I was supposed to post this article like two weeks ago and didn’t. So here it is now.
A few days ago I made the first of my Character Counts posts. I made a 3.5 and a 4th edition version of the character. It was my first time making a 4th edition character. I was very proud of myself for making one with as far as I can tell I didn’t make any screw-ups like not giving Arthur too many or too little powers, feats, trained skills or completely messing up HP or AC calculations. If I did, please leave a comment letting me know what I screwed-up.
Before I get into talking about my opinion of character creation in 4th edition vs. 3.5 let me share with you how I normally go about creating characters, whether a PC or NPC)
When I create a character, PC or NPC, I like to think about my character’s basic personality, goals and normal means of achieving those goals. The last of those three quite often leads me to choosing its class (at least one in the case if I [later] decide to multiclass).
Then I come up with ability scores. Sometimes I roll the dice (Normally 4D6 drop the lowest) and sometimes I just pull arbitrary numbers out of the air and place them. After that I start to think about (If I haven’t already) about the characters background. What are some of the events of a character’s history that leads them to being what they are by the time they are first level. This is also where I have chosen race for the character. Then I give the character its first level feats and skills.
Now if the character is going to be above first level (for NPCs this is almost always true) I look back at my initial vision of the character and begin leveling up the character. I normally level up to whatever level I want/need the character to be. Then I do skills and feats. If the character is multi-class or has a prestige class (there is proof that I still look at character creation through the eyes of a 3.5 player) I will level up one class at a time give skills and feats. For example, if I were making a 15 character that was a Bard [5]/Assassin [5]/Shadowdancer [5] (very similar to one of the characters I will be presenting in a few weeks in a Character Counts article). I will level the character to a level 5 bard and give skills and feats, then do the same thing for all 5 of the assassin levels and so forth)
After that I get the character equipment and spells if it is a spell caster (Remember for wizards some of that starting money will go towards learning spells that aren’t gained during the level up process)
Now that the basics of my character creation process is out there I guess it is time for me to give you my opinion of character creation in fourth edition compared to 3.5. I think character creation in 4th edition.
It SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The reason I say that is it doesn’t leave room for character customization other than for combat. Here is a simple example. It 3.5 let’s say I have a character (whether or not it started that way) who is good at speaking and convincing people of things. To get that in 3.5 when you create the character you would put some skill points in diplomacy and/or bluff (and/or intimidate) when you make the character and[/or] when you leveled up. I find that the combining of skills in 4th edition adds to this limitation.
No I haven’t actually played a 4th edition game. Now after I play a game Maybe I will feel differently but I feel 4th edition character creation is way too rigid and doesn’t lead to creativity as 3x editions did.
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