How many AL players bring morethan one character to a game?

[ZorroGames]

Seeing a fair number of comments that people bring more than a single character to an open AL gaming event and adjust which character to play based on group builds.

Having just a handful of Characters past level 1 and only 1 at (Just) Tier 2 I now usually bring 1 or maybe two if I am thinking both Tier 1 and Tier 2 games available anymore. Used to bring a bunch of figures for DM use But that is no longer necessary.

So how many change characters to adjust to an open group? How many just “deal with it” or change play style for a character?

[The Shadowdove]

I help run one of the weekly AL nights at one of our three local stores, each with their own RPG night. We average two or three tables at each location.

It seems as if it's common practice around here for experienced players with multiple characters to choose their character last. They have a character they would like to play, but have one or two on deck in the chance that team comp is particularly horrible.

Most nights the tables are so diverse that it's unnecessary. However, there were a couple of occasions I can recall where we we so melee or caster heavy before starting an adventure rumored to be too prone. Other player or myself definitely went caster or healer in those circumstances.

At an epic, you generally sign up with a particular character. This allows the event coordinators to balance tables. Not too difficult to do if you have 6-7 tables. However, even then, I've seen people change to a different character.

I was tossed into a melee only party at an epic and we were challenged beyond all expectations by the ridiculousness of random events or auto failure mechanics. A mage or healer would have prevented the multiple near party wipes.

[snafuy]

I definitely like to bring multiple characters of different types, between melee vs ranged vs utility, scout vs sage vs social, so that if other players already have roles covered then I can focus on something else.

[Dalebert]

Always.

I can't help having multiple characters because sometimes someone runs a tier 1 and, try as hard as I might to level them slowly, all my tier 1s eventually become tier 2 and I reluctantly must try to wrack my brain to come up with some concept I haven't already played to death so I can join that game. It doesn't even need to be drastically mechanically different. It might just be a cool role-playing concept for a class I've already played.

I start by trying to pick something in conjunction with the choices of other players. I also consider which character I'm just in the mood to play or which I might be eager to advance sooner. One exception--if there's a wizard at the table, I'm more likely to play another wizard (obvious reasons).

[sithlordnergal]

Yeah, I always bring multiple characters with me when I go to an AL game. I actually bought one of those 7-pocket file folders, and I carry all of my characters according to their class, and my stronger characters have their own little folders to keep all of their certs, log sheets, and other stuff. I'm also constantly making more characters, either choosing classes that I rarely play, rebuilding class combinations that I enjoyed but felt could be stronger if I built them differently, or just assigning each possible class and race to a dice then rolling to see what I end up as.

[JAL_1138]

I used to poll the group on what level, subclass, and combat style would fit best out of my big pile of characters...now I barely play any of them in the pile except two, and just pick between the sword-and-board Ancients Pally and the archer Fighter 1/Valor Bard, depending on what the party's melee department looks like. Those two characters are all I need to fit into nearly any group well enough to get by.

Edit: Also partly because I'm sick to death of Tier 1 and haven't built a new character or played one out of the existing pile in ages. Going to need to soon, though, since both of those are getting near Tier 3, and not many Tier 3 adventures get run around here, and Tier 2s I haven't played are getting scarce.

[Chugger]

It is normal at tier one to adjust on the fly, so to speak, because an experienced player can use the change anything (except name) feature of AL to create whatever class they think the party might need.

So someone coming in with a lvl 3 rogue might take 2 minutes at the start to begin w/ a lvl 3 bear totem barb, because the group has no tank and badly needs one, in that player's estimation.

As you know you're locked in at lvl 5, so then yes, it's normal to play up at least 2 different characters to tier 2 and bring both - and swap based on what others are running. If no one can cast fireball, you bring in your wiz, sorc or light cleric - because tier 2 w/out fireball can be sad. Winnable, but fireball makes so many encounters less hairy. Or again, maybe there is only one front-line tank. So a player brings out their fighter or pal or barb or moon druid.

This is very normal and helps adventures work. Especially once you get to know your local DMs and realize which ones are tougher (and willing to wipe a party, even if that party made no mistakes) - yeah, you may need to think very carefully about which character actually helps out. The other thing players do is calculate how much they want the magic item that will drop - or at least I am guessing they do this - and if they have 3 tier 2 chars but one has zero magic items - they might bring that one to have a chance at the roll. That is not cool, but if they don't say that is why they're doing it ... well, nothing can be done. And once you've played a while and your chars have had chances at decent drops, you'll get a shot at your own collection of magic items - and it's not impossible to trade for one you want more - there is even a facebook thing for trading magic items.

[Chugger]

I used to poll the group on what level, subclass, and combat style would fit best out of my big pile of characters...now I barely play any of them in the pile except two, and just pick between the sword-and-board Ancients Pally and the archer Fighter 1/Valor Bard, depending on what the party's melee department looks like. Those two characters are all I need to fit into nearly any group well enough to get by.

Edit: Also partly because I'm sick to death of Tier 1 and haven't built a new character or played one out of the existing pile in ages. Going to need to soon, though, since both of those are getting near Tier 3, and not many Tier 3 adventures get run around here, and Tier 2s I haven't played are getting scarce.

If you can go in and survive as a lvl 1 member of a group doing a high-exp module like cloaks and shadows, you can pretty much go from lvl 1 to lvl 3 in one adventure. Usually two more adventures and you're lvl 4. At this point you should have 30 downtime, meaning you can spend 20 and just go to 5 ... in 3 tier one adventures. And you might have an awesome magic item to boot (hint, pun intended!).

[PeteNutButter]

I have lots of characters in tier two, and a couple in tier 3, but I don’t really do this.

I typically play one character a season and then retire him in favor of the new one. It helps that I tend to play very durable, self-sufficient characters. That way I’m not concerned about the gaggle of a party that I get stuck with.

We had four wizards last week who did nothing but blast. It got pretty dicey (they were playing who could run away fastest) until I convinced one to cast greater invisiblity on me. (He had just turned his character into the wizard surrogate and was totally lost as to what his spells even did.). His spell won the fight for us.

If I had a point, I guess that it’s fun to try and make wacky parties work.