What is a Roleplay Build?

[Aodhan the Unusual]

True, but not everyone RPs their build. There are those that choose to min-max and not want to play the ugly idiot.

[ancientempathy]

LOL

[Syd's Blue Sky]

I love playing an ugly char!

[Kolfrosta]

My take on a "roleplay" build is quite simply.....my characters take the feats that correspond to what they are, who they are, and what they have experienced in game. There is no planning involved...(i.e. I'll take such and such a feat at such and such a level) as you cannot predict what will happen to a character before that time. It has nothing to do with "power". "Power", in the long run, leads to boredom, solo play and retirement.

For example, I don't think a chivalrous paladin would take a knockdown feat. Sure it makes perfect mechanical sense to make the charcter more battle hardy, but would it be in keeping with the character's personality? Or with the way they see battle? Or thier role in the world? Is it chivalrous to knockdown a worthy opponent? (No.)

So, I guess you could say, I see roleplay "building", as having to do more with a character as a person, with a personality, than as a two dimensional combination of numbers on a character sheet with a name, class and alignment....and levels.

[Syd's Blue Sky]

Honestly I haven't read much of this thread, but MechaMistress and I were talking about it in tells and here's how I think I've come to think on this topic:

Some people start with a concept. "I want to make a wisdom cleric!" They make a build first... they squeeze all the juice out of it they can... then they build a character around it. This is me. My characters don't begin to develop until I've already spent WEEKS playing them. This is how I cut my teeth on Amia.

Some people like to start with a different concept. "I want to make a split personality half sharessan half sharran with a limp and freckles!" Then they run with that and make the power come from within that framework they've set. This is more what I have tried to do on FRC.

Honestly... I LOVE builds. The dirty, gritty numbers. Horsepower. Torque. 0-60 times. This is the kinda stuff I love to find, and I will sometimes spent hours sitting in single on debug just coming up with and tweaking old builds. I love it.

That's not to say I don't also love RPing!

James and Garum we basically build to compliment each in personality and power. James was 50/50, as I was coming into the server totally blind. He was supposed to be a CoT.. or a RDD! I even took the 8 ranks in lore... I just never got around to straying from bard bard bard.

Card was build on the concept of a "high mental stats cleric of Cyric." So that's what he became.. I turned this into divine might/shield and rogue levels for skills.

Aari was built on a BUILD I wanted to do. She was numbers. Torque. HP.

Oliver is a very standard melee cleric built to compliment the character of another player in RP. I decided I wanted trickery domain.. looked around and saw Beshaba. I thought to myself, "wow, I can pair this with Talona perfectly!" So I ended up taking that deity. He's 50/50.


I guess my point is that it's not where or how you start a character at all. It's what you do with that framework once it's built. You can fill a mold of "I want a dev critter!" in any number of ways. You can just as easily fill the mold of "I want a Tormite!"

My 45 cents.


EDIT:
Only one typo. Not bad!

[Munroe]

Sept 28, 2010 19:39:34 GMT -5 Kolfrosta said:

Is it chivalrous to knockdown a worthy opponent? (No.)

I disagree!

I think it's perfectly chivalrous to knockdown a worthy opponent. However, it would be dishonorable to continue attacking them. When you knock them down, they should concede defeat.

Isn't that basically jousting?

----------------

The Knockdown and Disarm feats wouldn't be very practical feats for regular use by a chivalric knight though. I'd think Called Shot would be more appropriate.

[Syd's Blue Sky]

Knight PrC!

[MechaMistress]

To me I have a very different idea of what a roleplay build is. I know a lot of you are talking about the ways that skills, abilities, and feats play into a build and I agree that they should reflect your character, be roleplayed and that this can be done anyway a player likes as long as it's represented. However, the mechanical part of a character isn't what defines a 'roleplay build' to me. It has very little to do with my overall roleplay. I see the mechanics behind my PC and the character themselves are two very different separate things. After all when we are playing our characters, they are not aware of all the little numbers that go into the ability points, and skills. That's not what makes them who they are. Just because you have those numbers and names of feats doesn't mean you are doing anything with them until you make it personal to your character.

Some people talk about having a build already in place and other people letting it all change as their character interacts, sees new things, and develops in their world. The actual mechanical build is never what defines my characters. I don't let whats available in nwn stop me from going beyond what they would do. I put a lot of time generally into researching, building their personalities, past, strengths, weaknesses, appearance, feelings, thoughts, and expressions. Anything that helps my immersion to make this seem a little more then a game and to make my characters, in my opinion, seem realisic. My absolute favorite part of a character is flaws and conflicts. This is what I consider a roleplay build. Its the essence of who the person is. A lot of the time only I am aware of these things. My characters don't even know everything about themselves, but its there. I think it is mostly a behind the scenes thing.

I have a very good idea of who my character is before I put them in game. Yes, they get effected by events, things that change their story. but I already know what their goals, and beliefs are and have a general direction. After that then I can match a mechanical build to my character, represented by feats, ability points, and skill points. However, I always put that second. My newest character Te'ijal is a Talonite druid. Her two starting feats I gave her were Toughness and Resist Disease. She has a 10 constitution and I don't plan on her being someone who is the most healthy. It gives her something to strive for to improve her overall heath and endurance to do things with con gear. Following a god of disease and poison I thought her god wouldn't want her to be direly ill. so she has toughness to represent a inner strength and feeling that she can manage in her condition. There's a fight in her. I took resist disease because if she is going to be using spells and dealing with those types things, she'd have exposure to it and wouldn't want to make herself ill. She'd have a resistance built up over time. I'm rping slowly Te'ijal gaining an immunity to poison as druids get by collecting poison vials. So its not to say that I don't find the mechanics behind a character important. but I find a reason to make the feat work for the character not the other way around. It becomes personal why they have it chosen skill/feat/ability score.

With Vivian her character has always been to generally oppose fighting and violence. Her focus is on defending and protecting things that are important to her, her church, beliefs, friends and loved ones. She refuses to fight humans, no matter if their banites or bandits. Well even though she doesn't like to be called an adventurer, yeah she still goes out with groups at times. Her feats support her being a defensive fighter. Expertise, Improved Expertise, and Divine Shield. I want her to feel protected by her goddess. This doesn't mean she always makes the best use of these feats either. She still gets scared of giant creatures, beetles, dragons and runs from them. She's not usually tanking but its for her own safety and if she has to step into the fray of a battle, then she knows how to keep everyone safe. Vivian has a lot of sunite related items, charisma based items to focus on a presentable appearance and has come to learn to use a whip, to represent her church as it is Sune's favored weapon. For Vivian specifically I think spells come into play on her personality as well. She has never cast harm, used the sometimes controversial summons, evil spells, and offensive spells to harm enemies. She focuses on healing, and buffing. Again for protecting those around her. Vivian also writes for her own self enjoyment so I had her learn to scribe scrolls rather then craft wand.

That's not all there is to Vivian. her character goes beyond that as I think anyone's character doesn't stop and end at feats/ability points/skills and your character isn't a mess of these things. The roleplay building continues after that and it only acts as a base to things. I don't mind if people take combat orientated feats if they rp them and they're appropriate to a character. Overall my point here is that the definition of a roleplay build goes a level further and deeper then just their mechanics.

Wow this is a long post. I'm generally a very quiet player but I guess sometimes I have a lot to say. >.>

[goldstar]

Here is an example thread of everyone agreeing on the same thing, but stating it all differently.

[Munroe]

Sept 29, 2010 14:18:12 GMT -5 kottle said:

There are many spells he stricly will not use (especially negative energy, offensive necromancy, cursing, and others). Sure they are available to him in the game, but I hope his NG god would never bless him with them.

There are many spells my Lathander cleric won't use, particularly Darkness and any spell with the Evil descriptor (including all the spells that create undead). But she absolutely loves Bestow Curse and Remove Curse. Yes, Bestow Curse is a necromancy spell, but it's not evil in itself and it all boils down to how the curse is used. I don't prepare it regularly because she wouldn't prepare it without also preparing Remove Curse, and she doesn't want to sacrifice the two daily spells, but she really wants to learn to cast both as spontaneous spells eventually (with her bard multi-class).

On a side note, I'm not sure I know what god your character follows. I thought he followed an LG deity.

[The Supreme Watcher]

I suppose Paladins are blessed in that their spell list is pretty much all super Paladiny spells. No conflicts with alignment there!

I do love that people are making their spell choices based on alignment and deity. That's a sign of GOOD ROLEPLAYING, and you all get a big kudos from me. I've recently begun a character with a restricted spell school, and I have to say, it's pretty entertaining.

Keep giving your opinions and examples, people!

What IS a roleplay build?

[soulfien]

A roleplay build is a build that is roleplayed.