Starting Characters

[Scout]

If you take a look at 'Henra' the jolly bartender in the adventure 'A Road Less Travelled', his stats are pretty impressive, or is it the case that starting stats for starting characters are not impressive?

You could substitute any of our group's characters with Henra, and aside from one that has magic, and a hulking Str 17 Size 15 brute, they'd perform just as well with Henra, and in some cases he'd perform even better.

What's your thinking on all this, are OQ2 characters too weak, do they need more oomph?

[soltakss]

Characteristics are not that important - what is more important is skill level.

If you allow characteristic training, then even mediocre PCs can become useful. Having said that, most of the PCs in my RQ campaign have not increased DEX or STR, they have concentrated on INT and POW.

[Newt]

Henra is a big and solid barman, who is handy with a club. He was not created with the idea of balance against the PC's abilities. It was more about creating a believable character for the players to interact with.

Here's my rationale behind his stats. He's upper average (12) in everything except CHA & INT which relect his profession as a classical sociable barkeep. Everything else is upper average to make him a credible and experienced bar-room brawler who lumps barrels around for a living, but not too fierce (he's no warrior). Combat is punches and kicking and his trusty big stick behind the bar, but nothing else. Magic none ( I could have created some cheeky Brewing Related spell, or perhaps given him Enhance Influence to help him create that perfect bar room atmosphere but decided against it).

Henra

The jolly Landlord

STR 12 DEX 12 CON 12 SIZ 12 INT 14 CHA 16

POW 10

Hit points 12 Major Wound 6 Damage Bonus 0 Magic

Points 10

Armour: Leather apron 1 AP

Combat skills

Close Combat 40% (Club 1D6)

Unarmed 50% (Punch or Kick 1D3)

Magic

None

Other skills

Resilience 30%, Persistence 40%, Dodge 40%, Influence

60% ,Trade 60%

Equipment

Wears a large leather apron, and has a club behind the bar.

There's a section of boxed text on OpenQuest 2 p15 called "What are Beginning Characters like in OpenQuest?" which outlines how powerful starting characters are.

[Scout]

Thanks Newt, that does make a lot of sense now

[scott]

Characteristics are not that important - what is more important is skill level.

If you allow characteristic training, then even mediocre PCs can become useful.

...which is one of the things I really like about OQ. :-) (BTW--I was recently invited to join a Pathfinder campaign. I turned it down, mostly because it was online rather than in-person, but while I was reading up on the rules, I really missed the OQ/d100 approach.)