I don't mind I agree with much of it If I were doing it today I would set my own scores lower too. that is what the DM gave me and I was trying to explain his reasoning and some of what he based it on. I think a 13 strength would have fine along with a 13/14 dex. I think he had a point that with modern diets and health care along with vaccinations we are typically much healthier than most D&D or any historical period would have been so the Con is not unreasonable. Intelligence is fairly easy to match with IQ scores (if you believe they are really valid) with an IQ of 100 pairing with an INT of 10, a max of IQ200 with a INT of 20 (incredible rare) and IQs below about 80 representing folks with challenges of varying degrees. Wisdom is really hard to quantify I agree and I covered that somewhat but its bit embarassing to go into details but suffice to say I was F**k up and problem child in junior high and high school and had a lot of chances to really screw my life up but somehow made enough good choices to make my out of that morass. Charisma I would have been happy with a 10 and still think the 12 was probably too high but its what he gave me and I wasn't going to fight an ego boost back then.
Skills isn't so much about how much money you can make as it is about whether you can make it any or not I don't really think I'm a very good coder but I did take some programming classes in college and did use those skills as a web designer back in the late 90s and then as a grad student where assistantship was all about coding webpages for courses and doing statistics programs for professors and other students for pay. my attitude is that if you can do it and make money at it - you have proficiency if you can do that and explain it and teach it to others you probably are proficient in it. Unions try to quantify this sort of - apprentice (after a training period) - Proficient, Journeyman - Expertise, Master- Expertise with Advantage would probably work out pretty well.
Levels - again I more or less agree with you - I outlined the martial arts background I had at the time but to at least some extent I would really say I should have been given Monk 1 or now under 5e maybe the open hand fighting style as an extra. Ranger again I would have been happy with L1 but I think the party was like level 3-4 so he may have given me the levels to fit in.
a couple of things about using college as a level guide: - mostly minor 1. trade school and AS is 2 years BA/BS is four (or 2 more) MA/MS is another 2 years and PhD (Doctorate) is about 4 more years typically but to get the BS and advanced degrees you have to do "research" which could be thought of as the adventuring. so everyone starts out as level 1 and does some adventuring to get to higher levels - pretty much just as I did. most college majors don't really translate to D&D but I can see where physics and chemistry might translate with magic users as part of their arcana skill.
so yes my stats are probably somewhat inflated especially for 5e so maybe S) 13, D) 13, C) 15-17, I) 15, W) 13, Ch 10 would be fine it still allows for the multiclassing and with 5e the stats after transferring experience levels would all end up 20s in the game anyway.
My second try to create myself for D&D I'm naming her Rose.
Level 1 Warlock whose Patron is a Celestial.
Race: Human
Background: Hermit (I fear strangers and tend to isolate myself)
Skills: Arcana (gifted to my by my Patron), Investigation (I'm an inquisitive sort), Medicine (gifted to me by my Patron), Religion (I've got faith in my Patron, the literal answer to my prayers)
Str 11, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 15, Wis 9, Cha 13.
A Woman who is leaning on a quarterstaff with an odd looking dagger sheathed at her side (It's in a plastic sheath, and it looks like the one in the movie Rambo, First Blood painted gray), a wand tucked into her belt, a little coin pouch, ordinary clothes with an odd looking dark purple shirt made of some kind of plant fiber, (It's a tee-shirt, and you can't see it because it's hidden under the armor, but it's got a slogan on it that says "I have 127 hit points and a bad attitude") a pair of blue pants (bluejeans), plain looking brown leather armor, and a backpack with a coil of rope on the side and a bundle of torches strapped to the other side and a bedroll on top. She has dark brown hair that gets into her eyes, and has a few cowlicks that goes down her back in a ponytail to just below her shoulders, dark brown eyes, and pinkish tan skin. She's about five and a half feet tall and a little heavy for her height, she's in her late twenties to early thirties, and she smiles when she sees you.
I always find threads like this fun. I find it difficult to Stat myself however, because I'm definitely not an "average joe", but I'm also not The Rock lol.
I'm not particularly strong for my size and age, but my job does involve Heavy lifting (5 foot 10 inch, 180lb, 40 Yo, blue collar factory worker). I'm not particularly attractive, but my wife seems to approve lol. Once I got past my awkward teenage years (where I picted up DnD), I have never been the shy awkward type. My wife says I can talk to anyone, and I have made friends easily.
My hand eye coordination and eyesight are excellent however, and I have done competitive shooting (Rifle, Skeet, IDPA and 3 Gun), Archery (recurve), Fencing, Aikido (in my 20's), and Historical Martial Arts (Saber, Longsword, Rapier) over the last 30 years (not all at once, different seasons for different activities, and I bouce back and forth between hobbies ).
I used to be a deep water lifeguard and EMT, and have a Bachelors in Environmental Science. I also survived getting hit by 2 cars, and being shot with a bow.
If someone wants to take a rack at stating me out, I think it would be entertaining!
Feats: Historian (UA). Unlucky (not really but it feels that way sometimes).
Languages: English, Latin (rusty), French (even rustier).
Starting Equipment: Private library of over 1,500 volumes, including several dozen of notable and/or valuable historical worth. A mount (a well maintained 2014 Hyundai Sonata). Ancient Magical Relic (a hand-painted Rumph Originals 1977 Chewbacca mug, from the pre-release first run of 1500 - number 27).
I always find threads like this fun. I find it difficult to Stat myself however, because I'm definitely not an "average joe", but I'm also not The Rock lol.
I'm not particularly strong for my size and age, but my job does involve Heavy lifting (5 foot 10 inch, 180lb, 40 Yo, blue collar factory worker). I'm not particularly attractive, but my wife seems to approve lol. Once I got past my awkward teenage years (where I picted up DnD), I have never been the shy awkward type. My wife says I can talk to anyone, and I have made friends easily.
My hand eye coordination and eyesight are excellent however, and I have done competitive shooting (Rifle, Skeet, IDPA and 3 Gun), Archery (recurve), Fencing, Aikido (in my 20's), and Historical Martial Arts (Saber, Longsword, Rapier) over the last 30 years (not all at once, different seasons for different activities, and I bouce back and forth between hobbies ).
I used to be a deep water lifeguard and EMT, and have a Bachelors in Environmental Science. I also survived getting hit by 2 cars, and being shot with a bow.
If someone wants to take a rack at stating me out, I think it would be entertaining!
S) 13, D) 14, C) 15, I) 12, W) 10, Ch) 11
i would say that if your doing heavy lifting your probably above average in strength, the aikido and hand eye coordination suggest an above average Dex as well. You made it into and thru college with a science degree so your not stupid or even average so Intel is higher than normal. Your a factory worker with a college degree so you may have made a few poorer life choices (or not - I recognize circumstances can screw things up beyond the best decisions but I don’t have much to go on here) hence the average Wisdom. You make friends easily and you got a wife that likes you so that suggests a higher Charisma.
open hand fighting style as a feat, proficiency with martial and simple weapons, I’m giving you proficiency with light and medium armour but unless your active in the SCA or doing jousting or something similar none of us should have proficiency with heavy armour 😁
as an ex lifeguard ex first aide /first responder and scuba diver myself I understand what is called for from those abilities so you have a swim speed of 10’ and the proficiency with medicine and the healer’s kit.
From your description I see you as a fighter , probably with or leaning towards the archery fighting style. Given the college I would say your background was sage giving you the arcana skill. Because of what your degree was in I’m changing out the history skill for the nature skill.
so a F1 with the archery fighting style, your choice of a long sword or rapier, a long bow and arrows and probably wearing studded leather armour. you have the empty hand fighting style as a feat, skills in arcana, nature, medicine, use of a healer’s kit, a swim speed of 10’ and the sage background. How does that work?
Looks pretty good, although I think anyone over 30 is probably level 2, and over 40 is probably 3 (life experience is experience after all).
On the Factory Worker side, I'm actually a CNC Machinist (Defense/ Aerospace). I make twice what I can make working in my degree field with better benefits. I actually retrained into this job because it was a better opportunity.
ok so your a commoner 3/F1 and the wisdom goes up to 12. yes life experience is life experience but its not adventuring experience. and seeing that your running a computer that does the machining work not doing it yourself (forge and lathe etc) I can't really add the smithing skill.
your not the only one I was just looking at Tasha's at the sidekicks and wondering why? they are basically the 2e/3e followers downgraded. and the expert has no real business being a side kick - the only reason to have them is to have a rogue without having a rogue. they should be a hireling. I liked the followers - if nothing else when your main characters retired it gave you new characters you were familiar with to play as they went free of the original. and having NPC classes with possible levels worked too
I always forget about the Sidekick rules. I actually like them, even the Expert (who I would use for things like scouts, woodsman, and even hired guards), but until I can Build and Save them in Dndbeyond and add them to the Champagne and Combat Manager, they are more trouble than they are worth. Once I CAN do those things, they will see a lot of use.
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I don't mind I agree with much of it If I were doing it today I would set my own scores lower too. that is what the DM gave me and I was trying to explain his reasoning and some of what he based it on. I think a 13 strength would have fine along with a 13/14 dex. I think he had a point that with modern diets and health care along with vaccinations we are typically much healthier than most D&D or any historical period would have been so the Con is not unreasonable. Intelligence is fairly easy to match with IQ scores (if you believe they are really valid) with an IQ of 100 pairing with an INT of 10, a max of IQ200 with a INT of 20 (incredible rare) and IQs below about 80 representing folks with challenges of varying degrees. Wisdom is really hard to quantify I agree and I covered that somewhat but its bit embarassing to go into details but suffice to say I was F**k up and problem child in junior high and high school and had a lot of chances to really screw my life up but somehow made enough good choices to make my out of that morass. Charisma I would have been happy with a 10 and still think the 12 was probably too high but its what he gave me and I wasn't going to fight an ego boost back then.
Skills isn't so much about how much money you can make as it is about whether you can make it any or not I don't really think I'm a very good coder but I did take some programming classes in college and did use those skills as a web designer back in the late 90s and then as a grad student where assistantship was all about coding webpages for courses and doing statistics programs for professors and other students for pay. my attitude is that if you can do it and make money at it - you have proficiency if you can do that and explain it and teach it to others you probably are proficient in it.
Unions try to quantify this sort of - apprentice (after a training period) - Proficient, Journeyman - Expertise, Master- Expertise with Advantage would probably work out pretty well.
Levels - again I more or less agree with you - I outlined the martial arts background I had at the time but to at least some extent I would really say I should have been given Monk 1 or now under 5e maybe the open hand fighting style as an extra. Ranger again I would have been happy with L1 but I think the party was like level 3-4 so he may have given me the levels to fit in.
a couple of things about using college as a level guide: - mostly minor
1. trade school and AS is 2 years BA/BS is four (or 2 more) MA/MS is another 2 years and PhD (Doctorate) is about 4 more years typically but to get the BS and advanced degrees you have to do "research" which could be thought of as the adventuring. so everyone starts out as level 1 and does some adventuring to get to higher levels - pretty much just as I did. most college majors don't really translate to D&D but I can see where physics and chemistry might translate with magic users as part of their arcana skill.
so yes my stats are probably somewhat inflated especially for 5e so maybe S) 13, D) 13, C) 15-17, I) 15, W) 13, Ch 10 would be fine it still allows for the multiclassing and with 5e the stats after transferring experience levels would all end up 20s in the game anyway.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
My second try to create myself for D&D I'm naming her Rose.
Level 1 Warlock whose Patron is a Celestial.
Str 11, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 15, Wis 9, Cha 13.
A Woman who is leaning on a quarterstaff with an odd looking dagger sheathed at her side (It's in a plastic sheath, and it looks like the one in the movie Rambo, First Blood painted gray), a wand tucked into her belt, a little coin pouch, ordinary clothes with an odd looking dark purple shirt made of some kind of plant fiber, (It's a tee-shirt, and you can't see it because it's hidden under the armor, but it's got a slogan on it that says "I have 127 hit points and a bad attitude") a pair of blue pants (bluejeans), plain looking brown leather armor, and a backpack with a coil of rope on the side and a bundle of torches strapped to the other side and a bedroll on top. She has dark brown hair that gets into her eyes, and has a few cowlicks that goes down her back in a ponytail to just below her shoulders, dark brown eyes, and pinkish tan skin. She's about five and a half feet tall and a little heavy for her height, she's in her late twenties to early thirties, and she smiles when she sees you.
<Insert clever signature here>
Looks fine to me Bill.
<Insert clever signature here>
I always find threads like this fun. I find it difficult to Stat myself however, because I'm definitely not an "average joe", but I'm also not The Rock lol.
I'm not particularly strong for my size and age, but my job does involve Heavy lifting (5 foot 10 inch, 180lb, 40 Yo, blue collar factory worker). I'm not particularly attractive, but my wife seems to approve lol. Once I got past my awkward teenage years (where I picted up DnD), I have never been the shy awkward type. My wife says I can talk to anyone, and I have made friends easily.
My hand eye coordination and eyesight are excellent however, and I have done competitive shooting (Rifle, Skeet, IDPA and 3 Gun), Archery (recurve), Fencing, Aikido (in my 20's), and Historical Martial Arts (Saber, Longsword, Rapier) over the last 30 years (not all at once, different seasons for different activities, and I bouce back and forth between hobbies ).
I used to be a deep water lifeguard and EMT, and have a Bachelors in Environmental Science. I also survived getting hit by 2 cars, and being shot with a bow.
If someone wants to take a rack at stating me out, I think it would be entertaining!
Human. Male.
S 12. D 9. C 12. I 17. W 16, Ch 12.
Background: Cloistered Scholar.
Skills: history, insight, performance, religion, intimidation, nature.
Feats: Historian (UA). Unlucky (not really but it feels that way sometimes).
Languages: English, Latin (rusty), French (even rustier).
Starting Equipment: Private library of over 1,500 volumes, including several dozen of notable and/or valuable historical worth. A mount (a well maintained 2014 Hyundai Sonata). Ancient Magical Relic (a hand-painted Rumph Originals 1977 Chewbacca mug, from the pre-release first run of 1500 - number 27).
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
S) 13, D) 14, C) 15, I) 12, W) 10, Ch) 11
i would say that if your doing heavy lifting your probably above average in strength, the aikido and hand eye coordination suggest an above average Dex as well. You made it into and thru college with a science degree so your not stupid or even average so Intel is higher than normal. Your a factory worker with a college degree so you may have made a few poorer life choices (or not - I recognize circumstances can screw things up beyond the best decisions but I don’t have much to go on here) hence the average Wisdom. You make friends easily and you got a wife that likes you so that suggests a higher Charisma.
open hand fighting style as a feat, proficiency with martial and simple weapons, I’m giving you proficiency with light and medium armour but unless your active in the SCA or doing jousting or something similar none of us should have proficiency with heavy armour 😁
as an ex lifeguard ex first aide /first responder and scuba diver myself I understand what is called for from those abilities so you have a swim speed of 10’ and the proficiency with medicine and the healer’s kit.
From your description I see you as a fighter , probably with or leaning towards the archery fighting style. Given the college I would say your background was sage giving you the arcana skill. Because of what your degree was in I’m changing out the history skill for the nature skill.
so a F1 with the archery fighting style, your choice of a long sword or rapier, a long bow and arrows and probably wearing studded leather armour. you have the empty hand fighting style as a feat, skills in arcana, nature, medicine, use of a healer’s kit, a swim speed of 10’ and the sage background. How does that work?
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Thanks 😁
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Looks pretty good, although I think anyone over 30 is probably level 2, and over 40 is probably 3 (life experience is experience after all).
On the Factory Worker side, I'm actually a CNC Machinist (Defense/ Aerospace). I make twice what I can make working in my degree field with better benefits. I actually retrained into this job because it was a better opportunity.
ok so your a commoner 3/F1 and the wisdom goes up to 12. yes life experience is life experience but its not adventuring experience. and seeing that your running a computer that does the machining work not doing it yourself (forge and lathe etc) I can't really add the smithing skill.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Yeah, I definitely don't do smithing lol. Am I the only one that misses the Old NPC classes of Commoner, Adept and Expert?
I have definitely played characters with Stats similar to those in 3rd edition lol.
your not the only one I was just looking at Tasha's at the sidekicks and wondering why? they are basically the 2e/3e followers downgraded. and the expert has no real business being a side kick - the only reason to have them is to have a rogue without having a rogue. they should be a hireling. I liked the followers - if nothing else when your main characters retired it gave you new characters you were familiar with to play as they went free of the original. and having NPC classes with possible levels worked too
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I always forget about the Sidekick rules. I actually like them, even the Expert (who I would use for things like scouts, woodsman, and even hired guards), but until I can Build and Save them in Dndbeyond and add them to the Champagne and Combat Manager, they are more trouble than they are worth. Once I CAN do those things, they will see a lot of use.