Planning your character

[lxion]

Ok, so here's the situation:

Recently, I started playing a tiefling paladin in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign. He's a worshipper of Asmodeus and I planned him out as a badass guy, caring for nothing but himself and the power granted by the archdevil. I planned him out to go for oath of conquest. I changed him a bit in character though, because he is young and was raised in a cult. He's used to killing and ended up murdering these cultists, because they weren't worshiping Asmodeus. His dreams are wiping out everyone that opposes, but now he is in the open world, he started helping people. I sorta made him the young kid that doesn't know better and he's starting to doubt what he was taught. All he knows about is killing and slaughtering, but saving people's lives gives him the same feeling of satisfaction.

So I'm planning to make him a good guy, who wants to destroy other cults to prove that Asmodeus isn't bad. Fits better into the setting. I'm still not really sure if I should go for conquest, I'm sorta gonna see what the party needs then. Any advice?

Question for you: do you plan out your characters and play them towards your plans? Or do you let the story decide which direction you take?

[ProsecutorGodot]

I'm playing a Blood Hunter in SKT right now.

My original plan for this blood hunter was to be a Ghostslayer Bounty Hunter who's terribly racist to the unconventional humanoid races (Monstrous Races from Volo's and typical monsters such as goblins and giants), I was going to rely primarily on rites to deal damage and approach most situations hastily with little planning.

Everything was going smoothly right up until level 1 where we found the Tressym Rillix. After he bolted, I cornered him and befriended him.

My entire gameplan turned into "How do I keep this Tressym alive" and the solution I came up with was "Ask DM if I could make him my familiar using Find Familiar"

I got the yes and then had to figure out how to get the spell, so I asked on the forums here. Initially I was debating between Ritual Caster and Magic Initiate but I was very concerned that I wouldn't reach level 4 before then. Someone pointed out to me, however, that since my stat roll was frankly insane (13/18/18/18/18/14 after racials) that I could multiclass into Wizard.

My character has suddenly turned into the BH:Profane Soul 4/War Wiz 5 Supporting Tank relying on GFB for damage. Rillix killed Chief Guh in the last session. It was really important that I got 3rd level spells as fast as possible because I feel we're really going to need Haste and Fly.

I'm a lot happier how it turned out, no plans for characters really survive that long. I've learned not to plan more than a few levels in advance.


As for your character, conquest paladin still makes the most sense from a thematic standpoint. If you were instead trying to break ties with Asmodeus rather than trying to prove that a Lawful Evil god isn't that bad you could go for Redemption after finding a new at the very least neutral god. A worshipper of Asmodeus isn't a good guy just because he wants his cult to be the best and only cult.

Fair warning though, I feel very strongly about the thematic elements of Oath's and Paladins in general so my advice in the matter is SUPER biased.

[Unoriginal]

Ok, so here's the situation:

Recently, I started playing a tiefling paladin in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign. He's a worshipper of Asmodeus and I planned him out as a badass guy, caring for nothing but himself and the power granted by the archdevil. I planned him out to go for oath of conquest. I changed him a bit in character though, because he is young and was raised in a cult. He's used to killing and ended up murdering these cultists, because they weren't worshiping Asmodeus. His dreams are wiping out everyone that opposes, but now he is in the open world, he started helping people. I sorta made him the young kid that doesn't know better and he's starting to doubt what he was taught. All he knows about is killing and slaughtering, but saving people's lives gives him the same feeling of satisfaction.

So I'm planning to make him a good guy, who wants to destroy other cults to prove that Asmodeus isn't bad. Fits better into the setting. I'm still not really sure if I should go for conquest, I'm sorta gonna see what the party needs then. Any advice?

Question for you: do you plan out your characters and play them towards your plans? Or do you let the story decide which direction you take?

He still wants to crush people under his boot for not worshiping Big A, so Conquest Paladin still makes the most sense. He'll also still be evil, even if he seems pretty oblivious about it, until he changes his ways for good.

[lxion]

Yeah, because it's also the thrill of not knowing what is to come storywise. Now, that's a double edged blade. If we had done a session 0 in the other campaign I'm playing, I would have never chosen a bard or at least I'd have chosen different spells(fights are usually versus one big, non-humanoid, monster). It's good to know the setting a bit so you can predict a bit, but planning out till lvl 20 is indeed not something I'd do.

I'm still probably going for the oath of conquest though, inspired by this guide :smallsmile:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?543427-The-Wall-of-Fear-A-Complete-Guide-to-the-Oath-of-Conquest

[Amdy_vill]

Ok, so here's the situation:

Recently, I started playing a tiefling paladin in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign. He's a worshipper of Asmodeus and I planned him out as a badass guy, caring for nothing but himself and the power granted by the archdevil. I planned him out to go for oath of conquest. I changed him a bit in character though, because he is young and was raised in a cult. He's used to killing and ended up murdering these cultists, because they weren't worshiping Asmodeus. His dreams are wiping out everyone that opposes, but now he is in the open world, he started helping people. I sorta made him the young kid that doesn't know better and he's starting to doubt what he was taught. All he knows about is killing and slaughtering, but saving people's lives gives him the same feeling of satisfaction.

So I'm planning to make him a good guy, who wants to destroy other cults to prove that Asmodeus isn't bad. Fits better into the setting. I'm still not really sure if I should go for conquest, I'm sorta gonna see what the party needs then. Any advice?

Question for you: do you plan out your characters and play them towards your plans? Or do you let the story decide which direction you take?

to answer your question no. i make a character with ideology and play them in the world letting there ideas change and develop and then make plans in the moment that fit those ideas. most of the plans never happen as the character grows and changes as he gets close that plan happening. as for advice on paladin if you are looking at the damage sub-classes pick up an item that give you better access to fear. most of the more combaty subs for paladin use fear in there class abilities. also with the way your character sounds i would think eventually he would become an oath breaker and move on to another god who's ideology fits his better.

[DaveOfTheDead]

Yeah, conquest paladin seems best, but I'm AFB right now.

As for your question, I usually start out with an idea of how I want to play them and mold the character based on the story/game I'm playing them in. So it's like making a clay person but they're very vague in terms of details. You have a general idea of what it's going to look like but as you go along, you are influenced other things going on (your party, the NPCs, the story, etc) and things may change as you go down the road.

[DarkKnightJin]

Up to a point, I plan my characters. That point is usually to get the mechanics of what I want the character to be able to do online. And even then, I roll with the punches from the story.

My Dragonborn Death Cleric was supposed to be a big, gruff former soldier, with a crass/crude sense of humor, and not flinching in the face of death.

He wound up being the team dad. He just so happens to also be a servant of that world's God of Death/Reincarnation, and have a savage Grim Reaper vibe going.
Big softie when he doesn't need to fight. Likes to read from time to time, and is fairly good with kids.

Not at all what I originally had planned.. But I like it better this way. It's become a proper character, not just some power fantasy.