Players, Be Specific When Asking For Help With Your Characters

As someone who has run my share of RPGs, and who spends most of my time on forums and social media pages dedicated to various games, I've lost count of the number of players I've seen asking for advice on how to make a "good" character. What feats do you take to make a good fighter, what spells do you need to make a good wizard, what rogue talents make me the best rogue, and so on, and so forth.

The reason these requests always generate so many disagreements, though, is lack of specificity. Because what is "good" to one person giving advice is going to be useless to another, and vice versa. So if you take nothing else away from this week's update, remember this. Be specific when you ask for advice, and you might actually get tips that are useful for accomplishing your goals.

Narrow your goal, and you'll get targeted advice.

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What is "Good" Anyway?

The problem you'll run into when you ask for advice for making a "good" character (not capital-G Good, that's alignment, morality, etc.) is that there is no universal definition of what makes a character effective. Consider the age-old example of judging every animal by how well it can climb a tree... great if your goal is climbing trees smoothly and quickly, not so good if your goal is doing anything other than that.

I appreciate you can swim really well... but I need to leap this chasm.

Before the metaphor gets away from me, consider the question of what spells do you take to make a "good" wizard? You could ask a dozen different players, and get a dozen different answers. Some will lay out the best metamagic feats and evocation spells that will let you deal massive amounts of area-of-effect damage. Others will focus on spells that destroy single targets one at a time. Still others will lay out wizard spellbooks specifically made to weaken and debuff opponents, while different players will have a list that's entirely built to buff and protect their allies from harm.

All of these are valid options. The problem is that "good" is completely subjective here. One player heard it as, "make the biggest fireball/lightning bolt you can," while another heard, "reduce the enemy effectiveness so your allies can more easily mop them up." Another player heard, "one spell, one kill," while another interpreted it as, "turn your allies into titans!" None of these are wrong, but whether the listener's definition of a "good" build meshes with the definition of the person asking for advice can be sort of hit-or-miss.

That's why it's a good idea to think about what you actually want your character to be able to accomplish before you ask for advice. Whether you're going to a forum of 100k players, or just asking your Game Master for their input, results are always better when you ask specific questions.

For example:

- How do I deal the most damage with a melee weapon?

- What methods can I use as X class to increase my defense?

- What feats and archetypes for a cleric should I use to maximize my healing spells?

- What feats and rogue talents increase my ability to use the Stealth skill effectively?

You could get even more specific than these, or a little less specific if you have a particular goal (deal the most damage with a greatsword, for example) but you haven't locked in any specifics like class, species, etc. At the end of the day, however, you need to provide the parameters for what kind of advice you're actually looking for to be sure that you and your responders both have the same goals in mind.

You're probably still going to get your share of responders who ignore your specifics and just post what they think is a better solution (the "yeah, I know you're looking for fighter advice, but what you really want is a rogue/barbarian/alchemist with X, Y, and Z combos for this," folks) but it's easier to ignore them when they stepped outside the bounds that you laid for your request.

Speaking of "Better" Builds...

If you're looking for fresh tricks, I've got you covered.

I talked about this splat when it first dropped, but I don't want it vanishing into obscurity just yet. Sellswords of Sundara details 10 mercenary companies, providing their histories, uniform styles, combat doctrine, notable NPCs, as well as whispers and rumors about them to really add mystery to the game. And since we're talking about achieving specific goals today, each company has an archetype or subclass (depending on if you prefer the Pathfinder Classic or Dungeons and Dragons 5E version) that gives you unique abilities.

From characters who can be resurrected using animate dead, to monks that can punch spells out of the air, to old soldiers who can turn their age negatives into bonuses, there's all kinds of fun things in here you should check out. If you want a more in-depth discussion, take a look at my last Crunch post Breaking Down The New Tricks Available in "Sellswords of Sundara"!

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