Ceaon
2013-11-13, 09:08 AM
Hello Playground,
I don't know if this kind of thing has been done before, but I wish to share with you the process of creating my latest character. I am interested in your thoughts on both my creative process and the end result.
At the start, I knew we'd be playing level 1, Pathfinder, Golarion, Inner Sea area. I have only played Pathfinder once before, in a homebrew world, and that campaign lasted for a few sessions. I have, however, played a lot of 3.5, so I was certain I'd grow accostumed to the system soon enough.
I decided I wanted to play something different from my latest character, a Savage Worlds Hellfrost archer Hearth elf, honorable, serious, and very driven to become a true hero (he was a former thief who took on the identity of another elf who had performed many heroic deeds but died unackowledged). I wanted to play up the intimidating presence without being entirely serious all the time. My usual starting point is starting with searching for cool pictures.
I quickly found this picture, of Zasalamel from Soul Calibur. It checked off some qualities that I liked to play: looks serious and intimidating (check), doesn't look squeaky clean morally speaking (check) and I could imagine that the tough posterior is only one aspect of his personality: he could be a fun-loving, booze-drinking impulsive warrior (check).
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yc3DhkwzXb4/TTy86htX2gI/AAAAAAAAAKA/0fjo7UkCHQs/s1600/ZasalamelConcept.jpg
Although cool and fitting, I did not want to play a scythe-wielder, as I feel those are uninspired, overdone and impractical. I decided to slightly modify the picture, turning the scythe into another weapon. With my limited skills, all I could turn it into was this.
http://imagesup.net/?di=1138247974013
This meant I would be making a character with a quarterstaff. I was fairly certain I could work with that, so I decided to come back to that later, first looking at an appropriate backstory for the character.
I looked up on the pathfinderwiki if non-caucasians were even included in the setting. Luckily, they are, and the information from the wiki soon gave me inspiration for a character background. I started writing a backstory about a Sargavan boy from a poor social background. The abridged version is thus: he decides to leave home after learning that unlike his family and friends, he wasn't content with being where he was. He decides to join the Pathfinder Society and travels to Absalom. He is initiated, but due to his past catching up with him (in the form of a childhood friend turned criminal), he fails to complete the necessary trials. After careful discussion, he gets a last chance, but only after doing mercenary work for an indeterminate amount of time. I figured this would give the GM some clear motivation, plot hooks and some NPCs to work with.
At this point in time, I already had a clear idea of what I wanted the character to be able to do and I had already established earlier what I wanted his personality to be like.
At this point, I rolled for stats and got 15, 15, 14, 14, 10, 10. In the backstory, the character had shaped himself up to be a big bruiser, so his strength was gonna be 15+2. Looking over the classes, I wanted a class that wasn't a traditonal big bruiser class, just to mix things up. This meant no fighter, barbarian, paladin or even ranger. I decided against the logical choice of monk (I have some lasting 3.5-based dislike for the class) and eventually the magus (I wanted to make this character a mundane, non-magic user). I eventually settled on the rogue. Then I read up on its alternate cousin, the ninja, and was immediately sold. The Ki Pool was an awesome source for refluffing and I could immediately start adding to my backstory. For now, my stats were gonna be str 17, dex 15, con 14, int 10, wis 10, cha 14.
I decided the character, now named Ezekiel, was to be a former member of an adventuring party (hey, more NPCs for the DM!) who were to fight a dangerous anti-paladin. They defeated him but he turned out to be immortal (by a means that tied in with the established backstory). The only solution was to bind the anti-paladin's soul in Ezekiel. His Ki powers were now based on this dark presence in his body, and he would always detect as evil.
Then, I started looking at feats and class progression, which for me is where you create the fun things your character can do (as most people are already aware of exactly what a bruiser slash rogue-archetype should be able to do, I wanted to make sure he could do other things as well).
I wanted to make sure I would eventually get something out of using a sub-optimal weapon like the quarterstaff. Three things came to mind.
- Dip monk and use flurry of blows.
The quarterstaff is a monk weapon, and as such it can be flurried with. However, I quickly decided against it as I wished to stay in ninja from levels 1-20, as my last 3.5 character had been a multi-classing monstrosity (in a good way).
- Use power attack
As a two-handed weapon, this would yield results. However, as a precision based 3/4 BAB class, I was afraid power attacking might even decrease damage dealt.
- Use two-weapon fighting
As a double weapon, the quarterstaff could be use to go two-weapon figthing. Also, with dex 15, I exactly qualified for it. I liked this idea, because a -2 to hit is bad, but an extra attack is another chance to hit - and that is good! It would be a little different from standard two-weapon fighting since the character had only one weapon that could be used two-handed as well. So I decided this would be the route I would go.
At this point, the DM decided that rolling for stats was not the way he wanted to go anymore and we got point buy 20. After long thinking, I could not I rearranged my stats as such: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 14 and added the human +2 to strength. I dislike stat penalties and low will saves, but felt bad that I could not get dex up to 15 with this new set-up. I figured I needed to continue looking for other feats.
That is when I found the bludgeoner, sap adept, sap master and enforcer feats. I had forgotten a very basic quality of the quarterstaff: it dealt bludgeoning damage. These feats would deal extra damage and apply a possible shaken effect if I dealt nonlethal damage.
So I went back to the backstory and rewrote several parts as to increase Ezekiel's inability to cope with death. As such, he theorized he should never kill anyone. For extra hypocricy, I decided torture and other questionable methods were fine for him though. I looked up the deity of death. Turns out it is the Neutral goddess Pharasma, which I turned into Ezekiel's patron deity. I also added a dwarven cleric of this deity to my background.
At this point, the DM told us we'd be playing the Curse of the Crimson Throne path, so I moved the fight with the anti-paladin and the dwarven cleric to the city of Korvosa. Then, I wrote out a rough build for the character to take. I like to do this because I want to "roleplay the build"; I want to try to make the choice in abilities reflect the in-game choices. This means I may deviate from this build, but only if I think that'll lead to more fun!
By the way, it was just before finalizing the build that I found the Perfect Strike feat. Damn, that was cool, but I would only qualify for it when I took a useless feat (Improved Unarmed Strike) or multiclassed monk! I briefly considered throwing everything out again... but then I decided to just suck it up and take IUS somewhere along the way. So final stats were Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14. At least unarmed attacks deal nonlethal bludgeoning damage...
The final build is as follows.
Ezekiel Nnanami
Human Ninja (Scout) 1
Stats: Strength 16, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14)
Traits: Armor Expert, Carefully Hidden
Skills: 1+ rank in each class skill, with a focus on Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Stealth and Use Magic Device.
Feats: Bludgeoner, Enforcer
Proposed feats: Sap Adept (3), Sap Master (5), Dazzling Display (7), Shatter Defenses (9, great combination with enforcer and the scout archetype), Improved Unarmed Strike (11), Perfect Strike (13), filler (15, 17 and 19)
Proposed Tricks: Vanish Trick (2), Rogue Talent: Offensive Defense (4, excellent combination with Sap Master), Weapon Training (quarterstaff, 6, as a prerequisite for Dazzling Display) Shadow Clone (7, from favored class boni), Forgotten Trick (8), Invisible Blade (10), Advanced Talent: Opportunist (12), filler (14, 16, 18 and 20).
I really like my character's backstory. I think it turned out great (the non-abridged version is 10+ pages) and it provides the DM with a lot of hooks. I tried to make a build that is fun to play at all levels, has interesting things to do both in and out of combat, and has the ability to escape situations when they get out of hand. I made sure the character could make his enemies flatfooted and would be able to do more than deal damage (although that is still where the focus lies).
So, thoughts? Advice? Tales of your own process?
I don't know if this kind of thing has been done before, but I wish to share with you the process of creating my latest character. I am interested in your thoughts on both my creative process and the end result.
At the start, I knew we'd be playing level 1, Pathfinder, Golarion, Inner Sea area. I have only played Pathfinder once before, in a homebrew world, and that campaign lasted for a few sessions. I have, however, played a lot of 3.5, so I was certain I'd grow accostumed to the system soon enough.
I decided I wanted to play something different from my latest character, a Savage Worlds Hellfrost archer Hearth elf, honorable, serious, and very driven to become a true hero (he was a former thief who took on the identity of another elf who had performed many heroic deeds but died unackowledged). I wanted to play up the intimidating presence without being entirely serious all the time. My usual starting point is starting with searching for cool pictures.
I quickly found this picture, of Zasalamel from Soul Calibur. It checked off some qualities that I liked to play: looks serious and intimidating (check), doesn't look squeaky clean morally speaking (check) and I could imagine that the tough posterior is only one aspect of his personality: he could be a fun-loving, booze-drinking impulsive warrior (check).
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yc3DhkwzXb4/TTy86htX2gI/AAAAAAAAAKA/0fjo7UkCHQs/s1600/ZasalamelConcept.jpg
Although cool and fitting, I did not want to play a scythe-wielder, as I feel those are uninspired, overdone and impractical. I decided to slightly modify the picture, turning the scythe into another weapon. With my limited skills, all I could turn it into was this.
http://imagesup.net/?di=1138247974013
This meant I would be making a character with a quarterstaff. I was fairly certain I could work with that, so I decided to come back to that later, first looking at an appropriate backstory for the character.
I looked up on the pathfinderwiki if non-caucasians were even included in the setting. Luckily, they are, and the information from the wiki soon gave me inspiration for a character background. I started writing a backstory about a Sargavan boy from a poor social background. The abridged version is thus: he decides to leave home after learning that unlike his family and friends, he wasn't content with being where he was. He decides to join the Pathfinder Society and travels to Absalom. He is initiated, but due to his past catching up with him (in the form of a childhood friend turned criminal), he fails to complete the necessary trials. After careful discussion, he gets a last chance, but only after doing mercenary work for an indeterminate amount of time. I figured this would give the GM some clear motivation, plot hooks and some NPCs to work with.
At this point in time, I already had a clear idea of what I wanted the character to be able to do and I had already established earlier what I wanted his personality to be like.
At this point, I rolled for stats and got 15, 15, 14, 14, 10, 10. In the backstory, the character had shaped himself up to be a big bruiser, so his strength was gonna be 15+2. Looking over the classes, I wanted a class that wasn't a traditonal big bruiser class, just to mix things up. This meant no fighter, barbarian, paladin or even ranger. I decided against the logical choice of monk (I have some lasting 3.5-based dislike for the class) and eventually the magus (I wanted to make this character a mundane, non-magic user). I eventually settled on the rogue. Then I read up on its alternate cousin, the ninja, and was immediately sold. The Ki Pool was an awesome source for refluffing and I could immediately start adding to my backstory. For now, my stats were gonna be str 17, dex 15, con 14, int 10, wis 10, cha 14.
I decided the character, now named Ezekiel, was to be a former member of an adventuring party (hey, more NPCs for the DM!) who were to fight a dangerous anti-paladin. They defeated him but he turned out to be immortal (by a means that tied in with the established backstory). The only solution was to bind the anti-paladin's soul in Ezekiel. His Ki powers were now based on this dark presence in his body, and he would always detect as evil.
Then, I started looking at feats and class progression, which for me is where you create the fun things your character can do (as most people are already aware of exactly what a bruiser slash rogue-archetype should be able to do, I wanted to make sure he could do other things as well).
I wanted to make sure I would eventually get something out of using a sub-optimal weapon like the quarterstaff. Three things came to mind.
- Dip monk and use flurry of blows.
The quarterstaff is a monk weapon, and as such it can be flurried with. However, I quickly decided against it as I wished to stay in ninja from levels 1-20, as my last 3.5 character had been a multi-classing monstrosity (in a good way).
- Use power attack
As a two-handed weapon, this would yield results. However, as a precision based 3/4 BAB class, I was afraid power attacking might even decrease damage dealt.
- Use two-weapon fighting
As a double weapon, the quarterstaff could be use to go two-weapon figthing. Also, with dex 15, I exactly qualified for it. I liked this idea, because a -2 to hit is bad, but an extra attack is another chance to hit - and that is good! It would be a little different from standard two-weapon fighting since the character had only one weapon that could be used two-handed as well. So I decided this would be the route I would go.
At this point, the DM decided that rolling for stats was not the way he wanted to go anymore and we got point buy 20. After long thinking, I could not I rearranged my stats as such: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 14 and added the human +2 to strength. I dislike stat penalties and low will saves, but felt bad that I could not get dex up to 15 with this new set-up. I figured I needed to continue looking for other feats.
That is when I found the bludgeoner, sap adept, sap master and enforcer feats. I had forgotten a very basic quality of the quarterstaff: it dealt bludgeoning damage. These feats would deal extra damage and apply a possible shaken effect if I dealt nonlethal damage.
So I went back to the backstory and rewrote several parts as to increase Ezekiel's inability to cope with death. As such, he theorized he should never kill anyone. For extra hypocricy, I decided torture and other questionable methods were fine for him though. I looked up the deity of death. Turns out it is the Neutral goddess Pharasma, which I turned into Ezekiel's patron deity. I also added a dwarven cleric of this deity to my background.
At this point, the DM told us we'd be playing the Curse of the Crimson Throne path, so I moved the fight with the anti-paladin and the dwarven cleric to the city of Korvosa. Then, I wrote out a rough build for the character to take. I like to do this because I want to "roleplay the build"; I want to try to make the choice in abilities reflect the in-game choices. This means I may deviate from this build, but only if I think that'll lead to more fun!
By the way, it was just before finalizing the build that I found the Perfect Strike feat. Damn, that was cool, but I would only qualify for it when I took a useless feat (Improved Unarmed Strike) or multiclassed monk! I briefly considered throwing everything out again... but then I decided to just suck it up and take IUS somewhere along the way. So final stats were Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14. At least unarmed attacks deal nonlethal bludgeoning damage...
The final build is as follows.
Ezekiel Nnanami
Human Ninja (Scout) 1
Stats: Strength 16, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14)
Traits: Armor Expert, Carefully Hidden
Skills: 1+ rank in each class skill, with a focus on Acrobatics, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Stealth and Use Magic Device.
Feats: Bludgeoner, Enforcer
Proposed feats: Sap Adept (3), Sap Master (5), Dazzling Display (7), Shatter Defenses (9, great combination with enforcer and the scout archetype), Improved Unarmed Strike (11), Perfect Strike (13), filler (15, 17 and 19)
Proposed Tricks: Vanish Trick (2), Rogue Talent: Offensive Defense (4, excellent combination with Sap Master), Weapon Training (quarterstaff, 6, as a prerequisite for Dazzling Display) Shadow Clone (7, from favored class boni), Forgotten Trick (8), Invisible Blade (10), Advanced Talent: Opportunist (12), filler (14, 16, 18 and 20).
I really like my character's backstory. I think it turned out great (the non-abridged version is 10+ pages) and it provides the DM with a lot of hooks. I tried to make a build that is fun to play at all levels, has interesting things to do both in and out of combat, and has the ability to escape situations when they get out of hand. I made sure the character could make his enemies flatfooted and would be able to do more than deal damage (although that is still where the focus lies).
So, thoughts? Advice? Tales of your own process?