My character has a minimum of 14 in every stat, except intelligence, he has an 8 there. He is a human. I don't really have a backstory yet. Any ideas on how this physical abilities might have impacted his life and character traits? I have some ideas already, but I'd like to hear yours!
He is a ranger by the way. His best stats are: dex 17, con 14, wis 15 and cha 16.
Well, if he is some prodigy, despite his high stats, he might have struggled to make friends or to understand other people. Maybe joining an adventuring party with other people who are also above average was the first time in his life that he's felt as though he was surrounded by people on or close to his level.
The first time he was ever truly able to make friends.
That could manifest in one of many ways. Still, two that are often common is, he either becomes extraordinarily jealous and hostile to anyone whom he perceives as getting in the way of his newfound friendships, or he becomes highly protective of his new friends.
It should be noted that if he is jealous and hostile, he should only be so towards NPC's and not other party members and that it should not get in the way of the story either.
Think Sherlock Holmes. A high functioning sociopath who is capable of forming friendships, even close friendships and caring about others, but who views most of the rest of the world as children at best and beneath at worst, and so is always on the hunt for mental stimulation as he finds the majority of the human race, and life in general, simple and boring.
I like the Sherlock Holmes comparison, except that I always thought of him as high in intelligence but not wisdom. i.e. he's very clever but not always "wise" to what to do with it, if that makes sense? I do think a lot depends on how long the character has had the high stats. G3ralt: you ask about the physical abilities - did he have those when young and gain wisdom over the years? Physical prowess plus charisma perhaps puts the character in the "High school jock" trope? If he started off wise / was brought up to be thoughtful etc, then maybe he deliberately avoided being put in that box? Maybe people made assumptions about him and he deliberately sought to avoid them - again resulting in being a loner and/or having a small number of close friends. Shunning the position of leader that people tried to put him in, but nonetheless being very influential? Does he end up as someone kind of trusted leader of a spy network?
have you considered dumping WIS? as an exceptional person maybe they are a bit oblivious, lost in their own vanity at times or just always expecting things could go right. this would cause him to maybe say the wrong thing in social situations, miss ques from his party and bad guys in terms of combat and clues, because at the end of the day life always had a way of "working out" for them.
If you dumped intel and are stuck with it, You could do like the verbose athlete type who always pushes to the front of the line, always tries to speak first about subjects they have no clue about, and possible has some rage issues when they feel like they were made to look like a fool. For how good things can go for them 99% of the time because they are so exceptional that when things go bad it really throws them into an anger rage or a debilitating depression.
I would say that missing battle cues and debilitating depression is not good traits for a character to have in a social roleplaying game.
They might work for an NPC, but I wouldn’t say they’re good ideas for a players character.
The idea that they get super mad when they lose or when they’re made to look like a fool, because it happens so rarely, could be made to work. Provided, of course, that they do not direct those rages at the rest of their party. Doing like a Rocky thing, where they lose and then go into a period of intense training to learn new skills and improve on their natural talent might be cool, as long as they don’t do this every other session or something. Once or twice, when it’s their characters turn to have the spotlight could be cool though, and show that they are progressing as a person and not just a prodigy.
In all honesty I used to be obsessed with high numbers. I wanted as many of them as I could weasel out of whatever ability score generation system I was using. I saw high numbers as translating into a better character. Primarily because I had an RPG mindset, where higher stats meant my character was more fun to play. Recently however, I have begun to realise that high numbers can actually be a hindrance. When I think back to those times that I asked roll for my ability scores, and got all 16s, 17s and 18s in everything, I was super excited. My character was good at everything, high HP, the most spells, the strongest, the toughest - and the worst time I’ve had playing the game, because they were nothing but a Mary Sue with no flaws and nothing that they needed to overcome.
Having high ability scores, I wonder if the OP has considered a mastermind rogue and becoming the parties public face, while putting his middling scores into his characters combat related stats and focussing all his advancements into either increasing his social and mental skills to max, or taking a few feats that give his character an increased social/mental playbook. Doing this would be mean that although your character is going to be good at everything at first, they would eventually become a specialist support character for the party, with extremely high mental and social abilities.
While party members specialised in combat, your character could specialise in information gathering and tactics.
All while having some basic combat capabilities, because everyone who travels the wild, forgotten places of the world needs some ability to defend themselves.
I think that starting with high ability scores is hard. Harder perhaps than starting with lower ones, as being good at everything makes it difficult to truly define who your character is.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
yeah that's why I was thrilled with my characters rolls 17, 15, 11, 11, 11, 6. My character I dumped wisdom because he gets so lost in his music and being up beat that he can miss things, specifically perception checks because he is so focused on playing something, or gassing up one of this party members he doesn't always pay attention to what's going on around him and him as well as he was born into wealth so he had things kind of taken care of for him when he was younger till he was banished from his family and thrown out on his own. Personally I love the wrinkle of a bad stat, I feel like it adds so much to your character and yeah trying to find something on a character with incredible stats makes it way more difficult. the point of a flaw though is not to be good though, having a character who is so exceptional depending on background could have a really hard time with failure, or could be so used to everything going their way that when it doesn't it has real impact. you can flavor it however you want the Rocky idea works great like he gets mad and after the fight goes off to punch some frozen meat to blow off steam kind of deal. like I would say that for the Rocky idea that it would happen only if in the middle of battle you attempted to do something super cool and rolled a Nat 1 or you got dropped unconscious by a low ranking enemy. Having the character freak out over every failed dice roll wouldn't make sense, most failures they would probably brush aside or reason to themselves how it's not their fault. But a huge failure would send them for a tizzy.
I like the idea that all their natural ability leads to them getting started adventuring earlier than most, and they're kind of a prodigy.
Unless your group is running a dark and gritty game that you wouldn't want a teen/young adult mixed up in, having a younger character can sometimes provide an interesting dynamic to the game, as well as mix in some of that YA Lit energy we all grew up with.
I like the idea that all their natural ability leads to them getting started adventuring earlier than most, and they're kind of a prodigy.
Unless your group is running a dark and gritty game that you wouldn't want a teen/young adult mixed up in, having a younger character can sometimes provide an interesting dynamic to the game, as well as mix in some of that YA Lit energy we all grew up with.
I'm playing a high Dex/Con/Cha PadLock, who is 14 years old. She has 8 INT, 13 WIS, and is the "energetic, but not experienced" member of our team. Quick to make a decision, but not very confident that she's making the right one. Super comfortable doing athletics/acrobatics checks, since she was training to be a dancer before she started adventuring.
It's funny as the rest of the guys in the party are always trying to protect her, and shield "the little girl" from the hazards of the world, but she joins them drinking wine in the taverns, and is often the first one into the fight, sword held high with a loud battle cry.
I like the idea that all their natural ability leads to them getting started adventuring earlier than most, and they're kind of a prodigy.
Unless your group is running a dark and gritty game that you wouldn't want a teen/young adult mixed up in, having a younger character can sometimes provide an interesting dynamic to the game, as well as mix in some of that YA Lit energy we all grew up with.
I'm playing a high Dex/Con/Cha PadLock, who is 14 years old. She has 8 INT, 13 WIS, and is the "energetic, but not experienced" member of our team. Quick to make a decision, but not very confident that she's making the right one. Super comfortable doing athletics/acrobatics checks, since she was training to be a dancer before she started adventuring.
It's funny as the rest of the guys in the party are always trying to protect her, and shield "the little girl" from the hazards of the world, but she joins them drinking wine in the taverns, and is often the first one into the fight, sword held high with a loud battle cry.
I had a similar character he was a dex fighter with a dip in barb for. I dumped wisdom because of almost the very thing you laid out. he was young and energetic but not experienced so he wasn't always prepared but would charge in rash to fight and prove himself to the other more experienced veterans in the group
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My character has a minimum of 14 in every stat, except intelligence, he has an 8 there. He is a human. I don't really have a backstory yet. Any ideas on how this physical abilities might have impacted his life and character traits? I have some ideas already, but I'd like to hear yours!
He is a ranger by the way. His best stats are: dex 17, con 14, wis 15 and cha 16.
Well, if he is some prodigy, despite his high stats, he might have struggled to make friends or to understand other people. Maybe joining an adventuring party with other people who are also above average was the first time in his life that he's felt as though he was surrounded by people on or close to his level.
The first time he was ever truly able to make friends.
That could manifest in one of many ways. Still, two that are often common is, he either becomes extraordinarily jealous and hostile to anyone whom he perceives as getting in the way of his newfound friendships, or he becomes highly protective of his new friends.
It should be noted that if he is jealous and hostile, he should only be so towards NPC's and not other party members and that it should not get in the way of the story either.
Think Sherlock Holmes. A high functioning sociopath who is capable of forming friendships, even close friendships and caring about others, but who views most of the rest of the world as children at best and beneath at worst, and so is always on the hunt for mental stimulation as he finds the majority of the human race, and life in general, simple and boring.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I like the Sherlock Holmes comparison, except that I always thought of him as high in intelligence but not wisdom. i.e. he's very clever but not always "wise" to what to do with it, if that makes sense? I do think a lot depends on how long the character has had the high stats. G3ralt: you ask about the physical abilities - did he have those when young and gain wisdom over the years? Physical prowess plus charisma perhaps puts the character in the "High school jock" trope? If he started off wise / was brought up to be thoughtful etc, then maybe he deliberately avoided being put in that box? Maybe people made assumptions about him and he deliberately sought to avoid them - again resulting in being a loner and/or having a small number of close friends. Shunning the position of leader that people tried to put him in, but nonetheless being very influential? Does he end up as someone kind of trusted leader of a spy network?
have you considered dumping WIS? as an exceptional person maybe they are a bit oblivious, lost in their own vanity at times or just always expecting things could go right. this would cause him to maybe say the wrong thing in social situations, miss ques from his party and bad guys in terms of combat and clues, because at the end of the day life always had a way of "working out" for them.
If you dumped intel and are stuck with it, You could do like the verbose athlete type who always pushes to the front of the line, always tries to speak first about subjects they have no clue about, and possible has some rage issues when they feel like they were made to look like a fool. For how good things can go for them 99% of the time because they are so exceptional that when things go bad it really throws them into an anger rage or a debilitating depression.
I would say that missing battle cues and debilitating depression is not good traits for a character to have in a social roleplaying game.
They might work for an NPC, but I wouldn’t say they’re good ideas for a players character.
The idea that they get super mad when they lose or when they’re made to look like a fool, because it happens so rarely, could be made to work. Provided, of course, that they do not direct those rages at the rest of their party. Doing like a Rocky thing, where they lose and then go into a period of intense training to learn new skills and improve on their natural talent might be cool, as long as they don’t do this every other session or something. Once or twice, when it’s their characters turn to have the spotlight could be cool though, and show that they are progressing as a person and not just a prodigy.
In all honesty I used to be obsessed with high numbers. I wanted as many of them as I could weasel out of whatever ability score generation system I was using. I saw high numbers as translating into a better character. Primarily because I had an RPG mindset, where higher stats meant my character was more fun to play. Recently however, I have begun to realise that high numbers can actually be a hindrance. When I think back to those times that I asked roll for my ability scores, and got all 16s, 17s and 18s in everything, I was super excited. My character was good at everything, high HP, the most spells, the strongest, the toughest - and the worst time I’ve had playing the game, because they were nothing but a Mary Sue with no flaws and nothing that they needed to overcome.
Having high ability scores, I wonder if the OP has considered a mastermind rogue and becoming the parties public face, while putting his middling scores into his characters combat related stats and focussing all his advancements into either increasing his social and mental skills to max, or taking a few feats that give his character an increased social/mental playbook. Doing this would be mean that although your character is going to be good at everything at first, they would eventually become a specialist support character for the party, with extremely high mental and social abilities.
While party members specialised in combat, your character could specialise in information gathering and tactics.
All while having some basic combat capabilities, because everyone who travels the wild, forgotten places of the world needs some ability to defend themselves.
I think that starting with high ability scores is hard. Harder perhaps than starting with lower ones, as being good at everything makes it difficult to truly define who your character is.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
yeah that's why I was thrilled with my characters rolls 17, 15, 11, 11, 11, 6. My character I dumped wisdom because he gets so lost in his music and being up beat that he can miss things, specifically perception checks because he is so focused on playing something, or gassing up one of this party members he doesn't always pay attention to what's going on around him and him as well as he was born into wealth so he had things kind of taken care of for him when he was younger till he was banished from his family and thrown out on his own. Personally I love the wrinkle of a bad stat, I feel like it adds so much to your character and yeah trying to find something on a character with incredible stats makes it way more difficult. the point of a flaw though is not to be good though, having a character who is so exceptional depending on background could have a really hard time with failure, or could be so used to everything going their way that when it doesn't it has real impact. you can flavor it however you want the Rocky idea works great like he gets mad and after the fight goes off to punch some frozen meat to blow off steam kind of deal. like I would say that for the Rocky idea that it would happen only if in the middle of battle you attempted to do something super cool and rolled a Nat 1 or you got dropped unconscious by a low ranking enemy. Having the character freak out over every failed dice roll wouldn't make sense, most failures they would probably brush aside or reason to themselves how it's not their fault. But a huge failure would send them for a tizzy.
I like the idea that all their natural ability leads to them getting started adventuring earlier than most, and they're kind of a prodigy.
Unless your group is running a dark and gritty game that you wouldn't want a teen/young adult mixed up in, having a younger character can sometimes provide an interesting dynamic to the game, as well as mix in some of that YA Lit energy we all grew up with.
I'm playing a high Dex/Con/Cha PadLock, who is 14 years old. She has 8 INT, 13 WIS, and is the "energetic, but not experienced" member of our team. Quick to make a decision, but not very confident that she's making the right one. Super comfortable doing athletics/acrobatics checks, since she was training to be a dancer before she started adventuring.
It's funny as the rest of the guys in the party are always trying to protect her, and shield "the little girl" from the hazards of the world, but she joins them drinking wine in the taverns, and is often the first one into the fight, sword held high with a loud battle cry.
I had a similar character he was a dex fighter with a dip in barb for. I dumped wisdom because of almost the very thing you laid out. he was young and energetic but not experienced so he wasn't always prepared but would charge in rash to fight and prove himself to the other more experienced veterans in the group