Character Creation Evaluations

[Yakmala]

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I'm constantly coming up with ideas for new characters. Often its the background that comes first. Other times I'll think of a race and class combo I want to try. But there's always more character ideas than I have games to play them in.

Some of my characters have become well played regulars while others have been re-created or discarded after just a few sessions. I began asking myself what all my most played characters had in common.

So I gathered up all the character sheets, new and old, and looked for common links. What did the long played characters have that the retired ones lacked?

And from this, I think I came up with a self-evaluation of my character preferences. Now, when making new characters, I try and keep these factors in mind and make sure any new character hits at least a few of these bullet points.

Here are my personal factors for a successful character, with success defined as a personal desire to continue playing and growing the character.

1: Character has a strong background and a personality and voice that I can easily roleplay.
2: Versatility over raw power.
3: Character contributes in three factors: Skills, Party Support, Damage.
4: Character must be good at either Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma skills.
5: Character makes good use of Bonus Actions, Reactions or both.
6: Single class, or at most, a small dip into another class for a key build element.

Anyone else ever performed a mental exercise like this? If so, what did you discover about your own personal character preferences?

[Man_Over_Game]

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I'm constantly coming up with ideas for new characters. Often its the background that comes first. Other times I'll think of a race and class combo I want to try. But there's always more character ideas than I have games to play them in.

Some of my characters have become well played regulars while others have been re-created or discarded after just a few sessions. I began asking myself what all my most played characters had in common.

So I gathered up all the character sheets, new and old, and looked for common links. What did the long played characters have that the retired ones lacked?

And from this, I think I came up with a self-evaluation of my character preferences. Now, when making new characters, I try and keep these factors in mind and make sure any new character hits at least a few of these bullet points.

Here are my personal factors for a successful character, with success defined as a personal desire to continue playing and growing the character.

1: Character has a strong background and a personality and voice that I can easily roleplay.
2: Versatility over raw power.
3: Character contributes in three factors: Skills, Party Support, Damage.
4: Character must be good at either Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma skills.
5: Character makes good use of Bonus Actions, Reactions or both.
6: Single class, or at most, a small dip into another class for a key build element.

Anyone else ever performed a mental exercise like this? If so, what did you discover about your own personal character preferences?

I like how...specific your system is.

I always need to be doing SOMETHING. Even while people are talking around a table, I'm juggling fruit, writing nonpermanent runes into the table, playing with my familiar, etc. So I need a lot of really small non-combat features.

Warlocks happen to be one of my favorite classes just for this. Not only are they incredibly consistent, but they're also very versatile. They have a tool for everything. Sure, Tomb of Levistus might not be the best burst-damage tanking tool, but it's a lot better than Shield. Sure, Mask of Many Faces can basically be obtained for free by a Mastermind, but I can do that and cast spells.

I guess, in a list like yours, It'd have to be something like this:


Character must be adaptive. Background isn't nearly as important as how I play the character.
Character must contribute in non-combat scenarios.
In combat, the character must have a number of different options to do. Complexity is more important than damage. Having 2 options to default to each round is not complex.
No more than 2 class types.



I'm still trying to create the perfect melee tank that fits this, but there are very few tanking options that are adaptive or complex.

[MrStabby]

I have a number like this. Unfortunately it has seriously narrowed down my choices!

Combat

1) The character must have meaningful tactical choices to make in combat. Hurt them with spell A or Hurt them with Spell B is not a meaningful choice. A control effect or a damage effect is.

2) As a corollary of 1, the character should do a number of things well enough to make them viable choices frequently.

3) The character should have at least 1 role; there should be at least one thing that my character is the best in the party at. Damage, control, social skills, divination/exploration. One of these should be a combat ability.

4) The character should be able to do multiple things per round - at least a reaction or bonus action reliably.


Social

5) The character should have a social role. High charisma or expertise in at least one social skill. For me, talking is the most fun part of the game I want to do it. I want to also be one of the people doing it when it matters. Possibly can be justified through knowledge skills - if I need to prove something or explain something.

6) The character should have some of their background present in their dialogue. Some prejudices, some antagonisms, some hang ups.

Exploration

7) Not being left behind or sitting things out. If I can't climb, I want to fly. Or dimension door or whatever.

8) I want a character with a drive to discover something - new spells for a spell book, a secret, a person, some landscape of beauty or a rare flower. Bonus points for a mechanical tie in like druid wildshape or warlock book of ancient secrets.

9) I want a character that can be changed and influenced by the things they discover.

Other

10) I want to play something mechanically and characterful distinct from any other played at that table before.



Trying to find a character is now really hard.