Post/Author/DateTime

Post

TelinArtho 01-27-05, 01:57 PM

I've never "built" a character before. In the past, I've always developed the idea for a character over the course of adventuring as his personality comes out of the situations he gets into. Of course, I've had some thoughts geared towards future levels, I've never set them down as a guideline to follow. However, with the character I am currently playing, I have started to actually set things down a little more concretely. This mostly has to do with planning to build an army and taking steps to achieve that goal in realistic terms as well as reasonable game terms. My current character started out as a 6th level Fighter, but after the first adventure with him, it was clear to me that from then on he would pick up levels in Wizard. After much deliberation, I eventually decided to pursue a prestige class (Spellsword), which I have recently just grabbed my first level in. Currently, the character is a 10th level character (Fighter 6/Wizard 3/Spellsword 1). I knew in general what I wanted to do for the next few levels, so I decided eventually to put it down on paper and see what fell. With my character's current goal to build an army, there's plenty of work I'll need to do. First of all, his charisma is below average (8) and he doesn't have any skills (at the moment) to help in the management or the hiring of an army. Most of what I was concentrating on during the "advancement" of my character for levels 11-20 were on the skills that he would be picking up. Most are cross-class skills, but I think they all fit quite well with the goal that my character is pursueing. After all was said and done, I also put together a "wish-list" of spells and magic items that my character desires or will-be desiring in the near future. As it is a wish-list, obviously it got out of hand as I picked every major magic item that would increase his power as a leader or survival as an adventurer. All told, he's got just under 1 million gold pieces worth of magic items on his "wish-list." Next, I went ahead and actually created a character sheet of my character at 20th level. I've never played a character as high level as he is currently before, and 20th was never even in the plans for other campaigns - so I was curious on where he stood. To me, much of it seemed so powerful - but then I realized its because I allowed him access to his entire wish list... Since then, I've come to the conclusion that loosely "building" a character is perfectly fine (I was skeptical because before I used to feel that built characters weren't fully grown at the start of the game, and would only get to their potential after 20 levels). However, it can be done to excess, and it can definitely change the way I approach my character in the future. First of all, I now have a wish-list of items. If something comes along and I have the money to purchase one, I would probably buy one if its on the list. If its not on the list however, I doubt my character will give it much thought unless it is a good "bridging" item - to bridge the gap until I get what I want. Just some thoughts... /d