I haven't found a thread discussing this yet, so I'm hopeful that I'm not just repeating an age old question.
I was playing around with a character concept for an elderly human wizard (age 65+). It occurred to me that an old wizard would naturally be physically weak and feeble, yet would likely be very experienced and accomplished in his field. This got me thinking about building opposing weaknesses/strengths into the character for added flavor and depth. My thought was taking permanent disadvantage on all strength checks and saving throws, but gaining advantage on intelligence checks or at least certain skills in that tree.
My question is, how would you fine folks go about finding the right balance between the physical disadvantages and the intellectual advantages? Have any of you tried something like this before? My hope is to make the strengths and weaknesses more or less equal. I'll definitely be discussing this with our DM as well. I just wanted something a little more structured and refined to present to him.
Disadvantages on skill you'll never use and advantage on skill you will be really good at isn't really a well balanced trade off. I understand where you're coming from but on the other hand a 65 year old human wizard wouldn't be nearly as experienced in the Arcane arts as say a 400 year old Elven wizard and so your PC gaining advantage on intelligence based abilities/saves isn't really appropriate there either.
I can't speak for your DM or group, but I wouldn't allow something like that at my table personally. Working out a character quirk/flaw is one thing, gaining a huge mechanical benefit for a weak mechanical flaw is completely different. Its the same reason the blind monk character doesn't really work in DnD, people try to balance it out by giving blindsight/truesight/tremmor-sense, which is super strong and turns your negative flavorful character concept into a min/max powergamey PC.
That's true. Strength checks wouldn't really come into play often enough with a wizard, would they? I primarily play melee focused classes and clearly didn't consider the differences in play style closely enough. It seems obvious now in retrospect lol. Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it!
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I haven't found a thread discussing this yet, so I'm hopeful that I'm not just repeating an age old question.
I was playing around with a character concept for an elderly human wizard (age 65+). It occurred to me that an old wizard would naturally be physically weak and feeble, yet would likely be very experienced and accomplished in his field. This got me thinking about building opposing weaknesses/strengths into the character for added flavor and depth. My thought was taking permanent disadvantage on all strength checks and saving throws, but gaining advantage on intelligence checks or at least certain skills in that tree.
My question is, how would you fine folks go about finding the right balance between the physical disadvantages and the intellectual advantages? Have any of you tried something like this before? My hope is to make the strengths and weaknesses more or less equal. I'll definitely be discussing this with our DM as well. I just wanted something a little more structured and refined to present to him.
Thank you in advance!
Disadvantages on skill you'll never use and advantage on skill you will be really good at isn't really a well balanced trade off. I understand where you're coming from but on the other hand a 65 year old human wizard wouldn't be nearly as experienced in the Arcane arts as say a 400 year old Elven wizard and so your PC gaining advantage on intelligence based abilities/saves isn't really appropriate there either.
I can't speak for your DM or group, but I wouldn't allow something like that at my table personally. Working out a character quirk/flaw is one thing, gaining a huge mechanical benefit for a weak mechanical flaw is completely different. Its the same reason the blind monk character doesn't really work in DnD, people try to balance it out by giving blindsight/truesight/tremmor-sense, which is super strong and turns your negative flavorful character concept into a min/max powergamey PC.
Check out my latest homebrew: Mystic Knight (Fighter) v1.31
That's true. Strength checks wouldn't really come into play often enough with a wizard, would they? I primarily play melee focused classes and clearly didn't consider the differences in play style closely enough. It seems obvious now in retrospect lol. Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it!