you have to ask yourself, "Why am I building an optimized character?" The reasons could vary greatly. Prehaps you want to build a strong character so you can smash things. Prehaps over time you want to be well known in your game world for the paticular trait you decided to optimize. Prehaps you just want to weild more versitility. Why you are going to play an optimized character can greatly influence how your character acts and what motivates the character. For example, if you wanted to build the greatest archer in all the land, you might have your character enter many archery tournaments to show his or her stuff to the populance. Where as a person who builds the greatest archer just for the sake of building the greatest archer, might feel emptier because they don't do these things to show off. Attitude: Your character is great in one way or another, how does this influence their personality? Will you be arrogant to others, knowing you can smash them into a bloody pulp on a whim. Or prehaps you will be humble to those around you? Would you attempt to hide your great talent as not to shame others? How you choose to let your character act greatly influences how the other players and NPC's react to your character and on a player scale, how they might accept you playing an optimized character. It's best not to push around other player's character just because you happen to be more powerful, regardless of how your character acts, as this could create problems. The DM and you: Of course your DM has the final say in all matters regarding characters, so it is best not to offend. Do not try to hide the fact that you are optimizing a character, in fact, do the opposite and show your DM your build and what order you plan to take the levels in and ask them their permission to play such a character. A good solid reason and character idea can probably sway a DM as long as the character isn't to game breaking. Also work with the DM when it comes to prestige classes to enhance the role-play value of your character. Also, giving the DM a few plot hooks for your character will make your character seem more interesting, thus enhancing your character. Character Growth: It is best not to just add a PrC level to your character sheet when you level up, but to save off for a bit to add in some RP flavoring. This is where working with the DM can really comes in. Say you wanted to level up as a Purple Dragon Knight, instead of just adding the stats to your sheet like nothing happened, actively seek out either a knight of the order, or the order its self. This allows you to role-play entering the orginization and prehaps a bit of the training you would recieve. So it gives that level of Purple Dragon Knight some meaning behind it. Also feel free to rp training during some downtime. For instance, you are going to pick up the Two-Weapon Fighting feat next level, so rp your character practicing awkwardly with two swords. If another player already knows the technique you are going to pick up, bring them to the fold and rp learning the technique. This works with skills, feats, and even class levels. This also works for any level, not just the next. Going to pick up a level of wizard at 5th? Start 'training' at first level. Flow: Many builds, if not almost all of them, tend to dip into more than one class or prestige class; particularly the prestige classes. You should plan ahead of time which PrC's your going to take and reasons that your character would take the PrC's. Many PrC's are orginization based, meaning you have to learn from a member of that particular orginization, which generally implies that you have to join that orginization. As a player you have to come up with a reason that your character wants to join and how they are going to join. As in real life, joining too many orginizations may spread your character thin as many if not all might have a mission for your character. Also orginizations of opposing alignments to your own or to other orginizations you've joined might be a particular problem for your character. In this instance it is best to work with your DM about a different way to learn the skills of the PrC. For instance, finding an ex-member who is willing to train you for a price or a favor. If you can make your character's choices make sense, no one should raise a complaint against it. That's what I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to debuke it or add to it.
dorkknight23 03-01-05, 06:55 PM	You know, I agree with what you're saying TYDS, and I think all that stuff is good information to add, especially the bit about flow. I think one big issue for this was space, and I felt that if I wrote too much, people would get bored and just stop reading. I cut out quite a bit of development for the sake of brevity (the soul of wit, after all.) I'm totally out of it at the moment, so I don't think I'll be doing any editing at the moment, but I think you raised some good points and at the very least you grasped what I was trying to help people out with (and, although I doubt this is probably sticky-worthy [at least at the moment,] I thought the article would at least stir up some questions, comments, discussions, etc., and I'm glad it's doing that.)
Trydan 03-08-05, 12:10 PM	Interesting points. I think that the issue of how to blend optimisation and development (for want of better terms) is a probably of more relevance to most games than the two extremes. It would be good to see such discussion encouraged. PS: A link to this thread has now been added to the Char.Dev.FAQ (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=1159097).
Trydan 03-15-05, 03:07 AM	One of the aspects of role-playing an optimised character is that of explanation. For example, if you have a build with maximum armour class, then it will tend to be just that... a build with maximum armour class. The other players know it, and will let their game-play slide into the rut of poor-roleplaying. You end up with comments like "Put Dieter's character up front" or perhaps "Let his armour-class go in first", or even "the one with the maxed-out AC". Of course, this gets the job done, but it is poor role-playing, and thus detracts from a more rich gaming experience. Now there are multiple reasons why this occurs, but lets look at one that the player of the said-character can actually do something about. This comes down to simply a name and an explanation. By "name", I don't mean Hans-Peter or Grimwald-Stonesmiter or something, but the name of your characters maxed-out ability. When "Max AC" is all the other players have to refer to your high defence rating, then that's what they will use. So, give it a name. Call it "Single-man shield wall" or "Dance of the fleet footed" or "Elusion". If "plus-one-to-hit" is "Weapon Focus", then do the same for your other standing abilities. High will-saves can be impervious mind or mind blanking; hit points can be resilience or pain shedding. You get the idea. Then, make sure that these things are used. Tell the group. Send individuals e-mails outside of the session to remind them. Ask the DM to refer to your amazing AC as "how well are you braced against the attack", and so on. If you don't use it, it becomes wasted. Now the next part is explanation. If you have an ability that is particularly good, make sure you have a reason why. If you have a +5 tower-shield and natural armour, then have a story to where you obtained such a mighty shield and why your skin naturally repels the blows of the enemy. This becomes part of your character's history. But don't stop there, with this explanation. Make a point of using it. Write the point in large letters somewhere on your character sheet, and when you see it, state something about it. For example: "Another victory? Well, yes, I guess we repelled those bandits pretty well. A good thing I have my grandfather's great-shield... I don't think a single arrow landed. You know, my grandfather used this shield in the dragon wars. But, do you know what? I think I inherited his tough skin too." As a final point, don't apply such tactics on every ability you have. Otherwise, the group will need to learn a complete new vocabulary. Just use it for the main maxed-out aspect, upon which your character is built.
nihility 10-14-05, 03:20 PM	Interesting points. I think that the issue of how to blend optimisation and development (for want of better terms) is a probably of more relevance to most games than the two extremes. It would be good to see such discussion encouraged. Quite so. I'd like to try to extend this a bit in regards to planning. A common response that I see when people lay out a fairly complicated 20-level build is the idea of spontaneous or organic development. That is, some people prefer to let the direction of the campaign determine what they take as their next level and feat. There's certainly some appeal to this, and some people live this way in real life. However, there are also people in real life that have the equivalent of a 20-level build planned out by the time they enter high school. Why do people do this? Well, sometimes it is required if they want to achieve their larger goal. Consider a person who wants to graduate with top honors from Harvard Law School and then become a partner at a top firm by the age of 30. This person wants to enter two related organizational PrCs **(see note below)**, as it were, and they each have some pretty harsh entry requirements. You can't just decide on that one day, then do it the next day. You have to start very early, "multiclassing" between "A-student," "Civic-minded Student," and more, picking up certain feats and skills, and so on. It takes many years of work, and maybe a good number of "dips" such as the summer internship and the semester doing field work. Many different kinds of people do this kind of thing, representing a wide variety of personality types. However, they all possess at some level the ability to somehow set a goal and work for it for a very long time. Some have detailed charts and plans, some just bag the requirements in a haphazard fashion. Sometimes a person who seems very unlikely to do such a thing turns out to have been quietly following a dream since childhood. So, you have your monster AC or your 9th level divine and arcane casting plotted out, your optimized build is set to go. Think about what sort of person might want to do this, and how they conceive of the plan or goal. Do they have a checklist that they made when they were ten years old? Do they have a particular goal that they simply seek the most expedient means to achieve? TYDS touched on some of this in his discussion of reason; what I'm to focus on particularly here is how the character's psychology supports goal-seeking or chasing dreams. Perhaps your "World's Greatest Archer" made up a list of the most skilled archers in the land and finest schools of archery, and now travels from place to place to learn from them. He's only interested in learning their best techniques, though, and he'd rather learn a bunch of strong techniques than train his whole life to master one. Maybe he's interested in creating his own style, a unique blending of the best of the best. It says a lot about someone if they're willing to do that and stick with it for years, even decades. It says just as much if they're a dreamer who has been trying every way they can to achieve a goal for years, no matter how crazy it seems. Of course, you can also have "serendipitous optimization." Some people don't really have goals at all, and just stumble into greatness without intending it. That's quite remarkable when you see it, and also quite rare, but it does happen. ------------------------- **Incidently, I say these are PrCs rather than skills because, no matter how good a lawyer you are, no matter how many "ranks" you have in the skills, people react differently to you if your degree comes from a top school. Furthermore, top schools supposedly provide a better education, which I read as class features that enhance your skills and abilities.**
nihility 10-14-05, 11:20 PM	Now the next part is explanation. If you have an ability that is particularly good, make sure you have a reason why. If you have a +5 tower-shield and natural armour, then have a story to where you obtained such a mighty shield and why your skin naturally repels the blows of the enemy. This becomes part of your character's history. I find this whole post delightful, but I like this bit in particular.
Llochlyn 10-14-05, 11:48 PM	Spinachs... Spinachs bring natural armor, all sailor barbarians eat spinach before they rage... Zuruzuru, sorry