On Character Building

I know I've talked about Dungeons and Dragons characters before, but the character-building aspect of it has come to my attention again. I'm doing a new campaign (which is a smaller and less regular campaign than the one I've been in for the last year and a half), and I'm trying out a new character class: one that is fighting-based, not magic-based. It's a rather large campaign, and we're all rather low-level characters; this makes it easier for the less-experienced people in the group.

My favorite part of the character building in D&D is that you have to have a weakness: you're not allowed to just re-roll your skill points until you get 18 for all six skills (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). The way the classes are structured will show which skills are favored and which are you dump stats. For example, bards need a good Charisma and Intelligence score; the way the class is structured makes the bard less inclined towards Strength and Constitution. Certain kinds of armor interfere with their magic as well. As a result, Bards are a good choice if you're on an information-seeking RPG quest, and are complete shit if you're on a combat-based kill-the-bad-guys quest. (I speak from experience).

On the other hand, a class like a Fighter or a Barbarian is the Bard's opposite. These classes, obviously, are combat-based; my Strength and Constitution scores are my highest scores for this character. I haven't fully fleshed her out yet, because it takes a really long time, but it's important to remember at least one way that Hollywood tends to lie to us: if a character is a fighter-type, their Charisma is often their dump stat (attractiveness falls under Charisma), and their armor is generally functional, not showy.  Sure, they may be attractive because they've spent years training to have a solid 18 in Strength and a 17 in Constitution, but that probably means that their Intelligence is more like a 12.

This is something I need to remember when drawing up my non-D&D characters. I can't have someone be smart (at least, not necessarily book-smart) and still have them train 8 hours a day in combat skills.  For most characters in the D&D universe, it's better to have an 18 and a 16 mixed in with a few tens and elevens, as opposed to having a character who has a 13 in every box.
Why?
If you have a good strength score, you can attack better. The higher your constitution, the more you can get hit before dying. If your dexterity is good, you'll be able to go earlier in battle and react more quickly. If you're more intelligent or wise, you'll succeed as a mage. If you're more charismatic, you can work crowds, intimidate people, and talk to people better because they'll think you're attractive.  Often you can be charming and gather information about how to defeat an enemy because you know what sort of questions to ask, and that can be your contribution to the actual battle, because all you can do during the fight is poke people with a rapier and sing songs to support people (protip: rapiers don't work).  Alternatively, it's probably unlikely that someone who has perfected their fighting skills also has good people skills. That's why groups are important.

On Geekery and College Majors

Right, I know now why I'm an English major. Well, I've always had an inkling that I might be an English major, but various reasons came to mind in the past - I like writing, I like reading, I like words. But my former choir director said something the other day that kind of made me think about it. He told me that one thing he liked about me is that I'm fascinated with a lot of things. (I was being a bit of a nerd and telling him about my honors essay on Pueblo mythology and death practices in Blood Meridian, and how I couldn't put in a cool detail about a supernova in 1054 AD, recorded only by Chinese scholars and Anasazi artists).

Anyway, that got me thinking about my major. I haven't officially declared yet, but I'm going to declare in English for the reason my choir teacher described. I'm interested in ALL THE THINGS, and lit courses study a lot of things. This semester was Cormac McCarthy, last semester was early Brit Lit (think Beowulf), next semester is King Arthur. I'm typing this on my new iPhone in Barnes and Noble; in front of me is a book on Pope Celestine V, who reigned in the 13th century for a mere 15 weeks before quitting. He was the only Pope to quit for almost 800 years, until the resignation that opened the way for Pope Francis.

Everything is really interesting for me - Popes AND prehistoric cultures AND GSM rights AND DnD AND writing scifi AND knitting geeky items and socks for cats - so it's sort of difficult to pick just one major. I think there are two important things about college: one is to learn how to make your way in the world; the other is to learn all the cool stuff you can.