A character's mechanical makeup

[Bannan_mantis]

When you make a character there's a bit more to it than just picking a race and class, you need to also choose your ability scores, feats (if you have them), subraces, subclasses, spells, fighting style and more which give a lot of flavour to choices. So, overall, if you were to translate class, subclass, race and ability scores/feats into percentages based up on how much they make up a character what would you give for most characters on average? I say average since not all builds prioritise equally (fighters care more about ASIs than barbarians since they have 7.)

I think I would probably do something like this, but hearing what other think about this would be interesting.
Class - 55%
Race - 5%
Subclass - 25%
Ability score improvements/feats - 15%

Class is definitely the overall biggest choice you make in creation but I feel that a lot of the time your class' main aspects or general focuses can be overridden by subclasses and a lot of statements people make about entire classes aren't true for some subclasses or just some builds. A vengeance paladin has pretty good consistent damage throughout a day with hunter's mark but this tends to cause them to lose the durability paladins can usually get, a dex based barb isn't really a good damage dealer but has good AC, HP and since you don't need strength unless you multiclass you can focus on wisdom a bit to be good in all 3 main saves, a hexblade warlock doesn't need to stay in the backlines casting eldritch blast and can get into the fray of melee combat and there's more but I feel that I've made my point.

[Fable Wright]

I view it a bit differently.

Core mechanic, 60%
Race, 15%
Class, 20%
Non-essential ASIs, 5%

My Athletics Expertise Fighter will play more similarly to my Athletics Expertise Barbarian and my Athletics Expertise Monk than it will my Sharpshooter Fighter.

My EB spammer will play closer to my Sharpshooter than it will my battlefield control warlock.

My Land Druid and my Transmuter will play very similarly indeed, as will my Tempest Cleric and Evoker.

Race is pretty high up there because I choose race for the impact of their at wills. My gnome is always Small, and that means he's the first to die if the party needs to flee, but he can also turn into a barrel and hide. My wood elf on the other hand is confident that he can outpace the party, and a chunk of the Skulker feat makes him a solid scout.

Eberron races are a lot more character defining than, say, VHumans, though.

[LudicSavant]

I view it a bit differently as well. In my mind, the things that really make a build tick are often the things that synergize to become more than the sum of their parts.

As such, trying to break everything down into individual elements would leave a percentage missing.

[Kane0]

Hmm...

40% Class
30% Subclass
20% Attributes + Skills
10% Race

[bc56]

Hmm

It depends. Feats have a lot more impact than ASIs for example.

I would put class at 50%, subclass at 25%, and race at 20% for ASIs and 5-10% for feats.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Feats 50%
Abilities 25%
Class(+subclass, I see them as one) 15%
Race 10%

[Darc_Vader]

It varies from character to character for me, but I actually usually put more stock in Subclasses than Classes, particularly if I’m more concerned with flavour than mechanics. Subclasses usually have the more distinctive abilities (as an example I have made a Duelist out of a Swashbuckler/Battlemaster, where the maneuvers and Rakish Audacity mattered much more than Action Surge or Expertise). If I had to break it down it would probably something like 45% Subclass, 35% Class, 10% Race, 10% Feats/ASIs.

[Nagog]

I'd also like to say that for spellcasters, spell choice is a HUGE percentage of their mechanical makeup (Except Warlocks, but the're... different), and the playstyle of the character is also a huge part, of their mechanical makeup as that's where the rubber hits the road for the rest of their kit. For example, one character I have is a Warlock 2 /Cleric 12, with the Celestial Patron and Trickery Domain. They're also a mob boss who uses Mask of Many Faces and Invoke Duplicity to discredit others and evade legal stipulations under the guise that somebody is using magic to incriminate him and destroy his reputation as an upstanding doctor. His ASIs aren't all too important beyond picking up the Actor feat, and his classes are only important inasmuch as they provide him the proper tools with which to work his deception.

[Lyracian]

It varies from character to character for me, but I actually usually put more stock in Subclasses than Classes
The same for me I do not think of Class it would be am I playing an Arcane Trickster, Swashbuckler or Forge Cleric.
Race is almost fixed with sub class for me. I will play a Dwarven Forge Cleric or a Half-Elf Lore Bard. There are a few classes such as Wizard where I would look at the stats before selecting my race. I probably spend more time on Feats and spell selection than anything else when I build a character.

My breakdown would put class at 20%, subclass at 50%, race at 5% leaving ASI/Feats 25%.

[KorvinStarmast]

I think I would probably do something like this, but hearing what other think about this would be interesting.
Class - 55%
Race - 5%
Subclass - 25%
Ability score improvements/feats - 15% You forgot background. :smallsmile:
Let me assign a total of fifteen points.
To me, class choice is most 5/15
Sub class is next most 4/15
Background is next most important. 3/15
I want it to fit the first two in a complimentary way; those two skill proficiencies, and that feature (water vehicle for Sailor, for example) crop up usefully in some unexpected ways. Background also informs my character's "who he or she is, and their perspective for their adventuring"
ASI/Feat-of varying importance depending on class. 2/15
For a monk, I may not take a feat at all.
Race is least important to me: 1/15
But, there are some races I will not play. (Kenku, Tiefling)

[Bjarkmundur]

It really depends on how you look at it and WHEN you look at it.

Only 50% of each session is dependent on mechanics. Within that aspect of the game only 30% is dependent on character mechanics, and not general mechanics. This leaves 20% of the mechanical part of the game that is based on your character.

Although it's just 20% of the overall mechanics within a session, I think I have to agree with your suggestion:

Class - 55%
Race - 5%
Subclass - 25%
Ability score improvements/feats - 15%

It has also be noted that everything scales except for race. So at level 1 race is a pretty big chunk of your character, maybe up to 20% or more. Then the class gives you more spells, the subclass changes your features, and of course you gain your first ASI at level 4. At the end of the game race is probably down to 1%.

[GlenSmash!]

10% luck
20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
5% pleasure
50% pain
100% reason to remember the name

[Kane0]

10% luck
20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
5% pleasure
50% pain
100% reason to remember the name

Nah thats HP you're thinking of :smallwink:

[Bjarkmundur]

Nah thats HP you're thinking of :smallwink:
Bwahahahha xD

[GlenSmash!]

Nah thats HP you're thinking of :smallwink:

:smallsmile: