Okay, here is my cheif complaint with 4E. The method of character generation looks really boring and lacking in depth. How does one take a base idea for a character and develope it into a full character?
Some of you may say I’m being argumentative. Yeah, that about sums it up.
This is an invitation to a friendly debate about the the character generation process of 3E and 4E and which one is better. Note the word friendly: if you approach this with the idea that it’s a challange, it will be a lot of fun. If you take it as a personal attack, it will devolve into a childish squabble (also, I will hate you). Let’s be reasonable adults here (I put down my sword, you put down your rock and we’ll kill each other like civilized people).
Here is a pair of 3E characters to demonstrate what I mean, after which I will drop the gauntlet.
What I had in mind was a dreamworld kingdom high up in the mountains called Avia. Their cities are built on the peaks of Kamo Mountain and on the floating chunks of land that orbit them, and they fly between their settlements on giant eagles. The king is sick - dying in fact - but still alive, albeit bedridden. In his state, he cannot rule propperly, so the kingdom is run by his son, with the aid of his nephew. The prince is a brash, hot-headed individual, prone to rash actions and hasty decisions, while his cousin is more level-headed, so the two balance each other and make for a good ruling pair.
First Character
Prince Hawk Avia III, CG Human Fighter 8.
CG because he’s hot-headed, quick to act, but still good-natured.
Rolled following abilities (added 2 points to Dex for lvl 8); S: 16, D: 16, C: 16, I: 14, W: 12, Ch: 9.
Feats: Being he is a hot-headed fighter type, I chose the following feats
Mounted Combat: All rulers have to be able to fight on the backs of the giant eagles.
Power Attack: He’s heavy handed in his attacks, but as a result, his strikes are sometimes a little wild.
Cleave: His attacks are strong enough to plow through one opponent and into another.
WPN Focus, Specialization and G Focus in Longsword: He had dedicated himself to the study of this weapon and is very skilled.
Improved Sunder: A disarmed opponent is easily dealt with and he’s strong enough to break his enemies weapons if he goes all out.
Improved Initiative and Quick Draw: Being hot-headed, he’s quick to draw his sword and start a fight. More than that, he believes in making the first strike, so he specialized in getting into the fray quickly.
Skill: Fighter skills are limited, I give anyone who says so that much.
Climb, Jump, and Ride maxed out. Handle Animal at half max and Spot maxed. These seemed natural choices for a mountain kingdom.
Equipment: Elven Chainmail, Mithril Heavy Sheild (chosen because they are light, which is needed when flying on the back of an eagle), Flametongue (hot-headed, so a fire-weapon seemed appropriate), Bracers of armor +2 (a little extra protection and not a lot of weight).
Mount: Eostre, a giant eagle, statistically identical to what’s in the MM.
Second Character
Prince Lark Avia, LG Half-Elf Paladin 10
LG because he’s a very organized person. Half-elf because he’s not actually the duke’s real son, just a child he took in because he didn’t have an heir.
Rolled following abilities (+1 to dex, +1 to wis for lvl 10); S: 12, D: 15, C: 13, I: 16, W: 18, Ch: 17. After rolling the abilities, I basically placed them opposite Prince Hawk.
Patron Deity: Inti, god of the sun and justice.
Feats: Given his thoughtful approach to life, I chose the following feats.
Experties: He’s a cautious and defensive fighter. He’ll often sacrifice a good hit to ensure propper defense.
Improved Disarm: Non-violent by nature, he prefers nonlethal means of subduing foes, so he often tries to disarm them without hurting them whenever possible.
Mounted Combat: Again, giant eagle.
Leadership: Although he’s technically not the crowned prince, he’s better suited to leading than his cousin.
Skills: Reflecting his position as advisor and ambassador for the kingdom of Avia, he has the following skills.
K(Nobility and Religion), Diplomacy, Sense Motive maxed out. Ride and Handle Animal at half max.
Typical Prepared Spells: Again, reflecting his non-violent personality.
1st: Cure Light Wounds x2; 2nd: Sheild Other, Delay Poison.
Equipment: Celestial Armor, Holy Avenger (both gained on a paladin quest earlier in his life), Ring of Air Command (a gift from his father).
Paladin Special Mount: Jenevir, a giant eagle with paladin mount special abilities of a paladin equal to level 7.
Okay, now you’ll notice that I made each choice based on the style of the character. However, I did not have any of this in mind when I began. After looking over each feat/skill/item possible for the character, I picked out the ones that seemed most fitting. In the end, this helped flesh out the details of each character’s personality.
Okay 4E nuts, do the same. Take a basic character idea and, using only the abilities you can pick and choose from the 4E rules, fully flesh out the character. If you can make a characters this fleshed out from just the abilities of the 4E core rulebooks, you will have taken the major ground for my biggest argument against the system and I will be forced to concede the potential of 4E to be a good system.
‘Cause I can’t see how you would make characters like these in 4E. Not at all.
Now I didn’t actually bend any rules with these characters, each uses only possibilities from the 3E core rulebooks, but I will allow you to tweak a few rules and still call it a valid argument, because a little rule-bending is a good thing, even in a good system, but it can’t be outlandish changes from the core.
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