Who is Bruenor?
You
only know this if you just so happened to read a select number of the Forgotten
Realms books which deal with Drizzt, that drow-gone-good who has probably
twenty books written about him now. When
you’re outdoing Robert Jordan for books printed, maybe there’s a problem.
I’m
reading the character creation guideline, and it’s pretty straightforward, but
it’s the same in the other editions of D&D.
The problem here lies in the example, as it necessitates previous
knowledge of the game, some of which might be considered arcane in how old it
is. The book is as old as I am.
Moving
on, it’s annoying how they present to you three methods of score generation for
characters. Let’s get this out of the
way: unless you are rolling for your scores, you are, in essence, creating the
same damn character as every other one of your particular class. 4d6 drop the lowest is somewhat acceptable,
as I do ascribe to the notion that the types who choose the adventuring life
should tend to be above the average person in a few respects. However, there are very rarely character
weaknesses here as regards their statistics.
It’s
somewhat the same way with this damned system of just being given scores, much
like the fourth edition used. Sure,
there’s an eight as an ability score, but then you are average or above average
in every other case, which is bullshit. Wizards
are nerds who are probably weak with a poor constitution, but they might have
some understanding. Fighters are their
opposites. That’s how classes naturally
tend towards certain personalities traits, which have created their
tropes.
Point
buy is stupid, don’t use it. If you do,
consider how you’re just making someone who has no possibility of being really
good or really bad at a physical or mental score.
My
preferred method, which I am testing for the third time in a new Pathfinder
game I started 3 weeks ago, is a hybrid between rolling in the first method
ascribed above, along with how it was done in AD&D. In it, you get to choose where your scores
go, but the dice rolls are different.
4d6 drop the lowest for three of the six, and then for the other three
you simply roll 3d6.
This
has the benefit of giving good odds for having some decent above-average
scores, maybe that coveted 18, while at the same time making for the
possibility of having some poor scores, which you just have to deal with.
Maybe
your guy isn’t smart at all, but he’s got average Wisdom. You can easily role play that as the
character being taciturn, and, when prompted for some knowledge, he is quick to
ask around for suggestions to hide his own shortcomings. Everything, from stats to skills and your
other selections, are supposed to affect how you roleplay that character. If you have a weak Constitution and few hit
points, maybe you do your best to not piss people off, or make it so you can
just talk your way out of any situation, resorting to violence only when you
have a clear and distinct advantage.
Also,
and this is under section four, “Describe Your Character,” you need to spend
way more than a few minutes on a name.
It has to impact you in some way, or you come up with a story about how
you got your name, or even a nickname.
In a funny way, my own name translates from Latin into “Houselord of
Mars.” No joke. Spend more time on it, and there could be a
personal quest in it for you.
I’ll
talk about races just a little bit.
Are
they trying to push Forgotten Realms or Salvatore with this edition, because
it’s very funny how the player in question wants to make “Bruenor,” a name
which has already been taken and only shows a lack of imagination, and the
first race quote just so happens to be from that particular crazy dwarf. Also, I shouldn’t have to wait til the third
paragraph before actually learning what a fucking dwarf is. People are saying this is the most
newbie-friendly edition yet, but I’m still looking at fourth for taking that
particular honor, which it does deserve.
How
many of you can say that you’ve gotten to DM a game wherein the entire party
was made of beautiful women? ;)
Also, I
find the extra “types” of a particular race to be out of place. Instead of there being a more concrete
identity to each of the races, they give you some choices, just so you can
tailor your race and class to just what you want to play! Even in Pathfinder they pull this shit in the
books, and I also dislike it there. Why
aren’t there 5 types of Dhampirs I can choose from? Like, one who actually has a strong
Constitution so I don’t have to take a negative to the score I want?
The
humans are by far the most ridiculous.
Each ability score increased by one?!
I’ve never seen a situation where you can instantly outclass everyone
else in terms of stats. Period. Other races get a +2 here, a +1 there with
some other stuff…but there, you get a cumulative +6! They might lose their free feat at first
level, but this would certainly seem to be worth it, if only because you never
have to actually worry if you roll that 9 when you’re doing your stats! So human stats automagically range from 4 to
19. Because human. None of the other races seems to have such
latent power.
Except
how halflings apparently can never critically botch. Di immortales!.
High
elves come with a free cantrip. Fire
bolt, anyone? Holy shit this is
good. Maybe I should not have skipped
over to the humans so quickly out of curiosity!
Actually,
a mountain dwarf would be very funny to be a wizard, since you can cast in any
armor you are proficient in!
My
opinion here is that the basic human is ridiculously good, high elves a close
second, then halflings and everyone else beneath them. My opinion here is that there’s too much of a
clear hierarchy of the races…wait, maybe they were taking AD&D in spirit
here…
Ok, so
in AD&D each race had a limit on the number of levels in a given class they
could achieve. They also had very strict
racial requirements for some classes.
For instance, Dwarves in AD&D can only go up to level 10 in Cleric,
15 in Fighter, or 12 in Thief (AD&D DMG, 22). What I see here is actually an echo of that
“humans can be better than everyone else at their own game given enough
experience” jig. Never seen anyone
unafraid of having a bad odd number in stats.
If this actually is some sort of subtle echo of AD&D, it’s a bad
one. I’m surprised no one I have read
has brought this obvious problem with the game’s design up. So, if there’s something I’ve missed
regarding these quickstart races…like the horrible rumor I’ve heard about the
drow being a general PC race, do tell me so that we can have a discussion!
Until we meet again, game on!