This season of D&D encounters was supposed to start today, but my comic book store will have to wait until next Wednesday since we received Chapter 2 in the mail and didn't want to start in a weird place.
This season of encounters has a whole new set of pre-generated characters, and the consensus among the regulars is that we would rather make our own characters.
What do you think the purpose of the pre-gens is? Are they an option if you don't bring your own, or a mandatory part of the Encounters experience?
This is a picture of the Goliath Warden concept I'd like to play. He has a pet owl created using the Companion Character rules in DMG 2. The owl has extremely limited healing powers, considering we don't have many regulars at the store that like to play leaders. I'm pretty sure my DM will be down with this idea, but what do you think? Is it more about the authenticity of the Encounters experience, or is it more about just doing what I want?
Comments appreciated!
Thanks!
Pregens are great for people who aren't familiar with the game or who just want to jump right into playing. However, many experienced players want to create their own character. It gives a connection to the PC that a pregen just doesn't have.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the homemade is on power level with the pregens and the GM is amenable; go for the homemade.
There are some good reasons to have pre-gens.
ReplyDelete- walk ins. At my FLGS we have gotten players who just happen to walk in while we are playing or about to play Encounters. If there is a spot at the table we and the people seem at all interested we invite them to join us. We have gotten at least 2 new D&D players this way who now show up every week and are joining our weekend RPGA Games.
- The books weren't released until the day before!!! This was rediculous in my opinion. How many people have a premier sore in their area where they can get this stuff early? 1 day is not enough time to read a book and make a character for the average person.
- some people aren't as invested in the game as others. If I remember correctly the 4e DMG termed these people "Watchers" we have a couple people that come out for something to do on a Wednesday night as a break from work and have some fun with friends. They don't really care what character they are playing and just show up to play.
- New players. We actually got a couple of people out due to Red Box. These players haven't really had the full experience of making characters yet as all they have in Red Box is the Choose Your Own. So they have no knowledge of how to make a character.
I'm sure there are others as well. Personally I like having them as an option. What I don't like is being forced to use them as we were for the first two chapters of Dark Sun.
They really are encouraging the use of player created characters, which is why you get the 5 point reward for creating your own character. The pregens seem to be more for walk-ins that might be unfamiliar with the game.
ReplyDeleteThe pregen wizard was just plain horrible, and I did not want to play a character that fragile, so I rolled an evoker wizard. I have 9 healing surges compared to the pregen wizard's 6, and an extra 6 hit points.
So, if you can coordinate and want to make your own characters, I highly recommend it. :)