How does RP affect your character build?

[Likara]

It affects it as far as power sets and what kind of travel power I think the character should have. I don't RP specific powers within those sets, but rather what the set does for me. An example is Willpower - the vast majority of my Willpower characters are treated as if they're invulnerability, due to how durable a Willpower character can be. Another example is Weave; it -can- be actual weaving, in the case of Shield or SR, or the defense from it can simply be part of a character's armor or overall fortitude/toughness. Attack sets are the same; I'm not going to skip Greater Fire Sword, or Fire Sword Circle, just because I don't envision my character forming a blade of fire. Now, would I like an alternate gfx for those powers? Of course, but I'm not gonna gimp my character for the sake of RP. That's just not fun for me.

[Flashtoo]

Attack sets are the same; I'm not going to skip Greater Fire Sword, or Fire Sword Circle, just because I don't envision my character forming a blade of fire. Now, would I like an alternate gfx for those powers? Of course, but I'm not gonna gimp my character for the sake of RP. That's just not fun for me.

 

Yeah, this is me with Propel on my main. He's a melee-centric controller that I RP as if he attacks with a 'teleport judo' type style, and he really SHOULDN'T be conjuring random large objects that aren't present on the map, but what am I going to do, not take the Damage Power? Besides, in all other respects, the power checks out for what he should be able to do (smashing damage and knockback at range)... he'd just be doing it by means of blinking in, hitting the guy in his blind spot, and blinking out faster than you'd clearly see, sort of like how Vorpal Judgment is (which I also wouldn't RP as being exactly how it looks, because the Hour Thief should be throwing punches, not kicking, however it's still the best Judgment option for him thematically).

 

I also play Kinetics as being time manipulation for him - he was originally made back on Live before the actual Time set was a thing, and I haven't remade him as Grav/Time instead of Grav/Kin because /Kin has the drain-and-transfer mechanic that /Time lacks, and that's a bit central to the character.

[Zolgar]

Attack sets are the same; I'm not going to skip Greater Fire Sword, or Fire Sword Circle, just because I don't envision my character forming a blade of fire. Now, would I like an alternate gfx for those powers? Of course, but I'm not gonna gimp my character for the sake of RP. That's just not fun for me.

 

Yeah, this is me with Propel on my main. He's a melee-centric controller that I RP as if he attacks with a 'teleport judo' type style, and he really SHOULDN'T be conjuring random large objects that aren't present on the map, but what am I going to do, not take the Damage Power? Besides, in all other respects, the power checks out for what he should be able to do (smashing damage and knockback at range)... he'd just be doing it by means of blinking in, hitting the guy in his blind spot, and blinking out faster than you'd clearly see, sort of like how Vorpal Judgment is (which I also wouldn't RP as being exactly how it looks, because the Hour Thief should be throwing punches, not kicking, however it's still the best Judgment option for him thematically).

 

I also play Kinetics as being time manipulation for him - he was originally made back on Live before the actual Time set was a thing, and I haven't remade him as Grav/Time instead of Grav/Kin because /Kin has the drain-and-transfer mechanic that /Time lacks, and that's a bit central to the character.

 

On live I had Ion for my MA/Ninjitsu stalker, and RP'd it as her leaping from foe to foe. >.>

[Starslayer_D]

For me, name, costume and powers have to have cohesion. Sometimes I come up with a  cool costume and like to match powers and name, sometimes I have a good name idea and try to match powers and costum.

 

say... my latest, Blame Shifter... he just had to be a mind/time controller villain :)  with a  cheery blue/yellow costume and a gig red target on his chest. He started out with the name and a battle cry, and developed from there. This game deserves some whimsical 50s villains and heroes.

 

Or my Pistols/Poison corr, Deadeye sally. I wanted pistols, and her as natural, no strange energies. But.. traps again? Too many traps chars for me. Poison seemed to match RP wise, even though I was concerned at first after reading up on poison on the old forums that I might have created a true dud :(. Then I played her, in a team with 2 blasters, and after a bit of initial wrangling I was able to keep my team up and fighting very nicely, I just had to adjust what I did to whom and when. So, debuffs first on spawn, then out come the guns.

Now its a very fun to play char who throws around toxins, poisons her foes and finishes them off with her six-guns.

 

[Six-Six]

New to CoH after it became free to play.

 

My first one, a little bit. I had a concept and tried to keep to the character concept. But if it compromised my staying alive long enough for me to learn the game, then sometimes I turned a blind eye here and there.

 

My next few, I'm trying to be a bit more strict. For one in particular, I rolled a vigilante dressed in plain clothes -- so much so you can mistake him for a civilian walking down the street in Kings Row. He doesn't have super powers. He has Will Power so he's just too dang hard-headed to give up. When it comes primary powers, power pool choices, I have to say no to some to stay true to the character. He's still at a low level right now, so I'm not so sure how that will work out.

 

No flight, no super speed, no travel powers. He takes the train everywhere. It's slow, but it's in character. He doesn't do missions as well. He just got a police radio and goes to where the crime is. Otherwise, he just kills mostly thugs harassing people on the street. Even some enhancements are off-limits.

 

I'm not sure how far he'll go, or how far I'll take him, but it interests me to think how a normal guy with no powers may be able to compete or thrive in a city of supers.

[Zolgar]

New to CoH after it became free to play.

 

My first one, a little bit. I had a concept and tried to keep to the character concept. But if it compromised my staying alive long enough for me to learn the game, then sometimes I turned a blind eye here and there.

 

My next few, I'm trying to be a bit more strict. For one in particular, I rolled a vigilante dressed in plain clothes -- so much so you can mistake him for a civilian walking down the street in Kings Row. He doesn't have super powers. He has Will Power so he's just too dang hard-headed to give up. When it comes primary powers, power pool choices, I have to say no to some to stay true to the character. He's still at a low level right now, so I'm not so sure how that will work out.

 

No flight, no super speed, no travel powers. He takes the train everywhere. It's slow, but it's in character. He doesn't do missions as well. He just got a police radio and goes to where the crime is. Otherwise, he just kills mostly thugs harassing people on the street. Even some enhancements are off-limits.

 

I'm not sure how far he'll go, or how far I'll take him, but it interests me to think how a normal guy with no powers may be able to compete or thrive in a city of supers.

 

Bold choice man, but as long as you enjoy it!

[HeidiMarquedt]

As someone who is absolutely new to all of this (I never played when it was "live" and just happened to find this amazing game by searching games online while looking to replace my FPS addiction ), it's absolutely thrilling to hear that so many of you focus on backstory and character concept to determine the journey you embark upon and the developmental path you follow.  With my inexperience (and frankly, ignorance) in regards to the vast amount of variables one must take into account when attempting to "maximize" a character's performance (and with so many attributes), my only course was to build upon a backstory foundation and select power pools and abilities that seemed instinctively in line with the origin I had dreamed up. I am certain that my Emp Magic Defender is nowhere near what a veteran player would consider effectively "optimized".  However, I have made it to 50 level 6 Veteran, and am capable of holding my own in a team environment (while contributing quite well with heals and buffs).  At the same time because of my not so "traditional" selections during development (and more accurately, because of my not knowing any better) my toon has been able to make quite a bit of her journey soloing.  My point?  There are so many ways to enjoy this game and so many approaches one can take, its reassuring to know that there is no "wrong" way to go about the journey, as long as you are having an amazing time!  At some point I might be able to go down the more analytical path towards absolutely maximizing every single aspect of my character's build, and I might even take steps towards mastering all of the intricacies that entails.  But for now, I am having a ton of fun with my first build and am quite proud of it. 

Also, its worth mentioning that at no time have I encountered a veteran player who has focused any ill attitude towards me for not being fully optimized.  Rather, everyone has been friendly, helpful, and eager to enhance the overall gaming experience. For that, I thank all of you!  :)

[TBK187]

All the characters that I've made are me coming up with the character and their powers first, then trying to recreate it in the game. Additionally, since i'm a new player, I wouldn't even know how to make an efficient/strong character. If a power doesn't fit the concept I made, I won't use it. Maybe it'll bite me in the ass later in the game, but i cant help it. 

[Bastille Boy]

When I create new toons, I try to strike a balance between finding powersets that suit my playstyle and having a compelling origin story. I'm most often drawn to backstories that involve a non-magical origin. There are some top-tier powersets I've avoided because I can't think of an origin story I find compelling.

 

Once I've chosen powersets, I generally take all the powers in them, unless there's a gameplay reason to skip powers. The one exception is mind control. If my character is a hypnotist or a psychologist, with totally natural origins for their powers, I don't see how they'd be able to make people levitate.

 

I always take travel powers, but I do choose them thematically. I only take fly and hover if the character's powers have an origin in magic, high technology, or exotic physical science. If they got their powers in the gym or the psych lab, I give them combat jumping and either super speed or super jump.

 

 

[Sovera]

Very little. I don't roleplay with NPCs so I don't nerf my own build to accommodate them. As roleplayers in this setting imagination is the key. We are not bound by the status quo of comics that forces Batman to go fight crime in spandex when his universe is rife with skin thin armors that deflect tank shells and allow the user to fly.  Same reason the X-men have that exact same armor in their lore but go to fight with spandex. Same reason a Super-man doesn't have an utility belt with some lead he can melt and throw over kryptonite or cover himself with, you know, the way he has dealt with it in the past but never seems prepared in case it is sprung on him.

 

All of those are comic book devices. Thing who is perpetually trapped in his rocky body while Reed is unable to help him, ooooh, draaaaama, even if every half bit science villain has spare bodies and transfer their consciousness to them when they are defeated. Voila, solution. So if our fire blaster wants to fly my imagination says sure. If we don't want his powers to be the reason why then nab rocket boots from a villain.

 

But back on topic. Roleplaying with NPCs is just not my thing. We could, yes, maybe, if roleplaying in a group, and we are playing a character who is young and low on the power scale, then sure, turn off some toggles, but even so I would be iffy about this, because people also don't tend to roleplay consequences. Yep, my young and weak hero got knocked down and I need to use a wakie. Let me just grumble about how that will leave a bruise or how it stung, then get up and jump back into the fray.

 

Roleplay, for me, is not game mechanics. Game mechanics are game mechanics and roleplay is roleplay. My health bar can be at 100% and I'll roleplay I got hit and need to fall back and ow ow ow.

[Ashlaylay]

On 6/20/2019 at 11:08 AM, merrypessimist said:

RP is RP and gameplay is gameplay.  I don't let RP choices influence my character decisions (powers, slotting, etc.) in any significant fashion.  Optimizing the efficacy of my gameplay experience is not relevant to maximizing the value of my RP experience. 

Same. Sometimes a RP concept comes to me first, but I will try pick powers and make a build that is efficient first and foremost. Me getting frustrated playing a character in a taskforce because of a poor build will make me not want to play them at all let alone RP them.

 

Most of the travel powers don't fit any of my characters. I'm a SJ+SS girl, ICly they don't have these powers. But I will take them every time both for my own convenience of getting around easier and to not waste any teammates time waiting around for me.

[General Idiot]

Personally, I'm the kind of person who makes a build I want to try first and makes up a concept to fit afterward. That said, ive done it the other way around a few times too.

[Kabuki]

I generally come up with a theme or look, find powers that fit the concept in my noggin, and then RP the character as having the abilities (and limitations) that the character has within the framework of the game, with any essential fluff put in to help smooth things out or tie things together. I do my best though, to avoid the, "well, my backstory says I am on par with [insert wildly overpowered comic hero/villain here]", type of RP, when my character clearly is not. I actually tend to use in game capabilities to help me flesh out my RP in terms of checks and balances... I just soloed a tough AV? Awesome, my character can consider themselves in that power strata... just got worked over by a bunch of Hellions? Well, there are entire comic series centered around street level heroes as well. I try to keep my characters RP as grounded in the existing framework of the gameworld, and thus mechanics, as that gives me baked in limitations... and limitations make for more interesting characters in general... without having to come up with some contrived, unobtanium type weakness. So to me, they go hand in hand, with one as the skeleton and the other the flesh.

 

As for claims of mind reading immunity or the like, well, there are status protection powers, and defense and damage resist powers and set bonuses in the game, that I figure most characters would have at least a passing amount of protection to prevent the casual perusal of thoughts.

[General Idiot]

On the topic of mind reading there's also the Watchman accolade, which in either the badge text or the power description says something about you having trained yourself to resist Rikti psionics. How well that translates to other psychic characters and where the Rikti in general sit compared to player made psychic characters in terms of power level is open to interpretation but that accolade is obtainable by every character in the game, for those looking to justify their character resisting psychics with a power they actually have.

Edited December 21, 2019 by General Idiot

[GM Kal]

Many times my RP characters go both ways;

Sometimes I have an RP concept that I build around, such as slotting and proccing the hell out of boxing for a character with a cybernetic right hand even if it's not efficient. (Damn it's fun to punch them across a street though)

Or the build unintentionally inspires RP: A power that happens due to slotting, I end up creating entire RP arc for. Such as the Dominator ATO randomly summoning fire elementals.... well... that means my character has magical abilities going out of control! Creature coming from another dimension seeking his power? What's happening to him? New twist!

[Latex]

I really enjoy selecting my powers first for a gameplay experience I'll enjoy then using some creative thinking to make it work for a character concept I have in mind, I keep to within limits of realism for the character though, for examples sake I wouldn't have a Technology focused character use the Sorcery powerpool, or I won't have a Magic themed Mage use an Assault Rifle, even with these examples though you can make them work in Roleplay, creativity is our greatest gift as Roleplayers.

 

What I do enjoy is making characters that utilize lore-points of the game world, whilst not restricting myself too heavily on what I can or cannot play. 'Is it plausible within this universe?' is the question I ask myself whenever creating a new character.

[Flashtoo]

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a dilemma:

 

I am playing a Carnival of Light character. He's an Energy/Kinetics corruptor (Energy for Carnie lightblasts, Kinetics shared with Primal main as major powerset). When he gets to level 35 and can pick an Epic/Patron pool, I then have the choice between either Mace Mastery with its best-acceptable-Carnie-Staff-stand-in or Primal Forces with its energy melee attacks that LightCarnies have.

 

What do I do, folks?

[DR_Mechano]

5 hours ago, Flashtoo said:

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a dilemma:

 

I am playing a Carnival of Light character. He's an Energy/Kinetics corruptor (Energy for Carnie lightblasts, Kinetics shared with Primal main as major powerset). When he gets to level 35 and can pick an Epic/Patron pool, I then have the choice between either Mace Mastery with its best-acceptable-Carnie-Staff-stand-in or Primal Forces with its energy melee attacks that LightCarnies have.

 

What do I do, folks?

Whichever you would prefer to be honest both fit the concept of the character and neither are out of place.

 

As for me I tend to go for raw power over RP value on powers. Most of the stuff is explained anyway but there's a reason I don't RP certain characters, mainly because their theme doesn't fit well to RP. A person who is normal by day but a nigh unstoppable horror movie villain style hero (Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers sort of deal, big weapon, teleports behind people etc.) seeking vengeance on are above the law by night...eh the normal part would be fun but unless someone wants to be on the receiving end of a giant Chainsaw through the guts IC, the other part not so much.

[Flashtoo]

That's the whole issue, I don't know which I prefer.

 

If we ever get that Assault/Support AT that I and many others are hoping for, I don't care if I have him to 50 with a tricked-out build and everything by then, I'm gonna reroll him IMMEDIATELY.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Flashtoo

[Kokonatsu]

Best to let your build loosely reflect your character in my experiences. *shrug*

[Bimugen]

I try to mix what is fun to play with the powers that I think make sense for who I made. My one scrapper character, Amber Asteroid, I gave him Kinetic Melee and Reflexes. The powers I had in mind for him is that he is a physical fighter who flies at incredible speeds (I havent gotten him Flight and Speed yet though, lmao), and he has a small bit of photonic energy in him so that powers up his punches more. The reflex line seems to imply things like inhuman speed and ability, so I thought that would fit.

 

Also, things like the Origin help sell the fantasy imo. I don't really know how good the origin skills are, but still, the thought is still there. 

[Heraclea]

I'm going to just leave this here....

[Dreamboat]

It affects my characters in certain ways. Travel powers are the big ones - flight powers are incredibly useful, but if my character isn't able to fly in the backstory I have for them, then I'm not picking them. They'll do Posi 2 and get a jetpack like all the rest of the groundlubbers! The other day out of boredom I created a new Praetorian character (I'd only gone through Going Rogue once previously) and they're a Natural origin who is just an expert swordfighter, they don't have any other powers or amazing technology, so they've got Ninja Run and that's stretching it already. 
I almost never pick up any of the other prestige powers like Sands of Mu, either. Again, they pretty much never fit the character I'm going for.
My actual slots and enhancements are all completely suboptimal as well, but that's because I never go in for specific builds because I'm lazy.

Edited February 10, 2020 by Dreamboat