RP Builds

Hi,
I was wondering if I am the only one who values more, in a power or power pool, the fact of being "in character" than the actual effectiveness of the power itself in game terms.

Of course if I can choose between two powers equally nice for the kind of character I'm playing with I will try to choose the one most useful in battle, but the first and most important thing I ask myself is always: is this a power that fits the character? Meaning I will not place a pool like presence on my teenager speedster and I will most likely choose superleap above flight for a natural human character...


Come on, I know I'm not the only one, I just wanna hear the voices of others who share my passion for creating "comic book-credible classic" superheroes

Cheers

Generally, I've played my characters around my powers, rather than the other way round. I'm the type of person who thinks there's a time and place for me to roleplay in.

The rest of the time, I am playing the game (well, mostly playing the game at the moment after some OOC fall-outs) and as such, I want to be able to survive that, rather than pick a concept-power that's fairly useless to my playstyle.

Quick Example: My main character didn't actually have super-powers, concept-wise, he should have had Sprint and that's all. Instead, I chose a Travel Power, and fudged that he was just a fast runner.

EDIT: Of course, I won't pick powers that are obviosuly too far-out for a concept, such as a Katana/Invuln secret agent, who in-concept, is supposed to shoot things.

Coile is a mutant who is discovering the full extent of his powers slowly which means that as time goes by he finds new ways to channel the energies. That has meant that I pick whatever power that seems to strike my fancy and go for it. He learned to fly to his own amazement and slowly learned to expand his 'flight field' so he could 'carry' others in his proximity. So, for this character I have picked the powers and reasoned them in. Mind you, I'm not going to take any other travel power even if Recall Friend would be useful. Those things don't fit the concept.

For Freja it has been concept only powers. She is a Longbow agent and will not have travel powers unless jetpacks come available. Also I started to play her as a blapper/tanker as in she went into the mob group and started to brawl around. I've now added Kick and Boxing and declined to take any new arrows related powers. I'll continue with this if she gets played again - Air Superiority, Jump Kick (or whatever it is) etc. Anything close proximity physical violence related. In the end she'll be an impossible character to solo anything with but I have an idea about a concept and won't compromise it.

I have no idea what would be the most efficient build with the power sets that I have picked. While I'd be interested to know them I don't think they'd influence me the least as I choose the next power in line.

I always pick powers for concept.

However, we are unfortunately somewhat constrained - if bad choices are made, the character becomes "Unworkable" - impossible to solo, and lets face it - undesirable in team.

If I give my Controller 5 powers from his secondary, 2 powers from his primary, boxing, kick and provoke... he's not useless but lets face it, most teams are going to be far from impressed. Teaming is going to be a nightmare.

To remain practical and workable, and not least to do your duty of being reasonably functional to a team, I think you need a "workable" build. Not Min/Maxed by any means, but workable.

Well, primary powers and secondary powers come within concept of their builds. Thats all you need to begin, from there, its choice. My characters try to make the most of their abilities thus, I plan the most effective builds using Character Builder which is a very informative little software, when it comes to figures, percentages and general planning of characters.

All my characters are created from concept, never because such or such powers combo is the flavor of the month.

It doesn't mean they are all "odd". I don't make a rule to pick and add generic powers just for the sake of originality or choose to focus on some primaries or secondaries just to defend the idea I am playing a role.

Diurne, like Freja (both being in the Apache Longbow SG actually) doesn't have travel powers and is level 34. Added to the fact she is a Trick Arrow/Archery defender.
She is a trained human and I won't give her a travel power for convenient journeys.

Stormrise, a level 29 Storm Summoning/Electricity defender is not "updated" as soon as possible. I mean I want to play her as a relatively "weak" mutant. In practice, it means I only buy enhancements when some are turning red due to leveling. Otherwise, I rely on drops.
And, again in practice, it means she still has Training Origin enhancements at level 29.
And at level 30, I plan to get Kick from the Fighting line. Just because it's part of the concept to brawl from time to time, in a rather aggressive way (Actually, Kick, or Boxing, or Jump Kick, it's more for the visual effect and style)

Spellsong is a magician, using power words (full Sonic defender). Her magic is difficult and physically taxing (in my concept). She won't have the fitness line. And yes, it means she is often getting endurance problems (even if the consequences are less severe because of her AT/powersets).

I am going to play a controller, aiming at making Confusion powers his primary way to influence battle. By looking at the possible powers I can select and the slots I can place, I know I could go for a better efficiency. Still, it's a concept.

I planned for the Sword of Truth to get the Presence pool, three powers (Challenge, Intimidate, Invoke Panic), just to toy with the "wrath of justice" idea, putting fear in the hearts and minds of opponents.
Now at level 41, I didn't give her those powers. Because the story of the Sword of Truth unfolded in a manner I wasn't planning. Because of the interaction with other players (notably Coile), getting those powers are now not fitting to what she became. The concept changed.

Diurne taught me you can play without travel powers and reach a decent level.
The most frustrating isn't not being able to fly high or jump over everything or teleport across vast distances... no, because I choosed that. The frustration comes from other players who don't accept that choice and will criticize it.
So, no PUG for Diurne, only playing with RPing friends. Period.

Stormrise is obviously weaker than what she could (should ?) be. I learned here the race to DO, then to SO, makes you stronger but is far from crippling you if you don't enter it.
And as her primary Storm powers are not meant to display huge orange numbers above enemies heads, I think noone really noticed a "weaker" performance.

Spellsong and the absence of fitness (-> Stamina indeed) can be problematic at times. But again not crippling (no big news here actually).
I just have to think carefully and plan what I can do in the coming battles.

The Sword of Truth case is a bit different. First, I wanted to go to unorthodox powers because of a concept. But I changed that because I accepted, and even called, for other players to influence the evolution of the concept.

I try to make sure concept matches powers. Hell, I couldn't even change my tank's cossie from armour to leather without updating my backstory to explain why he no longer needed it. While I'd rather avoid a really useless power if possible, I want to play a toon that is "believable" in a comic book sense.

All of my characters were strictly powered with sets that fitted the concept.

Ironclad was a purely superstrong, invulnerable flying hero of the Golden Age.

My new character "Hardlight" was a mutant who could manipulate and plasticise light, protecting him from attack and giving him a powered right hook. HOWEVER I've retconned him and he's now a totally human character who's become bonded with an alien weapon which again allows him to mould light but now can change light freqwuencies to achieve different effects, firstmost being a protective bubble of light (FF), and a concussive/repulsion blast of another (Energy Blast). He will also be able to fly.

All my natural heroes used SJ, though I RP'd it as a grappling line.

Well I personally want to mix RP with a decent powered characters so I normally choose a Magic Origin since it permits nearly every powerset to be used, no need to fudge details because "its just a spell", my new character Poetic is an illusionist witch who can also summon storms because of her arcane bloodline since she is surposed to be decended from many power witches including Morgon Le Faye

I constantly get yelled at for having a tauntless tank, which she is because she is mute.

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I constantly get yelled at for having a tauntless tank, which she is because she is mute.


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Sigh.

Well, that made me laugh.

That's a good one

I have a Sonic Blaster who is a mute singer. Go figure.

I do a little of both.

My tanker for example, has Jump Kick and Super Jump.
I've been planning to respec him into Air superiourity and Fly, but...

2 reasons for doing so:
a) The attack is better (I think/hear), Jump Kick's animation has caused bad guys to fall down, and get up in the time it takes me to get up and ready for the next move.
b) I like the freedom of Fly

3 reasons I haven't done so:
a) I love SJ, I'd miss it if I respeced out of it
b) Fly doesn't fit his concept (Hulkish... too bad we can't have a bat'leth in game )
c) I've gotten to a point where JK isn't part of the main cycle anymore


But I've been known to bend the concept to get what I want. Prime example is Grav (Controler) who joins with a Kheldian

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I constantly get yelled at for having a tauntless tank, which she is because she is mute.

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There are non verbal taunts, you know

Especially for a female... oh wait, that's mesmerize... oops!

Zortel is the suit of power, the pilot has changed various times. As such, it's my most tweaked and power-centered build for an RP character, as the suit would be tuned and adjusted to perform optimally. Blapless (Apart from the first power) En/En/Force Blaster.

Fusebox is a concept build, as she has every single Elec/Elec/Elec power (or will when she's a higher level), AS and Flight. Juan Ross would be better suited as a Dominator than a Controller, but sadly can't get that. Number Nine, my Grav/Kin controller is getting Teleport purely for concept.

Very nice and interesting to hear. And I see I'm not alone, and someone is even more "extremist" than I am in the effort to stay in concept with every new power.

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I constantly get yelled at for having a tauntless tank, which she is because she is mute.

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There are non verbal taunts, you know

Especially for a female... oh wait, that's mesmerize... oops!

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No, Mesmerize it would be if she talked.
But there are always obscene gestures that would make female villains go mad and males would surely come running... just for different reasons.

But back on topic: I have rejected powers out of concept, but I would certainly never bork a character because of it. I just choose an AT I want to play and pick my powersets while I think about his background. Sometimes the powersets come first and I have to justify them with a fitting background, sometimes I have a concept in mind and have to check if the nice tools of appropriate powersets fit the bill. Sometimes it´s a mixture of both.

For example, when I built my corruptor I knew he should be a /kinetic. I wanted to make him a tattooed asian not unsimilar to those Hmong we all know as Tsoo. So, I searched for Japanese and Chinese legends for inspiration background- and namewise and stumbled across several versions of the Legend of Ying Long. One source referred to him as "echo dragon" and surprisingly my Ying Long now is a sonic/kinetic corruptor. I didn´t choose a FOTM attack set but one that I could make work for concept and effect. His background story is a wild mix of several of those legends I had found with a little bit of Crying Freeman and a dark twist. He is a dragon´s soul inhabiting a human body with a burning rage for the heavens that blocked his return to the Celestial Court because he was wounded while fighting for justice on earth thousands of years ago. And in a way he is responsible for those Tsoo tattoos, too. It´s something he started ages ago, because he needs hosts whose Yin and Yang are balanced in a special way by magical tattoos. Dragons do that with their scales, but they seem misplaced on a human body...

i base everything around the powers, all my current characters use darkness therefore my characters i play them with are similar, i try and keep stuff reasonable although i have been drawn into the trap of over doing some things... oh well, but yeah i think powers and concepts should fit, i take some powers especially on Gauisus Somnium purely for their rp value, and if u think about it, how many teleporters decide to take teleport one because it's faster and 2 the satisfaction of popping out of no where at GG? lol

Personally, gamewise, I dislike teleport as a travel power a lot. However, two of my chars has it, and I won't respec out of it because it fits their characters (the concept was decided before I had chance to teleport around enough to find out that no, I don't like it.)

For Pyr, her concept says "fire powers + flight" and I would have no problem optimising in her powersets (but I haven't since I couldn't have been arsed yet). Pretty much same is true for Subaiku, although there is some powers I would not drop even if they wouldn't be that good since they are part of her concept.

Personally, I would have no problem teaming with a gimped character if we're RPing or the player is nice OOC. But then, I don't much care for the rate of exp or debt .

Blackdove

*strokes chin* Hm... I probably over-fudge to get myself "good to play" characters. Kat for example, is an EN/EN blaster with control over subatomic matter. Using that angle I can more or less fudge in anything I want to give her, which is convenient...
Freya, on the other hand, is a fire mutant. Given years on the streets and then fighting in the Hollows in her background, she's a tanker with fitness (but no Stamina). I've also given her SJ- she uses her flames as a jump- boost of sorts. That's probably about the limit with her, I think, although I've picked up Hasten for gameplay reasons.

Yeah, I'm lazy.

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I would have no problem teaming with a gimped character

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"Gimpest" is difficult to achieve. It's only a point of view.
I believe even characters with odd powers selection can contribute a lot to a team. The team, however, has to accept this character is not going to fill a pre-determined role.
Not approaching other characters by considering they have to be framed into a role is enough to play and behave efficiently enough during fights.

While some powersets, some powers combinations are known to be efficient gameplay wise, they are mostly thought by focusing on maximum damage in a minimum of time (those so popular orange numbers floating above enemies' heads) or prevent damage by using the most obvious way (the dream of perma hold or reaching resistance/defense cap).

Creative use of some powers + tactical sense can transform the gimpest character into a good team asset.
Now, if your "gimpy" character is trying to follow the standard and "expected" way to fight in battle, then, yes, you may be failing. Because you indeed didn't have designed him or her to fit to this role.

Yeah, agreed Faeryfire. And I ment gimped just in that sense, "not what random member of pick up group might expect".

There is group of people who don't accept odd builds and/or strategies (and said stretegies would fail with them anyway if they do the standard thing and just one does the other thing). But luckily there are others too. And it's not just roleplayers who like to "gimp" their chars. I've met quite a few non-roleplayers who also do odd builds for fun and to find out efficient way to play strange builds, and sometimes there is a killer odd build too .

My characters are quite straightforwardly gimped - they seldom have the enhanchements they could have. Pyr is not supposed to be "powerful force of destruction" so it fits her well, but the real reason is that the enhancement buying interface is clumsy and it bores me to go shopping for them.

Blackdove

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Creative use of some powers + tactical sense can transform the gimpest character into a good team asset.

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...and the lack of tactical sense can turn a team member into an agro magnet who's well on his way up the last debt badge.

I tried to recall but I don't know if the orange numbers that I make have two or three characters in them. However I do know that I can one-shot orange minions with aim + build up + snipe which is sort of obligatory since after going Invincible oranges are the easiest I as a rule get.

Last night I got Level 41 and Epic pool. I picked one from Force Mastery (makes an old SW fan giddy) because Coile is about channeling energies. I didn't even look at the other sets because their names didn't sound like they would fit. If I made a screaming error I can always complete 1st Respec Trial and fiddle.

I think I have a fair build, from asking around the wiser folks, except I have few oddities like triple slotted group fly for RP purposes. It's mostly my style of play which might be called gimped. Of course, after twenty defeats one tends to grow wary of Nemesis Snipers. I expect to learn to respect Sappers after a few run-ins too. Oh, and Warhulks can rip your head of if you're a squishy and stand too close. (I could really write a manual about getting your hiney handed to you in this game.)

I find that it's about striking a balance between what feels right for your character and what you can play well. (Note: I say what you can play well, not what others expect you to play well.) There was a debate recently regarding 'pure' builds and I hadn't realised I'd made one simply because I was thinking in character when I picked the powers.

Despite RP picks though, I am always conscious that if I want to play a character and there are no other roleplayers around, I will need to contribute to any team I end up with. Non-RPers are often not tolerant of RP concessions as already stated.