What is your favorite/least favorite part of chargen?

[Eonas]

My favorite part of chargen is, of course, the character concept: playing around with ideas until I find something that works. Then there's also Feat-choosing, which takes a close second place for me. For whatever reason, I find it tons of fun as long as I'm not making a Fighter or something with tons of extra feats.

My least favorite part of chargen is buying equipment. It's boring as heck for me to spend all that GP in a way that doesn't just waste it all. Maybe it's just because I'm not good at it.

What about you all?

[DeadMech]

I rather like buying equipment. However I've only ever genned fairly low level characters so it was never very complicated. I'm the type that buys almost every little mundane nick-knack just in case.

But my favorite part of chargen is writing the backstory. I'm always a little disappointed when a gm asks for a short one. I always think up lots of things and try to remember then so I can bring them up later.

My least favorite part is picking skills. It doesn't matter if I'm playing a rogue or a sorcerer or a druid, of a paladin. Anything. There are not enough skillpoints to cover everything that you would want to do. Picking my skills turns into the thing I spend hours or days agonizing over. One by one trimming the list down until I have something that's still 1 or 2 points per level short of what would have made me happy.

[Yora]

Skill ranks, of course. That part is the greatest improvement of Pathfinder.

[Crake]

But my favorite part of chargen is writing the backstory. I'm always a little disappointed when a gm asks for a short one. I always think up lots of things and try to remember then so I can bring them up later.

I've always been of a mind that low level characters can't possibly have done anything worth having an outrageous backstory for, because then they wouldn't be so low level. I'm quite the opposite of you, in that if I'm making a low level character, I will purposely make the backstory uneventful for this exact reason. On the other hand, if you're bringing a character in at level 4+ then I think a decent backstory is good for character development, and level 10+ you have the right to go outrageous.

But for a level 1 character, do they really have the experience to justify something worth really writing? Besides, any good DM can take a rather timid backstory and run with it anyway.

All that said, I do quite like coming up with backstories, but I prefer thinking forward for my character, and thus my favourite part is coming up with a character's goals and ambitions.

[Eonas]

I've always been of a mind that low level characters can't possibly have done anything worth having an outrageous backstory for, because then they wouldn't be so low level. I'm quite the opposite of you, in that if I'm making a low level character, I will purposely make the backstory uneventful for this exact reason. On the other hand, if you're bringing a character in at level 4+ then I think a decent backstory is good for character development, and level 10+ you have the right to go outrageous.

But for a level 1 character, do they really have the experience to justify something worth really writing? Besides, any good DM can take a rather timid backstory and run with it anyway.

All that said, I do quite like coming up with backstories, but I prefer thinking forward for my character, and thus my favourite part is coming up with a character's goals and ambitions.

That's an excellent point.

[Emperor Tippy]

Depends on the level and character but usually items.

If it's a concept that I don't play all that often then feats and class are tied for next. It never fails, I will find something that works and then later on I will find something that does what I want even better.

[Jon Everyman]

My favorite part of chargen is how much damage you do when you hit someone at the end.

My actual favorite part is the level 1-20 writeup I do after I find all the feats and classes I'm going to use, putting them in the order I'll take each of them. Couldn't tell you why.

[Ashtagon]

The possibility that my character might die during character generation.

[DeadMech]

I've always been of a mind that low level characters can't possibly have done anything worth having an outrageous backstory

Writing allot doesn't necessarily mean I'm detailing the adventures of the iliad. It's more that I treat writing like it's a novel.

The last backstory I really got into writing was for a fire elf rogue. I'll sum it up. No proper formatting because I don't have the time now for it.

Her parents were former adventurers of the arcane variety and it was their dabbling with elemental planes that gave her the unusual race traits. They were well off comparatively speaking but strict often disappointed with her for not living up to her potential. Meanwhile she had trouble fitting in with most her age simply for looking different. She wanted acceptance and liked helping people so with the help of family connections she attempted to become a cleric for her god. She didn't last though and her family frustrated and ashamed gave her a sum of money and disowned her. Rejected she traveled to a desert trading city. She burned through every penny in a few short years of hedonism and found herself abandoned again by her friends who were only interested in her as long as she was throwing social events. Save for one young man a performer in a traveling circus. His troupe took her in. Eventually they ran into trouble with a local gang of thieves getting one of their carriages stolen. She took it on herself to infiltrate their hideout. She just about got away with it, ending up with her bursting through a warehouse door hanging onto the carriage as the horses panicked leading the thieves through a chase through town destroying the wagon, scattering the loot, and crashing into a parade for the Prince returning from war. She managed to escape on foot but now with the soldiers and the thieves furious at them the troupe had to skip town, cutting off ties to her as well.

It's a bit wall of text right now and only touches on the relationships but when I wrote it originally I was having an absolute blast. It's not all strictly necessary but I don't think any of it is out of the league of a low level character.

Also I know some people prefer brevity but that's just not my style.

[Crake]

Writing allot doesn't necessarily mean I'm detailing the adventures of the iliad. It's more that I treat writing like it's a novel.

The last backstory I really got into writing was for a fire elf rogue. I'll sum it up. No proper formatting because I don't have the time now for it.

Her parents were former adventurers of the arcane variety and it was their dabbling with elemental planes that gave her the unusual race traits. They were well off comparatively speaking but strict often disappointed with her for not living up to her potential. Meanwhile she had trouble fitting in with most her age simply for looking different. She wanted acceptance and liked helping people so with the help of family connections she attempted to become a cleric for her god. She didn't last though and her family frustrated and ashamed gave her a sum of money and disowned her. Rejected she traveled to a desert trading city. She burned through every penny in a few short years of hedonism and found herself abandoned again by her friends who were only interested in her as long as she was throwing social events. Save for one young man a performer in a traveling circus. His troupe took her in. Eventually they ran into trouble with a local gang of thieves getting one of their carriages stolen. She took it on herself to infiltrate their hideout. She just about got away with it, ending up with her bursting through a warehouse door hanging onto the carriage as the horses panicked leading the thieves through a chase through town destroying the wagon, scattering the loot, and crashing into a parade for the Prince returning from war. She managed to escape on foot but now with the soldiers and the thieves furious at them the troupe had to skip town, cutting off ties to her as well.

It's a bit wall of text right now and only touches on the relationships but when I wrote it originally I was having an absolute blast. It's not all strictly necessary but I don't think any of it is out of the league of a low level character.

Also I know some people prefer brevity but that's just not my style.

See from reading that, I'd peg your character around 2 or 3, it's not over the top, represents some experience, but also shows the character is fallible. I wouldn't accept something like that for a level 1 character though, because I'd think solo infiltrating a thieves hideout would merit at least level 2.

[ArcturusV]

My favorite part is probably random stat gen. I like to roll stats. I don't even mind "brutal" stat gen like straight 3d6s, assign in order. I like to look at what I got and figure out what that means and create a story out of it.

My least favorite thing is always going to be artificially leveling up my characters beyond 1 during character generation. I like to have "natural" growth that makes sense and reflects what would have happened around the table. I always struggle when someone tells me something like "Make a level 15 character" because of just... a lack of sense of growth. Plus items and wealth being a pain in the ass, having come out of a vacuum and generally looking nothing like the loadout of a character that actually evolved up to level 15.

[Eldan]

The part where you're digging through a dozen books for obscure feats and templates. That's fun.

And I'll join everyone else on items. It's not too bad on levels one to about three or so, where you get a minor magic item, a list of mundane adventuring gear and some fun alchemy.

But higher levels? Everything level 5 plus is annoying, level 15 or higher is a nightmare. So many pointless numbers.

[Psyren]

I've always been of a mind that low level characters can't possibly have done anything worth having an outrageous backstory for, because then they wouldn't be so low level.

Check out the PF iconic backstories (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/iconic/index.html) in NPC Codex and you'll see how untrue that is. You can have a truly awesome character with an awesome backdrop even at low levels.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Creating a character concept can be a double edged sword for me. I can come up with so many things, but it is almost impossible for me to actually decide on what I want to actually play. I'll write up half a character, then at some point I'll find interest in some other concept and try to put that one together instead.

Skills are another weak point. So many points, and so many places to put them. And then I need to remember stuff like skill synergies and armor penalties and such.

Spending WBL is another pain. At high levels the shear amount of gold to burn is just overwhelming.

[RFLS]

Favorite? Coming up with a character that just really grabs me. I can rattle off all of my favorite characters, who they were, what they wanted, etc.

Least favorite? Spell selection past about level 9. It's ridiculous.

[Gigas Breaker]

Planning out twenty levels is my favorite.

[Ekul]

Picking feats is my favourite mechanical part of character generation. I feel that feats really make characters unique and lay down the separation between similar characters. Of course, chargers tend to be largely the same in this regard, so they usually differ by class/prestige class combo.

My favourite non-mechanical part of character generation is deciding the environment, descendents and family foes which caused my characters to come about. The artificer I built came from a largely well adjusted background, but his life was thrown into disarray when his mentor joined an evil cult. A Xeph Soulknife I made was left stranded in a country devoid of psionic races at a very young age and was left to grow up on the streets, with only a vigilante human as a father figure. A gestalt Barbarian//Wildshape Ranger was the son of a cleric who was stricken with grief after he witnessed the corruption of his religion and became a hermit in the woods.

I can usually write at least a page and a half of that kind backstory at the drop of a hat because I enjoy it so much. My DM generally also ties my backstory into the main plot pretty seamlessly.

My least favorite part of mechanical character generation is languages, for the reason that we often forget about it, and then have to decide on the spot once it becomes relevant in the campaign. Items are a close second though.

My least favorite part of non-mechanical character generation is starting areas. They rarely fit into everyone's backstory well, and it's often hard to justify why characters of completely different backgrounds would come together at level 1.

[navar100]

My favorite is feat selection. That's me choosing how the character works. I like the class system with gaining specific abilities, and I like the spell lists saying what is available when, but feat selection is my turn to make the decisions of what my character can do.

I hate getting equipment. I get the basics like backpack, belt pouch, and clothing, but anything else is either tedious or I always forget something. I suppose I always buy a week's rations for realism but game play it doesn't come up. In my games we don't go that into minutiae unless plot specifically demands it. Still, it will never fail another PC will have an item the party needs I could have had but didn't due to forgot.

[Kazyan]

Feats. Feats. Gotta have those feats. Need more feats, delicous feats, so much you can do with feats feats feats.

Don't like dealing with tons of different kinds of bonuses, though. I build epic characters sometimes, and that's just cumbersome. It's hard to tell whether one of your pluses is overlapped or not.

[Greenish]

Check out the PF iconic backstories (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/npcCodex/iconic/index.html) in NPC Codex and you'll see how untrue that is. You can have a truly awesome character with an awesome backdrop even at low levels.Yes, because having a backstory where you slaughter frost giants and barbarian tribes alike (looking at you, Amiri) isn't at all silly when starting at level 1. :smallamused:

Seriously though, just because someone (even an RPG publisher) happens to have a different view of what's an appropriate backstory for a level 1 character doesn't make someone's opinion "untrue".


Anyway, I'll jump right on the bandwagon and say figuring the equipment for higher level characters is probably my least favourite bit (and my favourite thing about Legend). Coming up with a character concept and how to represent that are probably my favourite bits, though I also enjoy starting with the crunch.

[Psyren]

Yes, because having a backstory where you slaughter frost giants and barbarian tribes alike (looking at you, Amiri) isn't at all silly when starting at level 1. :smallamused:

You can play a story from before she left her tribe :smalltongue:

[Optimator]

I love it all.

[Kane0]

Favourite Part: Thinking of a cool concept, then narrowing down what I should be picking and looking into.

Least Favourite Part: Waiting for everyone else to finish building their characters.

Honorable mention: I really dislike assigning numbers beyond attribute point buy, especially Skills and WBL. I vastly prefer 4e's trained/untrained skill system over the rank system of 3rd ed, and prefer to have an 'adventurers' bundle' rather than have to comb through the lists picking out odds and ends in order to kit myself out properly with all associated costs.
I don't want to waste time plugging in numbers after selecting my cool classes/feats/abilities.

[Waker]

I am rather fond of the crafting of a character's personality. How will this character react to this stimulus? What drives them? Their goals and fears? Quirks and foibles? My characters don't need some big dramatic backstory or epic goals, they just need to feel real. I loved making my stuttering, burglar rogue; my stoic, desert barbarian who had a secret love of the ocean; an out-of-retirement paladin innkeeper who's had to let his armor out a bit.
I absolutely hate buying equipment. While I see the necessity of it, I find the entire process mind-numbingly boring. It's even worse at higher levels when you start with an absurd amount of gold. For me, a character's gear is entirely secondary to what a character can do. Sadly with the design of the game, that idea doesn't hold much water.

[Red Fel]

My favorite part is concept. Starting with some really fun flavor, implementing it with classes and race, maybe the first couple of feats. Seeing an idea transform from an abstract image into a concrete plaything.

My least favorite is detail. I don't enjoy having to select the later feats, the spells, the skills (ugh, so many skills), the equipment... Why can't I just make my cool character and we can play the rest by ear, huh?

[Harrow]

My favorite part if fitting everything together. I start with what I want them to do ; some ability or role. Then I get to spend hours figuring what race/class/feat combination does it best. That's the part I love. "I'll take this feat at third-wait, no I don't qualify for that yet, I'll have to take it at 6th. But 3 levels is a lot of sessions to go without... and then I won't qualify for this until 9th, and this campaign very well may not go that long".

What I start with is often trying to powergame some traditionally 'poor' ability/role (tanking, truenaming, blasting, in-combat healing) up to usable levels or just using classes that I like (spellthief, dragonfire adept, factotum, chameleon, unbound scroll, geomancer). It's just so much fun trying to figure out what I need to prioritize to make an effective character.

My least favorite part is assigning skills and WBL. I just feel like I don't get enough of either of them. I can never get enough skill points for everything I want to do (my fondness for Knowledge Devotion isn't helping me there). In a similar manner my money always feel wasted. I love straight bonus items, but they are so expensive it hurts. +Stat items are probably the worst offenders, requiring +2 for every interval instead of +1. Everyone else in my group somehow ends up with better numbers than me and a bunch of neat little items they pull out at every turn.

[Yahzi]

Skill ranks, of course. That part is the greatest improvement of Pathfinder.
With feats a close second!

The best thing about 1E was the chargen. Roll stats, pick a class, roll hit dice, and boom! you're done.

Unless you were silly and picked a wizard; then you had to roll for spells, but you could make the DM do that.

[prufock]

My least favourite part of generating a character is all the BS hoops you have to jump through to make the character you want. Alignment restrictions, crappy feat taxes on prestige classes, etc. I don't have enough feat slots to waste one on Alertness, guddurnit!

Also, yes, buying equipment can be tedious, especially for higher-level characters.

[Dusk Eclipse]

MY favourite part is designing the character build, once I have a concept and a general idea of what I want to do and where I want my character to go, making that actually happen is really fun. I have to agree with Eldan here that digging through sourcebooks is also extremely fun.

Least favourite is :drumroll: buying equipment, it just so awful....

[danzibr]

My favorite part of chargen is how much damage you do when you hit someone at the end.

My actual favorite part is the level 1-20 writeup I do after I find all the feats and classes I'm going to use, putting them in the order I'll take each of them. Couldn't tell you why.
Haha, I read it exactly the same way.

For me it's the synergy. Finding a bunch of stuff and putting it all together. Now the problem is there's usually so much crap I want to put together I have to drop half of it :/